I

J. The MS. Reg. 2. A. xx, in the British Museum (saec. vii), the fullest description of which is given in Rev. F. E. Warren's Antiphonary of Bangor, Vol. ii, p. 97, ff. have placed the readings of No. 18 in our apparatus criticus, but have not transcribed one or two AngloSaxon glosses and some Latin prayers which it has in the margin. J also contains several of the ordinary canticles, but there is nothing sufficiently distinctive in their text to make it worth registering.

K. The Reichenau MS. at Karlsruhe No. cxcv (saec. ix), con

taining among other pieces with Irish connexions (see Mone Hymni Latini medii aeui, i, p. 387, and iii, p. 74) No. 6 of our hymns. For a collation of this hymn we are indebted to Dr. A. Holder.

L. The Book of Lismore, a MS. (saec. xv), in possession of

the Duke of Devonshire. The lives of the Saints from this book have been carefully edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediæval and Modern Series, Part V., 1890); and our collation of No. 21 and its preface is derived from his edition.

M. This MS. is classed M. 32. 4, at the Ambrosian Library, Milan, (saec. ix). It contains the Altus prosator of S. Columba (No. 14), at the end of the work De Uita Contemplatiua. The Hymn was printed from this MS. by Reifferscheid (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad., Phil. Hist. Classe, xvii. p. 544). Dr. Wickham Legg kindly checked Reifferscheid's transcript in April, 1895, for the purpose of this edition, and furnished us with a few additional glosses which are probably of the twelfth century.

N. The Book of Nunnaminster, i.e., Harl. 2965; in the British Museum (saec. viii). This has been edited by Mr. de Gray Birch (Hampshire Record Society, 1889). My collations of Nos. 17 and 48 were made in August, 1896.

O. The Oxford copy of O'Donnell's Vita Columbae, viz., Rawl. B. 514, in the Bodleian Library (saec. xvi). The transcript of No. 16 from this MS. which we have used, was obtained through the good offices of Rev. H. J. White, M.A., of Merton College. The author of this Irish Life of Columba (Colgan's Vita Quinta) was Manus O'Donnell, son of Black Hugh O'Donnell, who died in 1537, according to the Four Masters, in the Franciscan Monastery of Donegal, after assumption of the habit of the order. The MS. was written at Lifford in 1532. Some pages are reproduced in facsimile in Gilbert's National MSS. of Ireland, Part iii., Plates lxvi, lxvii.

P. The cursive Greek Psalter, A. vii. 3, in the University Library at Basel (saec. x ?). The collation of No. 6, Cantemus in omni die (which is written on folio 2, before the Psalter), was made for us in May, 1895, by Dr. Wickham Legg.

Q. The copy of O'Donnell's Vita Columbae (saec. xvi), preserved in the Franciscan Convent at Dublin (see under F and O). It contains hymn No. 16. This was the actual copy used by Father John Colgan, from which he compiled the Latin version of Columba's life given as the Vita Quinta in the Trias Thaumaturga.

R. The Reichenau MS. at Karlsruhe (saec. ix), numbered ccxxi. It contains, in addition to other hymns having Irish relations (see Mone Hymni Latini medii aeui, i, p. 447, iii, pp. 68 and 182), Nos. 6 and 8, which were collated for us by Dr. A. Holder.

S. The Stowe Missal (saec. viii), now in the Library of the

Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. We have thought it worth while to register the variants of the Gloria in Excelsis (No. 10) from this MS., as they present some peculiarities only found in copies of this hymn which have connexions with Celtic Christianity.

V. The Vatican MS. Pal. 1. 482 (saec. xi or xii?). For the collation of No. 2 from this MS. we are indebted to Signor Ignazio Guidi of Rome. The Palatine collection at the Vatican originally came from Heidelberg. W. The Antiphonary of Kilmoone (saec. xv), classed B. 1, 5, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

This

contains No. 31 of our hymns in an office for the Feast of S. Patrick.

X. The Bodleian MS. (saec. xiii or xiv ?), classed Laud.

Misc. 615. It contains, among other Irish pieces, No. 21, S. Ultan's hymn in honour of Brigid, at p. 113; and we have given a collation.

Y. The Bodleian MS. (saec. xv), Rawl. B. 505, and 2. The Bodleian MS. (saec. xv), Rawl. B. 485, contain

No. 28, the hymn in honour of S. Ciaran, ascribed to S. Columba. My collation was made in December, 1894

A. This is a manuscript (sacc. ix) formerly at Darmstadt and now at Cologne. Hymn No. 48 was printed from it by Mone in his Hymni Latini medii aeui, i. 367; our record of its readings is taken from a transcript printed by Zimmer' in 1893.

→. The copy of the Tripartite Life at the Bodleian Library, classed Rawl. B. 512 (saec. xiv or xv). The text of No. 24 from this has been printed by Dr. Whitley Stokes in Goidelica, p. 153, and we have taken our variants from his transcript.

II. The MS. Lat. 18665 (olim Tegernsee 665) in the Stadtsbibliothek, at Munich (saec. xi). It contains at the end of the De Uita Contemplatiua, the Altus of S. Columba (No. 14), the variants of which have been courteously supplied to us by Dr. L. Traube.

I. The Southampton Psalter, in the Library of St. John's College, Cambridge (saec. xi). The collations of Nos.

1 Nennius uindicatus, p. 337

43 and 46 from this MS., which is distinctively Irish, were kindly made for me by Mr. F. C. Burkitt. Y. The British Museum MS. Harl. 585 (saec. x). The collation of No. 48 from this is borrowed from Birch's Book of Nunnaminster. I cannot guarantee its exact fidelity, as I have not been able to consult the MS. itself.

§ 5. THE LIBER HYMNORUM IN USE.

Books of hymns are not mentioned in the West before the time of St. Hilary of Poitiers, who, according to St. Isidore of Seville, was the first Christian hymn writer. S. Jerome says that a Liber Hymnorum by Hilary was extant in his day. As we come to later times, mention of such collections becomes more frequent; one, for instance, is ascribed to Bede. More to our purpose is a book mentioned by Adamnan in his Vita S. Columbae, of which he tells a wonderful story that need not here be repeated. He describes it as hymnorum liber septimaniorum sanctae Columbae manu descriptus, which apparently means a book of hymns for weekly use. According to the B Preface of the Altus Prosator (see vol. ii. p. 23), one of the presents sent by Pope Gregory to Columba was "The Hymn of the Week-a hymn for every night in the week." And again Adamnan tells that on the morning of S. Columba's death hymns were sung at the monastic offices at Iona; hymnis matutinalibus terminatis is his phrase. Unfortunately of the structure of the daily offices in the Celtic Church we know very little; but we have evidence which enables us to identify some of the hymns that were in, at least occasional, use.

In his Chapters on the Book of Mulling (ch. vii), Dr. Lawlor has called attention to a directory for an office which he has

De officiis, i. 6.

* Lib. II., 9.

De uir. illustr. 100. • Lib. III., 23.

succeeded in deciphering at the end of S. John's Gospel in the Book of Mulling, a ninth century copy of the Latin Gospels preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. He has observed that in several cases the last three verses of a hymn are prescribed for recitation, in accordance with a Celtic usage of which we shall give instances further on (see vol. ii, p. 98); and he has thus been enabled to identify nearly all the pieces mentioned in the directory. For the details of his most ingenious reasoning, we must refer the reader to his monograph; but we give here his scheme of the service. “It consists," he writes (L.c. p. 162) “ of the following parts (following an illegible portion at the beginning):

1. The Song of the B.V.M. (Magnificat).

2. ?

3. Stanzas 4, 5, 6, of the Hymn of S. Columba (Noli Pater).

4. A lection from the beginning of S. Matthew v, followed apparently by a formula not yet identified.

5. The last three stanzas of the Hymn of S. Secundinus (Audite omnes).

6 and 7. Two stanzas supplementary to this hymn (In memoria and Patricius episcopus).

8. The last three stanzas of the Hymn of Cummain Fota (Celebra Iuda).

9. The antiphon Exaudi, &c., appended to this hymn.

10. The last three stanzas of the Hymn of S. Hilary of

Poictiers (Hymnum dicat).

II. The antiphon Unitas in trinitate, &c.

12. The Apostles' Creed.

13. The Lord's Prayer, followed possibly by

14. The Collect Ascendat oratio, &c."

The manuscript is extremely hard to read; but Nos. 2, 3, 11, and 14 of the above are the only items, I think, about which there can be any reasonable doubt.

No. 2 is quite illegible, and I can offer no suggestion.