Cabhar jmuijn. The Book FASCICULUS I. Containing I. The Hymn of St. Sechnall in Praise of St. Patrick. II. The Hymn of St. Ultan in Praise of St. Brigid. III. The Hymn of St. Cummain Fota in Praise of the Apostles. EDITED, FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, BY JAMES HENTHORN TODD, D.D., M.R.I.A., F.S.A., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, and Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. THE NOTICE TO MEMBERS. THIS Volume being only the first Part or Fasciculus of a larger work, the names of Members are not printed on the back of the title-page, which will be replaced by a permanent title-page when the book is completed. The Editor is indebted to Mr. O'Neill for the drawing from which the Irish heading, in the ancient characters of the Book of Kells, has been engraved; also for the Vignette, representing the Hand of God, restored from the south-east Cross of Monasterboice (erected at the close of the ninth or early in the tenth century), where it occurs at the lower angle of the right arm, as if sustaining or supporting the Cross.-(See O'Neill's "Crosses of Ireland," Plate 15.) An excellent cast of this Cross was exhibited in the Dublin Exhibition, in 1853, and is now in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The hand issuing from the Clouds, and surrounded by a nimbus or glory, is one of the most ancient emblems of Deity, and especially of the First Person of the Blessed Trinity. Several examples of it will be found in the Iconographie Chrétienne, and Annales Archeologiques of Didron. Speaking of one instance, which occurs in a Liber Precum, a MS. of the ninth century, in the Bibliothèque Royale, this learned author says:-"Ces mains sont la plus ancienne représentation du Père. Par respect, par une sorte de dogme religieux, on ne montra du Père qu' une main bénisante, sans nimbe d'abord, avec un nimbe crucifère ensuite."—Icon. Chrêt. (Hist. de Dieu), p. 56; Ann. Arch. tom i. p. 16. The Hand is especially introduced in the ancient representations of our Saviour's sufferings and passion; and frequently also in pictures of the martyrs and confessors, to denote the divine grace and support given to them in their sufferings. "Au jardin des oliviers" (says the author just quoted) " lorsque le Sauveur, abattu par une tristesse surhumaine, s'écrie, Mon Père détournez de moi ce calice, une main sort du ciel, la main du Père, qui bénit son fils, et le console. Lorsque sur la croix Jésus, prêt a mourir, jette a son Père ces paroles désesperées, Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu, pourquoi m'avez vous abandonné! on aperçoit se dessiner, sur le sommet de la croix, une main qui bénit, et qui est la main du Père. Enfin lorsque JÉSUS remonte au ciel, après sa passion, et tenant en main sa croix de résurrection, son Père lui tend la main droite, et l'aide en quelque sorte à s'élever. Ce dernier sujet. . . est expliqué par ces deux vers d'Alcuin, placés précisément sous une Ascension peinte, And compare the woodcuts on pp. 210, 212, 216, &c. of the same work. This explanation accounts for the occurrence of this ancient emblem on the Cross of Monasterboice and other similar monuments in Ireland: and it may also serve as an apology for the introduction of it as a Vignette, on the title-page of the present work. February, 1855. J. H. T. THE IRISH ARCHEOLOGICAL AND CELTIC SOCIETY. MDCCCLIV. Patron: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE ALBERT. President: HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF LEINSTER. Vice-Presidents: THE MOST NOBLE the Marquis of Kildare, M. R. I. A. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN, M. R. I. A. THE RIGHT HON. LORD TALBOT De Malahide, M. R. I. A. VERY REV. L. F. RENEHAN, D. D., President of Maynooth College. |