LAWi.oit- — The Cathach of Si. Columba. 405 



his task. Two Eatisbon scribes wrote in seven days a minuscule MS. 

 (of St. Augustine's Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John) in the 

 year 823, during their stay at Frankfort. Their bishop was evidently proud 

 of the feat, for he has recorded it in a subscription. The MS. (Munich 

 lat. 14437) now contains 109 leaves of 10 x 8 inches, vi^ith twenty lines to the 

 page, but how much has been lost I do not know. A photograph of one page, 

 published by the Palaeographical Society (I, pi. 123), gives a good idea of its 

 neat, careful writing. That calligraphy had not been sacrificed to speed was 

 evidently part of the good bishop's boast. 



Another thing that is significant to a palaeographer is the number of 

 abbreviations' in the last line of the first subscription. It suggests limitation 

 of space. Words which would naturally occupy two lines or a line and a half 

 have been crowded into one line with the help of abbreviation-symbols. 

 Now, there is no lack of space on the Book of Burrow's page. It must have 

 been in the original MS. that the space for this subscription was limited. The 

 scribe of the Durrow Book has not merely transferred the subscription from 

 the original (a thing unusual, but by no means unparalleled), but has trans- 

 ferred it with scrupulous respect for the form of the original. We have 

 ground for belief that each line in the copy retains the exact contents of each 

 line of Columba's subscription ; and we find here (if it be needed) fresh 

 confirmation of the view that the " Columba scriptor " is St. Columba himself. 



Now, this subscription, transferred from the original into the Book of 

 Durrow, connects that original very definitely with the story of St. Columba 

 and St. Finnian. Not merely by Columba's mention of his hurry (" I wrote 

 it in twelve days' space by the grace of our Lord "), but also by the phrase 

 scripsi mihimet ; for that remark, " I wrote it for my own use," has something 

 of an unusual ring. 



Further, it seems important for the history of St. Patrick. If Patrick 

 was a bishop, Columba's addressing him as " presbyter " requires some 

 explanation. But the evidence of the Durrow colophon seems not to have 

 been noticed in the recent controversy excited by the late Professor Zimmer's 

 writings. To his theory it is absolutely fatal. For it shows that St. Patrick 

 figured as the great saint of Ireland as early as Columba's time. Nor could 

 the German iconoclast ventui'e to pronounce the subscription (or this part of 

 it) to be a mere concoction of the Durrow scribe," for any forgery of this 



> Dili "Domini "is hardly an abbreviation. Tlie word was not so written for the 

 sake of saving space. It was the correct expression of the " nomen sacrum," just as 

 our correct expression is with a capital letter. Thus dns means "Lord," but dominus 

 "lord." 



- Nor of any later scribe. It is true that most of the Columba entry has been 

 re-traced in blacker ink. But that need not arouse suspicion. The kisse.i of devotees 

 would make it necessary. 



