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THE ILLUMINATED 
 MANUSCRIPTS OF 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
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 V.AAIVA 'AO ‘AOO'A 
 
 
 
 
VIII. BOOK OF KELLS 
 
AN ENQUIRY INTO THE 
 ART OF THE ILLUMI- 
 NATED MANUSCRIPTS 
 OF THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHAN ADOLF BRUUN 
 
 AUTHOR OF »NORGES STAVKYRKOR» 
 
 PART I. CELTIC 
 ILIUM IN A TED 
 MANUSCRIPTS 
 
 STOCKHOLM 
 
 CENTRAL TR YCKERIET 
 MDCCCXCVII 
 
THE G0TY CENTER 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
THIS WORK IS DEDICA TED 
 
 TO 
 
 MISS MARGARET STOKES, 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL 
 IRISH ACADEMY, 
 
 BY HER PERMISSION. 
 
« 
 
PREFACE 
 
 T HE present volume is the first of a series intended to em- 
 body the results of what might be termed a comparative study 
 of the dialects of the art of illumination during the Middle Ages. 
 After dealing with the relics of the remarkable school which is so 
 closely connected with the early Christian civilization of the Bri- 
 tish Islands, as well as of various countries on the Continent, and 
 whose fame, dating from the darker centuries of the Middle Ages, 
 excels that of any of its rivals, it is proposed, in the following parts 
 of the work, to proceed with an examination of the illuminated 
 manuscripts of early Italian and Byzantine origins and, subse- 
 quently, of those marking the successive stages of the Spanish, 
 French, German, English, and Flemish schools, from their first 
 appearance down to the epoch of their decline and extinction. 
 This survey of the principal dialects of the art of illumination 
 will be brought to a close by an essay on the relations and con- 
 nexions between them, as far as those can be established by in- 
 ternal evidence and testimonies derived from contemporary history. 
 
 Although some good work has been done of late to make 
 these precious records of the life and character of a bygone age 
 more generally known, by the publication of reproductions and 
 descriptions of the most notable remains, yet no attempt has hi- 
 therto been made to deal systematically with the subject as a 
 whole, and, by a careful and exhaustive examination of a represen- 
 tative number of the original documents of the various schools, 
 to collect and arrange the material for a history of this impor- 
 tant branch of mediaeval art. In consideration of this fact no 
 
 VII 
 
special apology may be needed for the defects which are sure to 
 accompany the present work on an important, though somewhat 
 neglected, subject. 
 
 The investigations the results of which are embodied in the 
 present volume, treating of the Celtic illuminated MSS. in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, were undertaken during two residences in the 
 British Islands — a lengthened stay in 1895-96 and a shorter 
 one in 1897, altogether about fifteen months. During that time 
 1 had the privilege of personally examining the following collections 
 of Celtic illuminated MSS., viz., those in the British Museum; 
 in the Archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Palace; in the Bodleian 
 library at Oxford; in the library of Trinity College, Dublin; in 
 the library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; and in the li- 
 brary of the. Franciscan Convent in Dublin. As to the very li- 
 mited number of Celtic illuminated MSS., preserved in British 
 collections, which I have had no opportunity of examining myself, 
 as, for example, the specimens in the University library at Cam- 
 bridge and in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, 
 I owe my knowledge of these to communications from British 
 friends and to the existing literature on the subject. 
 
 With reference to the illustrations 1 have to thank Sir Ed- 
 ward Maunde Thompson for allowing me to reproduce a decora- 
 ted page from the Gospels of Lindisfarne (plate 111 ). Plates IV, 
 V, and VI, are photographed for my work from the original, at 
 Lambeth, by permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Plate 
 X is also photographed for the present work from the original, 
 in the collection of Trinity College, Dublin, by permission of Dr 
 T. K. Abbott; and the rest are reproductions of photographs exe- 
 cuted for publications of Dr Abbott’s, and kindly placed at my 
 disposal by the editor. As to the ornamental initials which adorn 
 the present volume, these are drawn from the MS. E. 4. 2., Trin. 
 Col!., Dublin, and presented to me by Professor J. H. Bernard, 
 to whom i am indebted for many other kind services. 
 
 In conclusion, I have to express my obligations to the Libra- 
 rians and Authorities at the various institutions for the facili- 
 ties afforded for the examination of the documents; and to all 
 those who, in some way or other, have given assistance in the 
 prosecution of my enquiries. 
 
 vin 
 
First among these I gratefully remember one who is now 
 beyond my thanks, the late lamented Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks. 
 With every student who was brought into contact with this great 
 savant, to whom the science of Archaeology owes so much, the 
 w'riter of these lines shares a debt of deep and respectful grati- 
 tude, not only for such assistance as only a man in his position 
 is able to offer, but, in the first place, for the encouraging and 
 stimulating influence which the sympathetic interest and approval 
 of a man like Sir Augustus never fails to exercise on disciples 
 and fellow-workers. 
 
 1 have to thank Dr Richard Garnett for various favours shown 
 to me in the progress of my work in the British Museum. I also 
 wish to testify to the courtesy of the Gentlemen of the Depart- 
 ment of MSS. in the British Museum, and render my best thanks 
 for kind help and ready information given in connexion with the 
 documents under their charge. 
 
 Acknowledgments for favours of a like nature are due to 
 Dr T. K. Abbott and Mr A. de Burgh, at the library of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Dublin; to the Authorities at the library of the Royal Irish 
 Academy; to the Authorities at the Bodleian library, Oxford; 
 to Mr Arthur J. Evans, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Ox- 
 ford; and to Mr S. W. Kershaw, the Librarian at Lambeth. 
 
 To the Rev. Father T. A. O'Reilly, 0. S. F., 1 beg to ex- 
 press my cordial thanks for days of kindliest hospitality in the 
 House of the Franciscan Order in Dublin, and for the privilege 
 of the use of its library. 
 
 But my greatest obligations are due to my esteemed friends: 
 Dr Joseph Anderson, Keeper of the Museum of the Antiquaries 
 of Scotland, and Mr Baldwin Brown, Professor of Fine Art in the 
 University of Edinburgh; and 1 desire to tender an expression of 
 sincere and heart-felt gratitude for the kind acts of assistance I 
 have experienced from these gentlemen, more especially at the 
 start of my British studies. 
 
 J. A. B. 
 
 MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES 
 QUEEN STREET, EDINBURGH 
 AUGUST, 1897. 
 
 IX 
 
CONTENTS of 
 VOLUME vs* I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 § 1 Introductory remarks i 
 
 § II Geometrical decoration: A. the spiral . ... 5 
 
 § III Geometrical decoration: B. interlaced work . .12 
 
 § IV Geometrical decoration: C. fret work; the dot- 
 
 ted line; chequer and diaper work; rosettes . 14 
 
 § V Zoomorphic decoration 17 
 
 § VI Phylloinorphic decoration 21 
 
 § VII Figure representations 23 
 
 § VIII Figure representations (continued) 26 
 
 § IX Composition and arrangement of ornament . . .28 
 
 § X Treatment and effect of colour 32 
 
 § XI Growth and chronology of the Celtic school of illu- 
 mination: Domnach Airgid MS 37 
 
 § XII Cathach MS 41 
 
 § XIII Book of Durrow 45 
 
 § XIV Gospels of Lindisfarne 48 
 
 § XV Gospels of Lindisfarne (continued) 51 
 
 § XVI Gospels of Lindisfarne (continued) 54 
 
 § XVII Book of Dimma ; Book of Moling; Garland of Howth ; 
 
 Stowe St. John 60 
 
 § XVI II Book of Armagh; Gospels of Mac Regol ; Gospels of 
 
 Mac Daman; Book of Deer 63 
 
 § XIX Origination of foliage in Celtic art . . . .68 
 
 § XX Compositions of foliage and animal motive . ,72 
 
 § XXI Compositions of foliage etc., (continued). . .75 
 
 § XXII Book of Kells 77 
 
 § XXIII Psalter of Ricemarch; MS. G. II, Franc. Conv., 
 
 Dubl. ; Book of Hymns , Trin. Coll.; MS. G. I, 
 Franc. Conv., Dubl.; Leabhar Na H-Uidhri ; Harl. 
 
 MS. 1802, Brit. Mus. ; Harl. MS. 1023, Brit. 
 
 Mus 82 
 
 § XXIV Extinction of Celtic art of illumination . . .85 
 
 x 
 
TABLE of 
 PLATES^ 
 
 PLATE TO FACE PAGE 
 
 I Full-page illumination from the Book of 
 
 Durrow, MS. A. 4. 5, Trinity College, 
 
 Dublin 8 
 
 II Full-page illumination from the Book of 
 
 Durrow, MS. A. 4. 5, Trinity College, 
 
 Dublin 16 
 
 III Initial page of the Gospel according to St. 
 
 Matthew, from the Gospels of Lindisfarne, 
 
 Cotton. MS. Nero D. 4, British Museum ... 24 
 
 IV Full-page illumination containing Evange- 
 
 listic symbols, from the Gospels of Mac 
 
 Daman , MS. in the Archiepiscopal library 
 at Lambeth 52 
 
 V Initial page of the Gospel according to 
 
 St. Mark, from the Gospels of Mac Dur- 
 
 nan, MS. in the Archiepiscopal library at 
 Lambeth . 40 
 
 VI Page containing the miniature picture of 
 
 St. John, from the Gospels of Mac Durnan, 
 
 MS. in the Archiepiscopal library at Lam- 
 beth 48 
 
 VII Ornamental page with symbols of the Four 
 
 Evangelists, from the Book of Kells , MS. 
 
 A. 1.6, Trinity College, Dublin 56 
 
 VIII Another arrangement of the symbols of 
 
 the Evangelists, from the Book of Kells, MS. 
 
 A. 1.6, Trinity College, Dublin . . . Frontispiece 
 
 IX Representation of the Virgin and Child, 
 
 from the Book of Kells, MS. A. i . 6, Tri- 
 nity College, Dublin 64 
 
 X Beginning of Psalm 1 : »Beatus vir» etc., 
 
 from the Psalter of Ricemarch, MS. A. 4. 
 
 20, Trinity College, Dublin 72 
 
 XI 
 
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST 
 OF SUCH AUTHORITIES AS 
 ARE REFERRED TO UNDER 
 CONTRACTIONS 
 
 CONTRACTIONS: 
 
 Acta SS. Hibernia . 
 
 An. F. M. 
 An. U. . 
 
 Archaologia 
 
 Archaologia Scot. 
 
 Brit. Eccles. Antiqmtates . 
 
 Celtic Ornaments from the Book of Kells 
 
 authorities: 
 
 Acta Sanctorum veteris et maioris Sco- 
 tia, seu Hibernia , Sanctorum insula; 
 per R. P. F. Johannem Colganum, 
 tomus primus, Lovanii, MDCXLV. 
 
 Annals of the Four Masters; in Rer. 
 Hibern. script, veteres, vol. III. 
 
 Annals of Ulster , edited by William 
 M. Hennessy, vol. I — II, Dublin, i 887; 
 in Rer. Brit. m. a. script. 
 
 Archaologia: or Miscellaneous tracts 
 relating to Antiquity; published by 
 the Society of Antiquaries of Lon- 
 don. 
 
 Archaologia Scotica, or Transactions 
 of the Society of Antiquaries of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Anticjuitates, 
 quibus inserta est pestiferae adversus 
 Dei gratiam a Pelagio Britanno in 
 Ecclesiam indue as Hasreseos Historia; 
 collectore Jacobo Usserio, Archie- 
 piscopo Armachano, totius Hibernite 
 primate, Dublinii, Anno C 1 D FJC 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Celtic Ornaments from the Book of 
 Kells, Part I — IX, Dublin and Lon- 
 don, 1892 — 95. 
 
 XII 
 
CONTRACTIONS: 
 
 AUTHORITIES: 
 
 Christian Inscriptions 
 
 Christian Inscriptions in the Irish lan- 
 guage, chiefly collected and drawn 
 by George Petrie, and edited by M. 
 Stokes, vol. 1 — II, Dublin, i 872 — 78. 
 
 Facsimiles 
 
 Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscrip- 
 tions, edited by E. A. Bond and 
 E. M. Thompson, vol. II, London, 
 .875-83. 
 
 Histoire de la Vulgate. 
 
 Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les pre- 
 miers si'ecles du Moyen Age, par Sa- 
 muel Berger; m^moire couronnb par 
 L’institut; Paris, 1893. 
 
 Hist. Eccles 
 
 Venerabilis Bedx Historia Ecclesiastica 
 gentis Anglorum; cura Georgii H. 
 Moberly, Oxonii, MDCCCLXXXI. 
 
 Miniatures and Ornaments. 
 
 . . Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Or- 
 
 naments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Ma- 
 nuscripts, executed by J. 0 . West- 
 wood, London, MDCCCLXVI 1 I. 
 
 Monasticon Anglicanum. 
 
 Monasticon Anglicanum: a History of 
 the abbies and other monasteries, 
 hospitals, frieries, and cathedral and 
 collegiate churches, with their de- 
 pendencies, in England and Wales; 
 by Sir William Dugdale, vol. 1 — VIII, 
 London, 1846. 
 
 National MSS. Irel. 
 
 Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of 
 Ireland, selected and edited under 
 the direction of the Right Hon. Ed- 
 ward Sullivan, Master of the Rolls 
 in Ireland, by J. T. Gilbert, Part 
 1 — IV, Dublin, MDCCCLXX 1 V - 
 London, MDCCCLXXXIV. 
 
 National MSS. Scot. . 
 
 . . Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of 
 
 Scotland, selected under the direction 
 of the Right Hon. Sir William Gibson- 
 Craig, Part 1 — III, Southampton, 
 MDCCCLXVII — MDCCCLXXI. 
 
 XIII 
 
CONTRACTIONS: 
 
 Paheographia. 
 
 Proceedings R. I. A. . 
 Proceedings S. A. Scot. . 
 
 Per. Brit. in. £. script. . 
 
 Rer. Hibern. script, vet. . 
 
 The Book of Deer . 
 
 The Historians of Scotland 
 Transactions R. I. A. . 
 Vetusta Monumenta. 
 
 Vit£ Abbatum . 
 
 Vita antique, SS. . 
 
 AUTHORITIES: 
 
 PaUographia Sacra Pictoria, being a 
 series of illustrations of the ancient 
 versions of the Bible, copied from 
 illuminated manuscripts — by J. O. 
 Westwood, London, MDCCCXLIII 
 — MDCCCXLV. 
 
 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
 Proceedings of the Society of Antiqua- 
 ries of Scotland. 
 
 Rerum Britannicarum medii dtvi scrip- 
 tores, or Chronicles and Memorials 
 of Great Britain and Ireland during 
 the Middle Ages; published by the 
 authority of Her Majesty’s treasury 
 under the direction of the Master 
 of the Rolls. 
 
 Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, 
 tom. I — IV, Buckinghamiae, 1814 
 — 1826. 
 
 The Book of Deer, edited for the 
 Spalding Club by John Stuart, Edin- 
 burgh, MDCCCLXIX. 
 
 The Historians of Scotland, vol. I — X, 
 Edinburgh, 1871 — 80. 
 
 Transactions of the Royal Irish Acade- 
 my. 
 
 Vetusta Monumenta, published by the 
 Society of Antiquaries of London. 
 
 Vita Beatorum Abbatum Benedicti, 
 Ceolfridi, Eosterwini, Sigfridi, atque 
 Hwaetberhti; in Venerabilis Bedae 
 Opera Historica, tom II, Londini, 
 MDCCCXL 1 . 
 
 Vita antique Sanctorum qui habita- 
 verunt in ea parte Britanniae nunc 
 vocata Scotia, vel in ejus insulis; 
 quasdam edidit ex MSS., quasdam 
 collegit Johannes Pinkerton, qui et 
 variantes lectiones et notas pauculas 
 adjecit; Londini, MDCCLXXX 1 X. 
 
 XIV 
 
n unusually detailed account of a specimen 
 of ancient Celtic art of illumination is 
 contained in a work written by Giraldus 
 Cambrensis and dating from the close 
 'j of the twelfth century. This author, in 
 his Topographia Hibernica, tells us of 
 5 ) a marvellous book which came under 
 his notice in the course of his travels 
 in Ireland in the years 1185 and 1186, 
 and commanded his admiration on ac- 
 count of the wonderfully rich and elaborate cha- 
 racter of its ornament. The ancient relic, to which 
 u he has devoted two chapters in the work con- 
 taining the impressions de voyage of his Irish 
 ^ mission, and which he describes as one of the 
 marvels of Erin, was at that time preserved among 
 yj the hereditary treasures of the religious founda- 
 s tion of St. Brigid at Kildare. It was a copy of 
 the Four Gospels, traditionally assigned to the 
 Jpjp ’ days of the patron saint of that house. In its 
 decorative aspect, being deemed too delicate a 
 work for rough human hands, and, besides, too intricate 
 and mysterious an affair for human invention, the book, 
 in accordance with the pious belief of the day, was looked 
 upon by the inmates of the house as a work produced 
 A 1 
 
 C//D 
 
through the kindly assistance of supernatural powers. What 
 arrested the attention of the twelfth century writer, and 
 made him pay such a rare tribute to an object of that 
 kind was not, however, as might be expected, the pious 
 legend of its supernatural origin or high antiquity, but, 
 in the first place, something that fell within the reach of 
 his own personal observation: the manuscript itself, so far 
 as its artistic work was concerned. And the combination 
 of skill, taste, and devoted patience displayed in its orna- 
 mental pages is done justice to in the following passage 
 which we extract entire: 
 
 » De libro miraculose conscripto. Inter universa Kildariae mi- 
 racula, nihil mihi miraculosius occurrit quam liber ille mirandus, 
 tempore virginis, ut aiunt, angelo dictante conscriptus. Continet 
 hie liber quatuor Evangeliorum juxta Ieronimum concordantiam : 
 ubi quot paginae fere tot figurae diversae, variisque coloribus dis- 
 tinctissimae. 
 
 Hie Majestatis vultum videas divinitus impressum; hinc my- 
 sticas Evangelistarum formas, nunc senas, nunc quaternas, nunc 
 binas alas habentes; hinc aquilam, inde vitulum, hinc hominis 
 faciem, inde leonis; aliasque figuras fere infinitas. Quas si super- 
 ficialiter et usuali more minus acute conspexeris, litura potius 
 videbitur quam ligatura; nec uliam prorsus attendes subtilitatem, 
 ubi nihil tamen praeter subtilitatem. Sin autem ad perspicacius 
 intuendum oculorum aciem invitaveris, et longe penitius ad artis 
 arcana transpenetraveris, tarn delicatas et subtiles, tarn arctas et 
 artitas, tarn nodosas et vinculatim colligatas, tamque recentibus 
 adhuc coloribus illustratas notare poteris intricaturas, ut vere haec 
 omnia potius angelica quam humana diligentia iam asseveraveris 
 esse composita. 
 
 Haec equidem quanto frequentius et diligentius intueor, semper 
 quasi novis obstupeo, semper magis ac magis admiranda con- 
 spicio. » 
 
 As to the manner in which the work was composed we 
 are told in the next chapter: 
 
 y>De libri compositione. Nocte prima, cujus mane librum 
 scriptor inchoaturus fuerat, astitit ei angelus in somnis, figuram 
 quandam tabulae quam manu praeferebat impressam ei ostendens, 
 et dicens, »Putasne hanc figuram in prima libri quern scripturus 
 
 2 
 
es pagina possis imprimere?» Cui scriptor, de tantae subtilitatis 
 arte, de tam ignotae et inusitatae rei diffidens notitia, respondit, 
 »Nequaquam». Cui angelus, »In crastino die die dominae tuae, 
 ut ispa pro te orationes fundat ad Dominum, quatinus ad acutius 
 intuendum et subtilius intelligendum tibi tam mentis quam cor- 
 poris oculos aperiat, et ad recte protrahendum manus dirigat. » 
 Quo facto, nocte sequente iterum affuit angelus, eandem figuram 
 aliasque multas ei praesentans. Quas omnes, divina opitulante 
 gratia, statim advertens et memoriae fideliter commendans libro 
 suo locis competentibus ad unguem scriptor impressit. Sic igitur 
 angelo praesentante, Brigida orante, scriptore imitante, liber est 
 ille conscriptus . » 1 
 
 The latter part of the extract needs no comment. As 
 to the former part of it, containing the personal observa- 
 tions of Giraldus, it should be remembered that such is 
 the opinion of one whom we know, from many traits in 
 his various works, as a shrewd and exact observer, and 
 who, moreover, lived at an epoch when material for com- 
 parison, and that of a very high degree of excellence, 
 existed in abundance. In the course of the twelfth century 
 we witness, outside of the Celtic area, a remarkable growth 
 of the art of book-illumination, characterised by volumes 
 of exceptionally grand dimensions and of the most gorgeous 
 decoration in gold and colours. This class of illuminated 
 books seems to have grown into vogue in England in the 
 earlier part of the century, as it did some time previously 
 in the neighbouring countries across the Channel; and 
 there can be little doubt that the zealous and talented 
 Archdeacon of St. David’s, who in his earlier years had 
 studied on the Continent, and who became later on so 
 closely allied to the Royal Court of England, was familiar 
 with the literary and artistic aspirations of his own days, 
 and knew to perfection the master-achievements of the 
 non-Celtic schools of art of contemporary date. 
 
 Although referring to a particular work of especial 
 merit, the testimony of the mediaeval writer may well be 
 placed at the head of an enquiry into the art in general 
 
 1 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, vol. V, pp. 123, 124, London, 1867; in Rer. 
 Brit. m. a. script. 
 
 3 
 
of the Celtic illuminated manuscripts, emphasising as it does 
 at the same time the salient characteristics of the style 
 followed by this distinguished school of illumination: its 
 minute and delicate drawing, its brilliance of colouring, 
 and, above all, that amazing amount of devoted and patient 
 labour which underlies its intricate compositions, and creates 
 the despair of anyone who tries to copy them. 
 
 It is proposed in the following pages to give an ana- 
 lysis of the Celtic style of book-decoration, by classifying 
 the various motives or elements of which the complex 
 schemes of an ornamental page are composed; and by tra- 
 cing the evolution of each separate motive as far as that 
 can be followed in Celtic art; afterwards to deal with the 
 principles of composition and the treatment and effect of 
 colour; and, lastly, to place before the reader a series of 
 works in chronological sequence representative of the school 
 in its successive stages of progress. The question of the 
 historical connexion of Celtic design with that of other 
 countries will be properly treated only after a survey of 
 the other mediaeval schools of illumination. Although at 
 first sight presenting a bewildering variety of forms, the 
 designs shown in the decorated manuscripts will, when 
 more closely examined, be seen to submit to a rational 
 classification under four divisions which practically absorb 
 the whole stock of ornament. First, there is a group of 
 patterns in the structure of which purely geometrical com- 
 binations or developments of the straight or curved line 
 form the sole element. Then, we have groups of motives 
 which, though anything but natural, yet were originally 
 derived from Nature, such as highly conventionalised schemes 
 of animals, leaves, and flowers. And, finally, there is a 
 group of figure subjects or representations suggested by 
 the accompanying text, which, owing to an emphatically 
 decorative treatment, may be looked upon as mere decora- 
 tion rather than illustration. Accordingly, the four divisions 
 will be: — (i) geometrical ornament; (2) zoomorphic and 
 (3) phyllomorphic designs; and (4) figure representations. 
 
 4 
 
eltic ornament as shown in the pages of 
 the illuminated manuscripts receives its most 
 characteristic and most national element from 
 the group of spiral designs. The spiral is 
 a motive of high antiquity in Celtic decora- 
 tive art. From a number of objects dating 
 from a period anterior to the introduction 
 of Christianity into Ireland, it appears that a 
 peculiar type of spiral was a staple design 
 to the pagan Celt; and if we compare the 
 Vx' spiral patterns of pagan origin with those exhibited in the 
 various works of Christian art in Ireland, the illuminated 
 manuscripts included, there can be little doubt that the 
 spiral system of the Christian centuries was lineally descended 
 from that known in earlier times to the pagan natives of 
 the country. We hope to prove this suggestion to be some- 
 thing more than a vague hypothesis. The spiral design 
 was no accidental feature in the pagan Celtic art; nor was 
 it confined to such simple, uniform scrolls as those we find 
 used as a kind of border ornament by several pre-historic 
 peoples. It was, on the contrary, a favourite pattern of 
 a very elaborate character, applied as a surface decoration 
 to a variety of objects, such as shields, helmets, sword- 
 sheaths, armlets, horse-trappings, and personal ornaments, 
 examples of which still survive, testifying to an astonishing 
 proficiency in metal work — bronze and gold — both as 
 regards construction and decoration . 1 The ornament that 
 lends the higher dignity to these and similar objects — 
 the pride of the Celtic warrior and chieftain — consists 
 of a most characteristic spiral design which, though simple 
 and abstract, yet at the same time possesses a peculiar 
 
 § II 
 
 1 The most representative collections of objects decorated with the late 
 Celtic spiral work found in the British Islands, are in the British Museum; and 
 in the National Museum of Ireland [R. I. A. coll.] in Dublin. For illustrations, 
 the reader should refer to Archaologia, vol. XXXVI, plate XXXVII; vol. XL, 
 plates XXX, XXXI; vol. LIV, plate XLVIII; vol. XLVII, plate XXI; to the 
 publications of the R. I. A., for ex., Transactions R. I. A., vol. XXX, part V, 
 plate XIX, with beautiful reproduction in colours; and to plates in Kemble’s Hora 
 Fcrales, also in colours. For lists of objects, see the descriptions added by Sir A. 
 Wollaston Franks in Kemble’s op. cit. p. 125 seqq.; and also later volumes of 
 Archaologia. 
 
 5 
 
force combined with a flamboyant elegance in its long, 
 sweeping curves. This is the style of ornament to which 
 Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks has given the name of 
 late Celtic. The root from which it sprang is uncertain. 
 It has been suggested that, at least in some types, it was 
 developed under the influence of floral or foliated schemes 
 transplanted from classical ground . 1 If so, that might ac- 
 count for part of its force and freedom, qualities so rare 
 in an ornament of purely geometrical extraction; while, 
 on the other hand, in case the opinion be correct, the 
 Celtic pattern may be said to be the most ingenious trans- 
 lation ever made, of a foliageous design into a geometrical 
 one. Here, as in every spiral system, the principal elements 
 are a series of volutes and the links which connect them 
 together. But what lends to this a character of its own 
 is the special development of the connecting links which, 
 by gradually expanding or contracting, enrich the ornament 
 with a series of long, slender curves of great linear beauty. 
 The pattern usually appears in relief produced either by 
 repousse work and chasing, when the object was made of 
 plates of metal wrought into shape with the hammer and 
 rivetted together; or by the particular form given to the 
 mould, in the case of casting. On works of the first de- 
 scription the links bounded by the long curved lines are 
 raised above the surface so as to present a section with a 
 sharp ridge at the top. The artistic appearance effected by 
 the bold design and energetic modelling of the late Celtic 
 spiral ornament is further enhanced by the application of 
 champ-leve enamel 2 , used on plaques or bosses attached to 
 the pattern to emphasise the centres of the volutes, etc. 
 Objects exhibiting this style of decoration have been dis- 
 covered in various districts of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 showing the style to have been at one time common to 
 
 1 See especially Archaologia, voi. LI I, p. 3:7 seqq., 364 seqq., in which 
 Mr. Arthur Evans contributes some very important notes on the connexions between 
 late Celtic forms of ornament and classical art in its archaic as well as later stages. 
 
 2 See especially coloured plates with descriptions in Kemble’s op. cit.; 
 Transactions R. I. A., vol. XXX, part. V, pp. 277, 281, with coloured plate XIX; 
 cfr. Archaologia, vol. XLVI, pp. 83, 84, 89. 
 
 6 
 
the pre-Christian Celtic population of the British Islands. 
 Besides, similar objects have been found, although more 
 sparsely, on the tracks of Celtic tribes on the Continent, 
 whereas, outside of regions known to have been, in a 
 bygone age, inhabited or visited by such tribes, there is 
 little analogous to it, and nothing of an altogether similar 
 nature. This seems to prove the so-called late Celtic, what- 
 ever may be its germ or its prototype, to have claim to 
 be regarded as an emphatically Celtic style of art. And as 
 such it flourished at the time when the Christian mission- 
 aries carried to the pagan Celts the faith and rites of a 
 new religion together with the principles of a new art. 
 
 What was the actual result effected at this meeting 
 of foreign and native elements: how they tend to modify 
 each other, and both of them influence the following evol- 
 ution, will be shewn by a most instructive parallel af- 
 forded by the history of architecture. A series of ec- 
 clesiastical buildings, some of which are found surrounded 
 by the dry-built cells within the boundary walls of the 
 ancient monastic communities, while others are situated 
 in isolated positions without any connexion with other 
 structures, enable us to trace the evolution of the typical 
 forms of the Celtic church in Ireland, from the earliest 
 centuries of Irish Christianity until, in the course of the 
 twelfth century, it appears as a special, well-defined variety 
 of the Romanesque style of architecture. The late Lord 
 Dunraven, in his great work on Irish architecture, has made 
 these venerable remnants, extending through a period the 
 architectural history of which is almost a blank in the 
 other countries of Europe north of the Alps, a subject 
 for most careful research. He has pointed out how the 
 most primitive of these churches belong to a type which 
 still bears the impress of the transitional stage between 
 paganism and Christianity . 1 Thus, while the principles 
 and methods of construction are the very same as those 
 
 1 Notes on Irish Architecture, by Edwin, third Earl of Dunraven; edited by 
 
 Margaret Stokes; vol. I, London, 1875; P- 2 6 seqq.; vol. 11 , London, 1877; 
 P- '34 seqq. 
 
 7 
 
shown in works of purely pagan origin, a special plan 
 and arrangement of the room, differing from what may be 
 observed in any pagan structure, clearly indicates their ec- 
 clesiastical purpose. He also lays stress upon the fact 
 that the following evolution nowhere shows any sudden 
 break in the continuity of style, but only a gradual ad- 
 vance towards those more elaborate types which prevailed 
 in countries nearer the centres of Christian civilization . 1 
 And in following his guidance we observe how construc- 
 tive peculiarities of the greatest importance, as, for example, 
 the ingenious practice of the Irish » double stone roof », 2 
 were, after all, but the results that gradually and rationally, 
 under the influence of the foreign elements, grew out of 
 the primitive devices of the pagan natives. 
 
 The reader will excuse this little digression, running 
 off on a somewhat diverging line from our spirals. It has 
 been done in order to show that, if we should find in the 
 evolution of decorative art, when passing the point marked 
 by the change of religion, an analogon to the state of things 
 observable in the sphere of architecture, that is precisely 
 what might be expected. 
 
 The spiral decoration as shown in the pages of the 
 illuminated manuscripts may be briefly defined as a system 
 of volutes closely coiled in circular curves, and connected 
 each with a varying number of adjoining volutes. In its 
 most typical form it appears as a chain composed of links 
 almost invariably C-shaped, hooking together. This chain 
 is carried over the space to be decorated so as to cover 
 it with its coils as closely as possible. The space, how- 
 ever, often being very irregular, some difficulty was ex- 
 perienced in thus filling in all nooks and corners; and an 
 expedient was found either in making volutes of different 
 size so as to fit or in introducing additional links into the 
 chain. By this method the triple and quadruple spirals 
 arose, while at the same time the intricacy, not only of 
 the convolutions, but of the whole design was greatly 
 
 1 Op. cit., vol. II, pp. 200, 202. 
 
 2 Op. cit., vol. II, p. 196. 
 
 8 
 
I. BOOK OF DURROW 
 

 'IIOVvSVOO, At , 0?y A 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
increased. These complex patterns were further developed 
 by an ingenious arrangement combining volutes of different 
 size in symmetrical compositions to fill in, for instance, 
 a circular space. This is a favourite device in the manu- 
 scripts of the best period, and one which shows the spiral 
 pattern in its most perfect elaboration. In the decadent 
 age of Celtic book-decoration the spiral ornament disappears 
 earlier than any of the other designs. 
 
 If we compare the so-called late Celtic spiral decora- 
 tion with that of the illuminated manuscripts, we find at 
 a glance, in spite of an unmistakable resemblance, some 
 marked features of difference. These latter, however, may 
 all be easily accounted for. An ornamental design when 
 transplanted from one object to another of different material 
 is necessarily submitted to some modifications due to ma- 
 terial, technique, size and shape of the surface, etc.; and 
 so was of course the ornament in question when transferred 
 from a bold metal surface to the diminutive space afforded 
 by the initial or border compartment of an illuminated folio. 
 There it extended freely with long, mighty curves and 
 slender volutes over a field more than sufficient; here the 
 space was so limited as to admit of but the smallest possible 
 vacancies; hence, the reduced curves of the links and the 
 more intricate character of the convolutions, which the 
 pen of the illuminator was better fitted than the instrument 
 of the metal-worker to run in a number of turns round 
 the centre. The link joining a couple of volutes on the 
 late Celtic bronzes is often bent into the curve of the letter 
 S, whereas in the spiral system of the illuminated manu- 
 scripts the connecting link is seen to follow almost in- 
 variably the curve of a Q. What led to a more general 
 adoption of the latter form was, no doubt, its being a means 
 of joining the volutes so as to cover as closely as possible 
 a surface even of less regular shape. 
 
 There are, however, apart from the general scheme 
 of the ornament, some details which deserve a special 
 notice, as testifying in a most significant way to the 
 actual connexion between the late Celtic system and that 
 
 B 9 
 
of the Christian period. Such details may be seen in 
 the decorative treatment of the centres of the volutes as well 
 as of the central portions of the links. The centre of a volute 
 designed on the minute scale typical of Celtic book-orna- 
 mentation' does not seem to be a suitable place for the 
 insertion of additional adornment; and yet, strange to say, 
 we generally find this point emphasised by a variety of 
 additional devices. Very often these take the shape of a 
 circular space worked with a diminutive pattern which 
 consists of some kind of chequered or diapered design; 
 or of the ends of the coils wound up into secondary 
 spirals or expanding into heads or even full forms of birds 
 and nondescripts in symmetrical arrangement. On the 
 link we observe a curious little thing in the shape of 
 an almond placed across its central portion, from the point 
 where the two front curves meet in a cusp, towards the 
 middle of the back curve. This little figure is seen re- 
 peated in a similar position to relieve the triangular empty 
 spaces intervening between the curved boundaries of links 
 and volutes. In the complex patterns of triple and qua- 
 druple spirals this gives rise to what might seem at first 
 sight to be a foliageous scheme. The little trefoil thus 
 produced has, however, nothing to do with the depart- 
 ment of botany. It owes its origin simply to an accidental 
 repetition of the single oval stamped in the middle of the 
 link. And this in its turn is a reminiscence of the oval 
 boss which we have noticed in a similar position on the 
 late Celtic metal work; just as the ornamented circular 
 plaques of enamel attached to the centres of the volutes 
 on pagan bronzes may have suggested the circular spaces 
 with varied decoration which mark the starting point of 
 the convolution in the spiral system of the Christian period. 
 A reminiscence of the pattern from which that of the 
 manuscripts was originally derived once being raised in 
 relief, is still to be observed in the latter. The small 
 triangular spaces intervening between the curved outlines 
 of links and volutes, and corresponding to the background 
 of the late Celtic pattern, are, as a rule, marked by a 
 i o 
 
darker colour and thus characterised as having once formed 
 a recessed background. 
 
 Although most common and best developed in the 
 complex patterns which are employed to fill in, as a surface 
 decoration, the small sections into which the space of the 
 initial or border is divided, the spiral very often appears 
 as a plain scroll forming an ornamental appendix to the 
 extremities of the initial. And in a few cases it will be 
 seen to have influenced the initial also in its structural 
 aspect. Examples of this type, in which the little oval of 
 late Celtic extraction is still discernible, may be seen in 
 the ancient Irish Psalter traditionally assigned to the time 
 of St. Columba and now preserved in the library of the 
 Royal Irish Academy . 1 
 
 In the previous pages the spiral system as applied to 
 the decoration of illuminated manuscripts has been delineated 
 in its general scheme; its characteristics and development 
 followed in some detail; and its relation to the style of 
 art exhibited in late Celtic metal work briefly considered. 
 What has been said may prove enough to show that this 
 type of pattern, one of the chief elements of Christian de- 
 corative art in Ireland, and of especial significance as a 
 testimony to the minute elaboration and marvellous finish 
 of detail characteristic of the Celtic school of illumination, 
 is the survival of an earlier native system, which, although 
 submitted to various modifications in being applied to quite 
 new purposes, yet has left, along the whole line of derived 
 forms, an impress sufficiently clear and well-defined for its 
 origin to be easily recognised. Some might claim the spiral 
 design of Christian art in Ireland as having originated inde- 
 pendently. We do not intend to enter into a discussion 
 of that as it is but an hypothesis, supported neither by 
 historical evidence nor by analogies. On the other hand, 
 one might think of its being introduced together with the 
 stock of ornament brought from other countries by the 
 early Christian missionaries. But it would be very diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible, to point to a single scheme in de- 
 
 1 The Cathach MS., Libr. R. I. A., Dublin. 
 
corative art outside of the Celtic area with greater claim 
 than the so-called late Celtic to be considered as the proto- 
 type that once suggested the spiral design shown in 
 manuscripts and other works of the Christian era. 
 the next room after the spiral ornament we 
 may place an important group consisting of geo- 
 metrical interlacements. This type of pattern as 
 appearing in the illuminated manuscripts may be 
 characterised as a surface decoration composed 
 of one or more ribbons or straps of uniform size, 
 which are twisted, plaited, knotted, or otherwise 
 interwoven so as to cover the field with a sym- 
 metrically disposed design. It occurs in a variety of 
 forms, from the plain twist, or guilloche, to the elaborate 
 chain composed of knots of torturing intricacy and of 
 varied construction, being laid in squares, circles, ob- 
 longs, triangles, hexagons, octagons, etc. The more 
 intricate forms are predominant; and, by variety of de- 
 sign and the unerring precision with which the ribbons 
 are interwoven so as to cross over and under alter- 
 nately and finally be joined up to each other, testify 
 to the astonishing capacity of the draughtsman. When 
 compared with the spiral ornament, the interlaced work 
 looks rather mechanical. This is particularly the 
 case with the plainer forms, in which the linear 
 element is confined to a monotonous repetition of 
 same kind of curve. Hence it came that these never 
 favour, but held a very subordinate place 
 more complicated patterns. An interlaced series 
 receive an additional enrichment in various ways. 
 
 the 
 obtained 
 to the 
 
 would 
 
 One method was to lay it with alternate patches of colour, 
 producing at the same time the effect of some kind of 
 chequer work. While some of the more complex patterns 
 still present in their structure the endless repetition of the 
 same kind of curve, the linear element of others is devel- 
 oped with a very pleasing result by straight lines being 
 introduced to serve as a backbone to the ornament; as also 
 by curves broken into the shape of a section of a pointed 
 i 2 
 
 III 
 
arch being made to alternate with those following an even 
 circular path. Besides, there are forms in which the inter- 
 laced work was disposed so as to leave blank spaces alter- 
 nating with the elaborate knot work. By these and similar 
 means a certain measure of freedom and variety was in- 
 troduced into the ornament. Designs of the nature just 
 described are seen repeated again and again, with slight 
 variations, in the works of the best period, and may be 
 regarded as typical of Celtic interlaced work as instanced 
 in illuminated manuscripts. Interlacings of an altogether 
 angular character are rarely met with in works of the 
 earlier centuries, as in pages of the Book of Burrow f 
 they seem to belong chiefly to forms marking the degrada- 
 tion of style of a later period. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of interlacements we must 
 not omit mention of a particular use of these designs in 
 being applied to the construction of initials. Smaller in- 
 itials heading the sub-divisions of the text will be seen at 
 an early period to be worked on the principle of an inter- 
 twining strap work; but the chief development of this type 
 of letter seems to fall within the later era, when the method 
 gives rise to a peculiar character that might be defined as 
 a piece of purely geometrical interlacing, with nondescript 
 beasts’ heads occasionally attached to the terminations. This 
 type in its turn was further developed by transforming the 
 geometrical strap work with its zoomorphic ends into a 
 complete scheme of a nondescript animal with head, legs, 
 and tail; or into a composition of similar creatures. And 
 details such as ears, and crests, and tails, were in that 
 case prolonged and extenuated into endless appendices, and 
 twisted and woven at random around the broader struc- 
 tural body. Initial letters of this nature, enriched with 
 patches of colour in the interior spaces, form the chief 
 decorative feature of the illuminated manuscripts of the 
 period when the Celtic style of book-decoration was on 
 the decline. They show a marked contrast to the grand 
 
 i 5 
 
 MS. A. 4. j., Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
ornamental initials of the culminating art; but although 
 unquestionably inferior with regard to minute drawing and 
 accuracy of detail, yet from a certain boldness of design 
 and broader treatment of colour they receive, not infre- 
 quently, an artistic, picturesque stamp. In a somewhat 
 rough execution the type appears in works dating from 
 the last centuries of the Middle Ages; and may almost be 
 said to have survived the mediaeval art of book-ornamenta- 
 tion, as it is still to be seen in manuscripts written after 
 the introduction of printed books. Thus the MS. Life 
 of St. Columba, by Manus O’Donel, chief of Tir Connell, 
 written in the earlier half of the sixteenth century and now 
 preserved in the library of the Franciscan Convent in Dublin, 1 
 still presents, at the commencement of the volume, a large 
 initial letter of the type described, drawn in outline 
 and partly laid with colour after the old mediaeval 
 fashion. 
 
 a third group of geometrical motives of decora- 
 tion we include the several varieties of fret 
 work. Like the spiral and interlaced work, 
 this kind of ornament was employed to fill 
 in small panels as part of the surface enrich- 
 ment of borders and initials. A rectilinear 
 design, composed of a system of straight 
 strokes, which are symmetrically disposed so 
 as to meet at definite angles, but never over- 
 lap, and only rarely flow into a curve, the fret 
 /may be easily distinguished from all kinds of interlaced 
 work. On the other hand, in spite of the different aspect, 
 it has several features in common with the spiral design. 
 When more closely examined, the fret, plain or complex, 
 will reveal a series of centres disposed at regular intervals 
 over the space to be decorated. Each of these centres 
 marks the starting point for what forms the groundwork 
 of the design, viz., a small figure in the shape of a C or 
 an 5, corresponding to the Q- or Shaped links in the 
 spiral systems. In fact, every variety of fret, even of the 
 
 1 MS. G VIII, Libr. Franc. Conv., Dublin. 
 
 14 
 
 
most hopelessly labyrinthine nature, can be derived from 
 a mechanical combination and repetition of these primary 
 elements. By means of the C- or 5-shaped links each centre 
 is connected with one or more adjoining centres. And the 
 plain or composite character of the ornament chiefly de- 
 pends on the number of links thus starting from the same 
 centre. In the simplest and best known of fret patterns, 
 the plain Greek mceander, we find a continuous chain com- 
 posed of similar links; and, again, in the most intricate 
 forms of Celtic fret there is nothing but a mechanical com- 
 position of the same simple groundwork. What lends to 
 the Celtic fret a character of its own, contrasting with 
 that of the square type so common in Greek art, was the 
 fashion of bending the links at certain points at angles 
 of 45 0 , instead of 90°, which latter are exclusively used in 
 the square type. Hence they appear in the slightly modi- 
 fied forms of a C or a S; and from this procedure the 
 pattern as a whole will receive a peculiar Chinese-looking 
 weaving with lines plying in three directions, a diagonal 
 one being added to the horizontal and vertical paths fol- 
 lowed by the line of the square type. This kind of fret, 
 characterised by lines which are drawn diagonally over the 
 space, on being broken at angles of 45 0 alternating at de- 
 finite points with right angles, became a standard design 
 owing to the more elaborate structure and greater variety 
 introduced by the diagonal element. 
 
 In the illuminated manuscripts the fret appears in a 
 variety of forms, from plain, continuous chains to elaborate 
 compositions of what might be styled the quadruple fret, 
 /. e. } four links issuing from the same centre. Here, as 
 was the case with the interlaced work, the more complex 
 forms are prevalent; and regarding the shape of the little 
 figure that forms the groundwork of the design, the pat- 
 terns are mostly seen to be derived from that broken at 
 angles of 45°. Hence, the predominance of the diagonal 
 types. In fact, the Celtic fret patterns would seem at first 
 sight to be all built on that principle. But such is not the 
 case. For, if we follow the lines of the main design, we 
 
 1 5 
 
shall find them invariably deflecting at right angles and thus 
 pursuing their path in two directions only, either horizon- 
 tally or vertically; just as do the lines of the regular square 
 build. What makes these patterns look diagonal is the 
 relation of the main design to the enclosing border. In 
 order to lessen the stiffness and monotony of the orna- 
 ment by making its lines break with those of the border, 
 the pattern as a whole was turned a little and placed dia- 
 gonally on the panel to be decorated, its lines cutting 
 those of the border at an angle of 45 0 , instead of being 
 run parallel. It will be seen, then, that the small triang- 
 ular spaces which result from the border lines being brought 
 into contact with those of the pattern, are simply due to 
 the necessity of adjusting the surface design to the border, 
 and have nothing to do with the main build of the orna- 
 ment. There is another point about the Celtic fret which 
 is at first sight a little puzzling, and makes the structure 
 of the ornament look a more serious affair than it really 
 is. This is due to the designer not being always quite 
 sure as to what was the actual background of his orna- 
 ment. Let us take a quadruple fret of the square type. 
 Here we see four links issuing from the same centre, each 
 joining with its other end a similar centre, much in the 
 same way as do the four coils of a quadruple spiral. This 
 is the real groundwork of the design. But, at the same 
 time, the empty spaces intervening between the links will 
 be seen to form another pattern of a rectilinear type, which, 
 although bearing a close resemblance to the actual pattern, 
 yet is not altogether identic. Now, in the illuminated 
 manuscripts the ornamental design and its background are 
 of different colour. In the works of the best period it is 
 a rule to have the design, of whatever description, brought 
 out in relief by the application of darker and stronger 
 tones to the background. The difference between pattern 
 and background with regard to colouring is also observed 
 in the case of fret work; but what might here cause some 
 confusion, and obviously shows that the designer did not 
 quite grasp the meaning of his ornament, is that, while, 
 16 
 
II. BOOK OF BURROW 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r : wxv\ v- : 'A'^a . ' 
 
 . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
as a rule, the real design is brought out as it should, 
 there are other cases in which the rectilinear spaces which 
 form the background are raised and treated as the actual 
 ornament. 
 
 What still remains unnoticed of geometrical decoration 
 is either of less importance or of too rare occurrence to 
 be regarded as characteristic of the style in general. One 
 noteworthy feature is the use of dots, in single or repeated 
 rows, to emphasise the outline of the initial. This is ob- 
 servable in the earliest extant manuscripts, as, for example, 
 in the ancient Psalter mentioned above; and continues in 
 fashion to the very end. From the large initial the punct- 
 ured line would extend to embrace the other more or less 
 decorative letters in the same page; and in the richest 
 works, in which, according to a fashion known in other 
 styles of book-illumination, the letters were laid on de- 
 corative bands, this kind of background is seen to be 
 worked with patterns that were, not infrequently, dotted 
 or punctured out on the same principle. 
 
 Diaper work will be seen to be occasionally introduced 
 to enliven smaller spaces and vacancies between the broader 
 and more elaborate designs. But this stiffest of all geo- 
 metrical elements never played any great part in Celtic de- 
 coration. Several varieties of it may be seen in the pages 
 of the Book of Kells, where it occurs together with rosettes, 
 a decidedly non-Celtic detail of ornament. 
 
 And with this we may lay aside the chequered variety 
 of geometrical designs, a class of ornament which 
 embraces the main mass of patterns to be found 
 in the illuminated manuscripts. 
 et the series of patterns which is next to be 
 considered still includes sufficient variety of types 
 of a pronounced Celtic character to form im- 
 portant co-ordinate classes. In these we group 
 " the ornamental designs in which a copying of 
 natural forms is more or less conspicuous. It 
 must be distinctly understood, however, that in 
 speaking thus we do not mean to assert that any 
 C 1 7 
 
 V 
 
object was represented naturally. For quite the reverse is 
 the case. In most instances the decorative form is as dif- 
 ferent as it possibly could be from the forms of any ob- 
 ject in actual existence. Among the zoomorphic schemes 
 there are birds, quadrupeds of a nondescript nature, some- 
 times even the utterly contorted outline of a human figure. 
 As to the birds and quadrupeds it would be of no use to 
 be too particular in any attempt to trace their zoological 
 prototypes. Regarding the former the most outstanding 
 features are such as might be derived by decorative treat- 
 ment from almost any variety of the species; and in the 
 case of the latter the origination is, if possible, still more 
 hopelessly obscured. 
 
 An observation connecting these forms with some 
 hybrid figures, half nature, half fancy, which occur in their 
 close vicinity, might perhaps settle the question. If we 
 compare details, such as heads, limbs, and wings, in the 
 zoomorphic interlacings with corresponding details in the 
 representations of the Evangelistic symbols, which are a 
 stock design in the illuminated copies of the Gospels, we 
 find, in the majority of cases, a striking resemblance. This 
 naturally suggests the idea that the ancient symbols, such 
 as the eagle of St. John or the lion of St. Mark, repeated 
 from copy to copy in traditional schemes, once served as 
 the originals from which the designer gathered the zoo- 
 morphic details for his fanciful pieces of decoration. Hence 
 we may fairly set aside the speculations on the zoological 
 prototypes as rather unnecessary, the more so, because the 
 peculiar nature of this kind of ornament depends — not 
 so much on details as on the manner in which these are 
 connected together so as to form a consistent whole. A 
 zoomorphic interlacing used, like the forms of ornament 
 we have been dealing with, to fill in a panel or compart- 
 ment of more or less regular shape will be seen, in most 
 cases, to arise from the repetition of a single figure, a 
 bird or a quadruped, with head, legs, wings of a distinct, 
 well-defined type attached to a curious, decoratively treated 
 piece of a body. According to the shape of the space to 
 
 1 8 
 
be adorned, the figure is repeated to form either a con- 
 
 tinuous chain or a composite group of two or four speci- 
 mens in symmetrical arrangement, which group in its turn 
 is capable of repetition. Occasionally we find a composi- 
 tion of two figures of different type, for example, a bird 
 and a quadruped. This group is also capable of further 
 combination and repetition. The chief trait common to 
 all these varieties is the great pains taken in twisting, 
 
 plaiting, and weaving them together in every conceivable 
 manner. When the tangle produced by intertwining the 
 limbs, tail, neck, and trunk of the body was not deemed 
 sufficient, some further devices had to be invented. One 
 was to prolong the jaw, the crest, or the top of the 
 
 ear into a sort of appendix intended to serve as an ad- 
 
 ditional link. 
 
 The animal element also appears in the terminations 
 of borders and initials. One very favourite method was to 
 add a beast's head and a pair of legs at one end of the 
 border; and if we follow the long, broken band covered 
 with decorative panels, we should not be surprised at find- 
 ing the rest of the body attached to the other end in the 
 shape of a pair of diminutive hind-legs. Or, there is an- 
 other border run right round the page, with a human head 
 at the top, a pair of feet at the lower margin, and an 
 arm attached to each side! Occasionally the large orna- 
 mental initials are seen to be treated in a similar manner. 
 In specimens of the decadent period it is a rule to use 
 zoomorphic terminals for the interlaced work which does 
 duty for the body of the letter; a type from which evolved 
 that composed of a complete animal figure or of a com- 
 bination of such, as has been shown above. The pe- 
 culiarities of the various types will be explained by the ac- 
 companying plates better than by words. There we see 
 the form typical of the zoomorphic interlacements in the 
 Book of Durrow. It consists of a body in the shape of 
 a curved or undulating band, with fore-leg, hind-leg, a dull, 
 tame head, and elongated jaws. There is, perhaps, along 
 the whole line of animal motives used in decorative art, 
 
 •9 
 
none more utterly stripped of animal life and expression, 
 in being transformed according to the laws of a certain 
 conventionalising principle. A marked contrast to this type 
 is shown in the pages of the Book of Kells 1 and the Gospels 
 of Lindisfarne. 2 There we often meet with a head sugges- 
 tive of a beast of prey, but rather exaggerating the blood- 
 thirsty propensities of its zoological prototype. It mostly 
 occurs at the end of a border or an initial, and may often 
 be seen side by side with the lifeless schemes of the Dur- 
 row type. In the zoomorphic interlacements of the decadent 
 period, when they appear chiefly in the structure of initials, 
 the head assumes a variety of forms according to the whims 
 of the draughtsman. Thus in the Liber Hymnorum u from 
 which the initials in the present work are drawn, and 
 which seems to date from the eleventh century, among 
 the number of beasts’ heads worked in the letters there 
 is hardly one quite like another; and yet, at the same time, 
 they have such features in common as testify to their deriva- 
 tion from the types in use at earlier periods. The bird 
 frequently figures in the works of the best period. Its chief 
 characteristics are a long beak curved at the end, a well 
 developed wing, which, like part of the body, is covered 
 with various kinds of feather pattern, and a remarkably 
 well drawn leg. It is seen in profile, as are the animal 
 motives with very few exceptions. 
 
 Other animal forms than those now described are of 
 rare or exceptional occurrence. Such is the case with the 
 fish and the serpent, both of which may be seen among 
 the curiosities of the Book of Kells. Here they are chiefly 
 used as ornamental finials; the fish also doing duty for the 
 sign of abbreviation in, for example, the monogrammatic 
 contraction IHS. Occasionally we find, as in the Books 
 of Kells and Armagh i , a letter partly formed of the figure 
 of a fish, according to a fashion well-known in Merovingian 
 and Lombardic manuscripts. In some cases the human 
 
 1 MS. A. i. 6., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 2 Cotton. MS. Nero D. 4., Brit. Mus. 
 
 3 MS. E. 4. 2., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 1 MS. (no press-mark) Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 20 
 
figure was made use of for decorative purposes. Thus a 
 o human head may be seen attached to the end of a letter 
 d] or a border; or a group of dreadfully contorted bodies 
 H made to fill in a small panel or a circular com- 
 partment. 
 
 otives derived from other departments of nature, 
 such as leaves, flowers, and fruit of plants , 
 
 4 never played any great part in Celtic orna- 
 p ;;i , ment. So far as evidence at present goes, they 
 . pN may be said to have been utterly ignored, if 
 not quite unknown, for a length of time. There 
 are manuscripts, among those most lavishly de- 
 ck corated, in which it would be impossible to 
 detect, even by the most careful examination, 
 the slightest shade of a floral or foliageous design. There 
 is nothing of the kind in the Book of Durrow 1 ,- nor in 
 the Book of Dimma ' 2 3 - nor in the Gospels of Mac Daman "; 
 and in the most beautiful and perfect specimen of Hibernian 
 art as cultivated outside of its native isle, the Gospels of 
 Lindisfarne, the plant ornament is likewise conspicuous 
 by its absence. Nor does it seem, when once introduced, 
 ever to have become very fashionable. Together with some 
 other devices obviously due to an influx of foreign ideas 
 it appears in the Book of Kells , engrafted, with as good 
 grace as possible, on the national stock of ornament. After 
 this epoch, in spite of its growth in the most brilliant 
 work of Irish caligraphy and book-illumination, it will 
 never well prosper. Occasionally we meet with a small 
 panel filled in with what seems to be intended for a scroll 
 of foliage; but, as a rule, the leaf design only survives in 
 the very subordinate position of an appendix or termina- 
 tion ornament, where, moreover, under a not very careful 
 treatment it loses its character, and dwindles into a semi- 
 geometrical scheme, the true origin of which requires some 
 thought and comparison to be detected. 
 
 1 MS. A. 4. Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 2 MS. A. 4. 24., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 3 MSS. collect., Archiepiscopal Library, Lambeth. 
 
In the Book of Kells there are several varieties, the 
 most typical being that of a scroll which branches out at 
 various points, with a trefoil or a palmetto-shaped leaf of 
 four or five leaflets terminating each of the branches. In 
 the most elaborate scheme two scrolls of this description 
 will be seen to proceed from a vase, and extend each on 
 its side, with leaves and tendrils carefully intertwined so 
 as to cover the space with a symmetrical pattern. Or, 
 in a somewhat plainer shape it appears as a single un- 
 dulating stem with scrolls in the hollows alternately on the 
 right and left. The phyllomorphic element recurs in com- 
 binations with zoomorphic details. Thus a scroll proceeding 
 from between the open jaws of a nondescript beast’s head, 
 and a trefoil-shaped leaf attached to the other end of the 
 creature are common devices. In addition to these there 
 are scrolls of foliage with complete animal forms of the 
 types described introduced amongst the branches. A floral 
 or foliated scheme, drawn in outline, frequently figures as 
 a sort of flourish appended to smaller initials or even plain 
 letters in the text; and similar free-hand sketches recur 
 among the bewildering variety of ornamental designs at 
 the beginning or the end of the ordinary line or in the 
 vacant space left between two sentences. The method of 
 working the tail or the tongue of a nondescript into the 
 shape of foliage was obviously deemed a great invention. 
 This is the principal position in which the phyllomorphic 
 element survives in works of later times. We rarely meet 
 with a scroll extending over a panel, as in the Book of 
 Kells,- but the leaf appendix of the animal body is of so 
 frequent occurrence that it may be regarded as one of the 
 leading characteristics of the designs of the decadent age. 
 Most of the forms of leaf in this position are traceable to 
 those shown in the Book of Kells, the trefoil and quatre- 
 foil, as well as the lanceolate and heart-shaped types. An 
 innovation appears with the introduction of the leaf with 
 the tricuspid profile, a type characteristic of Carlovingian 
 art and afterwards a stock design in almost every dialect 
 of Romanesque ornament. Only we should not expect 
 22 
 
to find anything like a fair copy of the original. The con- 
 ventionalising principle asserts itself here as elsewhere, 
 regulating the outline. The gracefully curved leaf becomes 
 a stiff and formal affair with a contour drawn on the spiral 
 idea. Near the point where the curved boundaries of the 
 longest leaflet meet, we often observe a little oval figure 
 laid across the leaflet. In its present position it appears 
 quite enigmatic and out of place. What does it mean? 
 And where did it come from? The little figure points back 
 to our starting point, the pre-Christian art of Ireland. It is 
 a hall-mark connecting some of the latest and most debased 
 types of Hibernian ornament as exhibited in the illuminated 
 manuscripts with the ancient native art of the Isle, by 
 testifying to the influence of the spiral principle in mould- 
 ing and regulating Celtic design down to the very end of 
 its national existence. 
 
 iASTLY, we come to the subject of figures and 
 scenes intended to serve as illustrations for the 
 sacred books. As such they do not lack interest 
 although they are of less value from the point 
 of view of art. For it should be stated at the 
 outset that, whatever were the attainments of 
 the Celtic school of miniature-painters, they 
 were assuredly no masters in the art of figure- 
 drawing. It may be that this very imperfect style of 
 draughtsmanship, which appears to modern onlookers 
 so ridiculously childish and grotesque, was viewed by its 
 contemporaries with a very different eye from that with 
 which a modern critic views the same thing. It may be 
 that the absurdities in form and colour, which make the 
 figures of the Saviour and his Apostles appear to us like 
 so many rudely expressed travesties, were veiled by a senti- 
 ment similar to that which makes the pious Catholic of 
 our days kneel down to the image of the Crucified, quite 
 unheeding whether it be the beautifully-finished work of 
 a world-known artist or the badly carved and badly painted 
 puppet from the workshop of some rustic Herrgott-Schnitzer „■ 
 it may be that the devotional fervour with which everything 
 
 CjK> 
 
connected with religion was approached by the faithful of 
 the day cast around the illustrative efforts of the school 
 a halo of sanctitude which made their absurdities disappear 
 to a sympathising and uncritical onlooker. But still it may 
 be asked with reference to those who executed the work: 
 How was it possible to combine with the consummate 
 skill displayed in the elaboration of the purely ornamental 
 such an utter inability in figure-drawing as that revealed 
 in the monstrous productions of the Celtic school of minia- 
 ture-painting? 
 
 The same conventionalising tendencies as were shown 
 in the treatment of the pure ornament reappear in the 
 drawing and colouring of the human figure. Of actual 
 observation and imitation of nature there is very little, in- 
 deed. In moulding the type of the head the ever-present 
 spiral was resorted to as a capital means of putting the 
 face into the requisite shape, by regulating the trouble- 
 some curves of the nose, the mouth, and the ears. This 
 undoubtedly added to the regularity of the type, but un- 
 fortunately not to its beauty. Any attempt at real model- 
 ling is scarcely visible, unless it be that the fine lines which 
 are sometimes seen to accompany the sharp, well-marked 
 outline might mean an attempt at shading. In a type of 
 face the linear beauty of which is expressed by the spiral 
 it will not surprise one to find paint, for example, of green 
 or violet applied to heighten the general effect. Regarding 
 the body supposed to belong to this extraordinary head 
 we do not see much of it, as it is usually hidden by a 
 long robe or drapery, ornamented in various ways. Occa- 
 sionally the whole thing is treated much in the same 
 manner as the compartment of an initial, and filled in with 
 spirals, fret work, or interlacings. Or, this more elaborate 
 ornament is confined to smaller sections only or entirely 
 displaced by some plainer pattern, the mass of the drapery 
 being worked, for example, with a diapered design of lines 
 and dots, while, at the same time, its folds are made visible. 
 This is effected, not by shading, but by streaks of paint 
 of a different colour from that in which the mass of the 
 
 2 4 
 
III. GOSPELS OF LINDISFARNE 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 S 
 
 vi;k 
 
 

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 f 1 iHs/cpS • CO oxh eu s h om o 
 
 {.;• 
 
 
 fuapro euoortctTi 
 ^yueiottct ma\h ^ ! .vl 
 
 
 
 
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drapery is painted. The intensely decorative treatment 
 shown in the surface enrichments, in the spiral details, 
 and the impossible colours of the human figure, also charac- 
 terises the representations of animal forms. Here it is, if 
 possible, even more conspicuous. The spiral recurs in the 
 ears, jaws, and junctions of the limbs with the body. The 
 whole space of the body is frequently covered with an 
 intricate pattern of some of the ordinary types, and the 
 colours are distributed without the slightest regard to na- 
 ture. An example illustrative of the method of procedure 
 deserves to be recorded. It is taken from a copy of the 
 Gospels dating from the twelfth century and now pre- 
 served among the Harleian manuscripts in the British 
 Museum . 1 The figure in question represents the lion of 
 St. Mark. The head is of the conventional type, and the 
 tail foliated. The colours employed are red, white, green, 
 and yellow, the former two being used for the head, 
 while half of the body is painted green, and the other 
 half yellow. 
 
 From what has been said about the peculiarities of 
 the Celtic miniatures it will be inferred that they are no 
 masterpieces in way of illustration. And yet they are 
 not so utterly destitute of all artistic merit as some people 
 think. When carefully executed, as in the books of the 
 best period, they often combine very well with the purely 
 ornamental work of the broad surrounding borders, to 
 heighten the decorative effect of the page. And there are 
 miniature pages, as, for example, in the Book of Kells 2 , 
 where the odd formulae in which the figures appear are 
 in such a singular harmony with the innermost character 
 of the ornament, and the two elements, miniature and 
 ornament, so admirably united into a consistent whole of 
 most original aspect that we are well justified in speaking 
 of a style, with reference to similar productions. 
 
 1 Hiirl. MS. 1802, Brit. Mus. 
 
 2 MS. A. 1 . 6., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 D 
 
 25 
 
n 
 
 refixed to each of the Gospels in the Celtic £VHI 
 V illuminated copies of the Sacred Word is, as 
 i a ru j e ^ a re p resen tation of the Evangelist, 
 i J/ This picture occupies a separate page, and 
 is enclosed within a magnificent border. Oc- 
 / casionally it is accompanied by another miniature 
 page, which bears the figure of his symbol. Or 
 the Evangelist and his symbol will be seen in- 
 ' y serted in the same page; and in books of later 
 times and inferior workmanship a simple outline 
 drawing of the emblem would be deemed sufficient 
 illustration. Other subjects are of less frequency. In the 
 Book of Kells there are pictures suggested by Scripture his- 
 tory, representing the Virgin and Child, Christ on the pin- 
 nacle of the temple, and Christ seized by the Jews. And in 
 other instances we meet with a painting of the Crucifixion 
 or of Christ in Glory. In the Celtic illuminated Psalters, 
 which seem, so far as decoration is concerned, to have 
 been less generously treated than the Gospel-books, we 
 also find some miniatures. David playing on the harp, 
 
 David and Goliath, and David rending the jaws of the 
 lion, are the chief subjects represented in the small pain- 
 tings that occur at the head of each of the three traditional 
 sections of Psalms. According to a fashion which seems 
 to be of high antiquity, and which, in the later Middle 
 Ages, led to the method of introducing among the minia- 
 tures of the Psalter a whole series of paintings illustrative 
 of the Life of Christ, some additional illustration referring 
 to the New Testament history would be inserted, the most 
 common being that of the Crucifixion. 
 
 It might be supposed that a school characterised by 
 the intense Celticism of these and similar productions owed 
 little or nothing to the art of miniature painting as cul- 
 tivated outside of the Celtic area. Yet this is not the case. 
 
 In spite of a curiously unique style and feeling in design, 
 the decorative paintings with scriptural subjects which oc- 
 cur in the Celtic Psalters and Gospel-books are not to be 
 regarded as original inventions, but merely as copies which 
 26 
 
are ultimately traceable to non-Celtic models. If we com- 
 pare, for example, the representations of the Evangelists 
 in the Celtic Gospels with those found in Byzantine or 
 Italo-Byzantine illuminated manuscripts of contemporary or 
 still remoter date, we find a remarkable correspondence in 
 invention combined with striking contrasts in execution. 
 On the one side we have a work which, though be- 
 longing to a debased period, still bears the impress of 
 classical art; perfectly intelligible as to its meaning; show- 
 ing some observation of nature, and treated with as much 
 grace and freedom as might be expected from a style of 
 art languishing under the mosaic regime. The Evangelist 
 appears as a man of advanced age. His head, of a care- 
 worn but noble type, is surrounded by a golden nimbus, 
 and his body draped in an ecclesiastical robe. He is usu- 
 ally represented seated, writing his Gospel; a desk of a 
 peculiar type, with writing-utensils, is placed at his side, 
 while a drapery and architectural work serve to indicate 
 the nature of the locality. The whole is laid on a golden 
 ground and framed either by a round arch supported by 
 columns or by a highly-ornamental border. Of the four 
 pictures that of St. John is occasionally seen to differ 
 more markedly from the others, inasmuch as it represents 
 a young man seated in a desolate place, writing, while an 
 aged man is seen at his side, lost in contemplation of the 
 celestial secrets which are revealed to him by the * Dextera 
 Dei*. This is the work of the Byzantine artist. And now 
 turning to the other side, we meet with a fanciful device, 
 which from a comparison with its semi-classical pendant 
 only looks more barbarous than ever, full of defects in 
 design and utterly absurd in colouring, testifying to an ab- 
 solute incapacity of rendering natural forms naturally. And 
 yet, on a closer inspection, this work will be seen to have 
 so much in common with the other one: in the motive 
 selected, in the pose of the figure, in the shape and ar- 
 rangement of the drapery, and even in the details of ac- 
 cessories, such as seat, cushion, draped background, etc., 
 that we can scarcely entertain any doubt that they are 
 
 2 7 
 
actually related as model and copy. How this was brought 
 about has yet to be shown. In dealing with a dim and 
 distant period of the Middle Ages, we realise the difficulty 
 of tracing, with anything approaching to accuracy, the 
 historical lines of intercourse between nations and peoples; 
 the more so, when we bear in mind that an ample por- 
 tion of the written records of the day are of the legendary 
 mould, and, accordingly, should be employed with great 
 reserve. In a following article, in which the broader 
 question of the origination of Celtic design in general has 
 to be treated, it is proposed to pursue further our 
 research on the descent of the Celtic miniatures, 
 by adding to the internal evidence such informa- 
 tion as can be gathered from authenticated history. 
 efore entering on a discussion of the effect and §1X 
 value of the peculiar style of art exhibited in 
 the illuminated manuscripts of the Celtic school, 
 it was necessary first to pass over the whole 
 field and try to get a general outlook, by analys- 
 ing the whole complex growth of Celtic orna- 
 ment and classifying its different elements. This 
 done, we are in a position more keenly to discern 
 the characteristics of the separate groups and also to 
 grasp better the effect of the ensemble. And we are bound 
 to say, the peculiar beauty of this style of ornament 
 chiefly depends on the ensemble. Although showing a 
 variety of forms, which testify to the admirable capacity 
 of the designer both in invention and execution, yet the 
 separate element of decoration gains its real significance, 
 only when grouped together with other motives in a com- 
 posite scheme. The Celtic illuminator was well aware of 
 that, and, accordingly, tried to the best of his powers to 
 combine his patterns so as to produce a rich and pleasing 
 effect. And it must be admitted that his faculty of artistic 
 composition was assuredly not inferior either to his fer- 
 tility of invention or to his executive skill. 
 
 His method was to divide the surface to be decorated, 
 whether it was the whole space of a page, or the long, 
 
 28 
 
narrow band of a border, or the irregularly shaped body 
 of an initial, into a series of sections and afterwards to 
 fill in each of these with a pattern of its own. The shape 
 of the divisions, separated from each other by means of 
 marginal lines, was partly ruled by the outline of the 
 space to be divided. Thus, while the all-round border and 
 the full-page decoration, delineated on a strictly rectangular 
 plan, usually present a series of panels of square, oblong, 
 or otherwise rectangular shape, compartments bounded by 
 curved lines, alternating with rectilinear panels, were 
 dictated by the outline of the large irregular initial or of 
 the partial border. The manner in which the pattern is 
 selected and adjusted to suit the shape of the panel or 
 compartment reveals a considerable amount of skill and 
 taste. Spirals were chiefly used to fill in the irregular 
 sections of the body of the letter and its curvilinear en- 
 closed spaces, where, owing to a certain freedom in fixing 
 the centres and making volutes of varying size, they were 
 easily adapted and in keeping with the flowing outline of 
 the margin. Interlacements were less easily adapted, but 
 could be made to suit an irregular space, for instance, by 
 forming a chain of knots of varying size and intricacy; 
 whereas fret patterns were even more rarely used outside 
 of the square or oblong panels, for which they were natu- 
 rally suited. Thus the disposal of the various designs was 
 ruled by taste, and actually effected what it aimed at, viz., 
 the combination of contrasting elements in a graceful 
 scheme. In pages where the ornament groups round a 
 well-defined centre there is a tendency towards symmetrical 
 arrangement. This is shown, for example, in miniature- 
 pages that have a broad ornamental border run right round 
 the picture of the Evangelist or that of his symbol. But 
 the most beautiful example of symmetrical composition, 
 uniting a pleasing variety of details with solid structure, 
 is supplied by the page, entirely overgrown with orna- 
 ment supported by a cruciform design, which is generally 
 seen to precede the initial page. 
 
 In a Gospel-book of the richest type we have no 
 
 29 
 
fewer than four highly-decorative pages placed at the com- 
 mencement of each Gospel. First, there is a page con- 
 taining the picture of the Evangelist, enclosed within an 
 elaborate border; next, there is one containing his symbol, 
 also with border work; then, there is a full ornamental 
 page with the cruciform design to which we have just 
 referred; and, lastly, we have the initial page, in which 
 the first words of the Gospel are painted or written in 
 characters of more or less decorative aspect. First among 
 these in size and splendour is the initial, often extending 
 to the full height of the page. Occasionally an all-round 
 border, similar to those of the preceding leaves, may be 
 seen also in this page. But often the ornamented body 
 of the initial was deemed sufficient decoration for the one 
 half of the page, and a particular border only designed 
 for the other half so as to meet the extremities of the 
 initial and supplement it with corner-pieces in the vacancies. 
 In the space left between border and initial there are rows 
 of letters which gradually decrease in height and decora- 
 tion until they pass into ordinary characters. In addition 
 to these there are one or two other pages which received 
 special attention, the principal being that — in the Gospel 
 of St. Matthew — in which the verse: »XPI autem generatio 
 sic erat», offered its monogrammatic contraction of the 
 name of Christ to decorative treatment. The page is ar- 
 ranged much in the same manner as the ordinary initial 
 page. The monogram is drawn in letters of bold, magnifi- 
 cent outline, and brilliantly ornamented. There is a beauti- 
 ful instance in the Book of Kells , presumably surpassing, 
 as a piece of decoration, anything to be met with in any 
 other written book. It is a page to discourage even the 
 most accomplished and most enthusiastic of modern draughts- 
 men. In nine cases out of ten he will break down before 
 his work is half finished; or, if he should really succeed 
 in completing it, he will have to expend upon it an amount 
 of time and labour out of all proportion to the apparent 
 result of his work. Mr. Digby Wyatt made an attempt, 
 and had to give it up. Professor J. O. Westwood, who 
 3 ° 
 
was a great admirer of Irish art and at the same time a 
 skilled draughtsman, went to work with no better result. 
 And he was assuredly not one to be discouraged by diffi- 
 culties arising from variety of colours and intricacy of 
 design. No one who has had an opportunity of examining 
 the leaves of the big volume containing the Professor’s 
 original tracings and now deposited in the Ashmolean 
 Museum at Oxford, can have failed to be struck by the 
 minute accuracy of his delineations and the immense pains 
 taken in rendering even the most complicated passages of 
 Celtic ornament. And yet the copying of the monogram 
 page of the Book of Kells was, if not beyond his powers, 
 at least too long and serious an affair to be duly brought 
 to completion. We are indebted to Miss Margaret Stokes, 
 the accomplished writer on Celtic antiquities, for posses- 
 sing, at last, a copy 1 perfectly finished and worthy of an 
 original which the same author, in a brilliant passage re- 
 ferring to its unique variety of design, has signalised as 
 »an epitome of Irish art ». 2 
 
 Before leaving the ornamental compositions in the 
 illuminated copies of the Gospels, we must not omit men- 
 tion of the frame work enclosing the Eusebian Canons. 
 Occasionally it appears in the traditional form of a series 
 of arches supported by columns and spanned by a superior 
 arch. Or the whole is confined to a border carried all 
 round the page. In both cases the patterns employed are 
 of the ordinary types; and the Celtic fashion of treating 
 any space to be decorated as a flat surface, reappears in 
 the decoration of the columns, with shafts, bases, and 
 capitals enriched on the panel principle. 
 
 Of illuminated Psalters now extant there are none to 
 equal the finest Gospel-books, so far as decoration is 
 concerned. They are smaller in size, less carefully executed, 
 and, in their ornament and character of writing, present 
 
 1 Now deposited in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin; a chromo- 
 lithographic reproduction, which, however, as to softness and harmony of colour 
 leaves much to be desired, may be seen in Vetusta Monumenta, vol. VI, plate I. 
 
 2 Margaret Stokes, Early Christian art in Ireland, London, 1887, p. 13. 
 
features that enable us to assign them, with one or two 
 exceptions, to a period when the art of book-illumination 
 had passed its culminating point. An ornamental 
 initial will be seen at the head of each of the three 
 divisions of Psalms; and a leaf with a picture 
 is occasionally prefixed to each section. 
 olour as a means of heightening decora- 
 tive effect was made a liberal use of in 
 Irish art. At an early period the native 
 of the Isle knew how to relieve the sombre 
 tone of his bronzes by the use of champ- 
 leve enamel. And in the Christian era he 
 possessed a variety of methods of work by 
 which he was able to impart a picturesque 
 appearance even to a material which does 
 not readily admit of much variation in that point. There 
 are still extant, in fairly good preservation and sufficient 
 numbers, specimens of Irish metal work of the Christian 
 centuries, showing how much he revelled in bright and 
 varied colours in that class of work; and how manifold 
 and ingenious were his devices in effecting pleasing con- 
 trasts of colour. One was to combine in the manufacture 
 of the work different metals or alloys. Thus in many cases 
 we find three, four, or even five different metals applied 
 for constructive and decorative purposes, gold and silver 
 being added to bronze and simpler materials. This method, 
 dictated by judicious economy, contributed in no small de- 
 gree to the introduction of a pleasing picturesque variety. 
 Small golden panels ornamented with twisted or granulated 
 rods and minute patterns of most exquisite workmanship 
 were fixed on, for example, to a surface of silver, with 
 a finer effect than could ever be produced by the same 
 kind of work if entirely wrought in gold. Or a plate of 
 metal with a pierced pattern was rivetted on another plate 
 in such a manner that the surface of the latter became 
 partly visible through the openings. Then, there were the 
 various methods of enamelling, of gilding, and bronzing, 
 of inlaying with niello; the settings of coloured glasses, 
 32 
 
IV. GOSPELS OF MAC BURN AN 
 

 ' 
 
 'V v ?^A?AV.'- k 
 
 ■ 
 
 

 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
crystals, and pieces of amber; all tending to enliven and 
 beautify by contrast of colour. 
 
 In this connexion, though only concerned with the 
 Celtic metal work in its polychromatic aspect, we can 
 not refrain from a remark in passing. And that is that 
 the crude notion of the value of an objet d’ art — especial- 
 ly in the case of metal work — as being chiefly dependent 
 on the richness and splendour of the material employed, 
 will never be more readily abandoned than in studying 
 the productions of the Celtic school of metal workers. 
 What lends to their work its value is certainly not the 
 weight of precious metal spent on it, or any matchless 
 brilliancy of the materials used for the settings. Com- 
 pared with an Eastern work, heavy with gold and set with 
 rubies and amethysts, the Celtic work would look very 
 poor, indeed, so far as material is concerned; composed as 
 it is, in its main mass, of some plainer metal, with coloured 
 glasses, pieces of amber, and rock-crystals — rather than 
 rubies and amethysts. And yet, from the point of view 
 of art, how immensely superior is a work in which, like 
 the Celtic specimen, a poorer stuff is ennobled by ju- 
 dicious arrangement in structure and refinement of taste 
 in decoration to that which chiefly owes its significance to 
 the costliness of the material, as do so many gorgeous 
 products of Oriental art. 
 
 Mr. Henry O'Neill, in his work on the high crosses 
 of Ireland, has expressed an opinion that the patterns cut 
 in relief on these beautiful specimens of ancient Irish stone 
 sculpture were intended to receive a finishing touch by 
 polychromatic treatment . 1 When we consider what a great 
 part colour plays in Irish ornament, we must admit his 
 assumption to have at least some show of reason; but, 
 on the other hand, as there is no trace of colour left to 
 support his theory, it may be well to leave the question 
 an open one. 
 
 1 Illustrations of the most interesting of the sculptured crosses of Ancient Ire- 
 land; drawn to scale and lithographed by Henry O’Neill; London, 1857; Intro- 
 duction, p. Ill; cfr. The fine arts and civilization of Ancient Ireland, by the same 
 author; London, 1863, p. 72. 
 
 E 
 
 33 
 
In no class of works, however, produced by Celtic 
 artificers has the love of colour found a more perfect and 
 more beautiful expression than in the pages of the illumi- 
 nated manuscripts. It is not easy to decide what is most 
 to be admired in these, the delicate touch and facile dex- 
 terity in designing, or the exquisite colouring. Among the 
 colours applied to the decoration of the finer specimens 
 there are black and white in addition to the whole series 
 of the spectrum, from a fiery red to the deepest ultra- 
 marine and violet. Moreover, there are shades of the 
 same colour differing in tone and depth. More particularly 
 is such the case with the green, the yellow, and the violet, 
 which colours are varied and combined with special grace 
 and treated throughout con amove. A very full set of colours 
 will, not infrequently, be seen exhibited in the same page. 
 Gold is very rare. It occurs in the Gospels of Lindisfarne, 
 where it is used very sparingly for some small circular 
 dots and triangular interstices; but in manuscripts written 
 in the native Isle it is practically unknown. It is doubt- 
 ful whether the Irish illuminators knew the practice of 
 silver and bronze applications. Occasionally a reddish or 
 brownish colour so closely agrees with the tone of the 
 latter material that it might, at first sight, be mistaken for 
 a metal application. 
 
 The general effect produced by an illuminated page 
 is largely dependent on the prevalence of the darker or 
 brighter elements. Thus there is a very marked difference 
 in tone and feeling between, for example, a decorated page 
 in the Gospels of Lindisfarne, with its light, gay colours, 
 and a corresponding page in the Book of Kells, in which 
 the darker and heavier tones are predominant. Hence, a 
 sparkling brightness on the one side; on the other a certain 
 sombre dignity. In examining more closely an illuminated 
 page we notice one point of special significance. And that 
 is the masterly way in which the colours are selected and 
 distributed with a view to make the most of the design, 
 and at the same time combined so as to keep in perfect 
 harmony with each other. Considering the minute and 
 34 
 
delicate nature of the design, one might think, the intro- 
 duction of colour would make the pattern disappear, and 
 the whole result in a confused mass of pigments. But 
 this is far from being the case. On the contrary, the 
 colours are applied in such a way as to make even the 
 most minute pattern come out beautifully clear and di- 
 stinct. One method was to introduce a strong contrast 
 between pattern and background. By a black or dark 
 ground, which is very common, and may be said to be 
 a rule in the best works, a pattern painted in brighter 
 colours, even if it be of minute proportions, will be seen 
 to be raised in a most effective manner. A further means 
 of emphasising the outline of the design was to run a 
 fine edging of a very light tint, usually white or yellow, 
 along the contour; and thus cut it, so to say, out of its 
 ground. This method of edging an outline with a fine 
 band of a strongly contrasting colour is a characteristic 
 feature of Celtic illumination, and, simple though it is, 
 contributes in no small degree to the pleasing distinctness 
 of its details. In being applied to the marginal lines 
 which enclose the separate panel, as well as to the still 
 broader margins of the whole body of an initial or a 
 border, it affects the composition of the whole complex 
 ornament, by rendering the outline of the chief divisions, 
 as well as of the whole mass, strong and clear. Another 
 characteristic may be seen in the row of dots accompa- 
 nying the outline of the initial. Occasionally it extends 
 to embrace whole rows of letters in the same page. In 
 this case the vacant spaces intervening between the letters, 
 and also the enclosed parts of the letters used to be fdled 
 in altogether with rows of dots, more or less regularly 
 disposed; or with the scheme of a fret, interlaced, or zoo- 
 morphic motive, punctured out on the same principle. The 
 dotted lines and patterns are mostly in red. 
 
 Geometrical interlacings were often painted in sections 
 of alternating colours, like chequer work; and the same 
 method is occasionally seen to have been followed also in 
 the case of fret work. But in no group of patterns was 
 
 35 
 
colour applied with a finer effect than in the case of spi- 
 rals. The small sections worked with these designs af- 
 ford, in fact, the most exquisite details of decoration to 
 be met with in Celtic art. A pattern of quadruple spirals 
 designed on the minute scale of Celtic book-decoration is 
 rather a mysterious affair, hardly intelligible as an orna- 
 ment. But thanks to a judicious application of a variety 
 of vivid colours and the unfailing precision with which 
 pattern and background are made to contrast, the orna- 
 ment comes out as distinctly as might be desired. In this 
 way the whole of the space to be illuminated, even in its 
 smallest interstices, is gradually laid with pigments; and 
 an ornamental composition of unrivalled merit, equally 
 finished in design and colouring, is the final result of long 
 painstaking and devoted labours. 
 
 The pigments, carefully prepared according to formulae 
 the secrets of which are unfortunately lost to modern 
 manufacture, still retain, in many cases, a great deal of 
 their original force and lustre. Even in pages so worn 
 and blackened by age and vicissitudes as to be all but 
 illegible, the tints of the colouring can still be made out 
 from patches left. And there are those, unaffected by age 
 and accidents, in which everything, vellum, writing, and 
 colouring, is so beautifully clean and fresh that you might 
 hold it a work of yesterday, were it not for the strange- 
 looking type of letter and the quaint and queer old orna- 
 ment. Such a book is the manuscript known as the 
 Gospels of Lindisfarne or the Book of Durham , which 
 was written twelve centuries ago. There is one other 
 point worthy of notice, before we leave the subject of 
 colour. And that is the very liberal way in which the 
 paint was laid on. There are pages in which the pig- 
 ments are, in fact, so lavishly applied as almost to raise 
 the pattern in relief. The effect produced by such a work, 
 with its lustrous, thickly-laid pigments, occasionally recalls 
 that of a minute Venetian mosaic or some highly-finished 
 enamel work. Some fine examples may be seen in a 
 dainty little copy of the Gospels, now one of the chief 
 
 *6 
 
treasures of the Archiepiscopal library at Lambeth 1 ; and 
 some others of still higher perfection meet us in the pages 
 of the often-mentioned famous production of the School of 
 Lindisfarne 2 . A good photograph will render even the 
 most minute details of the ornament, so far as its linear 
 element goes, with all desirable accuracy; but there is no 
 mechanical process among those hitherto invented that can 
 give an adequate idea of such an illumination in its pic- 
 turesque aspect. A chromo-lithographic reproduction, even 
 if carefully prepared, seldom catches the tone and feeling 
 of the original, or gives us more than an approximate 
 resemblance. This is true more especially with reference 
 to the attempts that have been made to reproduce in print 
 the colours of Celtic illuminations. We have to turn to 
 the manuscript itself if we want to judge fairly of its 
 merits and realise the lustre, softness, and harmony of its 
 ornament. 
 
 //t}eaving now the analytical portion of our subject, § XI 
 
 jW we turn to the question of the chronology and 
 historical progress of the school whose leading 
 characteristics have been specified in the pre- 
 f vious pages. And in so doing it may be well 
 
 to state at the outset that we are not in a 
 VfnVyJp position to show, by means of still extant 
 7 specimens, anything like a gradual and contin- 
 | | ( uous development along the line rising towards the 
 //v’ culminating point. This may be due either to the 
 disappearance of nearly all such works as ought to mark 
 the successive steps along that line; or to the possibility 
 that such a procedure as a gradual elaboration of the 
 patterns never took place in the pages of the illuminated 
 manuscripts. However that may be, it is significant that 
 the earliest extant specimen the date of which can be fixed 
 with some certainty shows the style fully developed, while 
 the very limited number of manuscripts that can, on more 
 or less thrifty grounds, be credited with a still higher 
 
 1 The Gospels of Mac Durnan. 
 
 2 Cotton. MS. Nero D. 4., Brit. Mus. 
 
 37 
 
antiquity are either in such a deplorable state of preserva- 
 tion or so scantily equipped in way of ornament as hardly 
 to allow of any conclusion being drawn, one way or the 
 other, from the nature of their ornamentation. 
 
 In this last-mentioned group we may include two 
 small, time-worn volumes which tradition has associated 
 with the names of the very founders of the Celtic Church, 
 and which, until recently, the savants also were wont to 
 look upon as genuine relics from the earliest days of Irish 
 Christianity. The one is a fragmentary copy of the 
 Gospels, now preserved in the library of the Royal Irish 
 Academy, and generally known as the Domnach Airgid 
 manuscript 1 (see National MSS. Irel. , vol. I, plate i; Trans- 
 actions R. I. A., vol. xxx, parts vn, vm, plate xx). 
 When brought into the collection of the Academy, in 
 A. D. 1847, the fragments were enshrined in a costly spe- 
 cimen of ancient Celtic metal work, which, from an in- 
 scription of the fourteenth century, is seen to have be- 
 longed at that period to the monastery of Clones, 2 and 
 which was subsequently known for a length of time as 
 the Domnach. Hence, the name of its contents. In this 
 shrine some blackened lumps, held to be the remnants of 
 one of the earliest copies of the Sacred Word, remained 
 untouched for nearly half a century. In 1892 an attempt 
 was made to open the fasciculi, consisting of solid masses 
 of torn and wrinkled leaves, partly dissolved, partly glued 
 together through damp; the result of which was that the 
 agglutinated folios were successfully detached, and a con- 
 siderable portion of the text could be deciphered 3 . The 
 separated leaves are now bound up in a volume numbered 
 24. Q. 23., in the library of the Academy, while the 
 beautiful metal casket that once served as their receptacle 
 may be seen in the Academy’s collection of antiquities in 
 the National Museum of Ireland. On a closer inspection 
 of the leaves there will be detected some faint traces, all 
 
 1 MS. 24. Q. 24., Libr. R. I. A., Dublin. 
 
 2 Transactions R. I. A., vol. XVIII, part i, Antiquities, p. ]8. 
 
 3 Op. cit., vol. XXX, parts VII and VIII, p. 308. 
 
 38 
 
but obliterated, yet sufficient to show that the volume was 
 originally enriched both with miniatures and ornamental 
 initials. The strokes that are still traceable at the com- 
 mencement of the Gospels of St. Mark and St. John are 
 the remains of initials extending over a considerable space 
 of the page. The body of the letter is seen to be divided 
 into compartments with some simpler interlaced patterns 
 still visible. Plain spiral coils appear as terminations. The 
 letters seem to have been executed in black ink only, and 
 the workmanship is not of the highest standard. On the 
 leaf prefixed to the Gospel of St. Mark is a figure of the 
 Evangelist, drawn in outline. This is all that remains of 
 decorative work. And yet these mutilated leaves, with 
 their faint, faded tracings and almost obliterated text, would 
 be a record of unique value for the history of Celtic script 
 and book-ornamentation, in case an opinion which was 
 first expressed by Dr Petrie and afterwards adopted by a 
 long succession of writers could be accepted as settling 
 the question of the origination of the manuscript. Dr Petrie 
 assumed 1 that the casket 2 which is now in the possession 
 of the Academy, and in the fourteenth century obviously 
 belonged to the religious house of Clones, was originally 
 intended to receive a book, reasonably that which was 
 found in it. He identified 3 , further, this casket with the 
 Domnach Airgid, or silver Domnach, which, in an ancient 
 Life of St. Patrick, the great founder of the Irish Church 
 is said to have left with his disciple and companion St. 
 Mac Caerthen, when he placed him over the see of Clogher. 
 From this Dr Petrie concluded 4 that the manuscript rem- 
 nants of which were found in the present shrine was 
 originally associated with the silver Domnach said to have 
 been given by the Apostle of Erin to the see of Clogher; 
 and that these remnants may, as a consequence, have 
 claim to the unique distinction of being dated as *temp. 
 
 1 Transactions R. I. A., vol. XVI 1 1 , part 1 . Antiq. pp. 15, 20. 
 
 2 /. e., the oldest part of it. 
 
 3 Op. cit., p. 19. 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 20. 
 
 39 
 
Sci. Patricii » . Against this theory, which was generally 
 accepted for more than half a century, the Rev. Dr J. H. 
 Bernard, after he had bestowed on the shrine, its con- 
 tents, and its history a most careful examination, recently 
 pointed out: — (i) as to the supposed identity of the present 
 shrine with a genuine relic of the days of St. Patrick — 
 that this is, at most, a possibility; (2) that » there is no 
 evidence whatever, either documentary or traditional, to 
 show that the manuscript itself >, even if the shrine had 
 to be dated from that early period, was ever associated 
 with St. Patrick or his gift of the Domnach Airgid to the 
 see of Clogher»; and (3) that the shape of the casket, 
 differing from that typical of the book-shrines in general, 
 suggests the view, supported by tradition, that it was 
 originally intended as a receptacle for relics — - rather than 
 for a book which, when perfect, could not have found 
 room enough within it, as is demonstrable by measure- 
 ments 1 . After the criticism to which the current theory as 
 to the origin of the manuscript has been submitted by the 
 learned Doctor, it would hardly be safe to uphold any 
 longer its superiority in point of age on account of its 
 connexion with the alleged Patrician silver shrine. On 
 the other hand, the difficulty is experienced of pronouncing 
 decisively on the age of the manuscript from the nature 
 of its text and writing. The version of the Gospels, as 
 far as that can be made out, is, like the text we usually 
 meet with in the copies of the Holy Writ made by Irish 
 scribes, traceable to the Vulgate, but with occasional read- 
 ings from pre-Hieronymian versions 2 . The writing, in a 
 regularly shaped semi-uncial of a distinctively Celtic type, 
 does not afford any criteria by which we are enabled to 
 assign the manuscript with confidence to any particular 
 period previous to circa A. D. 800, for the simple reason 
 that there does not exist sufficient material in general for 
 the establishment of canons of criticism regarding the 
 evolution of Irish script before that date. Until we possess 
 
 1 Transactions R. I. A., vol. XXX, parts VII and VIII, pp. 305, 306. 
 
 ~ Op. cit., p. 310. 
 
 40 
 
V. GOSPELS OF MAC D URN AN 
 

 

 tint 
 
 iiltfW mftim 
 
 ^i.mi .jtn 
 
 iu»wi Jm 1 wvij- yx:r&yjvizvf- 
 
 j7 Juttm* kiimjffmmi 
 v’Jc 
 
 Bp ^ N /|> Ol-’mim v\-'£^lifb.t'.\.lA-rfi oy 
 f wi pt minimi 
 
 inUnJU 
 
 JL iit^|4,iitriHifc^^tijpir«ippvxitcrvpA' 
 ^-(rur / K'’1iatitii|* a -piny ply^mrUl 
 
 fl lumboyJiuy 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
a greater number of dated examples from the earlier 
 centuries, it would be an idle task to try to determine 
 the precise age of a manuscript, only on the evidence of 
 its palaeographic peculiarities. As to the specimen, then, 
 which lies before us, when judging its age from the 
 character of its writing, we are, in fact, entitled to say 
 no more than that such work might have been done in 
 the sixth century, with nearly the same probability as in 
 the eighth. 
 
 f or can the age be determined with assurance § XII 
 in the case of the other example to which 
 we alluded above. Like that just described, 
 this has also been credited with a high anti- 
 quity, and come down to our time connected 
 L with a fine metal casket; but, fortunately, in 
 a far better state of preservation than the 
 Domnach Airgid manuscript. It is a fragmen- 
 tary copy of the Psalter, now deposited, together with 
 its »cumdach» in which it is still enclosed, in the 
 library of the Royal Irish Academy, and known since a 
 remote period by the Irish name of Cathach , »praeliator» l 
 (see National MSS. Irel., vol. i, plates ill, iv). The 
 volume exhibits a series of ornamental capitals, drawn 
 in a black or brownish ink, with the interior spaces 
 partly laid with patches of red, and the outline emphasised 
 with red dotting. The body of the letter terminates in 
 plain spiral coils; in a single case the termination has 
 taken the shape of a beast’s head. Crosses of a type si- 
 milar to that which occurs incised on the oldest Irish 
 stone monuments of the Christian period, are seen inserted 
 in, or appended to, the letter. Of interlaced, fret, or 
 foliageous work there is no trace. As to the origin of 
 the manuscript there is a current tradition assigning it to 
 the time of St. Columba. In an ancient legend, quoted 
 in a Life of this Saint, we are told of a certain Psalter 
 the copying of which led to a fatal dispute, and, if the 
 
 1 Vita Sancti Columba: auctore Adamnano monasterii Hiensis abbate; ed. 
 
 William Reeves, Dublinii, MDCCCLVII; printed for the Bannatyne Club; p. 519. 
 
 F 4 1 
 
tale is true, was one of the causes which induced the 
 Saint to abandon his native isle and set out on his mission 
 to Western Scotland 1 . The present volume, for many 
 generations preserved in the custody of the family of the 
 O’Donnels, and revered as an emblem of victory, when 
 borne round their warriors before battle 2 , is held to be 
 identic with that recorded as the fatal » battle-brand » and 
 ultimate cause of the pilgrimage of their illustrious clans- 
 man, in a long bygone age. 
 
 If statements made by mediaeval biographers when 
 referring to the condition of the early Celtic Church could 
 be accepted as historical, there would be no lack of evi- 
 dence to show that books were written by Celtic scribes 
 very soon after the introduction and general spread of 
 Christianity in Ireland. A copy of the Sacred Word was 
 obviously the most valuable gift, a founder of the Church 
 could bequeath to a beloved disciple or leave behind him 
 at the foundation of a new religious establishment; and 
 it is recorded of the very first of the fathers and founders 
 of the Celtic Church, St. Patrick, that he used to leave 
 » books of the Law and books of the Gospel in new places* 3 . 
 The biographers of the celebrated Saint of Iona, with 
 whom we are at present concerned, have not failed to 
 remember his labours as a scribe. We often see him sit- 
 ting in his lowly hut in the solitary islet off the coast of 
 Scotland — the *Holy Island* of the Northern Sagas — 
 
 vfluctivago suspensa salo cog- 
 nominis Eo» 4 , 
 
 writing the »word of wisdom*: a Gospel-book, or a 
 Psalter, or a Book of Hymns, or some other work to 
 be used in the religious services, in the glory of God, 
 
 1 Op. cit., p. 247 setjtj. 
 
 - Op. cit., p. 250. 
 
 3 iPortauit Patricius per Sininn secum L. clocos, L. patinos, L. calices, 
 altaria, libros legis, aeuanguelii libros, et reliquit eos in locis nouis», Book of 
 Armagh; see The Tripartite Life of Patrick, with other documents relating to that 
 Saint; edited etc. by Whitley Stokes, D. C. L., LL. D., London, 1887, part II, 
 p. 300; in Rcr. Brit. m. a. script. 
 
 ' Vita St. Blaithmaic martyris. 
 
 42 
 
for the instruction and eternal welfare of the brethren 1 . 
 There are also those among his monks who are trained 
 in the art of writing; and they assist each other in looking 
 over and correcting what has been written 2 . On the last 
 day of his life we still find him busy with his writing. 
 After he had climbed the hill that overlooked his monastery 
 in order to bid a final farewell and give his last blessing 
 to the islet he loved so well, he returned to his hut, and 
 sat down once more to his accustomed work, while abiding 
 the arrival of death 3 * . » Nullum etiam iinius horce inter- 
 vallum transire poterat, quo non aut orationi aut lectioni, 
 vel scriptioni, vel etiam alicui operationi incumber et. » 4 In 
 these words Adamnan summarises the restless energy and 
 multifarious accomplishments of his great predecessor; 
 while the author of an ancient Irish Life of St. Columba 
 also refers to his diligence as a scribe, in quoting from 
 a versified account of his various works the following 
 quatrain : 
 
 » Three hundred he measured, without fault, 
 of churches fair, ’tis true; 
 and three hundred splendid, lasting books, 
 noble-bright he wrote . » 5 
 
 It would seem, then, that there is no lack of testi- 
 mony as to the existence of books written by native 
 scribes in the very earliest centuries of the Celtic Church. 
 But when we go on to ask how far these and similar 
 statements can be trusted, it must be admitted that we 
 are well justified in not too readily accepting them as 
 authenticated history. The general character of works like 
 those composed by Adamnan, Ailred, or Jocelin, is some- 
 what different from that of a historical tract, in a modern 
 
 1 Life of Saint Columba, founder of Hy; written by Adamnan; edited by 
 William Reeves, Edinburgh, 1874 (in >the Historians of Scotland*, vol. VI); Lib. 
 II, c. VIII; Lib. Ill, c. XVI, c. XXIV; cfr. Old Irish 'Life of St. Columba; printed 
 as an appendix in Skene, Celtic Scotland, Edinb., 1876 — 80; vol. II, p. 488. 
 
 * Op. cit., Lib. I, c. XVII. 
 
 3 Op. cit., Lib. Ill, c. XXIV. 
 
 3 Op. cit., Secunda Praefatio. 
 
 * Old Irish Life of St. Columba, p. 487. 
 
 43 
 
sense; so much so, indeed, as to make biographical criti- 
 cism well-nigh impossible. Most of what they tell us about 
 the saint selected is such as only the imaginative power 
 and pious credulity of the mediaeval mind could ever have 
 properly digested; and when, in the long succession of 
 miracles, prophecies, and apparitions from on high, there 
 happen to be inserted things that look like bare facts, 
 which are by no means impossible, and which we could 
 feel inclined to believe in, the difficulty will be experienced 
 of deciding how far such passages, referring to habits and 
 customs of a bygone age, were suggested by the mode 
 of life of the time of the biographer — rather than of 
 that of the saint whose life he professes to depict. It is 
 true, the biographer will, not infrequently, assert that he 
 has been gathering from earlier works as to facts; oc- 
 casionally with the addition that his own work was under- 
 taken with a view, not to add to the biographic material, 
 but simply to put it into a literary shape suiting the taste 
 of the day; or, as Jocelin puts it: »in order to season 
 what had been composed in a barbarous way with Roman 
 salt*. »Quo circa sedit animo ex utroque libello mater iam 
 collectam redintegrando scarcire ,• et juxta modulum meum , 
 et proeceptum vestrum, barbarice exarata Romano sale con- 
 dire. » 1 But from whatever sources he gathered his material, 
 and whatever was the purpose for which his own work 
 was composed, that work, as a whole, is found to be so 
 hopelessly destitute of any attempt at critical treatment of 
 its sources as hardly to admit of any conclusion being 
 drawn with confidence even from its plainest and by no 
 means unreasonable statements. For an answer to the 
 question of how far the practice of writing and ornament- 
 ing religious service books was cultivated in the earlier 
 centuries, we must turn, in the first place, to the manu- 
 scripts themselves and see what can be made out from 
 their own pages. 
 
 1 Vita Kentegerni, auctore Jocelino monacho Furnesensi, Prologus, (in the 
 Historians of Scotland , vol. V). 
 
 44 
 
ESIDE the ancient Psalter in the library of the 
 Royal Irish Academy there is another volume 
 of far greater significance which has also been 
 ascribed to the Saint of Iona. It is a copy of 
 the Gospels, preserved in the library of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, and known as the Book of 
 Durrow 1 (see National MSS. Irel., vol. i, plates 
 v, vi ; and Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments, 
 plates iv— vn). The text of the Four Gospels, mainly in 
 accordance with the version of St. Jerome 2 3 , is preceded by 
 the Epistle to Damasus, Eusebian Canons, and Prefaces. 
 The volume formerly belonged to the monastery of Durrow, 
 founded by St. Columba between A. D. 553 and 563 s , 
 and recorded as his chief institution in Ireland 4 . Unlike 
 the specimens we have just been considering, in which 
 no trace of a signature or entry has been left to tell us 
 the name of the scribe, or give any clue as to the period 
 and place of origin of the manuscript, the present book 
 still retains a colophon in the hand of the original scribe, 
 who, on completing a section of his work, has written 
 down in a vacant space a humble request that whosoever 
 shall take the book into his hands may remember its 
 scribe in his prayers. The note occurs on fol. 12 verso 
 (in the present binding), and runs as follows: 
 
 SX 111 
 
 n Rogo beatitudinem 
 tuam see praesbitere 
 Patrici at quicumque 
 hunc libellu in manu te 
 nuerit meminerit colum 
 bae scriptoris qui hoc scripsi 
 [■ — ] 5 et euangelium per xu. 
 dierum spatium gtia dni nrt. 
 
 1 MS. A. 4. Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 2 Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 41. 
 
 3 Vita Sancti Columba, Bannatyne ed., p. 23. 
 
 1 Cfr. Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Lib. Ill, c. IV. 
 
 1 In line 7 there is a fold or crease in the parchment, which makes some 
 strokes before et difficult to make out with certainty. 
 
 45 
 
It seems to have been partly erased and re-written in 
 later years. A little lower in the same page is written 
 in another hand: 
 
 Ora pro me f rater mi 
 dns tecum sit. 
 
 Tradition has not failed to identify the writer of the 
 manuscript with his famous namesake, the Scotic Saint 1 ; 
 and, again, a silver shrine has been introduced to testify 
 to the alleged antiquity. The shrine in which the book 
 is said to have been once enclosed is now lost; but a 
 record of an inscription telling us the name of its maker 
 is entered on a fly-leaf of our manuscript. And this in- 
 scription, written in Irish, refers to the Saint of Iona in 
 the following way: 
 
 4 - Oroit acus bendacht cho- 
 luimb chille do fland macc 
 mailsechnaill do righ 
 erenri las andernad 
 a cumdach so. 2 
 
 Accordingly annalists and authors of later periods mention 
 the manuscript as a book of Colum Cille; and in our 
 own century such an authority as Dr Reeves, the ac- 
 complished editor of the Life of St. Columba, seems in- 
 clined to assign it to the Columban age 3 ; and Dr Joseph 
 Anderson, in his masterly series of lectures on Scottish 
 antiquities, says, with reference to the manuscript in 
 question, that »we cannot lightly reject its claims to be 
 considered an actual relic of the great founder of the 
 Church in Scotland. » 4 
 
 At the time when this manuscript was produced Celtic 
 illumination had reached, if not its highest standard of 
 
 1 Vita Saudi Columba, Bannatyne ed., p. 527. 
 
 2 Oratio et benedictio S. Columbic cille sit Flannio filio Malachite regi Hi- 
 bernia qui hanc struduram fieri fecit.* Op. cit., p. 327. 
 
 3 Op. cit., p. 276. 
 
 ‘ Scotland in Early Christian times; the Rhind lectures in Archaeology — 
 1879; Edinb., 1881, vol. \, p. 147. 
 
 46 
 
excellence, at least a point not far from it. Most of its 
 designs appear in these pages fully developed and combined 
 in composite schemes of a most pronounced Celtic charac- 
 ter. Geometrical interlacings, fret patterns, and spirals, 
 are shown in a variety of forms. The zoomorphic ele- 
 ment figures in interlacements composed of nondescripts 
 of a peculiar type; whereas there is no trace to be dis- 
 covered of any floral or foliageous design, either within 
 the frame of the panel or as terminations of borders and 
 initials. The typical termination is the spiral. The leading 
 colours are red, green, and yellow, with black used for 
 the backgrounds, selected and distributed with a view to 
 produce strong contrasts. The general execution is good, 
 although not reaching, either with regard to minute and 
 delicate drawing or refined colouring, the degree of per- 
 fection shown in the decoration of works that will soon 
 engage our attention. The Canons are enclosed within 
 all-round borders. Each of the Gospels commences with 
 an elaborate initial, followed by rows of letters of gradual- 
 ly decreasing dimensions, laid on red-dotted bands; and 
 prefixed to each of the initial pages were originally two 
 full-page decorations, the one containing the symbol of 
 the Evangelist, within border work, the other a large, 
 richly-worked panel; and, in addition to these, full-page 
 decorations of a like nature are seen at the commence- 
 ment of the volume. 
 
 Laying aside now the little collection of decorated 
 manuscripts which are ascribed, with some show of reason, 
 to the pre-Augustinian period of the Church in Britain, 
 we proceed to examine the works of the Celtic school of 
 illumination subsequent to circa A. D. 600, or the date 
 when the barrier which had previously kept the Christian 
 community in Ireland in almost complete isolation began 
 to be removed by the conversion of the Saxons and the 
 emigrations of the Irish missionaries. Though there may 
 be, perhaps, a work or two still preserved of those pro- 
 duced in the course of the first century of this period, 
 we do not find any valuable material for determining the 
 
 47 
 
growth and chronology of Celtic ornament, until we reach 
 the end of the century. But at that time — some hundred 
 years after the landing of St. Augustine in the Isle of Thanet, 
 
 , ~ and the first contact between the Celtic and Roman 
 Churches — we meet with a work which, although 
 ' Cf not executed in Ireland, not even by an Irish artist, 
 may, nevertheless, be regarded as a document of 
 unique value for the history of Celtic art. 
 t. Cuthberts Gospels, also known as the § XIV 
 \ Book of Durham, and in the previous pages 
 frequently referred to as the Gospels of Lindis- 
 farne 1 , is a large quarto volume, preserved 
 fy) in the Cottonian collection in the British 
 Museum (see Westwood, Miniatures and 
 m/tvj Ornaments, plates xn, xm; Bond and Thomp- 
 son, Facsimiles, plates in — vi, xxn). It contains 
 the Four Gospels of St. Jerome’s Latin ver- 
 sion 2 , with the usual appendices of Prefaces, 
 Eusebian Canons, etc., written in a clear, re- 
 gular hand of a pronounced Celtic character. 
 
 As a monument of mediaeval art, it commands 
 the admiration of anyone who has the good fortune to 
 turn over its brilliantly ornamented folios; and of examples 
 of this class of work now in existence there is only one 
 that can rival it in artistic merit — the Book of Kells. 
 
 But apart from the surpassing excellence of its artistic 
 work, the Lindisfarne manuscript receives a particular inter- 
 est from the circumstance that it contains in its pages an 
 evidence of its date and origin, written down, it is true, 
 some time after the completion of the volume, but, never- 
 theless, affording sufficient criteria to allow us to accept 
 its statements with confidence. Before we go on to 
 inspect the decoration of the manuscript, we must pay 
 some attention to this remarkable record. It is entered 
 at the end of the Gospel of St. John, in an English hand 
 of the tenth century, and reads as follows: 
 
 1 Cotton. MS. Nero D. 4., Brit. Mus. 
 
 2 Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 39 seqq. 
 
 48 
 
VI. GOSPELS OF MAC BURN AN 
 

 
 
+ Eadfrid biscop lindisfearnensis acclesia he Sis boc avrdt at 
 frnma gode z see cudberhte z allum dam halgum gimanelice da de 
 in eolonde sint. z Edilvald lindisfearneolondinga bisc hit uta gidryde z 
 gibelde sua he vel aide , Z billfrid s e oncre, he gismiodade da gihrino 
 dade titan on sint z hit gihrinade mid golde z cnid gimmum §c nud 
 sulfre of gylded faconleas feh :, Z ic ' Aldred pbr indignus z missernm 
 mid godes fultuih e, z set cudberhtes hit of gloesade tin englisc. z bine 
 gihamadi mid dam drum dalu. Matheus dal gode z sce cudberhti. 
 Marc dal dam bisc. z hicas dal dam luorode z ccht ora scolfres mid 
 
 ■/■ fe his savle 
 
 to inldde: — zsci ioh dal f hine seolfne Z f cover ora seolfres mid 
 gode z sa cudberti. fi te he habbe ondfong derh godes mils a on 
 heofnu. seel z s ibb on eordo fordgeong z g ld )' n g° visdom z snyttro 
 derh sci cud berhies eamunga : z 
 
 4- Eadfrid. oedilvald. billfrid. aldred. hoc evange do z 
 
 berli to cons truxert : j 
 l ornaverunt 
 
 An invocation in favour of the four ecclesiastics en- 
 gaged on the volume is entered in the same hand on fol. 
 88 verso: 
 
 de lifigiende god gemyne du eadfrid z adilvald z billfrid z 
 aldred pecciTt das feowero mid gode ymbweson das bdc. 
 
 That statements of this nature, though written down 
 in their present form a couple of centuries after the oc- 
 currence of the events which they record, were gathered 
 from reliable sources may be inferred from the detailed 
 description and matter-of-fact tone of the memorandum. A 
 loose tradition without real foundation would neither have 
 entered into this series of apparently insignificant details, 
 nor have contented itself with the comparatively obscure 
 names of the bishops Eadfrith and Ethilwold and the an- 
 chorite Billfrith. If, at the time when the Northumbrian 
 monk inserted his inter-linear version and his note on the 
 
 1 erased; in the margin is added: alfredi natus aldrcdus vocor bona 
 
 ■/• tilw 
 
 mulieris filius eximius loquor : z 
 
 G 
 
 49 
 
origin of the manuscript, the names of the makers had 
 
 not been known for certain, we may be pretty sure that 
 
 tradition or legend, less unpretending than reality, would 
 not have failed to associate the costly relic with a more 
 illustrious name, say that of St. Aidan, the founder and 
 patron saint of the house of Lindisfarne. We know that 
 Eadfrith, to whom the entry refers as the scribe, was 
 
 bishop of Lindisfarne between A. D. 6g8 and 721; and 
 
 also that Ethilwold, who, we are told, bound the book, 
 succeeded to the bishopric in 724, and held it till 740. 
 Although the note does not say expressly who was the 
 decorator of the manuscript, there is reason to believe 
 that he should be identified with the scribe; or his name 
 would, no doubt, have been left on record, the more so, 
 because the names of the other makers were so carefully 
 remembered. Be that as it may, the ornamentation was 
 of course contemporary with the writing, i. e., executed 
 towards the close of the seventh century or at the be- 
 ginning of the eighth. 
 
 Turning now from the tenth century insertions to 
 the main text with its artistic enrichment, that is, the 
 volume in its original aspect, we are a little surprised to 
 find that we have, at the same time, taken leave of the 
 English element in this manuscript. Its ornament, in 
 detail and composition, is worked on the well-known Celtic 
 lines; and some most distinctive features of Irish script 
 reappear in its caligraphy. Here, it must be stated at the 
 outset, is nothing Saxon or Anglic; nothing even that 
 betrays any immediate influence tending to modify the 
 purely Celtic traditions. Although executed under the 
 Anglo-Saxon rule, it is in its artistic aspect an emphatically 
 Celtic monument, an opus Scoticum, a book written after 
 the fashion of the Scots. What this implies will be better 
 understood when, in a following article, we shall have 
 an opportunity of comparing the nature of its ornament 
 with the admixture of Celtic and Roman elements typical 
 of the early specimens of Anglo-Saxon art of illumination. 
 
 
et at the time when this manuscript was pro- § XV 
 duced, at least some thirty years had elapsed 
 since the withdrawal of the Columban monks 
 from Lindisfarne; and the entire absence of non- 
 Celtic elements in its artistic work becomes all 
 the more significant when we consider the influx 
 and diffusion of non-Celtic art and culture which, 
 in even that interval of time, resulted from fre- 
 quent contact between the Northumbrian monastic 
 establishments and the Church of Rome. This was the 
 period when men like the far-travelled Wilfrid and his friend 
 and companion Benedict Biscop or the foreigners Theodore 
 and Adrian, were busy introducing new rites and fashions, 
 and establishing in the religious houses of the Anglo-Saxon 
 Church a taste for art and literature, in conformity with 
 the more refined culture that spread from the metropolis of 
 the Christian world. 1 More particularly was Northumbria 
 favoured with the innovations of these ardent improvers. 
 
 Here, owing to the influence of men who, like Wilfrid, 
 had been trained abroad, in France or Italy 2 , the infant 
 Church, founded and organised by Celtic missionaries on 
 the model of that of Iona, was brought to give up the 
 long-established traditions of the Celtic Church with regard 
 to the celebration of Easter, tonsure, etc., and conform to 
 
 Roman usage (in A. D. 664) 2 ; the result of which was 
 
 that the last Scots bishop of Lindisfarne together with his 
 monks left the kingdom and returned to Iona 3 , in preference 
 to abandoning the rites and fashions which they had re- 
 ceived from their fathers, and accepting what the Celtic 
 clergy denounced as rules inconsistent with the Church 
 
 of the Apostles and as mere innovations of the Bishops 
 
 of Rome. 4 Here, again, through the assistance of master- 
 builders and workmen whom they brought with them from 
 
 1 Willelmi Malmesbiriensis monachi dc gestis pontificum Anglorum libri quinquu, 
 
 Lib. IV, § 1 86, in Rer. Brit. m. a. script.; Eddius, Vita S. Wil/ridi, c. XIV, c. XVII; 
 
 Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV, c. II. 
 
 " Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. Ill, c. XXV. 
 
 3 Op. cit., Lib. Ill, c. XXVI, Lib. IV, c. IV. 
 
 ' Cfr. St. Columbanus’ famous appeal to Pope Boniface IV; Migne, Patro- 
 logice cursus completus, VII saec., prima pars, Paris, 1863, coll. 269. 
 
 5 1 
 
the Continent (France or Italy), Wilfrid and Benedict were 
 enabled to erect their new, magnificent churches of stone, 
 in the Roman style \ mentioned by early writers in con- 
 trast to the plain timber fabrics which were previously 
 reared on Scotic models, and, we have reason to believe, 
 afterwards continued in use, for a length of time co- 
 existing with the Roman fashion of building with dressed 
 stones . 2 And through the assistance of these foreign arti- 
 ficers they were enabled, not only to construct, but also 
 to adorn their buildings with sculptures and paintings in 
 a new style, imported, we are told, in some cases directly 
 from Rome . 3 And nowhere, inside the limits of the area 
 occupied by Teutonic invaders, were the beauties of the 
 language of Rome more ardently or more successfully 
 cultivated than within the precincts of the Northumbrian 
 monasteries, where art and learning flourished under the 
 direction of these men and their disciples. Among the 
 imported goods an item of no mean consequence was ma- 
 nuscripts. Benedict, we learn 4 , brought with him from 
 his travels quite a number of books; and Acca, who had 
 gone with Wilfrid to Rome and to quote the passage 
 in Bede — » learnt there many profitable things concern- 
 ing the government of the holy Church, which he could 
 not have learnt in his own country » , 5 and who afterwards 
 succeeded him in the episcopate of the church of Hagustald, 
 erected there, according to the same author, a »most 
 numerous and noble library > 6 . No wonder, then, if we 
 should find at such a place as Lindisfarne, once the centre 
 and chief foundation of the Northumbrian Church, traces 
 of the literary and artistic aspirations of men like Benedict, 
 Wilfrid, and Acca, all of whom were contemporary with, 
 
 1 Bede, Vita Abbatum, § V; Eddius, Vita S. Wilfndi, c. XXII; Hist. Ri- 
 cardi Prioris Eccles. Haugustald., London, 1886, pp. 153,154; in Rer. Brit. in. a. 
 script.; Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. I, p. 501 seqq., vol. 11 , p. 13 1 seqq., vol. VI, 
 p. 179 seqq. 
 
 2 C/r. Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. Ill, c. XXV, Lib. V, c. XXI; and Vita 
 Abbatum, § V seqq. 
 
 3 Bede, Vita Abbatum, § VI; c/r. Eddius and Richard of Hexham. 
 
 * William of Malmesbury, op. cit., Lib. IV, § 186. 
 
 5 Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. V, c. XX. 
 
 0 Ibid. ' 
 
 52 
 
and whose labours were, no doubt, well-known to, that 
 bishop of Lindisfarne who wrote the famous Gospels. 
 
 An author who has published in the Revue Bene- 
 dictine 1 an interesting study on the Lindisfarne Book in 
 its liturgical aspect has pointed out that the very manu- 
 script with which we are at present concerned contains 
 an evidence of the existence of Italian books in the scrip- 
 torium in which it was executed; and has, moreover, tried 
 to show that its own text was, in all probability, copied 
 from an Evangeliarium originating from the south of 
 Italy. Prefixed to each of the Gospels in our manuscript 
 is a list enumerating the days or occasions when some 
 special passage of the accompanying text should be read; 
 and the liturgical indications contained in these quasi- 
 »capitula» are shown to represent the liturgy of the Church 
 of Naples, as that appears at the beginning of the seventh 
 century. Particulars in these »capitula», like those re- 
 ferring to the dedication of the Neapolitan cathedral, the 
 » Basilica Stephanie, and to the festival of the chief patron 
 saint of Naples: » in natale sci ianuari», are, it appears, 
 such as could have been derived from no other source 
 than from the liturgy of the South-Italian city. According- 
 ly, at the time when our manuscript was written, there 
 must have existed in the scriptorium of the monastery of 
 Lindisfarne a book — presumably a South-Italian copy of 
 the Gospels — which contained the liturgical cycle cha- 
 racteristic of the Church of Naples. How and whence 
 such a book might come into the possession of the North- 
 English monastery is successfully explained by the same 
 author, who, from a passage in Bede, is able to trace a 
 very direct historical line of intercourse between the sunny 
 gulfs of Southern Italy and the wave-beaten islet off the 
 coast of Northumberland. Adrian who accompanied the 
 Greek Theodore in his mission to Britain in A. D. 668 
 was abbat of a house termed by Bede »monasterium Nisi- 
 danum ? This place Italian writers have identified with 
 
 ' Abbaye de Maredsous, Belgique, Nov. — Dec. 1891, p. 481 seqq., 529 seqq. 
 
 2 Hist. Eccles ., Lib. IV, c. I. 
 
the little island of Nisita, situated between Naples and 
 Pouzzoles, and mentioned in the Liber Pontifica/is among 
 the donations which the Emperor Constantine bestowed 
 on the Church of Naples. We know, further, from Bede 
 that the Archbishop, accompanied and assisted by his friend 
 Adrian, in the course of his travels in Britain, also paid 
 a visit to Lindisfarne. By connecting these facts with 
 the somewhat unexpected appearance of the 
 Neapolitan liturgy in a Northumbrian manu- 
 script, the author in the Revue Benedictine arrives 
 at the conclusion that the text of the Gospels of 
 C Lindisfarne was actually copied from one of the 
 ( : zJ books forming the bagage litter air e which the abbat 
 Adrian brought with him into the country from 
 his monastery in the south of Italy. 
 
 ONCERNING the original manuscript supposed 
 to have contained the Neapolitan liturgy and 
 served as a model at the transcription of the 
 Lindisfarne Book, there is reason to believe 
 that that, too, was illuminated, although we 
 have at present no means of determining the 
 precise nature of its ornamentation. Judging, 
 however, from still extant specimens of Italian 
 book-decoration of contemporary or earlier date, 
 ^ it is apparent that the Northumbrian manu- 
 script, so far as its writing and ornamentation are con- 
 cerned, owes little or nothing to any models found in 
 Italian illuminated manuscripts of the seventh or earlier 
 centuries. Its ornamental compositions are, as stated above, 
 marked by pure and unmixed Celticism. The Saxons who 
 occupied the monastery of Lindisfarne after the Columban 
 monks had withdrawn retained the art traditions of their 
 predecessors, at least in this case, with a fidelity which 
 forbade them to add anything whatever of their own in- 
 vention; or to introduce the admixture of Celtic and classical 
 elements so common in English illuminated manuscripts 
 subsequent to circa A. D. 700. The interlaced, fret, and 
 spiral decoration of the Celtic school will be seen applied 
 54 
 
 
to the initials, borders, and full-page designs of the Lindis- 
 farne manuscript in a lavish abundance equalled only in 
 the pages of the Book of Kells. And in one point the 
 former is, if possible, even more Celtic than its Irish rival. 
 Not a single trace of any floral or foliated pattern can be 
 detected in the variety of motives employed. This is a 
 point which deserves special attention. Foliageous orna- 
 ment is entirely unknown in the Celtic illuminated ma- 
 nuscripts of the earlier period; and the absence of this 
 element in the decoration of the present volume is no- 
 table as an additional proof of its independence of late 
 classical or semi-classical models. Concerning the pictures 
 of the Evangelists, which, it is true, do not look quite 
 
 so barbarous as those we are accustomed to meet with 
 
 in Celtic manuscripts, it has been shown in the previous 
 pages that representations of this kind were, no doubt, 
 originally suggested by Byzantine miniatures; but there is 
 nothing in those which lie before us to indicate that they 
 were drawn directly from any more refined model than a 
 tolerably good work of the Celtic school of miniature- 
 painting. Although comparatively well executed, the minia- 
 tures exhibit some distinguishing marks of Celtic figure- 
 drawing, as will be seen in the treatment of the folds of 
 the drapery and in the peculiar manner of rendering the 
 features of the human head. 
 
 If, then, we are right in our opinion that the style 
 
 of art shown in the pages of the Lindisfarne manuscript 
 
 may be regarded, in spite of the close proximity of late 
 classical models, as untouched by any immediate influences 
 from that part; and if we are, further, justified in accept- 
 ing with confidence the information regarding the origin 
 of the manuscript, which is contained in the above quoted 
 memorandum, entered by an inmate of the house of Lindis- 
 farne in the tenth century — the value of the present 
 volume as a record for the history of Celtic art can hardly 
 be over-rated. In its illuminated pages the genius of the 
 Celt has signalised its tastes and talents with quite ex- 
 ceptional brilliancy; and though very unlike our modern 
 
 5 5 
 
notions, and strangely contrasting with any notions based 
 on classical canons, yet the peculiar sense of the meaning 
 and purpose of ornament which underlies the beautiful 
 compositions in even these pages is well worthy of the 
 notice, not only of the art student in general, but also 
 of the practical artist. The manuscript, as a whole, may 
 serve as an illustration in colours to those passages in 
 mediaeval writers which, in referring to the various ac- 
 complishments of the pilgrim Scots, dwell more particularly 
 upon their unrivalled skill and diligence in writing and 
 adorning their sacred books. It assists in a very effective 
 manner the understanding of how it came that those men, 
 when wandering about, or settling down among foreign 
 tribes, far away from their island home, were able, not 
 only to assert their national individuality, but also, in many 
 respects, to exercise a far-reaching influence on the natives 
 and leave vestiges of their peculiar culture throughout a 
 vast space of Europe, extending from the Arctic to the 
 Mediterranean, from the solitary rocks in the farthest west 
 to the boundaries of the Sclavonic tribes in the east. 
 With such a testimony of literary and artistic culture be- 
 fore our eyes as the document we are just considering, 
 it is not to be wondered at that the libri scottice scripts 
 continued, long after the Scotic rule was at an end, to 
 hold a place of their own in the monastic libraries founded 
 by the pilgrim Scots, in the British Islands as well as in 
 many countries on the Continent. And we can also well 
 understand how it happened, when such an establishment 
 was re-organised on the principles of the Church of Rome, 
 and abandoned by its Scotic leaders, as was the case with 
 the house of Lindisfarne, that the new occupiers, if. not 
 entirely destitute of artistic aspirations, would cultivate the 
 art traditions of their predecessors, in preference to copy- 
 ing the inferior imported productions of foreign make. 
 
 Although testifying, in the first place, to the artistic 
 capacities of an offshoot of the Celtic school, the Lindis- 
 farne document will also allow of some inference being 
 drawn regarding the growth and chronology of the main 
 
 56 
 
VII. BOOK OF KELLS 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

branch. The appearance of so rich and highly-finished a 
 work at a colony of comparatively recent date pre-supposes 
 the existence of a fairly well developed style at the time 
 when the branch was sent out; the more so, because all 
 its essential characteristics may be paralleled in works of 
 native origin, and it is hardly credible that the art of the 
 mother country and that of the colony should have evolved 
 on so perfectly analogous lines quite independently. Of 
 the extension of the Columban Church into Northumbria, 
 in A. D. 635, we are well informed by Bede. We know 
 from him that King Oswald, who, like so many other 
 princes and nobles, had » sought wisdom* in the lowly 
 huts of the monks of Iona, and » received the sacrament 
 of baptism among the seniors of the Scots* (i. e., at Iona), 
 sent to the Columban monastery for missionaries to con- 
 vert his people 1 , after he had won his kingdom by the 
 battle of Hefenfelth (Coelestis Campus*); the result of 
 which was that St. Aidan, who was the founder and first 
 bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne, came to preach the 
 Gospel to the Anglic tribes in Northumbria. 2 He was suc- 
 ceeded by bands of Celtic evangelists, who carried on his 
 missionary work with a noble ardour and in the true 
 apostolic spirit, teaching, as Bede testifies, the faith of 
 Christ chiefly by their example; with the effect — to quote 
 again from Bede — that churches were built in several 
 places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the 
 Word; money and lands were given of the King’s bounty 
 to build monasteries; the Angles, great and small, were 
 instructed by their Scotic masters in the rules and ob- 
 servance of regular discipline; for most of those who came 
 to preach were monks* 3 . Not long afterwards, however, 
 thirty years having elapsed since the arrival of St. Aidan 
 
 1 Hist. Eccles., Lib. Ill, c. III. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 >Construebantur ergo ecclesia per loca, confluebant ad aadiendum Verbuin 
 populi gaudentes, donabantur munere regio possessiones et territoria ad instituenda 
 monasteria, imbuebantur preceptoribus Scottis parvuli Anglorum, una cum majoribus, 
 studiis et observatione discipline regularis. 
 
 Nam monachi erant maxime, qui ad predicandum venerant .» Hist. Eccles., 
 Lib. Ill, c. Ill; cfr. Lib. Ill, c. XXVI. 
 
 H 
 
 57 
 
in the isle of Lindisfarne, the influence of the Roman 
 Church was strong enough to induce Colman, the last 
 Scots bishop of Lindisfarne, to leave his see and return 
 to Iona (in A. D. 664). 1 Accordingly, if the Scotic settle- 
 ment at Lindisfarne had any share in the elaboration of 
 the Celtic designs or perfection of the style of art in 
 general, this should reasonably have taken place within 
 the limits of the above period. Hence we arrive at the 
 conclusion that the Celtic style of illumination, which ap- 
 pears fully developed and brought to its highest perfection 
 in a work written about A. D. 700, had, in all pro- 
 bability, reached that standard at least as early as the 
 middle decades of the seventh century. 
 
 Some further facts might be adduced, if needful, to 
 support this view. At the period which we have found 
 signalised by the full development of the style the peculiar 
 monastic system which is the chief feature of the ancient 
 Celtic Church was in its most vigorous growth; and the 
 religious foundations of this Church, equally famous as 
 schools of learning and as retreats in which to perfect a 
 life in restless labour, privation, and self-denial, attracted 
 from all quarters students, who went there either for the 
 sake of divine studies or for the purpose of leading a life 
 of stricter discipline. In the ancient Lives and Passions 
 of Saints the testimonies of this are too full and oft- 
 repeated to be regarded as mere baseless fancies; and, be- 
 sides, we have from such an authority as Venerable Bede, 
 the most candid of historians, an evidence which places 
 the fact beyond doubt. In the days of the great pestilence 
 in Ireland (A. D. 664), he tells us, »many of the nobility 
 and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there 
 — who, in the days of the Bishops Finan and Colman, 
 forsaking their native island, retired thither either for the 
 sake of Divine studies or of a more continent life; and 
 some of them presently devoted themselves to a monastic 
 life, others chose rather to apply themselves to study, 
 going about from one master’s cell to another. The Scots 
 
 1 Op. cit., Lib. Ill, c. XXVI. 
 
 58 
 
willingly received them all, and took care to supply them 
 with food, as also to furnish them with books to read, 
 and their teaching, gratis. ) 1 And in the Life of St. Senan 
 there is a passage which, after reading the testimony of 
 Bede, we may approach with less suspicion, telling us of 
 fifty Roman monks who went on pilgrimage to the » Isle 
 of Saints*, in search of wisdom and holy living . 2 
 
 But it would lead us too far to pursue this line 
 any further, although the prospect is tempting, owing to 
 abundance of material. The general outcome of a study 
 of these and similar statements, which enable us to form 
 an opinion of the state of learning and culture in ancient 
 Ireland, tends to show that the Celtic Church occupied 
 a leading position almost from the time when it was first 
 brought into contact with the outsiders, and held it for 
 at least a couple of centuries. And when we consider 
 in what close connexion art and learning appear through- 
 out the whole course of development of the early Christian 
 Celtic civilization; how that very important 3 member of a 
 monastic community, termed in Irish Scribhnidh, the scribe 
 and illustrator of the manuscripts, whose function was to 
 preserve and multiply the documentary treasures of the 
 house, was at the same time selected for the purpose of 
 acting as its teacher and lecturer — when we consider 
 this connexion, we may refer with some confidence to the 
 scattered material illustrative of the state of learning and 
 
 1 »Erant ibidem eo tempore multi nobilium simul et mediocrium de gente 
 Anglorum, qui tempore Finani et Colmani episcoporum, relicta insula patria, vel di- 
 vina lectioms, vel continentioris vita, gratia, illo secesserant. Et quidam quidem mox 
 se monastica conversationi fideliter mancipaverunt, alii magis circumeundo per cellas 
 magistrorum lectioni operam dare gaudebant: quos omnes Scotti libentissime suscipi- 
 entes victum eis quotidianum sine pretio, libros quoque ad legendum et magisterium 
 gratuitum prabere curabant .» Hist. Eccles., Lib. Ill, c. XXVII. 
 
 2 - — sappelht ibi navis monachos advehens peregrinos. In ea namque navi 
 deferebantur quinquaginta monachi patria Romani quos vel arctioris vita vel scrip- 
 turarum peritia, tunc in ea multum florentis, desiderium in Hiberniam traxerat, ut 
 ibi vivant sub magisterio quorundam sanctorum patrum, quos vita sanctitate et mona, 
 stica disciplina rigore intellexerant esse conspicuos.» Vita S. Senani; in Colgan- 
 Acta SS. Hibernia, p *333. 
 
 3 »So honourable was the employment, that the title is frequently added to 
 enhance the celebrity of an abbot or bishop.* Vita S. Columba, Bannatyne ed., 
 additional notes, p. 365. 
 
 59 
 
V'pK culture in general as an additional confirmation of 
 the results we have arrived at, regarding the ad- 
 vance and chronology of a most intimately 
 connected branch of Celtic art. 
 
 \ ecorations of the exquisite finish and per- 
 ^ aNIiI! I ^ ect ' on shown in the Lindisfarne work were, 
 ^VVy/l If in the nature of things, at no period very nu- 
 ■ — <£<7 | merous. It is obvious that such a production 
 / cou ^ on ly have arisen under the hands of an 
 \yi exceptionally well trained and gifted scribe, and 
 (jj must have appeared even to its contemporaries 
 as something far above the ordinary level. The 
 works produced by the minor artists, who, no doubt, were 
 in the majority, were necessarily of a plainer character. 
 Several examples of this class of works have descended to 
 us. But they contain very little to add to our knowledge 
 of Celtic art of illumination. The elements employed in 
 their decoration present, as a rule, no novel features. 
 Foliageous ornament is still absent. The general execution 
 is of varying quality, sometimes rather feeble. In several 
 cases the scribe has entered his name; and attempts have 
 been made by modern writers to fix the date and origin 
 of the volume by identifying its maker with some more 
 or less renowned namesake whose lifetime is known from 
 early Irish annals and records. Very little can, however, 
 be made out in this way with certainty. 
 
 First in the series of minor books we note a volume 
 of small quarto size known as the Book of Dimma 1 , and 
 preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (see 
 National MSS. /re/., vol. i, plates xvm, xix). It is a copy 
 of the Gospels, based on the Vulgate version, and present- 
 ing the usual texte mele (Berger) of the ancient Irish 
 Evangeliaria. 2 Its ornament consists of (i) full-page minia- 
 tures representing the Evangelist or — in the case of St. 
 John — his symbol, enclosed within border; and (2), facing 
 the miniatures, the initial pages of the Gospels, enriched 
 
 1 MS. A. 4. 2), Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 ? Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 45. 
 
 60 
 
with ornamental capitals and, in three cases, all-round 
 borders. The name of the scribe is inserted at the con- 
 clusion of each of the Gospels; on the final folio verso 
 it appears thus: 
 
 Finit amen Dimma macc nathi + 
 
 and accompanied by a couple of lines in ancient Irish, 
 containing, in a somewhat unusual form, the usual pious 
 request of the maker. The manuscript is stated to have 
 formerly belonged to the monastery of Roscrea, where it 
 was kept enclosed in a silver case, fragments of which 
 still remain . 1 And it is a curious coincidence that there 
 occurs, among the several ecclesiastics named Dimma who 
 figure in the early Irish annals and records, one who is 
 specially remembered as a skilled scribe, in connexion with 
 an Evangeliarium executed in the seventh century for St. 
 Cronan of Roscrea . 2 3 
 
 Another small quarto volume traditionally assigned 
 to the seventh century may be seen in the same collection" 
 (see National MSS. Irel . , vol. i, plates xx, xxi). This, 
 too, is an Evangeliarium, with a text of more than ordi- 
 nary interest, owing to the mixture of the Vulgate ele- 
 ment with peculiar Old Latin readings . 4 It is adorned 
 with illuminated capitals and full-page pictures of (three of) 
 the Evangelists, framed by borders . 5 6 Like the preceding 
 example and so many other ancient Irish books, the vol- 
 ume was until lately, together with some fragments of 
 another ancient Gospel-book, enshrined in a metal casket. 
 At the conclusion of St. John’s Gospel is an entry re- 
 cording the name of the scribe and obviously written in 
 
 1 Christian Inscriptions, vol. II, pp. loo, ioi. 
 
 2 Op. cit., ibid. 
 
 3 MS. A. (not yet finally press-marked), Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 4 Histoire de la Vulgate, pp. 5 ;, 34. 
 
 5 If an opinion expressed by Dr H. J. Lawlor, in his Chapters on the Book 
 of Mulling, Edinburgh, 1897, PP- 12 > ! 3 > be correct, the miniatures in question 
 did not originally belong to the Book of Moling, but to some other MS., and 
 were quite accidentally connected with our Gospels. For reasons which it would 
 lead us too far here to explain, we are, however, not quite persuaded that such was 
 the case. 
 
 6 I 
 
the same hand as the preceding Gospel. Part of the entry 
 is now illegible, and most of its letters are much faded; 
 but the following lines can be deciphered with tolerable 
 certainty: 
 
 fi nit amen finit 
 6 tv quicuq: Scripseris 
 l scrutatus fueris 7 etia 
 uideris h uolumin dm ora 
 
 m 
 
 Nomen h’ scriptoris mulling 
 dicitur Finiunt quatuor euan 
 gelia 
 
 The scribe is identified, with some show of reason, with 
 one Moling who was bishop of Ferns, in Leinster, and 
 died about A. D. 696. 
 
 Then we have two manuscripts both of which are 
 in a very defective condition, but nearly corresponding 
 with those above quoted in the character of their orna- 
 mentation, as far as that can be made out from traces 
 left. The one is a volume in quarto, in the collection of 
 Trinity College, containing fragments of the Gospels of 
 the Irish »mixed» text 1 2 3 , and generally known as the Gar- 
 land of Howth 3 (see Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi, plates 
 11, in). There are only two ornamental pages left, mark- 
 ing St. Matthew 1 , 18 and St. Mark 1 , 1. Figure re- 
 presentations are seen inserted among the purely orna- 
 mental work in both pages; and the draughtsmanship is 
 not of the highest order. The other example, bound up 
 with a liturgical document known as the Stowe Missal 4 , 
 
 1 In these lines a few letters are visible, but not sufficient to indicate the 
 meaning of the sentence; at the[?], trace of letter. 
 
 2 Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 42 . 
 
 3 MS. A. 4. 6., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 ' MS. D. 11. ). Ashburnham collect., Libr. R. I. A. 
 
 62 
 
and preserved in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, 
 is still more incomplete, only retaining portions of the 
 Gospel of St. John. The text of the existing fragments 
 is of the Vulgate version, with traces of pre-Hieronymian 
 readings . 1 At the commencement of the volume, fol. 2 
 recto, is a decorated page with initial and border; and 
 accompanying the Biblical extracts, a full-page miniature 
 representing the Evangelist, with his symbol placed with 
 expanded wings over his head; the whole framed by border 
 work. The first folio of the volume is cut away, but 
 there are fragments left sufficient to show that that, too, 
 was illuminated, at least on one side. At the end is an 
 entry in the hand of the original scribe, who asks that 
 the reader may remember him in his prayers: 
 
 Deo gratias ago. Amen. Finit. Amen. 
 
 Rogo cjiii cumque hunc librum legeris lit memine 
 
 ris mei peccatoris scriptoris ./. 
 
 mi 11 iiiii mu P ere 
 grinus. Amen. Sanus sit qui scripsit et cui scriptum est. 
 
 Amen .' 2 
 
 Several attempts have been made to read the Ogham 
 characters, supposed to contain the name of the 
 scribe 3 ; but with no satisfactory result. 
 ometimes it happened that the ornamentation 
 of an illuminated book was, for some reason 
 or other, left unfinished. This is apparent- 
 ly the case with a Biblical manuscript 4 
 formerly in the possession of the monastery 
 of Armagh, the famous seat of ancient Irish 
 art and learning, and now preserved as the 
 Book of Armagh among the manuscripts in 
 the library of Trinity College, Dublin 5 (see 
 National MSS. Irel., vol. 1, plates xxv— xxix). 
 As a literary document, this manuscript is of 
 
 ' Transactions R. I. A., vol. XXX, parts VII and VIII, p. 317 seqq. 
 5 Op. cit., pp. 314, 31s. 
 
 3 Op. cit., ibid. 
 
 * Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 3 1 seqq. 
 
 * MS. (no press-mark) Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 63 
 
singular interest for students of the ancient lore of Ire- 
 land; but as a specimen of ancient Irish book-ornamenta- 
 tion, it is a very poor one, indeed. The volume exhibits 
 uncoloured drawings of the Evangelistic symbols and some 
 capital letters slightly tinted with colours. The name of 
 the scribe is transmitted by notes entered in the original 
 hand and containing requests for prayers - pro Ferdomnacho ". 
 In the Annals of the Four Masters 1 two persons of that 
 name are recorded as scribes of Armagh, the one belong- 
 ing to the eighth century, the other to the ninth. And 
 there is something to support the view that the writer of 
 the present manuscript should be identified with the second 
 Ferdomnach, who died about A. D. 845. There are several 
 erasures in the manuscript, one of which, successfully de- 
 ciphered by Dr Graves, seems to imply that the book was 
 written: »e dictante Torbach — herede Patricii » . 1 2 This 
 Torbach, we know, was only one year in the abbacy and 
 died in A. D. 808. 3 Admitting the reading to be correct, 
 this would fix the date of the manuscript with all desi- 
 rable precision. 
 
 The origin of an unusually large-sized and lavishly 
 ornamented volume known as the Gospels of Mac Regol, 
 and now in the Bodleian library at Oxford 4 , is more 
 doubtful (see National MSS. Irel ., vol. 1, plates xxn— xxiv; 
 Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments, plate xvi; Bond 
 and Thompson, Facsimiles, plates 90, 91). It is a frag- 
 mentary copy of the Four Gospels, of the > mixed » text 5 
 reproduced by Irish scribes. In the final page is a colophon 
 recording the name of the scribe: 
 
 Macregol dipin 
 exit hoc euange 
 Hum : Quicum 
 que legerit 
 
 Et intellegerit 
 istam narratio 
 nem or at pro 
 macreguil scripto 
 ri. 
 
 1 An. F. M., A. C. 726 and 844. 
 
 2 Proceedings R. I. A., vol. Ill, p. 320. 
 
 3 An. F. M. 
 
 ' Bodl. MS. D. 2j, Oxford. 
 
 6 Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 43. 
 
 64 
 
IX. BOOK OF KELLS 
 
■ 
 
 . 
 
 ■ 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
The death of an Irish ecclesiastic named Mac Regol 
 or Macriaghoil is recorded by the annalists under the year 
 820 or 82 1 1 2 ; but until we possess some additional con- 
 firmation of the identity of this individual with the scribe 
 of our manuscript, it would hardly be safe from the record 
 in the annals to make any inference as to the age of the 
 writer of the Gospels. The ornamentation of the manu- 
 script is abundant, though somewhat rude in execution. 
 Most of its patterns bear a close resemblance to the de- 
 signs in the Lindisfarne Gospels; but they are less care- 
 fully drawn, and the colouring is less harmonious. Of 
 floral or foliageous ornament there is no trace either in 
 the surface decoration of the panels or in the terminals 
 of borders and initials. 
 
 The phyllomorphic element is still wanting in a ma- 
 nuscript of the most elaborate and highly-finished decora- 
 tion, possibly a work of the ninth century. This is a 
 Gospel-book of very small quarto size, now preserved in 
 the Archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, and connected with 
 the name of Maelbrigte Mac Durnan 3 (see National MSS. 
 Irel . , vol. 1, plates xxx, xxxi; Westwood, Miniatures and 
 Ornaments , plate xxn; Palceographia, plates xm— xv). The 
 text is of the mixed* type characteristic of the Irish 
 Gospels 3 , and written in a beautifully clean and neat mi- 
 nuscule hand. Each of the Gospels is preceded by a full- 
 page picture of the Evangelist, drawn and painted in the 
 grotesque style of the Celtic school. The Evangelist is 
 represented standing or seated, supporting a book in one 
 hand, whilst the other holds a pastoral staff, or a pen 
 [St. John], or a small leaf-shaped object [St. Mark], Each 
 of the miniatures is framed by an elaborate border worked 
 with the usual compositions of fret, interlaced, and zoo- 
 morphic patterns, set in compartments. The initial pages 
 of the Gospels are marked with ornamental capitals and 
 rich border work. At the commencement of the volume. 
 
 65 
 
 1 An. U., An. F. M. 
 
 2 MSS. colled., Archiepiscopal Library, Lambeth. 
 
 3 Histoire dc la Vulgate , p. 43. 
 
fol. i verso, is a full-page illumination, divided into sec- 
 tions by a cruciform design. The four larger spaces inter- 
 vening between the border and the arms of the cross, are 
 occupied with figures of the Evangelistic symbols; while 
 the other panels are filled in with fret and spiral patterns. 
 The artistic work of this volume has several features in 
 common with that of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Charac- 
 teristic details, such as heads, legs, etc., of the birds and 
 quadrupeds, present the same forms; and the linear schemes 
 in which the zoomorphic interlacements are arranged are 
 nearly identical. The termination of crests and tongues 
 consists in both cases of a plain spiral line. Other points 
 of resemblance may be found in the thickly-laid pigments 
 and the unusually bright and lustrous tone of the whole 
 colouristic composition. On fol. } verso occurs an in- 
 scription which runs as follows: 
 
 + Maiclbndus. mac- 
 durnani. istu. textu 
 per. tnquadfu. do. 
 digne. dogmatizat. 
 
 + Ast. aethelstanus. 
 anglosdixana. rex. et 
 rector, doruuernensi. 
 metropoli. dat. p <euu 
 
 Hence it appears that the manuscript was once in the 
 possession of the Saxon King Aethelstan, who presented 
 it to Canterbury; and also that it was, before the pre- 
 sentation took place, connected with — - possibly written 
 under direction of — a certain Maelbrigte Mac Durnan. 
 He has been identified with an Irish ecclesiastic 1 of the 
 race of St. Columba, who was abbat of Armagh and Raphoe 
 and in A. D. 891 succeeded the great Scotic Saint as nine- 
 teenth abbat of Iona. This »St. Maelbrighde, son of Tornan, 
 coarb of Patrick, Columcille, and Adamnan, head of the 
 piety of all Ireland and of the greater part of Europe, died 
 
 1 Vita Sancti Columba, Bannatyne ed., pp. 392, 393. 
 
 66 
 
in a good old age, on the 20th of February * under the 
 year of the Annals 92 5. 1 
 
 Through the channel of the Columban foundation 
 in Iona Irish Christianity and Irish culture spread to the 
 pagan tribes of ancient Alban. Of the very close con- 
 nexions between the ancient Celtic Church in Scotland 
 and the Irish mother Church we have ample evidence in 
 the chapters of Bede; and regarding more especially the 
 art relations between the two countries, we still possess 
 at least one document which shows how faithfully the 
 genuine Irish style was followed, and Irish traditions 
 handed down from one generation to another, in the 
 religious houses in the North-British territories. The 
 document we refer to is an illuminated volume of small 
 octavo size containing parts of the Four Gospels 2 , and 
 now preserved in the University library at Cambridge 
 (see Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments, plate li, fig. 
 2, 3; Bond and Thompson, Facsimiles , plates 210, 211; 
 Stuart, The Book of Deer). It is known to have formerly 
 belonged to the Columban monastery of Deer, in Scotland, 
 a house which — judging from notices in the vernacular 
 Gaelic language, entered in our manuscript at a later 
 period — seems to have retained the peculiar organization 
 of the ancient Celtic Church at a time when, in most of 
 the religious houses in Scotland, the Celtic regime was 
 brought to a close by the introduction of the new mona- 
 stic orders of the Church of Rome. We have no means 
 of determining the exact date of the manuscript. The text 
 is, like that we usually meet with in the manuscripts of 
 the Gospels written by Celtic scribes, mainly in accordance 
 with the Vulgate, but with occasional readings from ver- 
 sions prior to St. Jerome’s labours. 3 The volume is en- 
 riched with ornamental pages at the commencement of 
 each of the Gospels, viz., (1) a page with a picture of 
 the Evangelist, enclosed within border; and (2) the initial 
 
 1 An. F. M., A. C. 925; c/r. An. U., 926. 
 
 2 MS. II 6 . )2, Univ. Libr., Cambridge. 
 
 3 Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 45. 
 
 67 
 
page of the Gospel, with ornamental capital and border 
 work. St. Matthew I, 18 is marked by special decoration 
 
 of the same nature as the ordinary initial page; and in 
 
 addition to these there is a page divided by a cruciform 
 design, with a human figure (Evangelist) in each of the 
 four corners. The initial letter is of what might be styled 
 the black skeleton type, i. e., composed of a black, banded 
 (\body with a nondescript beast’s head appended, and the 
 interior spaces laid with patches of colour. The patterns 
 employed for filling in the sections of the borders are 
 geometrical interlacements, fret work, dotted, tesselated, 
 and chequered designs. Some of the sections are 
 
 left unfinished, and the workmanship is less elegant 
 than that we are accustomed to find in a Celtic 
 
 illuminated manuscript. 
 
 efore we go on to trace the further evolution § XIX 
 of the style as shown in the illuminated manu- 
 scripts of the best period and subsequently in 
 those marking the downward progress, we must 
 linger a little to note the influx of a foreign ele- 
 ment, which makes its appearance, engrafted on the 
 national stock of ornament, in by far the costliest 
 relic of ancient Celtic art and culture now in existence. 
 
 The novelty is the foliageous ornament; and its ap- 
 pearance side by side with the ancient native designs 
 can only be accounted for by an increased contact with 
 late classical art. In Roman as well as Byzantine art, 
 foliage , in more or less conventionalised forms, was cul- 
 tivated as the chief element of decoration. As such it was 
 applied, in a profusion of varied types, and by means of 
 manifold methods of work — sculptured, painted, or in- 
 laid in mosaic — to enliven and embellish the masses of 
 the architectural monument: its walls, floor, and ceiling; 
 or more particularly to emphasise such portions of special 
 structural significance as columns, arches, and architraves. 
 
 And from the broad and mighty surfaces of the archi- 
 tectural monument, or from the limited spaces of the de- 
 corated objects of Ceramic art, in which the motive seems 
 68 
 
to be, if possible, of still higher antiquity, the plant ele- 
 ment extended in luxuriant growth so as to entwine with 
 its leaves and tendrils almost every object of art fitted for 
 decoration, down to the minute productions of the jeweller, 
 the ivory-carver, and the miniature-painter. 
 
 Such works of the Kleinkunst were the means of 
 propagating the style to the inhabitants of the far-off pro- 
 vinces of the Empire as well as to the barbarian races 
 outside its boundaries. And there is ample evidence to 
 show that these latter, in whatever manner they got pos- 
 session of them, whether by warlike or commercial inter- 
 course, made use of the imported objects as models for 
 decorative purposes, trying to imitate the novel patterns in 
 works of native manufacture. There are dug up from time 
 to time in various parts of Europe, from the Crimea to the 
 coasts of the Atlantic and the Baltic, objects, such as fibulae 
 of a peculiar, well-defined type, clasps, belt-mountings, 
 and other personal ornaments 1 , showing a pattern which 
 is undoubtedly to be regarded as a more or less success- 
 ful copy of a classic leaf design. From the evidence of 
 coins and other associations of the various finds these ob- 
 jects are assigned to the epoch of the Teutonic migrations. 
 Hence we may safely infer that the more or less degraded 
 plant motive which is their most outstanding decorative 
 feature is due to an impetus given by classical art at the 
 time when the barbarian tribes came in more immeditate 
 contact with the higher civilizations of Greece and Rome; 
 unless it be that it was transplanted by commercial inter- 
 course at a still earlier period. 
 
 In comparing the adaptation of classical plant orna- 
 ment characteristic of the art of the Teutonic migrations, 
 and shown on fibula? and other metal work, with the 
 forms of foliage employed in early Christian art in Britain, 
 
 1 See especially Antiquities of Kerteh, and Researches in the Cimmerian 
 Bosphorus, with remarks on the ethnological and physical history of the Crimea, 
 by Duncan McPherson, M. D., London, 1857, plate V and description; Der Gold- 
 fund von Nagy-Szent-Miklos, sogenannter »Schatz des Attila >, Beitrag zur Kunst- 
 geschichte der Volkerwanderungsepoche, von Joseph Hampel, Budapest, 1885, 
 p. 145 seqq., figs. 117, 1 18, 125-136; Die Grdberfelder von Kcszthely, von Dr 
 Wilhelm Lipp, Budapest, 1895, figs. 68-70, 187, 192, etc. 
 
 69 
 
it becomes, however, quite evident that we can speak of 
 no immediate relation between that type of pattern — not 
 infrequently appearing as a hybrid form, half plant, half 
 spiral — and those displayed in the earlier phases of Saxon 
 and Celtic ecclesiastical art. Moreover, it becomes evident 
 that the latter were directly derived from Byzantine or 
 Italo-Byzantine designs as appearing in works of an ec- 
 clesiastical nature, and were introduced in closest connexion 
 with the Christian civilization. We must here confine our 
 attention to the works of early Christian caligraphy and 
 book-decoration, as illuminated manuscripts of foreign make 
 may be regarded as the most likely bearers of those novel 
 designs that were adopted by British draughtsmen for the 
 decoration of similar objects. 
 
 The illuminated manuscripts of early Italian and Byzan- 
 tine origins present, as a rule, exceedingly little in way 
 of decoration that is not either phyllomorphic in its nature 
 or immediately connected with foliage. This may be said 
 with reference even to the miniatures we meet with in 
 the early copies of the Sacred Word. In these the picture 
 itself is purely illustrative, in style and feeling occasio- 
 nally recalling the works of genuine classicism, and still 
 showing, even in its most debased types, some observation 
 of nature; thus widely differing from its Celtic pendant, 
 which is emphatically decorative, not illustrative, in its 
 character. But round the picture we often find, here as 
 in Celtic art, an ornamental border framing the figures. 
 And in the decoration of this frame work, foliage, ob- 
 viously copied from architectural cornices and leaf mould- 
 ings, will be seen to form the most prominent element. 
 The same element occurs in the artistic enrichment of the 
 Eusebian Canons. That well-known series of arches sup- 
 ported by columns, which reappears, at least in its general 
 scheme, in the illuminated copies of the Gospels through- 
 out the Middle Ages, was also, no doubt, originally 
 suggested by, and together with its decorative details 
 copied from, actual architecture. Thus in manuscripts of 
 superior workmanship we can easily recognise the distinct 
 
 70 
 
outline, for example, of an elaborate Composite capital of 
 Roman fashion, or of a most correct and regularly shaped 
 Ionic base, or even the particular kind of marble of which 
 the shaft of the column was wrought. In these composi- 
 tions foliated scrolls are often introduced to adorn the 
 tcenia of the archivolt, or to enliven the empty spaces 
 intervening between the lower arches and the superior 
 arch spanning the outermost columns. The initial letters 
 are, as a rule, but slightly enlarged and rather insignificant 
 in their decorative aspect. Here, again, the foliageous 
 element, in the form of a heart-shaped, trefoil, or tricuspid 
 leaf, will often be seen to form part of the body of the 
 letter, or to be appended as terminals. And, lastly, in 
 what forms the counterpart of the rich Celtic border work, 
 viz., the ornamental head-pieces in Byzantine and Italo- 
 Byzantine manuscripts, foliageous ornament holds a still 
 broader place. In its richest form this kind of illumi- 
 nation appears as a rectangular panel occupying a con- 
 siderable space of the page, and worked with patterns in 
 colours on golden ground and in strictly symmetrical com- 
 position round a small central tablet that bears the in- 
 scription. But generally it presents the appearance of a 
 narrow decorated band, carried either all round the in- 
 scription or so as to frame it on two or three sides only. 
 Whether in the shape of a broad, elaborate panel or a 
 plain framing of the latter description, it is occasionally 
 seen to be covered with some kind of tesselated or chequer 
 pattern of purely geometrical nature, evidently derived from 
 mosaic work. But in most cases it is occupied with 
 foliage, either in the shape of a single wavy stem extend- 
 ing over the space to be decorated, with scrolls in the 
 hollows alternately to the right and left; or in the com- 
 posite form of several stems arranged symmetrically round 
 the central panel. In both cases it often occurs that 
 scrolls are modified so as to expand with a single circular 
 curve into the shape of a medallion; and in these medal- 
 lions, as well as in the centres of the ordinary scrolls, 
 there are often inserted animal forms, such as lions, 
 
 7 1 
 
gryphons, dolphins, birds, winged quadrupeds, and other 
 reminiscences of animal motive in antique decoration. In 
 the moulding of the phyllomorphic element the genuine 
 classical traditions are equally conspicuous. When con- 
 nected with animal forms involved in the tendrils, the 
 foliage generally appears as a trail of vine, or ivy, or 
 acanthus of the extenuated types characteristic of Byzantine 
 art. And the well-known classical series of the lotus 
 
 alternating with the palmetto, as well as of the lotus 
 flower and bud» pattern, are easily recognised 
 among the forms of foliage when that ele- 
 ment occurs alone. 
 
 ecoration with animal motives involved in 
 foliage, which we have seen to be a favourite 
 device in the artistic enrichment of early Italian 
 and Byzantine manuscripts, was not, however, 
 confined to the pages of the illuminated books, 
 but was applied to a variety of objects of art 
 from an early period. The idea of thus associa- 
 ting different motives was not even an invention 
 of Christian artificers, but one derived from pagan art. 
 Among details in the earliest wall-paintings in the recesses 
 of the Catacombs at Rome fS. Domitilla, S. Pretestato, 
 S. Callisto , S. AgneseJ , we find, for example, tendrils of 
 vine or ivy, with birds introduced amongst the leafage 
 and pecking at the grapes 1 ; and this ornamental composi- 
 tion in its turn has prototypes of high antiquity in Greek, 
 Roman, and Etruscan art. The less rational fashion of 
 introducing, together with birds, various quadrupeds of 
 natural or nondescript types, which is so common in 
 mediaeval art, would also seem to date from pre-Christian 
 periods, and to owe its origin to classical representations, 
 suggested, presumably, by Bacchic myths. Since the early 
 
 1 Storia della Arte Cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa scritta dal 
 P. Raffaele Garrucci, D. C. D. G., vol. II, Prato, 1873, pp. 23, 37, 43,68; tav. 
 19, 32, 37, 65. Roma Sotterranea, or an account of the Roman Catacombs, especially 
 of the cemetery of St. Callixtus, by Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, D. D. and Rev. 
 W. R. Brownlow, M. A., Part Second: Christian art, London, 1879, pp. 120, 
 121, 122, 148 — 132. 
 
 7 2 
 
 zrr> 
 
X. PSALTER OF RICEMARCH 
 
■ 
 
 . 
 
 t 
 
 ■ 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *** 
 
centuries of Christian architecture this kind of pattern is 
 known to have played a great part in the decoration of 
 the interiors of churches and baptisteries, being used both 
 in mosaics and wall-paintings . 1 It also appears in the 
 sculptured decoration of early Christian stone sarcophagi. 
 But more particularly it was applied to objects of smaller 
 dimensions, such as ivory and metal work. One of the 
 finest examples of ivory carving in this style may be seen 
 in the surface decoration of the Episcopal chair of St. 
 Maximianus, a work executed in the course of the sixth 
 century, and now preserved in the cathedral at Ravenna . 2 
 Another very beautiful example of a later date is shown 
 on one of the sculptured ivory plaques used as covers for 
 a Liber Sacramentorum, now belonging to the cathedral 
 of Monza 3 ; and objects of a similar decoration, in ivory 
 or metal, although less elegantly executed, are still extant 
 in sufficient numbers to show that this type of ornament 
 was a very favourite one as early as the periods termed 
 by Italian writers Latino- Barb aro and ltalo-Bizantino. 
 
 As to the period when the same style made its first 
 appearance in Britain we know nothing with certainty. 
 But there is ground for assuming that, as early as the 
 time of the Roman missionaries, an importation took place 
 of objects that may have been bearers of similar designs, 
 and have suggested to native artificers those barbarous 
 equivalents in style, viz., compositions of foliage and ani- 
 mal forms, which were subsequently, for a long succession 
 of centuries, the most frequently and most variously treated 
 motive in English illumination. We hear, for example, of 
 books sent to St. Augustine by Pope Gregory 4 ; and jud- 
 ging from the earliest extant Saxon manuscripts, dating 
 
 1 See especially Nesbitt, On the Churches at Rome earlier than the year /;/ o, 
 in Archaologia, vol. XL; Architecture in Italy from the sixth to the eleventh cen- 
 tury, historical and critical researches by Raffaele Cattaneo, translated by the Con- 
 tessa Isabel Curtis-Cholmeley in Bermani, London, 1896, p. 50 seqq. 
 
 2 Engraved in du Sommerard’s Arts du Moyen Age, Album, Re Serie, pi. XI; 
 and, more accurately, in Archaologia, vol. XLV, plate XXXVII. 
 
 3 Jules Labarte, Histoire des Arts Industries au Moyen Age et a l’epoque 
 de la Renaissance, Deuxieme edition, Tome I, Paris, 1872, pi. VI. 
 
 4 Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. I, c. XXIX. 
 
 K 
 
 73 
 
from circa A. D. 700, we should conclude that Saxon art 
 of illumination was, from its very first beginning, most 
 closely dependent on Roman models; and, accordingly, that 
 patterns like those described above are likely to have been 
 introduced and imitated as early as the epoch when Saxon 
 scribes and illuminators first went to work. That the style 
 was known and practised at least as early as the latter 
 half of the seventh century, there can be no reasonable 
 doubt when we bear in mind the efforts, referred to in a 
 previous chapter, which were made by Wilfrid and other 
 reformers, to introduce into the country Roman culture 
 and Roman fashions. 
 
 In his description of the elaborate sculpture found on 
 the coffin of St. Cuthbert, Reginald, a monk of Durham 
 who flourished in the twelfth century, and who had him- 
 self seen the relic he describes, seems to allude to the 
 type of ornament we are considering. His unusually full 
 and detailed account runs as follows: 
 
 »Nunc vero explicabimus qualis illius theca interior sit. In theca 
 interiori apud insulam Lindisfarnensem elatus de tumulo sepulchri 
 primum positus est; in qua semper hactenus corpus illius incor- 
 
 ruptibile conservatum est. Hsec ut archa est quadrangula — 
 
 Qute tota de quercu nigro compacta est Haec tota exterius 
 
 praemirabili coelatura desculpitur, quae adeo est minuti ac sub- 
 tilissimi operis ut plus stupori quam scientiae aut possibilitati 
 sculptoris convenire credatur. Tractus equidem singuli pertenues 
 sunt ac permodici, quibus diversa bestiarum, florum sive ymagi- 
 num in ligno ipso videntur inseri, percoelari vel exarari — — 
 Quae area in aliam exteriorem includitur — — » 1 
 
 We know from Bede that the remains of St. Cuthbert 
 were exhumed and enshrined in A. D. 698, eleven years 
 after his death 2 ; and as there can be no doubt that the 
 * theca interior* described by Reginald was identical with 
 the original wooden shrine, or coffin, which was made to 
 receive the remains of the Saint, in A. D. 698, that would 
 fix the date of the peculiar style of engraving referred to in 
 
 1 Reginaldi Monachi Dunelmensis Libellus de admirandis Beati Cuthbercti 
 virtutibus, c. XLIII. 
 
 2 Vita S. Cudbercti, c. X LI I ; Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV, c. XXX. 
 
 74 
 
Reginald’s account to a period anterior to the end of the 
 seventh century. 
 
 Unfortunately we are not in a position to pro- § XXI 
 nounce decisively on the age of a class of monuments 
 which supplies abundant material illustrative of the type 
 of ornament under consideration. We allude to a re- 
 markable group of sculptured stones characteristic of di- 
 stricts of the north of England. The most outstanding 
 feature in the decoration of these monuments is foliage, 
 occasionally combined with animal forms, which are treated 
 in a very different manner from that distinguishing purely 
 Celtic art. The foliage is variously modelled and arranged, 
 but its root is in all cases alike unmistakable. Generally 
 it appears in the well-known form of a running pattern 
 of a single wavy stem with recurved scrolls in the hollows 
 alternately to the right and left. Of less frequent occur- 
 rence is a pattern composed of two undulating and inter- 
 twining stems; as is also that with a single straight stalk 
 or stem line in the centre of the surface and scrolls is- 
 suing at regular intervals in symmetrical arrangement op- 
 posite each other. The scrolls usually terminate in trefoil 
 or lanceolate leaflets and fruit in a shape which, in some 
 cases, is very clearly suggested by bunches of grapes. 
 Occasionally the main stem is seen to proceed from a 
 vase. Fabulous creatures of undoubtedly classic extraction, 
 such as winged dragons and gryphons, occur inserted 
 amongst the branches, together with birds and quadrupeds 
 moulded more closely after nature. 
 
 Specimens exhibiting this style of decoration are found 
 in the area formerly the kingdom of Northumbria and ad- 
 joining territories, the best known being the richly orna- 
 mented crosses at Bewcastle 1 and at Ruthwell 2 . For il- 
 lustrations the reader should refer to Dr Stuart's magnificent 
 volumes on the Sculptured Stones of Scotland , in which 
 the most notable remains are beautifully illustrated and 
 
 1 [John Stuart] Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. II, Edinburgh, 1867, 
 plates XXI, XXII. 
 
 2 Op. clt., plates XIX, XX. 
 
 75 
 
described. The age of these monuments is a matter of 
 controversy. There is little now extant in the way of in- 
 scription or record, that might help to definitely fix their 
 dates. It may be noted, however, that the cross at Ruth- 
 well and also that at Bewcastle are ascribed, with some 
 good show of reason, to so early an epoch as the seventh 
 century . 1 But whatever may be the actual age of these 
 specimens and of others with ornament of a like nature, 
 they are of considerable interest as proofs of the applica- 
 tion of the style to native stone sculpture at a time when 
 genuine Celtic design was still flourishing on such work. 
 When we except the important class of stone sculpture of 
 unmixed Celtic character which is typical of the eastern 
 half of Scotland, and so splendidly represented in Dr Stuart's 
 work'-, there are, perhaps, no more imposing monuments 
 of early Christian sculpture in Britain than the North- 
 umbrian specimens; and in the artistic work still traceable 
 on their bold, weather-beaten surfaces, it is curious to ob- 
 serve how two rival elements, each of a very distinct, 
 well-marked type, have met and struggle for supremacy, 
 the one the Celtic, the other the Roman style: on the one 
 side, small, circumscribed panels filled in with figure sub- 
 jects, or with fret or interlaced work; on the other, foliage, 
 usually extending in vigorous growth to the full height 
 of the surface, with birds and beasts of various kinds 
 playing amongst the branches. 
 
 At what period and under what circumstances the 
 foreign style of decoration reached Ireland is more diffi- 
 cult to decide. Although it never obtained great favour 
 with Irish artificers, yet there are traces left sufficient 
 to show that the new designs were tried by the sculptor 
 and the metal-worker as well as by the painter of illumi- 
 nated manuscripts. Among the finest specimens of the 
 lavishly-ornamented high crosses in Ireland there are those, 
 
 1 Op. cit., vol. II, p. 15; Archaologia / Eliana , vol. 1 , new series, p. 149 seqq. 
 
 2 C/r. the groups at St. Vigeans, at Aberlenmo, at Meigle, and others be- 
 longing to an area which comprises the eastern half of Scotland, from Fife to 
 Caithness; Joseph Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian times, second series, Edin- 
 burgh, 1881, p. 74. 
 
 76 
 
for example, at Kells 1 , Clonmacnois 2 , and Monasterboice : , 
 ///in the decoration of which the typically Celtic designs of 
 the ancient native school may be seen mixed up with the 
 new element, not, however, without a certain adaptation 
 of the latter which betrays the Celtic feeling. Thus, while 
 in Northumbrian sculpture the scrolls of foliage are seen 
 to extend freely over the whole field to be decorated, the 
 same element on the Irish crosses invariably appears in 
 \ more modest dimensions, and confined to smaller panels, 
 in the same manner as the native designs. The Irish 
 high crosses seem to belong to a comparatively late 
 period, probably extending from about A. D. 900 
 downwards. And the dated examples of metal 
 work with foliageous ornament are of still more 
 recent origin. In the decoration applied to 
 the pages of the manuscripts foliage appears, 
 for the first time, so far as any positive 
 ?,V; evidence exists, in the remarkable volume 
 which is now to engage our attention. 
 ^ \ mong the ancient documents preserved in 
 the library of Trinity College in Dublin 
 is an illuminated volume of large quarto 
 size containing the Four Gospels, mainly 
 _ in accordance with the Vulgate version 1 , 
 T" and generally known as the Book of 
 Kells 7 ' (see National MSS. Irel., vol. 1, 
 plates vii — xvii ; Westwood, Miniatures 
 and Ornaments, plates vm — xi ; Paloeographia, plates 
 16, 17; Celtic Ornaments from the Book of Kells, 
 vols. 1— ix). On account of the lavish abundance 
 and exceptional perfection of its artistic work this 
 book is justly regarded, not only as the chief 
 treasure in this precious collection, but also as by 
 far the costliest relic of ancient Celtic art that has 
 
 1 Henry O’Neill, The Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland, plate 29. 
 5 Op. cit., plate 25. 
 
 3 Op. cit., plates 10, 14, 15. 
 
 * Histoire de la Vulgate, pp. 41, 42. 
 s MS. A. 1. 6 ., Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 $ XXII 
 
 77 
 
come down to our time. It is known to have formerly 
 belonged to the monastery of Cenannus, or Kells, in 
 Meath; hence, its name. At the commencement and the 
 end of the volume some smaller portions are missing; 
 but leaving this defect out of account, we may say that 
 the manuscript has descended to us in a very good state 
 of preservation. In pages which were originally left blank, 
 records referring to the ecclesiastical community of Kells 
 have been entered at an early period; but there is no 
 colophon nor signature left to tell us the name of the 
 scribe or the circumstances under which the work was 
 produced. If there ever was anything of the kind, it may 
 have disappeared together with the fragments missing at 
 the end of the manuscript. The text is written through- 
 out in a remarkably clear and regular hand; a few pages 
 (26 recto and verso, 29 verso — -31 recto) being in double 
 columns. At the commencement some pages are written 
 in lines of black and red alternating, while the rest of the 
 text is in a black or brownish ink. 
 
 As to the artistic enrichment of the volume, this 
 manuscript equals the Lindisfarne Gospels in accuracy of 
 drawing, and softness and harmony of colour, and sur- 
 passes it in the lavish abundance and astounding variety 
 of its ornament. Almost every page may be said to show 
 decorative features. At the commencement of each of the 
 Gospels we meet with a series of grand illuminated pages, 
 including the picture of the Evangelist, a full-page com- 
 position of the four symbols, an ornamental page with a 
 cruciform design, and the page containing the first words 
 of the Gospel; all of which are worked with a variety of 
 design and colouring, and a perfection and finish of detail, 
 of which no literal description can give an adequate idea. 
 Then, there are the decorative framings of the Eusebian 
 Canons; the marvellously ornamented page marking the 
 passage: >XP 1 autem gene ratio sic erat », St. Matthew I, 
 18; and — a thing of rare occurrence in the Celtic copies 
 of the Gospels — a series of full-page miniatures, with 
 subjects suggested by the accompanying text. Thus we 
 7 8 
 
see the Virgin and Child, surrounded by angels; the 
 Temptation: Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple; and 
 Jesus seized by the Jews,- the first two of which are en- 
 closed within elaborate square borders, while the last- 
 mentioned scene is set between two columns spanned by 
 a round arch. In addition to these pages, illuminations 
 of hardly less elaborate character are seen to be inserted 
 in the sequence of chapters, to mark some passage or 
 other which seemed to be of special importance; and minor 
 decorations, in an amazing variety of forms, appear in 
 every page throughout the volume, being used as termi- 
 nals, or as fancy-flourishes appended to plain letters, or 
 as initials placed at the head of every new sentence. 
 
 It is evident that the ornamental work, at least to 
 some extent, was executed after the text was completed. 
 Some of the smaller initials are left unfinished; and in the 
 border work framing the double columns, fol. 29 verso- 
 3 1 recto, only small portions are executed in colours and 
 patterns, while the rest is drawn in outline only. Among 
 the patterns employed there are first the whole series of 
 those typical of Celtic art and of frequent occurrence in 
 the earlier manuscripts, such as geometrical fret, interlaced, 
 and spiral patterns, together with zoomorphic interlace- 
 ments in every possible variety of form and composition. 
 But besides these we notice an admixture of elements 
 some of which are rarely, if ever, met with in Celtic art 
 outside of these pages. Among these novelties we find, 
 for example, several varieties of chequer and tesselated 
 pattern, generally introduced to enliven smaller spaces and 
 vacancies intervening between the broader and more ela- 
 borate designs. Then, there are various forms of the ro- 
 sette, a type of ornament which is decidedly un-Celtic. 
 Among the minor decorations inserted throughout the 
 ordinary text, at the beginning or the end of the line, or 
 in the vacant spaces left between two sentences, we have 
 figures of birds, quadrupeds, fishes, serpents, warrior armed 
 with shield and spear, man on horseback, etc., together 
 with fancy-flourishes in almost unlimited variety; the whole 
 
 7Q 
 
betraying an effort after enrichment which to modern eyes 
 is somewhat childish and bizarre in its general effect. But 
 the most important innovation is the introduction of foliage. 
 This element appears, to begin with, among the flourishes 
 and terminals, in the shape of lightly sketched branches 
 with leaves and flowers, sometimes proceeding from vases. 
 Of a more elaborate nature are the scrolls of foliage which 
 are seen to fill in, as a surface decoration, long, narrow 
 borders or panels in the grand illuminated pages. The 
 most characteristic form is a pattern of a single wavy 
 stem with alternate recurved scrolls terminating in trefoil- 
 shaped leaves. Also in this position the stem is occasio- 
 nally found to proceed from a vase. More general, how- 
 ever, is a less rational connexion of leaf design with zoo- 
 morphic patterns. Thus a branch of foliage is frequently 
 seen to evolve from between the open jaws of a non- 
 descript, while at the same time the tail of the beast pre- 
 sents the appearance of a trefoil or lancet-shaped leaf. 
 And there are other patterns in which zoomorphic forms 
 are intertwined with undulating stems of foliage, much on 
 the same principle as the compositions which, in the pre- 
 vious pages, we have observed in dialects of non-Celtic 
 decorative art. As an example of the freedom and variety 
 displayed in the illumination of the manuscript we may 
 note two pages facing each other, fol. 145 verso — 146 
 recto. In these the illuminated initial combination Et oc- 
 curs no less than seven times, in forms all of which vary 
 in outline and colouring. Moreover, the same combination 
 appears repeatedly throughout the text, but there is no 
 one instance of it that can be said to be a mechanical 
 repetition of a foregoing form. 
 
 Concerning the age of the manuscript nothing is 
 known with certainty. The current theory, based on an 
 ancient tradition, has, however, assigned it to a very re- 
 mote period. In the Annals of Ulster a record under the 
 year 1006 refers to a remarkable manuscript which at 
 that time belonged to the church of Kells. It reads as 
 follows: 
 
 80 
 
» — — The great Gospel of Colum-Cille was wickedly 
 stolen in the night out of the western sacristy of the great 
 stone-church of Cenannas — the chief relic of the western 
 world, on account of its ornamental cover. The same Gospel 
 was found after twenty [nights] and two months, its gold having 
 been taken off it, and a sod over it. — — » 1 
 
 Now the present volume is held to be the very book 
 which, at the commencement of the eleventh century, be- 
 longed to the religious establishment at Kells, and was at 
 that time connected by local tradition with the name of 
 St. Columba. And modern authorities like Professor J. 0 
 Westwood 2 and Dr J. H. Todd 3 4 seem inclined to accept 
 the tradition as historical; and, accordingly, arrive at the 
 conclusion that the still extant manuscript may be regarded 
 as a relic of the days of the Saint of Iona. On the 
 other hand, Dr Joseph Anderson, in his lectures on early 
 Christian Scottish antiquities, refers to the appearance of 
 foliageous ornament in this manuscript as »one indication 
 of its being the product, not of the beginning, but of the 
 culmination of the school of art which it represents* A 
 And Miss Margaret Stokes, who has perhaps devoted to 
 this volume more study than anyone else, in her later 
 publications, expresses an opinion that it was executed as 
 late as the ninth century. 5 We think there is something 
 to be said for the last-mentioned hypothesis. And we hope 
 to show in a following article, in which the characteristics 
 of the Carlovingian art are to be considered, that there 
 exist, in fact, between the non-Celtic elements of decora- 
 tion shown in the Book of Kells and the art dialect just 
 alluded to, such affinities as will hardly leave room for 
 doubt that the Celtic manuscript was produced under the 
 influence of that early renaissance which commenced in 
 the Frankish Empire under the reign of Charlemagne. 
 
 1 An. U., A. D. 1006. 
 
 2 Palaographia, Book of Kells, p. 6; Miniatures and Ornaments, p. 26. 
 
 3 Vetusta Monumenta, vol. VI, p. 6. 
 
 4 Scotland in Early Christian times, vol. I, p. 153. 
 
 5 Christian Inscriptions, vol. II, p. 169. 
 
 8l 
 
)astly, we have to lay before the reader some 
 specimens illustrative of the state of art in the 
 decadent age of Celtic book-illumination. First 
 in the series we shall take a small, beautifully 
 written volume containing the tripartite Psalter, 1 
 and preserved among the manuscripts of 
 Trinity College, Dublin (see Vetusta Monu- 
 menta, vol. vi, plate iv; National MSS. Irel., 
 1 . ii, appendix i; Palceographia, N:o xx). At the 
 commencement of each of the three divisions of 
 Psalms is an illuminated page containing a large orna- 
 mental initial and rows of letters laid on coloured bands 
 and framed by elaborate border work. Of the ancient 
 fret, spiral, and geometrical knot-work patterns there is 
 little or nothing; while, on the other hand, zoomorphic 
 interlacements in bold and graceful schemes are employed 
 for the surface decoration of the border as well as for 
 the construction of the initial. Smaller initials, built on 
 the same principle, are seen heading the sub-divisions of 
 the text. A letter of this last-mentioned type may be 
 briefly described as a black, banded body, with the interior 
 spaces laid with patches of colour. Occasionally it is 
 seen to be composed of two, or more, elongated and in- 
 tertwined zoomorphic forms. At the one end of the 
 banded body we notice a beast’s head of a bizarre, con- 
 ventional type, while the other extremity is either wound 
 in plain spiral lines or, what is more common, made to 
 terminate in what seems to be the rude scheme of a leaf 
 design. At the conclusion of the volume, fol. 158 verso, 
 is a versified composition, written, it appears, in the same 
 hand as part of the Psalms; and of particular interest as 
 recording the names of those engaged on the transcription 
 and decoration of the manuscript. The last six lines of 
 the entry are as follows: 
 
 Ergo in nra <j dicor gcnte Ricemarch. 
 
 Sulgeni genitus. Need Iohannis adelphT. 
 
 § XXIII 
 
 1 MS. A. 4. 20, Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 82 
 
Ithael asscripst. Studiu cui no jaurat. 
 
 Psalmorii p ceres depinxit rite Iohannes. 
 
 Ille sit IscriptT gemma sub pectore vitas 1 * 
 
 He capiat hinibin templi pietd subalis . . , 
 
 This Ricemarch is identified with a bishop of that name 
 who in A. D. 1089 succeeded his father, Sulgen, in the 
 see of St. David’s, in Wales, and who died in A. D. 1096. 3 
 
 To the same period we should adjudge another il- 
 luminated Psalter, fragments of which ;l are now preserved 
 in the library of the Franciscan Convent in Dublin. The 
 six leaves still extant present ornamental capitals of much 
 the same nature as those just described. There is the 
 same banded body in black, with a beast’s head of a non- 
 descript type attached at the one end, while the other 
 terminates in a plain spiral or in a foliated scheme. The 
 interiors are laid with patches of colour. Together with 
 some other ancient books of Irish extraction the manu- 
 script was, not long ago, transferred to its present locality 
 from the Franciscan House of St. Isidore’s at Rome. Be- 
 fore that time it was at the Franciscan Convent of St. An- 
 thony of Padua, at Louvain; and at a still earlier period, 
 according to a note entered in the first page of the frag- 
 ments, it formed part of the library in the house of the 
 same Order at Donegal (»ex libris Conventus de Dunna- 
 galb, in Colgan’s handwriting). At that time — the seven- 
 teenth century — there was a current tradition, recorded 
 by Ussher 4 and other writers, about a book written by 
 St. Camin, abbat of Inis Celtra, in Loch Derg, who died 
 about A. D. 650. And it would seem that the manuscript 
 thus claimed by the learned people of the seventeenth 
 century as of the hand of St. Camin would be no other 
 than the volume to which the still existing fragments 
 once belonged. It need hardly be said that the tradition 
 
 1 Above the line, a gloss in small letters: •/■ sacerdotis. 
 
 - Vetusta Monumenta, vol. VI, p. 14. 
 
 3 MS. G II, Libr. Franc. Conv., Dublin. 
 
 * *Habebatur Psalterium, cujus — Atque illud S. Cammini manu fuisse 
 descriptum, communi traditione ferebatur — »; Brit. Eccles. Antiquitates, p. 972. 
 
 83 
 
was, in case the identity could be proved, without real 
 foundation. 
 
 Although the art of the illuminator was, in the first 
 place, claimed for the adornment of copies of the Holy 
 Writ, and more particularly of such portions of it as the 
 Gospels and the Psalter, yet there are still extant speci- 
 mens showing that it was not confined to such works, 
 but also applied, at least in a later period, to other kinds 
 of religious service books as well as to writings of a 
 secular nature. As an instance we may take a decorated 
 volume, now in the precious collection of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, which, judging from its torn and blackened con- 
 dition, seems to have passed through some vicissitudes 1 
 (see National MSS. Ire/., vol. i, plates xxxn— xxxvi). The 
 still extant folios contain a series of hymns and composi- 
 tions in Latin and Irish, connected with the names of a 
 number of Irish saints. Coloured initials of bold, artistic 
 design are seen at the head of the various items. Each 
 of these letters is composed of zoomorphic interlacements, 
 with long, narrow appendices twisted and woven at random 
 round the broader structural body and occasionally termi- 
 nating in a leaf design. In the library of the Franciscan 
 Convent in Dublin we find some fragments of an ancient 
 Liber Hymnorum of a similar type 2 , enriched with capitals 
 which closely agree in style with those of the preceding 
 volume. Of non-ecclesiastical manuscripts the Leabhar 
 Na H-Uidhri, compiled about A. D. 1100, now in the 
 collection of the Royal Irish Academy, is held to be the 
 earliest example still in existence (see National MSS. Irel., 
 vol. i, plates xxxvii — xxxix). It contains a series of orna- 
 mental initials of the black skeleton type, heading the 
 sub-divisions of the text. 
 
 Returning to the Biblical manuscripts, we next find 
 a copy of the Gospels which may be assigned, with 
 tolerable certainty, to the middle decades of the twelfth 
 century. It is a small quarto volume among the Harleian 
 
 1 MS. E. 4. 2, Trinity Coll., Dublin. 
 
 2 MS. G. i, Libr. Franc. Conv., Dublin. 
 
 84 
 
manuscripts in the British Museum 1 (see National MSS. Irel., 
 vol. i, plates xl — xlii; Bond and Thompson, Facsimiles, 
 plate 212). The name of the scribe is ascertained from 
 several contemporary entries, which, connected with re- 
 cords in the ancient annals, admit of the conclusion that 
 the work was executed at Armagh about A. D. 1 140. 
 
 The text, of the usual » mixed » character of the Irish 
 Gospels, is written in an exceptionally minute, but clear 
 and elegant hand. The artistic work consists of elaborate 
 initials of the same nature, both in composition and de- 
 tail, as those described above; and of some very rude 
 representations of Evangelistic emblems, enclosed with 
 border work. Another small Irish volume containing the 
 Four Gospels, and preserved in the same collection, may 
 be assigned to the same century." The symbols of the 
 Evangelists appear in plain outline drawing; and in the 
 decoration of the initials we discern the same characteristic 
 details as were found in the above mentioned manuscripts. 
 
 After that time — about A. D. 1200 - — we do not 3 XXIV 
 find any new departure or advance in any branch of 
 Celtic decorative art. The method of enriching with il- 
 luminations the more important manuscripts, whether 
 sacred or secular, continued in fashion to the very end 
 of the Middle Ages. But there is no original feature of 
 any description discernible in these late mediaeval produc- 
 tions. The decorative work is mostly confined to initials, 
 drawn and painted on the model of those of the earlier 
 manuscripts; the only difference being that they are less 
 carefully executed. Occasionally we find a partial border, 
 likewise copied from ancient designs; or some kind of 
 terminal, or even free-hand drawings inserted in the margi- 
 nal spaces. But these things are, without exception, desti 
 tute of any artistic merit, roughly executed as they are, 
 and mostly in outline only, without colour. The same may- 
 be said with reference to the very feeble attempts that 
 were made, from the thirteenth century downwards, to 
 
 1 Harl. MS. 1802, Brit. Mus. 
 
 2 Harl. MS. 102 ), Brit. Mus. 
 
 8'5 
 
introduce patterns obviously copied from manuscripts of 
 English extraction; and there is absolutely nothing, in the 
 productions of Irish scribes and illuminators subsequent 
 to circa A. D. 1 200, to parallel the beautiful growth of 
 the art of illumination characteristic of the English, French, 
 and Flemish schools of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies. When we consider the flourishing condition more 
 especially of the English school of illumination in the 
 earlier half of the fourteenth century, it is somewhat un- 
 expected to find no germs of that luxuriant growth trans- 
 planted and taking root in the neighbouring isle. But, 
 at the same time, this impotency, if not total absence, of 
 foreign influences is a very significant feature, emphasi- 
 sing as it does the distance in age and character between 
 the two styles. The English style was, after all, in every 
 stage of its progress, only a particular dialect closely re- 
 lated to contemporary Continental forms of art and, to- 
 gether with these, ultimately traceable to easily recognised 
 late classical prototypes; whereas, on the other hand, the 
 Celtic style, whatever may be the origination of the sepa- 
 rate elements out of which it evolved, assumed at once, 
 and retained throughout its course, a most pronounced 
 character of its own, so widely differing in its total aspect 
 from anything observable elsewhere that, except in a few 
 special points, it is hard to distinguish any immediate 
 connexions with the various mediaeval dialects that ema- 
 nated from the classical art centres. We have seen how 
 an attempt was made to engraft a foreign element on the 
 national style, at a time when the Celtic art of illumina- 
 tion had already attained to its highest standard of ex- 
 cellence. But this attempt can hardly be pronounced suc- 
 cessful in its result. The novel element never rose to 
 importance, never came to hold a co-ordinate place with 
 the ancient native designs; and survived only in a wither- 
 ed, formalised scheme, the true origin of which is hardly 
 to be recognised owing to its hopeless divergence from 
 any rational prototype. At the time when the English 
 art of illumination reached its highest perfection the Celtic 
 86 
 
school was growing old. And, besides, the political circum- 
 stances in Ireland were at that time — and had been 
 ever since the arrival of Fitz-Stephen and his Anglo- 
 Norman followers — anything but favourable for a revival 
 of the national art, or a new departure of it, by the in- 
 fusion of foreign principles. In fact, from the political 
 history of that period it is easily understood how it was 
 that the Irish, in the decadent age, not only of their art, 
 but also of their national existence, still clung to their 
 ancient native traditions, in preference to adopting the art 
 of their conquerors. 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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