The text is very heavily abbreviated, to the extent that it might almost be seen as a prompt for a well known text for reading aloud. However, the amount of abbreviation shows that this usage did not reflect on the significance of a text or the value of a work. The degree of abbreviation and the rather compressed nature of the script mean that the page is very dense. The text deviates slightly in places from the standard Vulgate text (as given on the ARTFL Multilingual Bible website) and there are a couple of spelling mistakes.
At the end of line 5, after the word erat, there is a bit of mysterious marginalia. I assume it is some kind of correction, but I am not sure. Any useful comments from learned Irish paleographers would be appreciated.

more text

The Gospels of Maelbrigte, 12th century, Irish (British Library, Harley 1803, f.128) All images by permission of the British Library. These images are made available under a Creative Commons licence.

| overview | initial | text | alphabet | abbreviations | ligatures | exercises | transcript | translation |

Click on each of the above to walk your way through the text. The transcript will appear in a separate window so that you can use it for reference at any time. These exercises are designed to guide you through the text, not test you, so you can cheat as much as you like.
Medieval Writing
Script sample for this exxample
Index of Exercises
Index of Scripts

If you are looking at this page without frames, there is more information about medieval writing to be found by going to the home page (framed) or the site map (no frames).
This site is created and maintained by Dr Dianne Tillotson, freelance researcher and compulsive multimedia and web author. Comments are welcome. Material on this web site is copyright, but some parts more so than others. Please check here for copyright status and usage before you start making free with it. This page last modified 29/3/2014.