to have been in the possession of Miulbrigid Mac Diinmn, or Mielbrigid
the son of Diunan, Abbot of Derry and Bishop of Armagh, who deceased
about 9:37/ 'I'he Library also possesses a priceless copy of the Apocalypse,
of the end of the thii-teenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century,
and comprising seventy -eight delicately yet brilliantly coloured drawings
of the ])riiicipal scenes in the Revelation, heightened in many instances
by resplendeutly gilded back-gi'ounds. We have examined this wonderful
MS., and admire especially the grandeiu' of its pictured angels. The
courtesy of the Arciil)ishop enables us to present the reader with a
faithfid reproduction of the design of one of the above series of paint-
ings, which represents St. John falling down to worship the Angel, and
has, in the original, a background of deep blue, and a broad border of
burnished gold. At the end of the Apocalypse are twenty-eight pictures,
inferior perhaps, in some respects, to those which precede them, and by
a diflerent hand, but singularly weird and striking ; and at the beginning
of the volume the arclucologist will be delighted to find a full-lengtli
painting of an attenuated tonsured monk, vested in a black gown with
hanging sleeves, who is busied in colouring a statue of the Blessed Virgin
and Child, which stands on the sculi)tured capital of a short pillar or
pedestal.
Of the .Vissrr/, the Lambeth collection contains but one (a French)
copy worthy of special mention. It is of the use of the Church of
Limoges, and of the second half of the fifteenth century.
Of the Breviavi/, the Library has a splendid example, which formerly
belonged to Archbishop Chichele. It is a folio MS., adorned with numerous
very delicate small miniatures, capital letters, and elegant borders, by an
English artist earh' in the fifteenth century.
Of the Gradual,^ it possesses one fine specimen, well written, with
^ A MS. ni)te upon the fly-leaf, says
Mr. Kcr.'ihaw, further recorda, "Tins
book was a present frota King Athel.stan
to the City of Canterbury." In it arc
placed three entries in "Saxon." The
first of these is very curious as being a
letter from Wulfstan, Archbishop of
York to King Canute, and perhaps the
earHcst one of the kind known. The
translation of it is as follows : '• Wulfstjui,
Archbi.sbop, greets Cnut King his Lord,
and Aelfgyfe the Queen humbly. And
I make known to you two, liege, that we
have done even as the certificate came to
us from you with regard to Bishop
Aethelnoth : that we have now conse-
crated him. Now pray I for God's love
and for all God'.s Saints that ye show
respect unto God and to the Holy Order.
That he may be deemed worthy of those
possessions that others were before him,
nninely Dunstan the (lood and many
another: that he may be also thought
worthy of right'i and honours. And thus
it may be fur both of you profitable be-
fore God and eke honourable before the
world." Aethelnoth was consecrated Arch-
bishop of Canterbury on the 13th of
November, 1020.
^ The Gradual or Gradale (the Grayel,
Graiel, Greyle, &c., of English Monastic
Inventories, Wills, and other documents)
" is so called," says Mr. Kershaw, "from
the dc'jrces contained in it." This de6ni-
tion is insufficient and obscure. The
origin of the term Gratlual in its relation
to the class of Office book so named, is
due to the circumstance that those
Volumes contain inter alia, the anthems
sung after the Epistle in the Com-
munion Service (when rendered cho-
rally) of the Roman Churcli, which are
called (jradalia from an ancient custom
which once prevailed of chanting them
on the Gradus, i.e. steps of the Ambo
or pulpit, in which the Epistle used to
be recited. Lyndwode's gloss upon the
term is, '^ Orndnle, sic dictum a Gradali-
bus in tali libro contentis. Stricte
tamen ponitur Gradale pro eo quod gra-
datim ponitur post Epistolam : hie tamen
jionitur pro I.ibro integro in quo contineri
drbent Officium aspersionis Aquae bene-
dicta), Missarum inchoationes, sive officia,
Kyrie, cum versibus, Gloria in excelsis,
Gradalia, &c."
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