a reference to the cumdach of the Book of Armagh, or the
Canon of Patrick. "Canoin Phadraig was covered by
Donchadh, son of Flann, king of Ireland." In 1006 the
Annals note that the Book of Kells--"the Great Gospel of
Columb Cille was stolen at night from the western erdomh
of the Great Church of Ceannanus. This was the principal
relic of the western world, on account of its singular cover;
and it was found after twenty nights and two months, its gold
having been stolen off it, and a sod over it."[3] These cumdachs
are now lost; so also is the jewelled case of the Gospels
of St. Arnoul at Metz, and that belonging to the Book of Durrow.

[1] Mr. Allen, in his admirable volume on Celtic Art, p. 208, in
this series, says cumdachs were peculiar to Ireland. But they
were made and used elsewhere, and were variously known as capsae,
librorum coopertoria (e.g.... librorumque coopertoria; quaedam
horum nuda, quaedam vero alia auro atque argento gemmisque
pretiosis circumtecta.--Acta SS., Aug. iii. 659c), and thecae.
Some of these cases were no doubt as beautifully decorated as the
Irish cumdachs. William of Malmesbury asserts that twenty pounds
and sixty masks of gold were used to make the coopertoria
librorum Evangelii for King Ina's chapel. At the Abbey of St.
Riquier was an "Evangelium auro Scriptum unum, cum capsa argentea
gemmis et lapidibus fabricata. Aliae capsae evangeliorum duae ex
auro et argento paratae."--Maitland, 212. In 1295 St. Paul's
Cathedral possessed a copy of the Gospels in a case (capsa)
adorned with gilding and relics.--Putnam, i. 105-6.

[2] Leborchometa chethrochori, and bibliothecae
qruadratae.--Stokes (W.), T. L., 96 and 313.