Bernard — Calendar of Documents. 



483 



hand of Dr. John Lyon (d. 1790), who was a minor canon, and 

 afterwards a Prebendary of St. Patrick's during the eighteenth century. 

 He was a diligent antiquary and a careful scribe ; and he made many 

 additions and corrections throughout the book, and provided it with a 

 rough table of contents. Pp. 192 to 216 are written in a more formal 

 sixteenth-century hand than the rest of the volume. 



A half-obliterated note on the fly-leaf at the end shows how 

 carefully the book was examined by the antiquaries of the seven- 

 teenth century. It is by George Andrews, who was precentor from 

 1603 to 1635, and afterwards became Bishop of Ferns: " Obseruatio 

 utilis facta per Geo: Andrews Precentorem Sti Patricii super primam 

 uocem lineae ultimae in posteriori pagina fol. 112, viz ' successorum' 

 destruit sensum. Esset quidem ' praedecessorum ' et ita indagando 

 reperi in Efiant literae patentes ... in exemplificatione anno xi 

 Elizabethae sub sigillo. Et [successorum] erat ac ritium scriptoris 

 quod corrigendum, ut res magis ualeat quam pereat. — G. A. E^ov. 19, 

 1631." If we look back to fol. 112 i.e. p. 224 according to Dr. Lyon's 

 pagination (which I have followed throughout), we shall find that 

 no trace either of ' successorum ' or of ' praedecessorum ' remains, for 

 the document in which the latter word occurs (the Restitution Charte r 

 of Philip and Mary, I^o. 122 below) has been emended by a scribe 

 later than Andrews' day, and the sentence to which he refers has been 

 •erased. 



A fair transcript on vellum of the whole volume is preserved in 

 the archives, and seems to have been made about the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century ; it is tolerably accurate, although the transcriber 

 misses the meaning of a word here and there. I have given a reference 

 to its pages, as well as to those of the original, in the Calendar which 

 follows. 



The so-called Dignitas Decani " was diligently consulted by 

 Mr. Monck Mason for his History of St. Patricks Cathedral^ published 

 in 1820, and also by Archdeacon Cotton for his Fasti. But it has 

 been unnoticed for many years, save by these antiquaries, and was at 

 one period nearly lost. AVe have a letter in the archives from 

 Mr. W. Shaw Mason, dated 1835, saying that he had found this 

 " curious relic of antiquity" among his private papers, it having come 

 into his hands as Secretary to the Record Commissioners, in Dean 

 Keatinge's time. Mr. Mason courteously restored the precious volume 

 to its former home ; but I am afraid that many manuscripts have been 

 lost to the Cathedral owing to a similar carelessness on the part of 

 their proper custodians. 



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