Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/272

 262 Journal of Philology. P.S. It may be well to add that the celebrated reliquary called the Caahy containing a Psalter supposed to have been written by St Columba (although I think it is about 200 years later than his time) is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, although it is still the property of Sir Rich. O'Donnell, Bart. The word Caah, properly written Cathach from Cath, a battle, signifies vic- torious, or victory-giving; the reliquary obtained this name from its being carried into battle by the tribe to which it belonged, under tho idea that it would ensure them victory. There are two MSS. (Gospels) in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dublin, which are believed on good grounds to be the autograph of St Columba, viz. the Book of Kells, and tho Book of Durrow. There is another copy of the Gospels, in the same repository, formerly belonging to the see of Killaloe, written by a scribe named Dimma, who died a. d. 620, and a fourth, in the handwriting of St Moling, bishop of Ferns, who died at the close of the same century. I ought also to remark here that the Book of Armagh contains a complete copy of the New Testament, in an ante-Hieronymian ver- sion, and not in the version of St Jerome, as Mr Hard wick states. [It will bo a source of genuine pleasure to all students of the Sacred Text, if Dr Todd, or some other competent scholar, can be prevailed upon to undertake a critical edition of the New Testament in the Hiberno- Latin version. Many readers of the Journal of Philology would, I am sure, become subscribers to the work. For my own part I was quite prepared to learn from Dr Todd that the version handed down in tho Book of Armagh is pre-Hieronymic. Betham, however, stated the con- trary, and as he was my sole authority, I felt of course obliged to defer. The rectifications of Dr Todd on this and other points I bog to acknow- ledge with many thanks. There is only one subject where I cannot alto- gether follow him, viz. as to the common meaning of phrases like sanctce Scripturce, ccelestes Scripturas, Divina Scriptura, etc., in tho 9th and 10th centuries. The difference is not indeed so wide as may at first sight appear. Dr Todd allows, I think, with some hesitation, that if we understand those phrases as equivalent to 'sacred literature in general/ they do not necessarily exclude the Bible ; in other words, that great pro- ficiency in Biblical studies may have been affirmed of the Apostlo of Ire- land as well as of tho later Irish scholars, respecting whom loss equivocal expressions are employed. So far, then, my chief position is conceded, for I did not argue that the Bible was the only book, but one of tho most prominent, in tho libraries of early saints. Dr Todd, has, it is true, adduced one passage where a distinction appears to bo drawn botween the Bible and ' Divina Scriptura :' but I venture to understand tho writer somewhat differently. He says that tho library of Gemblours contained tho whole of the canonical Scriptures in one volume, and also many other volumes 'Divina) Scripturce,' some of which may have themselves been portions of the Bible. For in tho cata- logue of tho Abbey of St Riquier (D'Achery's Spicileg. H. 3 JO. Paris,