verbal, variations of reading in corresponding passages in the Roman and Sarum Missals.

All passages from the Bible which occur in the form of Lections, Epistles, and Gospels have been collated with the modern Textus Receptus of the Vulgate, and in the case of the New Testament, with the Codex Amiatinus as well, in the hope of throwing some light on the vexed question of the exact nature of the Latin version of the Scriptures once used by the Celtic Church of Great Britain and Ireland. Out of about one thousand various readings the larger number are due either to the conventional modes adopted in Missals of introducing and concluding passages of Scripture, or to orthographical discrepancies, or to carelessness on the part of the scribe; but there remains, over and above these, a considerable number of bonâ fide differences of text which cannot be accounted for by any such causes of variation.

The following is a list of some of the books referred to for purposes of illustration and comparison :

"Missale de Arbuthnott," Burntisland, 1864. "Missale Gallicanum," &c., Burntisland,

1855.

"Missale Lateranense," (Roman, xi. cent.), Romæ, 1754.

"Missale Mozarabicum," Migne, Pat. Lat. Curs., tom. lxxxv.

"Missale Romanum," Mechliniæ, 1870.

"Missale Sarisburiense," Burntisland, 1861. "Pamelii Liturgicon," Coloniæ, 1609. "Rituale Romanum," Mechliniæ, 1870. "Manuale Sarisburiense," London, 1554. "Biblia Sacra Vulgatæ Editionis." Augustæ Taurinorum, 1875.

"Novum Testamentum Latine, interprete Hieronymo, ex celeberrimo Codice Amiatino." Ed. Constantius Tischendorf, Lipsiæ, 1850.

The thanks of the Editor are due primarily

to the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, for their permission to publish the Missal, and for their generous loan of it unrestricted by conditions of time and place; to the Society of Antiquaries for permission to exhibit it at Burlington House, and to many of its Fellows individually for facilitating its publication by the practical way in which as subscribers they forwarded the undertaking; to the Earl of Ashburnham for permission to collate the Canon of the Stowe Missal; to Mr. J. T. Gilbert for permission to view the then unpublished sheets of the Second Part of the "National MSS. of Ireland;" to the Rev. W. Bell for similar permission in the case of the Drummond Castle Missal; also to various friends, as well as anonymous correspondents, who have contributed information and suggestions during the progress of the work.

St. John's College, Oxford,

Lady Day, 1879.

COMPARATIVE TABLE

OF

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE TEXT OF THE CANON OF THE MASS IN THE

EXTANT IRISH MISSALS.

[N.B.-The Sarum Canon (Pitsligo Edit.) has been adopted as a standard of comparison, with rubrics omitted, and with the words in which it differs from the Roman printed in brackets. In the limited time recently placed at the editor's disposal for collating the Canon of the Stowe Missal, he was only able to make a hurried transcript of it, and he has not been able to compare the proof-sheets with the original MS. There is, therefore, an incompleteness about that part of the work; but the whole volume is replete with such transcendent palæographical and liturgical interest that it is to be hoped that its noble owner will permit its publication whenever a competent Irish scholar can be found to undertake the task. Vol. XXIII. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy contains a fragmentary description of it, with a translation of its Irish rubrics by Dr. Todd. Orthographical peculiarities have not been noted except in the case of the Stowe Missal.]

B