B omission of the following letter or e.g. fore, etj, di, gūratio, ejusd, uestimta, (FT), occurrit, (nē), qāsi, (qtāt), "oclp. omission of ua, as وو وو ir, as de sua, &c. travi, &c. ri, as mur primus, or = circum, or ui, as dedo = omission of final m or um, as u = vitam, 2 = cum. = omission of ur, generally final, always after t, as pascit' = pascitur, t'ba = turba; or ri (once only), rest'ctione restrictione (f. 70 b 9). = omission of ur, nepleam = repleamur, purificationem, &c.; or ru, = Pificatio 7 for psalmus. est. զ hic (adv.). hæc. hoc. وو وو sicut. tibi. وو 3,, us,or ue (final). amodo. The above list is nearly exhaustive of the contractions and abbreviations used in the Missal. In the case of any abbreviations not represented in it, the omitted letters are represented by italics in the following pages, so that by its aid the original condition of any page can be reconstructed by the reader, accurate except in the few cases where (a) more than one form of abbreviation is employed, (b) where sometimes the abbreviated, sometimes the unabbreviated form of a word is employed, (c) where more than one form of orthography is employed, as "profeta" and "propheta," "martir" and "martyr," "mihi" and "michi," "nihil" and "nichil," "" Israhel" and "Israel" (in each of these cases the first-named and more frequent form of the word has been printed); (d) where only the abbreviated form is found, as in the case of "pra" and "qms," for "presta" and quesumus," which have been thus written, because in the few cases where the first syllables of those words in other compounds are written at length, they appear as pre" and "que," 66 66 though it is probable that had the scribe written those words always at length, they would occasionally have appeared as "pręsta and "quesumus, quesumus," or as præsta" and " quæ sumus. The other alternative would have been to have adopted the plan followed in the publications of the Palæographical Society, and to have represented by italics every letter which is not in the original text. But this plan is open to two objections. It involves a great deal of trouble both to the writer and to the printer. It does not secure perfect accuracy, for how even with the aid of italics can such an abbreviation as "xps" for "Christus" be adequately represented? Accents. An accent, consisting of a thin stroke drawn downwards from right to left (') is occasionally used. It is placed more frequently over i and o than over the remaining vowels, and more frequently over monosyllables than over longer words. Punctuation. The marks adopted throughout for punctuation are:— 1. The middle or low point (.), equivalent in force to the modern full-stop or comma, and like the rest of the marks of punctuation very capriciously employed. It is also used as a mark of abbreviation after a shortened word. 2. The semicolon (;) and the inverted semicolon (). These stops are used with great frequency and for the most part alternately in the Epistles, Gospels, and Lections, seldom elsewhere; although a single semicolon occasionally makes its appearance in the Canon or towards the close of a collect. 3. The following stop (") is used thrice only, twice in a collect, once in a postcommunio (ff. 14 a 5, 43 a 11, 49 a 2). I have not discovered a similar stop in any other MS. 4. A point followed by a virgule (.,) is used seventeen times at the close of a collect, lection, &c. 5. The mark of interrogation (*) is placed above the line, either at the end only, or frequently both at the beginning and end of a question. It is not always used where the sense demands it, and on the other hand it is occasionally attached to words which, though capable of an interrogative rendering, are not so rendered in the Vulgate. Another mark, resembling the mark of interrogation, but with its lower limb straightened (), is placed over words in the Lections and Epistles with a frequency varying with the length of the Epistle (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, or 22 times). It is also placed occasionally over a word in a Gospel, but never more than once, and then near the close. It is probably meant to guide the voice in reciting, but it is impossible to assign any rule for its position or to reconcile it with the modern ecclesiastical usage of intonation. Forms of letters.-Capital letters are used at the beginning of every collect. They are of various sizes. The gigantic initial letters of the Canon of the Mass and of the Christmas and Easter Missæ occupy the whole height and half the width of the page. Other initial letters occupy half or a quarter of the height of a page, according to the dignity of the festival or the fancy of the scribe, the ordinary height of an initial letter of a collect being about threequarters of an inch. Every Preface is introduced by the following shaped and sized design, a common form in early missals of an amalgamated U and D, the initial letters of "Vere dignum." The ordinary letters, enlarged) to twice their size and ornamented with patches of colour, are found (a) at the commencement of proper names within the Canon, (b) at the commencement of each clause of the Paternoster, and of a few other clauses within the Canon, and very exceptionally elsewhere, as at the commencement of the Easter Introit, and in the Gospel for All Saints' Day. With regard to the smaller letters, there is some variety of formation. The diphthong æ is indifferently written as a diphthong proper, or as a plain e, or as an e with a mark attached to it beneath, resembling the French cedilla. These three different ways of writing it will be found in three consecutive words at the close of the Secreta on f. 18 a. The diphthong œ is in five instances written as a diphthong, being represented on all other occasions by the |