05239
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
EARLY CHRISTIAN "ART IN IRELAND.
I.
HIGH CROSS OF MONASTERBOICE.
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
IN IRELAND.
MARGARET STOKES.
WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SIX WOODCUTS.
fart L
PullisJied for tfie Committee of Couficil on Education,
BY
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED,
II, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1894
PREFACE.
THE subject of the following chapters is what has been often
mis-named Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, or Runic Art, whereas the style
is Irish. The term Celtic belongs to the arts of bronze and
gold and enamel practised in Britain before the Roman occupa-
tion, and in Ireland before the introduction of Christianity in
the fifth century. It also embraces the great stone forts that
line the western coasts of the country, such as Dun Aengus
and Dun Conor, as well as the chambered tombs of New Grange.
The late Celtic style in Great Britain, the bronzes of which are
marked by distinct characteristics in decoration, prevailed from
about two hundred years before the birth of Christ to the time
of the Roman occupation. It lingered to a much later date
in Ireland. Early Celtic goes back much farther into a pre-
historic region in which we cannot trace similar peculiarities of
decorative design. The early Christian Art of Ireland may well
be termed Scotic as well as Irish, just as the first missionaries
from Ireland to the Continent were termed Scots, Ireland having
borne the name of Scotia for many centuries before it was trans-
ferred to North Britain; and foreign chroniclers of the ninth
century speak of " Hibernia, island of the Scots," when referring
to events in Ireland regarding which corresponding entries are
found in the annals of that country.*
The fact that Anglo-Saxon manuscripts exist in England with
Irish decoration led to the misnomer Anglo-Saxon for this style
until Waagen, who had sufficient knowledge of both styles to
* See Reeves' "Adamnan," pp. 433, 437.
viii PREFACE.
perceive their difference, drew the defining line between them.
The mistake, however, led to much confusion in the Continental
libraries, where even manuscripts written as well as illuminated
by Irish scribes, were frequently named Anglo-Saxon.
The term Runic, likewise, is a misnomer as applied to such
designs in Irish Art as interlaced patterns, knots, and basket-
work, wnich occur on crosses with Runic inscriptions elsewhere.
All comparative study of national and primitive forms of deco-
rative Art seems to show that this term, as well as the others men-
tioned, has been too ignorantly used. Such designs arc found
in archaic Art in most parts of the world, and still appear in the
native work of Japan and India. They characterise Roman Art
of a certain period, and all that can be said is that certain
varieties were developed in Ireland after their introduction with
Christianity, which stamp the objects thus decorated with an
Irish character.
The peculiarity of Irish Art may be said to be the union of
such primitive rhythmical designs as are common to barbarous
nations, with a style which accords with the highest laws of the
arts of design, the exhibition of a fine architectural feeling in the
distribution of parts, and such delicate and perfect execution,
whatever the material in which the art was treated, as must
command respect for the conscientious artist by whom the work
was carried out.
The first attempt at a scientific treatment of the subject of
Irish Archeology was made by the late George Petrie, LL.D.,
of Trinity College, Dublin. His work on " The Ecclesiastical
Architecture of Ireland " is still the best authority on the subject
of the origin and history of this art. His posthumous work on
the Christian Inscriptions of Ireland affords a mass of evidence
as to the date of sculptured stones in Ireland which renders
the classification of undated specimens comparatively easy. In
Ecclesiology, as in all studies of the arts practised for ecclesias-
tical purposes, he and the late Rev. James Todd, D.D., of Dublin
PREFACE, ix
University, with the Rev. Dr. Reeves, now Bishop of Down and
Conor, will always remain our pioneers. For the illustration
of her antiquities, Ireland owes much to Edwin, third Earl of
Dunraven, who, with indefatigable energy, sought out and photo-
graphed all the typical examples of her ancient monuments
throughout the country.
I have to acknowledge much private assistance from Mr.
T. W. Longfield, of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin ; from
Mr. Wakeman, himself the author of many valuable works on
Irish Antiquities ; and from Mr. MacEniry, the Curator of the
Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Mr. J. Anderson, of
the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, has also most kindly
allowed me the use of some valuable woodcuts from his work
on te Scotland in Early Christian Times."
CONTENTS OF PART I.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY . I
CHAPTER II.
ILLUMINATION . ....
CHAPTER III.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT .... , . 50
CHAPTER IV.
METAL-WORK 53
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS TO PART I.
FRONTISPIECE High Cross of Monasterboice.
1 Ornamental Heading ........ 6
2 Initial IN. " Book of Kells" . . . .6
3 Initial T. " Book of Kells" . .... 9
4 Initial A. " Book of Kells " 12
5 Portion of Illuminated Monogram. " Book of Kells " . . 13
6 Initial N. " Book of Kells " 15
7 Portion of Illuminated Monogram. "Book of Kells" . . 16
8 Initial L. " Book of Kells " 17
9 Frontispiece of Epistle of Jerome. " Book of Durrow " . . 19
10 Initial IN. ' ' Book of Hymns," fol. 8 20
11 Initial A. " Book of Kells" 30
12 Initial IN. *' Book of Hymns," fol. 8 33
13 Initial R. " Book of Kells " 35
14 Frontispiece to St. Luke's Gospel, Convent St. Arnoul, Metz 44
15 Frontispiece to St. John's Gospel. Convent St. Arnoul, Metz 45
16 Initial B. " Book of Kells" 50
17 Initial A. " Book of Kells " 53
18 Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell 60
19 Shrine of St. Culanus' Bell Bearnan Cualaun .... 62
20 Shrine of St. Culanus' Bell (Back) 63
21 Bell of Cumascach Mac Ailello ...... 65
22 Initial S. " Book of Hymns " 66
23, 24 Shrine of Maelbrigde's Bell, Portions of . . . . .67
25 Tara Brooch .......... 76
xiv ILLUSTRATIONS TO PART I.
FIG. PACT
26 Tara Brooch. Reverse . . -77
27 Pin found at Clonmacnois 78
28 Head of Pin. Clonmacnois . ... -79
29 Roscrea Brooch. Petrie Collection So
30 Ardagh Brooch ....< ... Si
31 Chalice of Ardagh 83
32 Initial B. "Book of Hymns," fol. 10 . SS
33 Initial M. "Book of Hymns," fol. 9, verso . , 91
34 Clasp of Case of Molaise's Gospels 92
35 Initial B 9^
36 Case of Molaise's Gospels ....... 93
37 Case of Stowe Missal 95
38 Case of Dimma's Book ...... -97
39 Portions of St. Dympna's Crosier 98
39# Irish Crosier. Edinburgh Museum ...... 99
40 Initial L. "Irish Tract.,' 5 Lib. Trin. Coll. Dub., FT. 2, 16 . 103
41 Portion of Crosier. Petrie Museum 104
42 Crosier of Bishops of Clonmacnois ...... 105
43 Figures on the Shrine of St. Moguo . .107
44 Cross of Cong . 108
45, 46, 47 Book-binding and Clasps . no
48 Knife-Handle ...... . . in
49, 50 Portion of Harness and Book-binding . . . .in
51 Book-binding .... . .112
52 Knife-Handle .... . . . 112
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
IT may be asked why we now offer the public a special handbook
of Christian Art in Ireland, and why, when the Christian
Antiquities of Scotland and Wales are so closely united, should
we confine the subject of this volume to Ireland.
The answer is that we believe Ireland maybe found to supply
the key to many problems that have arisen for labourers in the
'field of Christian Art in countries where the influence of the Irish
Church was felt. Thus, in dealing with the Christian monuments
of Scotland, the antiquary will acknowledge that there are in that
country singularly few objects which may be regarded as land-
marks from which to infer the dates of others of unknown age.
This has led Mr. Anderson to say, " Neither the history nor the
remains of the early Christian period in Scotland can be studied
apart from those of Ireland." In dealing with the monastic ruins
on the islands of the west coast of Scotland, he has to refer to
the corresponding remains in Ireland to carry out his observations,
since, he observes, " we have no such complete or characteristic
groups in Scotland," and he continues :
" To learn the special features of that earliest style of Christian
construction we must look to Ireland, the ancient Scotia, where
the genius of the people, their immemorial customs, their
PART i. B
2 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
language and institutions were so similar to those of our own
country, that when the new faith was finally established by the
labours of her missionaries, the converts accepted with it the
ecclesiastical customs, constitution, and usages already established
there. 37
Referring to the round towers, two of which arc found in
Scotland, he speaks of them as :
" Stragglers from a great typical group which has its habitat
in Ireland. It follows from this, that all questions as to the
origin, purpose, and period of the type must be discussed with
reference to the evidence derived from the investigation of the
principal group, and that the general conclusions drawn from the
extended data furnished by the many in Ireland must also hold
good for the few in Scotland." *
Again, when dealing with the sculptured stones he accepts
the conclusions of the Irish school as to the date of the J ligh
Crosses, which range from the beginning of the tenth to the;
middle of the twelfth century, he concludes that the higher phase*
of sculpture in relief was developed in Ireland at an earlier
period than in Scotland. When we compare the antiquities cif
Ireland and Scotland, >ve are struck by the comparatively .small]
number of Christian sepulchral monuments in Scotland, and the
rarity of sepulchral inscriptions, as compared with Ireland.
Ireland gives upwards of 244 tombstones with inscriptions in ir.t*
vernacular, Scotland can only boast of seven, five of which are
from lona, and of a decidedly Irish type. While Ireland yields
already 154 Ogham inscriptions, Scotland only shows four on tine
main-land and seven on the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
In the lengthened discussions carried on by English and
Scottish antiquaries regarding the ISurghs or IJrodis of Scotland
and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, much light might have
been thrown upon the controversy by reference to the large class
* Joeph Anderson, "Scotland in Karly Hm'stirm Times," vol. i. pp. 4 X,
74, 76, So. Sec also this writer's observation on Irish Bells, quo! eel p. Oi
infra.
INTRODUCTORY. 3
of buildings in Ireland, which evidently belong to a similar con-
dition of society and show a similar amount of knowledge in the
builder. These are the prehistoric forts or duns on the west
coast. Again, the results of the exploration of the earth-houses
of Ireland strongly confirm the conclusions arrived at by the
Scottish antiquaries as to the date and origin of these subterranean
chambers (the Irish name of which tech talman^ house of earth
exactly corresponds to the Norse jard-hus\ that they were
treasuries in use about the time of the introduction of Christianity
into these islands and while the Ogham character was in use. In
fourteen instances, at all events, Oghams have been found on the
walls of these Irish treasuries.
For such reasons the comparative archaeologist will acknow-
ledge the special importance of a handbook of Irish antiquities,
but he will also learn that a still larger interest attaches to the
subject of Irish Archaeology when its true place in relation to
that of other countries has been defined. Owing to the fact of
Ireland being the furthest western point of Europe from those
centres of culture in the East and South whence the current
flowed, it was long centuries after the first wave of culture had
left its original source, that it broke upon the Irish shore. It is
in that country, where they last existed, that we find the largest
traces of those elements which are common to all races in the
development of their primaeval arts. In the older countries where
they first existed, they have been superseded in the vast tracts of
time covered by their history. But in this little western island
when their appearance was later, their periods of existence were
shorter, their transitions more rapid, than in the East, since the
older the human race becomes the more rapidly does progress
advance, and changes follow in quick succession ; so that it is
only in a country situated as Ireland was, that we may expect to
find such a series of monuments still existing as will give us
tangible evidence of the arts and customs of each period, back to
that which is most remote. Such remains really are the only
B 2
4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
tangible and trustworthy authority for information concerning
primitive culture periods elsewhere. If this reflex light which is
cast by Northern European monuments upon the history of
prehistoric man be interesting, how much more so is that cast
by the early Christian customs and arts of Ireland upon early
Christian practices elsewhere ! Our authorities on Christian
antiquities quote records of Christian customs among the first
converts on the shores of the Mediterranean, all relics of which
are lost, such as the rude bell, the wooden crosier, the stone
chalice ; but such venerable objects are preserved to the present
day in relic-loving Ireland. The custom of offering prayers for
the dead has no such testimony to its early prevalence in the
Church as that afforded by Ireland, whose every tombstone,
almost from the earliest time, is inscribed with a request for
intercession for the soul of the departed. In architecture the
form of the Irish church points to an original type that has else-
where been superseded by the basilica. It is the old traditional
form of the Ark that building in which the Church was rescued
from the flood of the Shrine in early Christian Art, in which were
entombed the relics of some form that " once had been the
temple of the spirit," and it is the form of the tomb and
mortuary chapel which was preserved in Ireland even after the
establishment of Romanesque architecture. The vexed question
as to the , introduction and early use of ecclesiastical towers on
the Continent remained long unsettled, because of the want of
monuments, showing what were the earliest types in Western
Europe. Ireland in her ecclesiastical circular towers shows us in
upwards of a hundred instances what were the first and simplest
types. Thus from the study of the monuments of Ireland the
historian of Christian Art and Architecture may learn something
of the works of a time, the remains of which have been swept
away elsewhere ; and it may yet be seen, as in the case of her
institutions, customs, faith, and forms in Art, so in Architecture,
Ireland points to origins of noble things. The light she throws
1NTROD UCTOR Y. 5
upon history resembles those reflected lights in nature, so
precious to the landscape painter, which blend in prismatic chords
of colour, the coldest gray above, with the warmest hues beneath.
In the history of Christian thought and Art, the early rays that,
penetrating from the South, awoke the cold North to warmer life,
are again brought to bear on the source whence they originally
sprang.
FIG. I.
CHAPTER II,
ILLUMINATION.
PRESENTING the following Manual
of the Archaeology of Ireland, the writer's
object is to indicate how far the know-
ledge of her native arts in the past may
subserve to their higher development in
the future. It is only by adherence to
a certain system of study and method
of treatment, that this result can be
looked for. The object is not to pre-
sent a guide to the antiquities of Ireland,
but rather to indicate how these anti-
quities should be approached, so as to
draw forth whatever elements of instruc-
tion may lie hidden in them for workers in the present day.
The arts in which Christian Ireland excelled before the
thirteenth century were, the writing and ornamentation of
MSS., metal-work, stone-cutting, and building. It is therefore
for those who practise these handicrafts in the present day, that
we hope to show the advantage of a close study of such of these
ancient writings, relics, and monuments as have, through the
energy and learning of our antiquaries, been discerned and
preserved for our instruction. Two distinct benefits may be
drawn from this pursuit, the first being the development among
FIG. 2.
ILLUMINATION. 7
our illuminators, goldsmiths, and stone-cutters of a higher
standard of technical execution, of precision and delicacy of
finish, than exists in the present day; the second and larger
benefit, that of indicating to a designer or architect where he
may find the salient points in works of ancient Irish Art, which
distinguish it from that of other countries, which give it a native
character, and which, when once fully grasped, he can seize and
graft upon his own design. Thus he is enabled to take up the
threads of the too early broken web of his country's arts, and
weaving them into his own work, he can add the distinction of
an individual and native character to the forms of its future
development.
The first art, that of the scribe, was indeed carried to mar-
vellous perfection in Ireland, but since, owing to the invention of
printing, this is no longer an honoured handicraft, it may be
questioned whether the study of Irish writing can be of use to
the worker of the present day. Still the story of the O of Giotto
shows how important technical skill was considered in the days
of great religious Art* To draw a perfect circle, unaided by the
compasses, is a feat only to be accomplished by an eye and hand
in perfect training and obedience to the artist's will. Such circles
are to be seen in every page of the " Book of Kells." There is
no instance of a letter O, in the large round lettering of this book,
in which the slightest sign of a swerving hand is perceptible.
" Writing/' says Dr. Reeves, " formed a most important part
of the monastic occupations." Besides the supply of service-
books for the numerous churches that sprang into existence, and
which probably were without embellishment, great labour was
bestowed upon the ornamentation of some manuscripts, especially
* When the messenger of Pope Benedict IX. came to Florence, he re-
quested Giotto to give him a drawing to send to his Holiness as a sample of
his powers. Giotto, who was very courteous, took a sheet of paper and a
pencil dipped in a red colour ; then, resting his elbow on his side, with one
turn of his hand he drew a circle, so perfect and exact that it was a marvel
to behold. (See Vasari, " Lives of the Artists," Ed. Bohn, vol. i. p. 102.)
8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the sacred writings ; these are wonderful monuments of the con-
ceptions, skill, and patience of the scribes of the seventh century.
Codex A of Adamnan's " Life of Columba " is a fine specimen
of the ordinary Latin hand (a peculiar heavy hand) of the Scotic
scribe, which is of earlier date than the "Book of Armagh." The
penmanship of the Irish scribes is known to have exercised a
considerable influence on that of the Continent from the time of
its first introduction by the Irish missionaries, which continued
to prevail till *"-' ^>">r"-.: n IP<-I sr. l :. ( f--^!:p '-n^ries. '>r r^^
monks instructed their disciples in the technicalities of this art,
such as the manner of holding the pen, the preparation of ink,
and indeed the whole process of writing, the results of which are
of exquisite beauty. The writing apparatus consisted of tabul
or waxen tablets, graphia or styles, calami or pens, made of
goose-quills or crow-quills, and the ink used was carbonaceous,
not mineral. The parchment, as compared with that made use
of in France from the seventh till the tenth century, was for the
most part much thicker. It is often finely polished, but more
frequently horny and dirty. On the whole, these scribes do not
appear to have attained much perfection in the preparation of
the skins, with which they were supplied by their goats, sheep,
and calves. That they were not very lavish in the use of their
parchment is shown by the number of perforated leaves that
occur in their books. The thick ink in use is remarkable for its
blackness and durability. It often resists the action of chemical
tests of iron, and seems not to have been made of the ingredients
commonly used for the purpose. The red colour which is so
often met with is mixed with a thick varnish or gummy sub-
stance, which has preserved it not only from sinking in but also
from fading. Several colours, such as the yellows, are laid on
transparent, and very thin and fluid ; others have a thick body,
consisting of a triturated earth or some skilfully prepared
material, and a strong binding medium. Bede, speaking of the
colours prepared in Britain, especially notices the brilliancy and
ILLUMINATION. g
permanence of the red. In the following passage he says
{"Eccl. Hist," Bk. I. c. i.): "It has many kinds of shell-fish, such
as mussels, in which are often found excellent pearls of all
colours, red, purple, violet, and green, but mostly white. There
is also a great abundance of cockles, of which the scarlet colour
is made a most beautiful colour, which never fades with the
heat of the sun or the washing of the rain ; but the older it is,
the more beautiful it becomes.'"' He also notes in the following
page, that such virtue lay in the books of the Irish missionaries
that the mere "scrapings of their leaves that were brought out of
Ireland, if put into water and swallowed, were an antidote to the
poison of serpents." The extraordinary neatness of the hand-
writing, and its firm character, have led several English anti-
quaries to express opinions as to the writing instruments which
were used by the Irish monks. The notion that they employed
'extremely sharp metallic pens is quite untenable. Ferdinand
Keller holds that their writing implements were neither reeds nor
skilfully formed tools, but the quills of swans, geese, crows, and
other birds. This is proved by several pictures in Irish MSS.,
where the Evangelist, engaged in writing his Gospel, holds in his
hand a pen, the feather of which can be clearly perceived. The
inkstand is also represented as a simple slender conical cup,
fastened either to the arm of the chair, or upon a small stick on
the ground.
HE character in which the Irish scribes
wrote resembles that employed in
Latin MSS. of the Romance countries
of the fifth and sixth centuries. Such
letters occur in the oldest Lombardic and
Gallic manuscripts. They had two forms
of handwriting: the minuscule, or round
FIG. 3.'"" hand, and the more angular running hand.
The finest MSS. of the Gospels, such as the " Book of Kells,"
jo EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
approach the round uncial writing; while the small and delicate
style of such writing as that of the "Book of Armagh/' has more
analogy to the running hand.
Ferdinand Keller remarks : " The character of the uncial
writing, from the roundness and graceful curve of the lines,
acquires a softness very pleasing to the eye, as contrasted with
the Frankish style, which presents more angularity, gradually
passing into the stiffness and abruptness of what is called the
Gothic style. Moreover, the symmetry of this kind of handwriting
is remarkable, as exhibited in the distance of the several letters from
each other, and in their well-proportioned height. The shading
and tinting of the different letters is also managed with much
skill and taste. The running hand, for which a tolerably elastic
pen was used, seems, notwithstanding its regularity, to have been
written with freedom and ease. . . . On the whole," this writer
adds, speaking of the excellence of this school of caligraphy, " it
attained a high degree of cultivation, which certainly did not
result from the genius of single individuals, but from the emula-
tion of numerous schools of writing, and the improvements of
several generations. There is not a single letter in the entire
alphabet which does not give evidence, both in its general form
and its minuter parts, of the sound judgment and taste of the
penman."
Sixty-one remarkable scribes are named in the "Annals of
the Four Masters" as having flourished in Ireland before the
year 900 forty of whom lived between A.D. 700 and 800. In
the year 434 we read that at the request of Patrick "the History
and Laws of Ireland were purified and written, the writings and
old books of Ireland having been collected and brought to one
place." In the "Life of Columba" (b. A.D. 521, d. 597), we learn
that diligence in writing was one characteristic of the saint, as
well as of his successor, Dorbene, Abbot of lona, and the title
of scribe is frequently used to enhance the dignity of a bishop.
The belief that the " Book of Kells " was the work of Columba
ILLUMINATION. n
himself cannot be sustained. The tradition seems to have arisen
from the fact that, at the date 1006, the book is mentioned in the
Irish Annals as the great Gospel of Columb of the church. It
probably was so named, not because Coiumba wrote the book or
executed its marvellous decorations, but because it was the copy
of the four Gospels used in the church of Kells, which church
was founded by Coiumba. In judging of the age of MSB. of
the Holy Scripture, various considerations enter into the account :
and the questions we should put to a manuscript of such tradi-
tionally great antiquity are : ist, as to the version of the Scrip-
ture it contains- 2nd, the orthography; 3rd, the style of
writing 4th, the nature of the vellum ; 5th, the kind of ink
used. Against conclusions drawn from these evidences no tradi-
tion can stand, and it is the opinion of such antiquaries as Dr.
Reeves, who have put these tests to this book, that it cannot be
assigned to so early a period as from A.D. 521 to 597. On the
other hand, all authorities will agree in the belief that the " Book
of Kells " is an older book, and, as it were, the parent of such a
work as "St. Cuthbert's Gospels" now in the British Museum (Nera
D. IV.), written by Eadfrith A.D. 698-721, and illuminated by
Ethelwald his contemporary. It is quite in harmony with other
information we possess, as to the skill of Irish writers of the
seventh and eighth centuries, to hold that the "Book of Kells' 7 may
have been illuminated at the close of the seventh century, and
one of the scribes engaged on this work may have been Ethel-
wald's teacher. Among the names of Saxon students who visited
Ireland before the eighth century we find that of Eadfrith, and
there is ground for belief that St. Cuthbert was of Irish birth >
who, after the manner of Irishmen abroad, changed his name
of Cudrig to Cuthbert It is stated by Ware, in his " Life of
Matthew O'Heney," a Cistercian monk, and Archbishop of
Cashel A.D. 1 1 94, that this ecclesiastic was author of a life of St
Cuthbert, who was born at Kenanus (Kells), and who migrated
to Melrose, where he remained under Eata and Boisillus, abbots >
12 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
until he was consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne in 684. He also
quotes an entry in the "Annals of St. Mary," where it is stated that
St. Cuthbert was born four miles from Dublin 3 at Kilmocudrig,
on Kilmashogue Mountain.
NOTHER argument against assigning the
"Book of Kells" to so early a date as the
middle of the sixth rr-iinj; -nny be f^nnd
in :he very perfection of the writing and
elaborate detail of the art that adorns its
pages. It is most improbable that such
work could have been executed at a period
when the Church in Ireland had not had
FIG. 4. time to settle down into quiet, indispen-
sable for the production of such works; and it may be said
that such a life as that which St. Columba seems to have led,
was incompatible with the execution of writings so perfect.
He was an active, hard-working missionary, who could not have
led the sedentary life required to form the hand and eye which
could carry out this work. Another argument against this book
being contemporaneous with Columba, is found in the fact that
it is a copy of the Hieronymian version of the Gospels, which
version was not adopted in Ireland at that early date. In
Adamnan's "Life of Columba," the quotations from Scripture
which occur are not of the same version as the " Book of Kells,"
but are drawn from an older one in use before St. Jerome's re-
vised version had become generally used in these countries. The
words, Liber Generations Christi, at the opening of the Gospel of
St. Matthew, form the subject of six pages which are the most
wonderful examples of illumination in this MS. At the close of
the preface to the Gospel, the first is devoted to the four evan-
gelical symbols, framed in a highly ornamented border ; in this
page we see a figure probably representing St. Matthew ; in that
following, we have the words Liber Generations, which occupy
ILLUMINATION. 13
an entire folio. Next comes a picture of Christ, His hand raised
in benediction ; this is followed by a page of merely ornamental
work, and then the whole series is crowned by the name of
Christ, x P I. In these six pages there is a gradual increase of
FIG. 5. PORTION OF ILLUMINATED MONOGRAM. BOOK OF KELLS.
splendour, the culminating point of which is reached in this
monogram of Christ, and upon it is lavished with all the fervent
devotion of the Irish scribe, every variety of design to be found
in Celtic Art, so that the name which is the epitome of his faith,
is also the epitome of his country's Art. (See Figs. 5 and 8.)
i 4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
We shall give a list of these designs, as they will serve to explain
-the characteristic forms of Art in this school ; they are
ist LINEAR DESIGNS. 2nd NATURAL FORMS
(treated conventionally).
1. Divergent spiral or trumpet pattern. I. Foliage.
2. The Triquetra. 2. Fish.
3. Interlaced bands. 3. Reptiles.
4. Knot work. 4. Buds.
5. Eight varieties of gammadion. 5- Man.
6. Chevron and rectilinear patterns. 6. Quadrupeds.
In the monogram page of the "Book of Kells" we find a group
>of squirrels watching their young at play with a round cake
marked with a cross. The trefoil called in parts of France and
Italy, "Pain du bon Dieu/ 5 and " Alleluleia," seems the only
vegetable form in use, unless a star-like design, which is a con-
stant feature in Celtic decoration, may be held to signify a flower.
The other foliate patterns are mere conventional arrangements
of leaves for ornamental purposes. The tree of knowledge is
constantly seen on the Irish crosses of the tenth century, but
its branches and stem are arranged so as to form a border
in a series of wreathed and flowing lines resembling borders in
the "Book of Kells."
One exception, however, may be made to the above remarks
in the instances of the flower sceptres, which are occasionally
found in the hands of Christ and the angels in the "Book of Kells/'
and on the crosses. In such scenes as the triumph of Christ,
and the glorification of the Virgin, this beautiful idea of the
blossoming sceptre occurs. It appears in the hand of Christ on
the cross of Clonmacnois, in St. Matthew's hand in the "Book of
Kells," as well as with many of the angels represented in that
book. Mr. Ruskin remarks that the roots of leaf ornament in
Christian architecture are the Greek acanthus and the Egyptian
lotus. (See "Stones of Venice/ 7 vol. i. p. 227.)
ILL UMINA TION.
O
trace of the acanthus
has ever been found as the
basis of any Celtic foliate
pattern. Something similar
to the buds of the lotus
does occur in the "Book
of Kells," but never the
acanthus. The vine and the
trefoil are rather the roots
of all Irish leaf ornament,
and both these plants have
borne a meaning in Chris-
tian symbolism.
The fish occurs once
in the mouth of some
strange animal. Serpents,
lizards, birds with legs and necks elongated
and interlaced, are found in every part of
the great monogram page of the " Book of
Kells," while the human form is seen in four
weird figures, whose bodies are entangled
with those of birds, and who are blowing
trumpets, which instruments are elongated
so as to entwine the musicians in their in-
extricable coils. Three angels bearing
books, and one holding a sceptre crowned
by a trefoil in each hand, are seen to rest
with outspread wings upon the main line of
the letter X, while in the centre of the P a
man's face appears, bearded but not aged,
and above all, and, as it were, emerging
from a labyrinth of spiral lines, diverging
and converging in endless succession, rises
the veiled head of a woman. (See Fig. 8.)
i6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
No copy of such a work as this can convey an idea of
the perfection of execution shown in the original; for, as with
FIG. 7. PORTION OF ILLUMINATED MONOGRAM. BOOK OF KELLS.
the skeleton of a leaf or with any microscopic work of nature,
the stronger the magnifying power brought to bear upon it,
the more is this perfection revealed.
ILLUMINATION. 17
ETTERS from the "Book of
Kells" have been used as initials
in various places in this work.
These, and the accompanying
illustrations, will give a fair idea
of the character of the illumi-
nated initial letters which appear
throughout the manuscript.
Among them are two forms of A,
and two also of B, one C, one
M, one R, one T, and two in-
stances
of illumi-
nated lig-
atures,
IM and
ISjoined.
Two por-
tions of
the great
mono-
gram
page are
given here, but the size of the present volume unfortunately
precludes the possibility of giving more than a small extract
from each page. The whole design may be seen in full in
vol. vi. of " Vetusta Monumenta."
From the school in which such work as this was produced, it
is natural to suppose many branches sprang. In Ireland we
have the " Book of Durrow " in King's Co., a fragment of the
Gospels, also said to be in the handwriting of Columba, and in
which there are illuminations of the same style of Art, though
inferior in beauty of execution.* In this manuscript at the
* The specimen given in Fig. 9 is the page preceding the Epistle of
PART I. C
FIG. 8.
i8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
close of the first and apparently the oldest portion, we find the
usual request of the Irish scribe for a prayer from the reader
which, when translated, runs thus :
" I pray thy blessedness, O holy presbyter, Patrick, that who-
soever shall take this book into his hands may remember the
writer, Columba, who have myself written this Gospel in the space
of twelve days by the grace of our Lord."
The ancient cumdach or shrine of this book has long been
missing, but a copy of the inscription is preserved, and may be
thus translated :
"The Prayer and Benediction of St. Columkill be upon Flann
the son of Malachi, king of Ireland, who caused this cover to be
made.
Flann, son of Malachi, was king of Ireland, who reigned A.D.
879-916, so that we see this book was associated with the name
of Columba, and venerated accordingly so early as the close of
the ninth century. Another curious point connected with the
antiquity of the book is the fact that in the miniature of the
ecclesiastic at the end of the volume, the Irish tonsure, and not
the Roman, is represented. We know that the Roman tonsure
was introduced in the year 718, when it was first adopted by the
community at lona. The Irish tonsure, across the head " from
ear to ear," was derived from St. Patrick, the Roman was in the
form of a crown. Nevertheless we can hardly maintain that this
book is as old as St. Columba's date, since the version of Scrip-
ture contained in it is not the same as that in use in Ireland in
the sixth century, portions of which are quoted in the life of the
saint, but is St. Jerome's version.
There are fewer varieties of design in this book than in the
"Book of Kells," but those it does display belong to the most
characteristic and archaic style of Irish Christian Art. Such are
the patterns of right lines described by Humboldt as " rythmical
patterns, which characterise the ornamentation of many nations
Jerome in this volume, and offers a fine example of the Celtic design, called
trumpet pattern or divergent spiral.
ILLUMINA TION.
FIG. 9. FRONTISPIECE OF EPISTLE OF JEROME. fe BOOK OF DURRO\Y. 3J
20 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
in a certain state of civilisation." The divergent spiral or trumpet
pattern, and diagonal patterns, along with' those of a later style
formed of interlaced bands, animals, etc., are the prevailing
designs here. There is no sign of any vegetable forms being
used. The book was preserved at Durrow, a small town in the
barony of Ballycowen, where St. Columba founded an abbey A.D.
546. At the Reformation this book was given to the library of
Trinity College, Dublin.
N the Annals of Clonmacnois the translator, Connell
Mageoghegan, has alluded to the belief in Ireland
respecting the peculiar property of St. Columba ? s MSS.
in resisting the influence of moisture, in which
he refers to the " Book of Durrow":
" He, i.e. Columba, wrote 300 books
with his own hand. They were all New
Testaments ; he left a book to each of his
churches in the kingdom, which books
have a strange property, which is, that if
they, or any of them, had sunk to the
bottom of the deepest waters, they would
not lose one letter, or sign, or character of
them, which I have seen tried, partly by myself
on that book of them which is at Dorowe
(Durrow) in the King's Co., for I saw the
ignorant man that had the same in his custodie,
when sickness came on cattle, for their remedy,
put water on the book and suffer it to rest
therein; and saw also cattle return thereby to
their former state ; and the book receive no loss."
However marvellous was the skill of the
scribe of the "Book of Kells," or that of the
Columba who, in the "Book of Durrow," tells
us that he executed his work in the space
of twelve days, none surpassed Ferdom-
ILLUMINATION. 21
nach, the scribe of the " Book of Armagh." His death, in the
year 844, is recorded in the "Annals of the Four Masters," and
the entry is so worded as to lead to the conclusion that, even at
this, the finest period of Irish Art, his powers were remarkable.
This entry is as follows : "A.IX 844, Ferdomnach, a sage and choice
scribe of the Church of Armagh, died."
We may instance as one remarkable specimen of this writer's
skill the folio 103, where the central portion of the text is written
in semi-cursive letters, in the shape of a diamond. The volume
contains four uncoloured drawings of the Evangelical symbols.
After folio 104 the capital letters are slightly coloured, yellow,
red, green, and black. In design and execution, these ornamental
portions equal if they do not in some points surpass the grace
and delicate execution of the letters in the i; Book of Kells."
To these examples of Irish illuminated books of the seventh
and eight centuries we may now add certain portions in the Stowe
Missal. This book is written in two different hands, and there
may be the space of two centuries between the ages of the writing.
The oldest half is written in a large Lombardic handwriting, and
the other, which is of later date, in a minuscule in the manner of
a palimpsest.
This MS. contains a copy of St. John's Gospel ; a Missal ; a
tract on the ceremonies of the Mass ; and three Irish spells. At
the close of St. John's Gospel is a representation of the Evangelist
with his eagle above him. The figure is apparently seated, the
back of his seat appearing behind. Another ornamented page
shows a zoomorphic lacertine border, and another with zigzag
designs which, though much inferior in execution, yet resembles
some of the work in the " Book of Armagh."
The Gospel closes with the transcriber's name in the following
passage (folio i2a) :
" Deo gratias ago. Amen. Finit. Amen.
" Rogo quicumque hunc librum legeris, ut memmeris mei peccatoris,
scriptoris, i. * Sonid ' (Dinos) peregrinus. Amen, Sanus qui scripsit et cui
scriptuw est. Amen."
2.2 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The name Sonid is here written from left to right in Ogham
characters. This name has not been met with elsewhere by Irish
scholars. It would seem from the context to mean Sanus. Another
name is found in the colophon to the Ordinary and Canon of the
Mass. " Moelcaich scripsit." The name of St. Mochonne, who
died A.D. 714, occurs in the " Commemoratio pro Defunctis," and
that of Mochta, as well as Maelruain, probably the Bishop of
Tallaght, are among the bishops and priests invoked at the end
of the prayer of St. Ambrose. Two saints named Mochta are
known to have lived in Ireland, one who died A.D. 922 at his
church of Inis-Mochta, now Inishmot in the county of Meath;
the death of the elder is recorded A.D. 534. St. Mochta of
Louth was probably the Maucteus named in the Annals of
Ulster at A.D. 471, 511, 527, and St. Maelruain was the Bishop of
Tallaght who died A.D. 792. His church within three miles of
Dublin was called Tamlacht Maelruain.
The mention of this Bishop Maelruain, who lived in the latter
half of the eighth century, among the departed saints com-
memorated in the earlier part of the Stowe Missal, overthrows the
theory of the extreme antiquity of this manuscript put forward
by some writers, who would attribute part of the composition and
handwriting to the fifth century, and part to the seventh and
eighth.
It was written after the years 590, or 604, for it contains the
clause "diesque nostros numeravi," which was added to the
Liturgy by Gregory the Great at that time. It was written after
the year 589, when the Nicene Creed which occurs here was
introduced. Also it must be later than the year 627, since
Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died at that date, is
invoked in the '* Commemoratio pro Defunctis," and later than 687
since it prescribes the use of the "Agnus Dei," said to have been
introduced by Sergius I. between the years 687 and 701.
The second list of departed saints contains the names of
several persons who lived in the seventh and eighth centuries, such
ILL UMINA T10N. 23
as the Archbishops of Canterbury, Lawrence, and Mellitus, as
well as the Irish Mochonna and Maelniain already mentioned.
It appears that certain improvements were made in the
Roman Missal in the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century,
in the days of Berno, who was Abbot of Cluny in 927, and
who died about 1047. These improvements were adopted by
the Irish at the Synod of Kells, A.D. 1152, and as they are
wanting in the Stowe Missal we may consider it as the one in
use before that date.
The whole volume, writes Mr. Warren, is replete with such
transcendent palseographical and liturgical interest that every
sentence, almost every word in the MS. invites lengthy historical
and antiquarian annotation. The same writer, in a letter to the
Academy (April 23, 1887, No. 781, p. 291), is of opinion that
tiie older handwriting of this Missal should be attributed to a date
subsequent to 792, and is gradually drawn to the conclusion that
the Irish portions of the MS. cannot have been written before
the tenth centur}, and were probably transcribed in the eleventh
or twelfth. If so, the initial (fol. i2 a ) is probably copied by an
inferior hand from an original perhaps two centuries older, and
this would explain the incongruity between the style, which
belongs to the finest period of Irish illumination that of the
Book of Armagh and the execution, which is comparatively
careless and defective. The divergent spiral and zigzag patterns
of the eighth and ninth centuries had gone out of fashion in the
twelfth.
The " Book of Dimma " is a copy of the Gospels, formerly
said to have been written in the seventh century, as it contains
the scribe's autograph at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew :
Finit. Oroit do Dimmu rod scrib pro Deo et benedictione.
Finit. A prayer for Dimma, who wrote it for God, and a blessing.
And again, at the close of the Gospel of St. John, we read :
Finit. Amen. *J< Dimma Mace. Nathi. >Jl
24 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
This Dimma was believed to have been the scribe mentioned
in the "Life of St. Cronan," who lived A.D. 634, as employed by him
to write a copy of the Gospels. The book belonged to the Abbey
of Roscrea, founded by Cronan. It was enshrined in the middle
of the twelfth century by order of Tatheus O'Carroll, chieftain of
Ely O' Carroll. The shrine with its precious enclosure disappeared
at the time of the dissolution of monasteries. It was found by
boys hunting rabbits in the year 1789, among the rocks of the
Devil's Bit Mountain, in the county of Tipperary, carefully pre-
served and concealed. The boys who discovered it tore off
the silver plate, and picked out some of the lapis-lazuli with
which it was studded. They feared to touch the side of the
shrine, on which they found the representation of the Passion.
It then came into possession of Dr. Harrison of Nenagh, and
having passed through the hands of Mr. Monck Mason and Sir
William Betham and Dr. Todd, was finally purchased for the
Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The '' Book of St. Moling " was formerly held to have been
written in the seventh century, since it contains the name of a
scribe which corresponds with that of the saint, who was Bishop
of Ferns, A.D. 600. At the end of the Gospel of St. John the
following note occurs :
$init. Amen, (fruit
O tu quicunque scripseris
vel scrutatus pueris, vel etiam
Videris hoc volumen Deum oia
per clinosum mondi
usque altissimum
(nom) en autem scriptoris. Mulling
dicitur. Finiunt quatuor evangel u.
This volume contains the four Gospels in Latin with a
formulary for the " Visitation of the Sick, ''written in double columns
in a neat minuscule character, and Mr. Gilbert has observed
that a colophon in semi-Greek characters somewhat similar to
ILLUMINATION. 25
but larger than those in this manuscript, is to be found in the
Irish copy of Adamnan's "Life of Columba," transcribed in the
eighth century, and now extant at Schaffhausen. Each Gospel
commences with the first word, or its first letters of a large
size, not coloured, but with double marginal rows of red dots.
Figures of the Evangelists precede their respective Gospels, each
figure holding a book, and one with a pen and inkstand by his
side. They have the circular nimbus, and one has long hair
falling on his shoulders. This book, with its ancient case, or
cumdach, has been from early ages venerated in Leinster, and
has descended to us from the ninth or tenth century in the care
of its hereditary keepers, whose representatives in the Kavanagh
family of Borris in the county of Carlow, deposited it in the
Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The " Garland of Howth" is a copy of the four Gospels which
had been preserved down to the time of Ussher in the church on
Ireland's Eye, near Howth, anciently called Inis mac Nessain.
Ussher states that in his time there was a small clasp or tongue
(linguld) of silver attached to the book, on which was inscribed
the name of St. Talman, but does not state who this Talman was.
All traces of this clasp have long since disappeared, the book
having unfortunately been rebound about sixty years ago, when
it suffered considerably. The art of the decorations in this book
is larger and bolder than we usually meet with in Irish MSS.
No spirals are introduced or rectangular designs. Nothing but
interlaced ornament. The colours are green, red, and yellow.
The frontispiece to the Gospel of St. Matthew contains the
monogram of the word x~P~T Christi autem Gene(ratio) in large
uncial letters two angels enveloped in wings appear above the
figures of the evangelist Matthew and an ecclesiastic, who holds
in his right hand what appears to be a sword, and in his left a
book. Both figures are seated, the first having the feet bare and
crossed, the second with buskins, the soles of his feet meeting.
The angel above the first figure is represented as wearing curls
26 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
while the angel over the beardless figure has the hair concealed
under a sort of cap or cowl: the sword-shaped object, held in the
right hand of the second figure, probably represents tablets, such
as were brought by the first missionaries into Ireland. If this be
so, we have here an explanation of an anecdote in the " Book of
Armagh." (See Todd's "St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. 509 n.a.)
St. Patrick with eight or nine companions having in their hands
* v tablets after the manner of Moses " (i.e. like the Tables of the
Law), had reached some distant part of Ireland ; the pagan natives
of the country mistook these tablets, or pretended to mistake
them, for swords, and to turn the people against the missionaries
the Druids cried out that Patrick and his company had swords
in their hands, swords of iron, not of wood, and were come with
murderous intent to shed blood. The tablets must have been
long and narrow to render this mis-statement plausible.
The figure in the frontispiece to St. Mark's Gospel is probably
intended for the Evangelist, whose symbol, the winged lion, is
seen among the ornaments above. The figure kneels at a
lectern, his hands clasped in prayer, and supporting a closed
book. The face is beardless ; the head is covered with a blue
cowl and surrounded by a nimbus. The letters, by which this
figure is surrounded, are the first words of the Gospel of St.
Mark in square uncial letters.
INItium. eva(ngelii).
The " Psalter of Ricemarch " is a manuscript of the eleventh
century written by Ricemarch, Rhyddmarch, or Rhydderch,
Bishop of St. David's, who succeeded his father Sulgen in the
same See in 1089, and died himself in 1096. Judging from the
character of the handwriting, as Dr. Todd observes, he must
have -received his education in Ireland. The pages are
ornamented with initials and borders in red, yellow, and green,
birds and serpents, their bodies elongated and interlaced. Some
traces of silver appeared in the ornamentation of the word DNE.
ILLUMINATION. 27
A curious later poem at the end of the book closes with the
words, " Ithsel, whose name makes learning golden, aided me in
writing this book; I, Ricemarch, am called Sulgenson by my
family name, and the brother of John. Psalmorum pro ceres
depinxit rite Johannes, 1 '" meaning that the initial letters of the
Psalms were illuminated by John. The last two lines of this
poem have been thus read by Dr. Todd : " May he be inscribed
on the jewel which is on the breast of the High Priest, may the
picture of the cherubim of the temple receive him under their
wings." This manuscript formerly belonged to Dr. William
Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, by whom it was at first lent, and
afterwards (as it seems) given to Archbishop Ussher. It is now
preserved among the Ussher MSS. in Trinity College, Dublin.
The "Irish Antiphonary," or Book of Hymns, is a beautiful MS.,
which has been assigned to the ninth or tenth century, as we
learn from Dr. Todd, who states that " it preserves to us a con-
siderable portion of the ritual of the Church of Ireland, as it
existed before the English conquest, and before the attempt to
establish uniformity with the Church of England by the in-
troduction of the Salisbury use into Ireland, in the twelfth
century." The ornamental initials, with which the various hymns
commence, though less delicate in design and execution than
those of the Books of Kells and of Armagh, are still of a fine and
original character, as may be seen from the accompanying
illustrations, examples of the letters A, C, L, M, S, and the
two forms of IN conjoined.*
From Ireland the practice of this art spread side by side
with religion to lona, thence to Melrose, Lindisfarne; and,
distinct as its character is from the Art of the Teutonic nations,
it was henceforward misnamed Anglo-Saxon in England, while
on the Continent it was termed either Anglo-Saxon or Scottish.
It is only of late that writers on the subject have learned that
* The initial L (Fig. 40, p. 103) is copied from the vellum MS. (H. 2. 16,
col. 281) in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
28 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
North Britain (to the south-western portions of which the names
Alba and Pictland were also given) was not termed Scotland
till the close of the ninth century \ whereas the island of Ireland
had borne the name of Scotia for many centuries before. It
was in 503 that a colony from Ulster settled in Pictland or
Alba, and there founded a kingdom which, in the ninth century,
under Kenneth MacAlpin, enlarged its territories, and the whole
kingdom was called Scotia or Scotland, after the name of the
race who had migrated into it from Ireland. The confusion
of this Scotic or Irish Art with Anglo-Saxon arose from the
fact that MSS. written in Anglo-Saxon were often illuminated
either by Irish artists or by monks who had learned their art
in Ireland.
The fame of one of the many Irish scribes who worked
in England in the eighth century, or perhaps even earlier,
has been preserved for us in a poem written at the beginning
of the ninth century. This scribe was named Ultan, and the
fact that his relics were sought for their miraculous efficacy
is, at all events, evidence that Ultan must have lived and died
a considerable time before the year when the poem was written ;
for it is there related that, when for a long time the earth had
consumed his body, a certain brother in the monastery sent
for the bones " of that arm of the father with which he worthily
depicted the mystical words of our Lord, that through its power
he might be restored." This poem on the miracles of Father
Ultan, was addressed by Ethel wolf, monk of Lindisfarne, to
Bishop Egbert, then in Ireland, during the reign of Osred,
King of Northumbria (A.D. 802-891). "Fame proclaims," says
Ethelwolf, " that many live a perfect life, of which number is
he who is called by the renowned name of Ultan. This man
was a blessed priest of the Scotic nation, who could adorn
little books with elegant designs, and so rendered life a pleasant
kind of the highest ornaments. In this Art no modern scribe
could rival him, nor is it to be wondered at if a worshipper of
ILLUMINATION. 29
the Lord could do such things, since the Holy Spirit, as an
inspirer, guides his fingers and raises his devout mind to the
stars."*
That the Irish school of illumination continued for some
centuries to exist in the North of England is abundantly
proved by the numerous MSS. preserved in the libraries of the
British Museum, Lambeth Palace, the Bodleian, Oxford, Corpus
Christi, St. John's College, and the University Library,
Cambridge, as well as the cathedral libraries of Lichfield and
Durham. These have been so well described and illustrated
by the antiquaries of England that it will suffice to give a list of
references to their works at the end of the next chapter.
* See Mabillon, ec Acta SS., Ord. Bened.," iv. par. ii. 317-335.
CHAPTER III.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT.
regards the literature of ancient Ireland and
its remains, it has been observed by
Dr. Reeves that in this country we have
to deplore the merciless rule of
barbarism, which swept away all
domestic evidences of advanced
learning, leaving scarcely anything on
record at home but legendary lore,
and has compelled us to draw from foreign
depositaries the materials on which to rest
the proof that Ireland of old was really en-
titled to that literary eminence which national
feeling lays claim to. Our annals generally ignore the
existence of those Irish ecclesiastics who went abroad,
such as Gall, the founder of a monastery in Switzer-
land; Columbanus, of another at Bobio, in North
Italy; Cataldus, of Tarentum, in South Italy; Fiachra and
Fridolin, in France ; and Coloman and Kilian, in Germany and
Bavaria ; not one of whom are mentioned in our annals. The
exceptions to this rule are Fergil or Virgilius, of Salzburg,
whose death in 788 is recorded ; Dunchadh, of Cologne, who
died A.D. 813; Gilla-na-naemh Laighen, superior of the monastery
of Wiirzburg, died A.D. 1085 ; Ailill, of Muckmore, who, in the
year 1042, was head of the Irish monastery in Cologne; and
Malachy, who was the friend of Bernard, and who died at
Clairvaux, in 1148. Our knowledge of the crowds of Irish
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 31
teachers and scribes who migrated to the Continent, and became
founders of many monasteries abroad, is derived from foreign
chronicles, and their testimony is borne out by the evidence of
the numerous Irish MSS. and other relics of the eighth to the
tenth century, occurring in libraries throughout Europe.
The art by which these ornaments and books are decorated,,
may be justly termed Irish as distinguished from the style upon
which it was engrafted in the great books of the Carlovingian
period, such as the Gospels of Charles the Bald. But when the
first origin of this art in Ireland itself is discussed, the question
should be approached with caution, since the very style we think
original when found on the monuments that have outlived
written history, may be proved, by subsequent research, to have
prevailed elsewhere at a still earlier period, though the examples
proving its existence are few and solitary. The inquiry, there-
fore, into the history of the origin and development of Irish
Art involves the question as to how far this style came on with
the advancing tide of European civilisation spreading north-west,
till it was stayed upon the Irish shore, and whether this Irish
art, when introduced into that of the Carlovingian period on the
Continent, was but a return wave of a style already becoming
extinct in certain parts of Europe whence it originally came.
The designs that prevailed in Ireland at the time of the
introduction of Christianity can only be studied on her bronzes,
and on the walls of such monuments as her tumuli, like New-
Grange and Douth. They consist of spirals, zigzags, lozenges,
circles, dots, etc., such as are common to all primitive people.
In addition to these we have the divergent spiral or trumpet
pattern, which design seems peculiar to the late Celtic inhabi-
tants of these islands, though traces of it are also to be found
belonging to a pre-Christian and very early period on the
Continent. Interlacings (knotted animal and vegetable forms)
are always confined to Christian antiquities in Ireland, and were
introduced with Christianity. Even though the knowledge of
letters may have reached Ireland at some short period before
32 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the coming of Patrick, it could not have been widely diffused.
We know that the saint, on various occasions, is recorded as
having taught the alphabet to such of his converts as were
destined for holy orders; and when he and his followers coming
from Gaul first appeared in the country, "carrying tablets in
their hands written after the manner of Moses," the ignorant
natives, as already quoted, mistook them for swords.*
We have already seen that the character in which the Irish
scribes wrote resembles that employed in the Latin MSS. of
the Romance countries of the fifth century. It seems natural
to look to these countries then for the origins of Irish Christian
Art, but it is difficult to form any idea of what was the prevailing
character of Christian Art in Southern Gaul in the fourth and
fifth centuries.
Certain passages in the writings of Gregory of Tours
allude to mural decorations of churches, when Namatius, Bishop
of Auvergne (A.D. 423), brought from Ravenna the relics of
SS. Vital is and Agricola; he erected a church in Auvergne,f
afterwards the cathedral of Clermont, in which to enshrine them.
It is not improbable that Byzantine Art penetrated even at this
early date through Ravenna to Gaul, and thence to Ireland in
the following century. The vaulted roof of this church of
Clermont is described as " wonderfully adorned with varieties
of colours," and in a note we read of the mosaic work and
plastering work, both varied and complicated, with which it
was decorated, while the walls of "the church were covered, or
rather veneered with marble. Again, it is stated that when
the Bishop found the basilica of St. Perpetuus consumed by
* See Todd, " Patrick, Apostle of Ireland."
t " Hodie ecclesia S. Eutropii Suburbicarii ; in ea sepultus fuit Namatius
cum aliis sanctis, ut indicat libellusde Sanctis Claromont," cap. 13. S. Greg.
Turon., "Hist. Franc.," ii. 17 (Migne's note). "Sic Regm. Picturas in
ecclesiis memorat passim Gregorius," ut lib. vii. cap. 36, lib. x. cap. ult, etc.
''Hist. Eccles. Francorum," lib. ii. cap. xvii.; Patrologia Lat., t. Ixxi.
col. 215, cap. 36.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 33
fire, he ordered its walls to be either painted or ornamented
by the labour of his workmen, " in that splendour as they had
been before." The same writer records how the aged widow of
Bishop Namatius sat in the church she had raised over her hus-
band's tomb, and read to the painter decorating its walls " stories
of the deeds of men of old which he should set forth thereon."
?
fTERLACED patterns and knot-work,
strongly resembling Irish designs, are
commonly met with at Ravenna, in
the older churches of Lombardy, and
at Sant' Abbondio, at Como, and not
unfrequently appear in Byzantine MSS.,
while in the carvings on the Syrian
churches of the second and third cen-
turies, as well as the early churches of Georgia,
such interlaced ornament is constantly used.
As regards the drawing of the human face and
figure in the pictures contained in the otherwise beau-
tiful books of the Irish scribes, nothing more
hideous or barbarous can be well conceived. Ferdi-
nand Keller imagines they may be drawn from
FIG. 12. na ture, but to us it seems more likely they are
degraded forms, reminiscences of some Byzantine prototype, just
as the representations of the evangelical symbols in the same
books evidently are.
These observations would lead us to conclude that in the
Carlovingian MSS. of the ninth century we see not merely a
mixture of styles, but that, in the introduction of Irish deco-
ration, we have examples of the engrafting of an archaic style
upon another of later date ; a style that had died out of Italy
and Southern Gaul, but lived on in Ireland to return there
centuries later. In Ireland its character had been modified
by absorbing whatever designs such as the divergent spiral
PART i. D
34 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
prevailed in the country at the time of the introduction of
Christianity, and thus modified, it was spread throughout
Europe again by the Irish scribes, though it never prevailed
outside their sphere, and finally died out with them, To the
designer of the present day, who strives to adapt the ancient
Irish forms to present uses, nothing could be more helpful than
the study of these Carlo vingian MSS., since he will then see
the very same effort he is himself striving to make carried out
in much splendour and beauty. He should study for this
purpose such works as the Latin Gospels in the National Library
of Paris (No. 693), and the Sacramentarium of Pope Gregory
the Great, in the Library of Rheims (No. 320).
We have some interesting records of the aspect of the Irish
monks who carried these books to the Continent. They seldom
travelled otherwise than in companies. They wore long flowing
hair, and coloured some parts of the body, especially the eyelids.
They were provided with long walking-sticks, with flasks, and
with leathern wallets. They used waxed writing tablets as well
as skins. It is also stated that they were expert in catching fish
and it appears from the biography of St. Gallus that they betook
themselves to this pursuit when their sustenance demanded it.
A lively picture of an Irish pilgrim of later times is given
in the account of Abbot Samson, of St. Edmund's, who about
the year 1161 undertook a journey to Rome at the time of the
schism between Popes Alexander and Octavian : " I passed
through Italy at the time when all clerics bearing letters from
Pope Alexander were arrested, some of them imprisoned, some
hanged, and others, after having their noses and lips cut off,
sent back to the Pope, to his disgrace and confusion. But I
pretended to be a Scot, and, having adopted the Scottish dress
and behaviour, I shook my staff like the weapon called a
'gaveloc' at those who scoffed at me, crying aloud in a
threatening manner, after the manner of the Scots." He then
goes on to relate how he was attacked on his way by servants
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT.
O J
from a certain castle, who laid hold upon him. He adds : "And
whilst they were searching my clothes, my trousers, my hose,
and even the old shoes which I carried on my shoulders, after
the manner of the Scots, I put my hand into a skin wallet,
where I carried the papers of my Lord the Pope, placed under
a little cup that I had for drinking out of, and, by the favour
of the Lord and St. Edmund, I took them out along with the
cup, and, raising my arm aloft, I held them under the cup ;
they saw the cup, indeed, but not the papers, so I escaped out of
their hand in the name of the Lord."
OUGH* as was their exterior, or even wild the
outward appearance and manner of these mis-
sionaries, we must not suppose that they were
deficient in learning and accomplishments.
They excelled in music as in painting and
carving. Tuotilo, disciple of Moengal, an
Irish monk of St. Gall, was, it is said, unsur-
passed in all kinds of stringed instruments and
pipes, and gave lessons in playing on them in a room
set apart for him by the Abbot. Besides visiting
FIG. 13. monasteries already established, they penetrated to
places where Christianity had never before reached, not only to
Poland and Bulgaria, but to Russia and Iceland, settling down
as duty or inclination prompted them, and then, after their
national manner, enclosing a large space, wherein they built
their huts, and in the midst of which rose the church, with its
round tower or belfry, which also served as a place of refuge
in times of need.t
The manuscripts which remain in Italy as evidence of
the labours of the Irish monks in that country are to be seen in
* This initial letter R is taken from " Book of Kells," fol. 92.
t " Zeitschrift fur Christliche Archaologie und Kunst." Leip., 1856,
pp. 21-49.
D 2
3 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the Ambrosian Library in Milan, in the University Library of
Turin, and in the Real Biblioteca Borbonica, Naples.*
All these manuscripts are said to have been brought originally
from Bobio, a monastery in Piedmont, founded by Columbanus
in the year 6i3.t The old Irish Codex in the Ambrosian
Library, Milan (C. 301), consists of a Latin commentary on the
Psalms, formerly attributed to St. Jerome, but by Muratori
Vallarsius and Zeuss ascribed to St. Columbanus; it contains
notes and glosses in Irish of the eighth or ninth century, inter-
lined or written in the margins. A fragment of the Antiphonary
of Bangor, a monastery in Ireland where Columbanus lived for
some time after he had been raised to the priesthood, is also
preserved in this library. It contains a hymn in honour of
St. Patrick, and is believed to have been one of the original
books of the monastery. At Turin another collection of MSS.,
also from Bobio, may be seen in the University Library. They
are two fragments of a commentary said to have been written by
St. Jerome on the Gospel of St. Mark, a Latin sermon on the
Assumption, a fragment in a very old Irish hand of St. Augustine's
Enarrationes d.m. Psalm XCIIL, a fragment of the Epistles of
Cyril of Alexandria, and a fragment of three commentaries on
the Psalms, also six leaves containing various hymns, and the
works of Lactantius, a teacher of rhetoric ir^Africa, about A.D. 306.
In Rome, till within the last few years, there were about twenty
* Real Biblioteca Borbonica of Naples. This latter MS. has been
described by Angelo Antonio Scalli ("Memorie delle Regale Academia
Ercolanse di Archseologia," vol. ii. p. 119, Naples, 1833) as a parchment
codex, square in shape, and in many places defaced, written in double columns
in the cursive character in use before the eighth century. Nothing further is
known of its history than that it is inscribed " Liber Sancte Columbani" at
the place where a fragment "De Metris" begins. This codex is not mentioned
either in the Catalogue of the Library of Bobio published by Muratori, or
in that compiled in 1461. It came into the Royal Library of Naples from the
collection of Parrasio, who was a Calabrian y and who formed his collection
from that of an old monastery in Calabria.
t At Bobio the coffin, chalice, and holly-stick or crosier of St. Columbanus
are still preserved, according to Moore " Hist. Ireland," p. 266.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 37
volumes of Gaelic MSS. which at one time formed part of the
Louvain Collection,* and in the Vatican Library two MSS. from
Mentz (Mayence), so long the residence of Marianus Scotus,
may be seen one from St. Martin's being the copy of his
chronicle containing his autograph (Vat. MSS., Palat. 830), the
other the Psalter of the same monastery, sent to Rome in 1479.
Besides giving his assumed name, Marianus, this entry also
contains a memorandum of his native name, Maelbrigde, which
has been edited in " Pertz's Monumenta," torn, v., by G. Waitz,
from the Vatican MS. This chronicler, the pupil of the first Irish
historian, Tighernach, of Moville, County Down, left Ireland in
the year 1056, and entered the Scotic monastery at Cologne,
after which he lived a long time at Fulda, and at last had himself
immured as a recluse at St. Martin's, in Mentz, where in
complete seclusion he worked out this chronicle. A miniature
representing the Deposition from the Cross, interesting as showing
the method in which this subject was treated in Germany in
the eleventh century, adorns the pages of this manuscript.
Such Irish foundations as that of Columbanus were for
many centuries fed from their parent monasteries in Ireland, and
in the ninth century and onwards it was not unusual to carry
books abroad. Thus Dungal, the Scotic teacher in Pavia,
A.D. 823, made donations of books to Bobio, a list of which is
published by Muratori \ two of these we have already mentioned
as now preserved in the Ambrosian Library, Milan. Again, in
841, we learn that Marcus, an Irish bishop, and his nephew
Moengal, returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, visited St. Gall,
on Lake Constance, in Switzerland, and remaining there till
death, Mark bequeathed his books to the monastery. Callus,
the favourite and most honoured disciple of Columbanus,
founded the monastery in the year 612. He was of Leinstei
extraction, and died about the year 625. The Latin MSS., with
Irish glosses from which Zeuss drew the material for the Irish
* Now in the House of the Franciscan Order in Dublin.
38 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
portion of his " Grammatica Celtica," are many of them adorned
with miniatures and illuminated letters, Thus, in Codex No. 51,
we have (I.) the figure of St. Matthew, seated, holding in his
hand a book. He is beardless, and wears a peculiar cap.
The angel, with hands clasped, presses a book to its breast.
(II.) St. Mark, seated, holding a book; this has been confused
with the representation of St. Luke which follows. St. Mark (if it
be St. Mark) has the four evangelical symbols in the illuminated
border by which he is surrounded. St. Luke has the winged ox
above his head, is beardless, and holds a book; and St. John,
also beardless and sitting, has the eagle above his head. Plates
V. and VI. show the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment, and
pages 6 and 7 are beautiful examples of Irish illumination.
This Codex, No. 51, is a copy of the Gospels in Latin,
divided into lessons and verses, the commencement of the
lessons being marked by illuminated initials, the verses by
plainly coloured ones. The evangelist Matthew is again re-
presented in Codex 1395. Here he is seated in a chair writing,
with long curling hair, pointed beard, his angel with a book in
front of him. He holds a penknife resembling that in the picture
of Bede writing (Codex 60) in the Ministerial Library at Schaff-
hausen. His nimbus is cruciform, " such a mistake as is often
made," says Didron, " by the ignorant or negligent artist or the
copyist." An Irish charm, or elixir of life, is given on the back
of this page a sovereign remedy said to have been bequeathed
by the physician Diancecht, of the Tuatha de Danaan race,
whose name occurs in the early myths of Ireland. The evange-
list John is again represented in Codex 60, but this is the work
of some rude Continental scribe, as may be seen by the form of
the lettering. Besides these instances published by Ferdinand
Keller, we do not know whether the other twelve MSS. in this
collection have miniatures or not; some fine examples of Irish
caligraphy are collected in two plates, but no reference given to
the MSS. from which they are taken.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 39
The quadrangular bell of St. Gallus is preserved in the
monastery of St. Gall ; but it is perverted from its original design
by being attached to a wall, for all the ancient Irish bells are
hand-bells. There is also a silver book-shrine in the museum
of Irish workmanship.
At Schaffhausen, in the Ministerial Library, there is a manu-
script in perfect preservation of Adamnan's " Life of St. Columba,''
circa A.D. 700 this is the oldest and most complete biography
of the Irish saint now existing. It was brought there from
Reichenau (Augia Dives), in which monastery was also preserved
an Irish Codex of the Epistles of St. Paul. The bowl of St.
Fintan is preserved in the sacristy of this church. Fintan was a
native of Leinster, born circa 798; and though he was not the
founder of Reichenau, so great was his sanctity that the monks
chose him for their patron. In the Town Library of Berne is a
well-preserved Irish MS. numbered 363. This volume contains
six different tracts, it is not stated whether they exhibit any Irish
illumination. In the Library of the Antiquarian Society at Zurich,
are four fragments of Irish books: I. "An old Irish Ritual;"
II. "Fragment of an ancient Sacramentarium \ " III. "Frag-
ment of the Writings of the Prophet Ezekiel j" IV. " Fragment
of a Grammar."
The Abbey of Lure was founded by St. Gall's elder brother,
Dicuil (Deicola), d. 625. Mabillon describes the situation:
"Tnbus ab Anagratibus Leucis; Vicus Le Saucy, una tanturn
Leuca distat a Leubrae Abbatia." *
Near the church, when Mabillon visited it, were two tumuli
of large dimensions, one being the tomb of Dicuil, the other
of his successor Columbinus, both disciples of the great
Columba.
At Basle, or Basel, there are three manuscripts in the town
library, a beautiful Irish Psalter (A. VII. 3), with a hymn in
praise of Bridget and Patrick, two works of St. Isidore of Spain,
* Mabillon, " Annal. Benedict." 1. i. p. 211.
40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
"De Natura Rerum" (F. F. III. 15. a), and " Differentiis Spirita-
libus"(F. F. III. 15. e).
At Coire, or Chur, in the Canton of the Orisons, was a
monastery founded by St. Fridolin, and dedicated to Hilary of
Aries, circa 500. In the rich treasury of the cathedral, an Irish
reliquary and some stones sculptured with designs belonging to
the same school may be seen.
Passing from Switzerland into Bavaria, we find at Eichstadt
the original MS. of Cogitosus 5 "Life of St. Brigid " in the Domi-
nican convent on the north bank of the Altmuhl, a tributary of
the Danube. At Ingolstadt, Adamnan's tract, "De Locis Sanctis,"
was discovered. In fact, as Dr. Reeves observes : " The literary
offerings of this part of Bavaria were a small instalment in
discharge of the old debt Franconia owed to Ireland for her
missionary services."
At Wiirzburg we find a remarkable monument of early Irish
occupation in the copy of the Pauline Epistles, with the inter-
linear glosses. Here also is preserved the Latin Bible written in
semi-uncial letters which, according to credible tradition, was
found in St. Kilian's tomb in the year 743, Kilian having been
interred in 687. This book is still exposed upon the altar of the
cathedral church, on St. Kilian's festival day. A curious repre-
sentation of the Crucifixion appears in this manuscript where
cherubim are ministering to the penitent thief, whilst ill-omened
birds are pecking at the impenitent sinner.
A monastery in Tegernsee, in Bavaria, is also said to possess
a " Vita Columbse Confessoris." This town lies between the Isar
and the Inn, and the lakes of Schlier and Tegern. Another life
of Columba was found by Canisius in the monastery of Wind-
berg, in Bavaria, where it goes by the name of " Codex Rebdor-
fensis," and it is said to have come from Rebdorf in the south-
east of Franconia, But the most important Irish settlement in
Bavaria was at Ratisbon ; a monastery founded there dedicated
to St. James was the parent of many Scotic monasteries, The
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 41
*'Life of the Holy Marianus Scotus of Donegal, circa 1067," is
preserved here, also his " Commentary on the Psalms of David."
The doorway of the old church of St. Peter's strongly resembles
those of the decorated Irish Romanesque buildings of the twelfth
century, and a silver shrine appears to be the work of the same
school, which was brought from the monastery of St. Emerau in
Ratisbon to Munich, in the Royal Library of which town it is now
deposited. In the monastery of St. Magnus, in Ratisbon, we find
Ultan's "Life of St. Bridget," and the " Life of Erhard."
Marianus Scotus, of Ratisbon, left Donegal in Ireland eleven
years after the chronicler who bore the same adopted name. He
brought with him two companions, John and Candidus, intend-
ing to travel to Rome. When they reached Bamberg in Bavaria
they were admitted to the Order of St. Benedict, in the monas-
tery of St. Michelsberg, but, preferring retirement, they had a
small cell at the foot of the hill assigned to their use. After a
short stay they obtained permission to travel further, and arriving
at Ratisbon, they were received into the convent of Obermunster,
where Marianus was employed by the Abbess Emma in the
transcription of books. He wrote some missals and a number of
other religious books, his companions preparing the membranes
for his use. After some time he was minded to continue his
original journey ; but a brother Irishman, called Murtagh, who
was then living as a recluse at the Obermunster, urged him to let
it be determined by Divine guidance whether he should proceed
on his way or settle for life at Ratisbon. He passed the night
in Murtagh's cell, and in the hours of darkness it was intimated
to him that wherever on the next day he should first behold the
rising sun he should remain and fix his abode. Starting before
day he entered St. Peter's Church, outside the walls, to implore
the Divine blessing on his journey. But scarcely had he come
forth, when he beheld the sun stealing above the horizon. "Here,
then," said he, " I shall rest, and here shall be my resurrection."
His determination was hailed with joy by the whole population.
42 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The Abbess granted him this church of St. Peter, commonly
known as Weigh Sanct Peter, with an adjacent plot, where in 1076
a citizen, called Bethselinus, built for the Irish at his own cost a
little monastery, which the Emperor Henry IV. soon after took
under his protection at the request of the Abbess Hezecha.
From Weigh St. Peter another Irish monastery, called St. James
of Ratisbon, took its rise in 1090. Domnus, a native of the South
of Ireland, was its first Abbot. It is further recorded of Marianus
that "this holy man wrote from beginning to end, with his own
hand, the Old and New Testament, with explanatory comments
on the same books, and that not once or twice, but over and
over again, with a view to the eternal reward, all the while clad
in sorry garb, living on slender diet, attended and aided by his
brethren both in the upper and lower monasteries, who prepared
the parchments for his use ; besides, he also wrote many smaller
books and manuals, psalters for distressed widows and poor
clerics of the same city, towards the health of his soul, without
any prospect of earthly gain. Furthermore, through the grace of
God, many congregations of the monastic order, which in faith
and charity and imitation of the blessed Marianus, are derived
from the aforesaid Ireland, and inhabit Bavaria and Franconia,
are sustained by the writings of the blessed Marianus." * He died
on the 9th of February, 1088. Aventinus, the Bavarian Annalist,
styles him, "Poeta et Theologus insignis, nullique suo seculo
secundus." A copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, written by
Marianus "for his pilgrim brethren," is preserved now in the
Imperial Library of Vienna. At the end of the MS. are these
words: "In honore Individuse Trinitatis, Marianus Scotus scripsit
hunc librum suis fratribus peregrinis. Anima ejus requiescat in
pace, propter Deum devote dicite Amen."
Further information as to the history of the Irish monastery
of St. James at Ratisbon has been drawn from the " Chronicon
Ratisbonense," transcribed by Stephen White when Professor at
* " Acta Sanctorum/' Febr, t. ii. pp. 365-372.
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 43
Wiirzburg about the year 1650. It is there stated that the money
was supplied from Ireland to Dionysius, the Irish Abbot of
St. Peter's, at Ratisbon, with which he purchased a site for the
monastery of St. James, to the western side of Ratisbon, and the
old Bavarian chronicler continues: "Now be it known, that
neither before nor since was there a more noble monastery, such
magnificent towers, walls, pillars, and roofs, so rapidly erected, so
perfectly finished, as in this monastery, because of the wealth and
money sent by the king and princess of Ireland."
The king alluded to here was Conor O'Brien, king of
Munster, to whom the emissaries of the Abbot of St. Peter's at
Ratisbon had applied for aid. This Conor began his reign in the
year 1127. His contributions being exhausted, a second embassy
was sent, and Gregorius, after having been consecrated Abbot of
St. James, came to Ireland, and visited Murtogh O'Brien, who-
gave him a large sum of money, that had been deposited some
time before in the hands of the Archbishop of Cashel for the
church at Ratisbon. With this money the Abbot bought many
farms, villages, plots of ground, houses, and sumptuous buildings
in the city of Ratisbon, and it is further stated " that the old
building at Ratisbon was thrown down, and rebuilt anew from
top to bottom with square blocks of stone ; it was roofed with
lead, the pavement was of polished stones, diamond-shaped."
(Bolland, Feb. gth, p. 372.)
Wattenbach states that conflagrations consumed all that was
destructible by fire, but Gregory's square tower, and the richly
decorated portal of the church stood out firmly against every
assault.
Not many years ago, this author found an illuminated copy
of the Gospels in the German Museum of Nuremberg. It
belongs to the library of the Prince of Oettingen- Waller stein, but
came originally from the Benedictine convent of Saint Arnoul in
Metz (Latin Metis), on the Moselle, in France. Mr. Wattenbach
says: "This magnificent copy of the Gospels, belonging to the
44 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Library of the Princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein at Mottingen,
which has been for some time deposited in the German Museum
of Nuremberg, where I met with it, may now be added to the
quidem muIncDHCoi sor~
FIG. 14. FRONTISPIECE TO ST. LUKE'S GOSPEL. CONVENT ST. ARNOUL, METZ.
number of remarkably illuminated manuscripts of Irish origin,
which have already been described.
"The peculiar characteristics of Irish illumination are im-
mediately recognisable in the initial letters, Q and I, which form
IRISH SCXI3ES ON THE CONTINENT. 45
the headings of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John in this
manuscript, and which are here reproduced, such as the spirals,
FIG. 15. FRONTISPIECE TO ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL. CONVENT ST. ARNOUL, MET2.
birds 7 heads, and framework of red dots. The text exhibits that
beautiful round character, which, in some measure, resembles the
uncial writing, but is distinguishable from it by the letters being
smaller and more connected in some places, so much so even as
46 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
to spoil their clearness, although the eye may be gratified by the
uniformity of writing throughout the MS. The deciphering of
them is rendered difficult, especially by the extreme resemblance
of the letters N and R. The parchment is fine and strong,
without being too white, and the ink brilliantly black. The
initials present the ordinary colours violet, green, yellow, and
red, which in some places have preserved their primitive freshness.
One detail, however, does not agree with the other characters of
the writing, that is, the employment of gold and silver in the
favourite ornamented capitals, which, though common in the
writing of the Carlovingian period, was foreign to Irish
illuminative Art of the ninth century. But this enigma is solved
on closer examination. Between the closing lines at the end of
the Gospel of St. Luke : Expl. evang. secundum Lucam Deo
grat. felic.,' some fresh hand has intercalated the words in letters
of silver: c Explicit liber Set Evangelii secundum Lucam Deo
gratias? The title, in golden letters, ' Evangelium secwidum
Lucamj may also be the addition of a later period ; and we may
conclude that the gold ornament in the initials is a factitious
embellishment of the Carlovingian period. Hence the manuscript
may be attributed to a pre-Carlovingtan epoch, say to the seventh,
if not to the sixth, century.
"Whence comes this manuscript? A leaf pasted on to one of
the pages refers us to the convent of St. Arnoul of Metz. The
entry is as follows :
" c The writing of the codex contained in this jewelled case is
Merovingian work of the end of the sixth century in uncial
characters. Another Anglo-Saxon MS. of about the same time ot
uncial characters also. Each MS. would, if for sale, be of great
pecuniary value. This value should be upwards of 125 louis d'or
for each. Dom Maugerard, Librarian in the Monastery of St.
Arnoul, Great Almoner of France, Fellow of the Royal Academy
of Metz, Commissary in the Episcopal Chamber of Regulars.'
" The author of this note has, through a common enough error,
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 4 7
called the Irish writing of the MS., Anglo-Saxon, but he has
correctly stated its age. The case of the book was doubtless of
great value, even if it had not been, as in the instance of the
other manuscript, ornamented with precious stones. However
that may be, it has disappeared, and the rare manuscript is now
covered in simple half binding. The inscription, 'Ex libris
A (or H} Gaertier a. 1809,' points to a more recent possessor of
the manuscript. The copyist of the manuscript has given his
name. On the last page, we see a lion rudely painted, above
which is written, in characters probably more recent. Ecce ko
stat super euangelium? Below the lion in a framework of green
lines, some verses appear, the second line of which certainly is an
hexameter, and the others are meant to be such.
" 4 Zux mundi Iceta Deus, hasc tibi celeri curs U
Alme potens scribsi soli famulatus et un I
Ut te vita fruar teque casto inveniam cult U
./fectaque per te, ad te ducente te gradiar ui A
^Sxcelse cernis Deus quse me plurima cingun T
Abta et ignota tuis male nata zezania sati S
7u sed mihi certa salus spesque unica uita JE
ymmeritum licet lucis facias adtingere lime N
Cferba nam tua ualida imis me tollat avern /
.Sola hsec misero mihi te vitam dabunt seruul
*' ' All-nourishing powerful God, joyful Light of the World,
To Thee One and alone have I Thy servant written, with rapid pen,
That in my life I might enjoy Thee and find Thee in pure worship,
And through Thee, by Thy guidance, I may walk in the straight path which
leads to Thee.
God on high Thou seest how many things enchain me.
The ill-sprung tares, known and unknown, mixed with Thy seed,
But to me Thou art my certain salvation and only hope of life.
Thou canst make me, unworthy as I am, to reach the threshold of light,
For Thy words of power shall lift me from the depths of hell.
These alone give Thee> the true Life, to me TJiy wretched servant?
"The first and last letters of the lines, written in red in the
manuscript, form the words * Laurentius vivai senio? This is
probably the name of the scribe, a name which is not Irish,
and may, perhaps, be one adopted on entering the cloister.
48 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
"I leave to theologians the task of critical examination of this
text of the Gospels, and will continue the description of its exterior.
On the back of the first leaf, under the title, Kanon Euangeliorum,
some verses on this canon are found commencing thus :
" Quam in primo speciosa quadriga,
Homo leo vitulus et aquila,
LXX. unum per capitula,
De domino conloquntur paria,
In secundo subsequente protinus, etc.
" On the following page, two marvellous birds are represented
on a plate, or space, which contains the letters, Evangelia veritatis
in an arrangement full of art. The reverse contains the words
' Prologus quattuor evangeliorum bono lect. f elicit] in large
characters of pure uncial writing. The lines are alternately red
and black, here and there ornamented with yellow ; all the title
pages are likewise written in this ancient manner. The prologue
commences by a line (plures fuisse), ornamented in a perfectly
Irish style. The text is written in two columns; the book is
large quarto; each paragraph is headed with an ornamented
initial. First comes a letter from St. Jerome to St. Damasus;
then the Canones evangeliorum^ in columns as usual ; and lastly,
the Gospels, preceded by their summary. The Gospels them-
selves commence with richly ornamented initials. Before the
Gospels is a page filled with geometrical designs and ornamental
patterns, such as are often met with in Irish manuscripts; but the
latter are not remarkable for beauty. The text is written 'per
cola et commata/ that is to say, that, instead of punctuation, each
phrase is complete in a line. If an empty space is anywhere left,
it is filled up by means of red points, arranged in groups of three.
The quoted passages have before each of their lines, a sort of
flourish, with a dot in the middle, all in red. At the close of the
Fourth Gospel are the words : c ExpL Evang. Sec. fohann. Uiue
etfruere? And with this wish I, too, conclude,
"W. WATTENBACH."
IRISH SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 49
At Vienna there is also another copy of the "Life of St.
Columba," a manuscript of Sedulius written in double columns,
with red initial letters, and a copy of Eutychus with old Irish
Glosses.*
In Germany we find traces of Irish missionaries in various
monasteries. Thus at Fulda, the Gospels of St. Boniface pre-
served in the cathedral exhibit art of the Irish school. In the
crypt, which is all that remains of the old building, the shrine of
St. Boniface and his ivory crosier are kept with a portion of his
skull, and the dagger with which he was murdered. The
chronicler, Marian, expressly states that this Boniface was a
Scot. He also speaks of a St. Anmchadh, who, corning from
Iniscaltra (Holy Island in Lough Derg, Ireland), travelled to
Germany, and became a recluse at Fulda.
At Treves, or Trier, two MSS. may be seen ist, a Codex of
the ninth century is kept in the house of Canon von TTilmousky,
near the Cathedral of Treves ; and 2nd, the Gospels of Thomas,
who was Abbot of Honau in the eighth century. In the second
plate of this book the interweaving of the Evangelical symbols is
Irish in character.
The monastery of Honau was founded on an island in the
Rhine, near Strasburg, by Tuban an Irish bishop, in 720, and
was patronised by Pepin and Charlemagne. A Confirmation
grant of A.D. Sio states that it was founded, "Ad pauperes et
peregrinos gentis Scotorum," and it is attested by the signatures
of the abbot, seven bishops, and one presbyter, all of them
bearing Irish names.
* The MS. of Sedulius, or Siedhuil, contains a complete copy of the
Commentary of St. Aileran on the Genealogy of our Lord, according to St.
Matthew. It consists of 157 folia, large quarto, written in two columns, with,
red initial letters. The author, Aileran the Wise, was head of the School of
Clonard in the seventh century, and his death is recorded in the " Annals of
Ulster," Dec. 29, A.D. 664. The tract is entitled "TIpicus ac Tropologicus
Jesu Christi Genealogi;e Intellectus quern Sanctus Ailsranus Scottorum
Sapientissimus exposuit. Cod. Memb. Theol. CIX. nunc VI. CI."
PART L E
5 o EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
At Gheel, near Malines in Belgium, is the old church of St.
Dympna, a king's daughter who fled from Slieve Betha in
Monaghan in the seventh century, and who founded the church
at Ghent, where she has always been honoured as the patron
saint of the insane. Her crosier, portions of which are illustrated .
in this volume, is preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy in Dublin. The church in which her relics are de-
posited is a spacious old building just outside the village of
Gheel.
At Cambray, there is a Codex (A.D. 763) finely ornamented in
the Irish style, No. 684, which contains canons of the Irish
Council held A.D. 684. A "Life of St. Bridget," that came from
Longford, may also be found in the monastery of St. Autbert
in Cambray.
In the public library of Leyden, a Priscian, written by Dub-
thach, circa 838, may be seen a fragment of the New Testament
in the University Library of Utrecht, while in the Burgundian
Library of Brussels is preserved the large collection of Irish
manuscripts brought from Louvain.
BOOK SATCHELS.
EFORE we pass on from the subject of the Illu-
minated Books of Ancient Ireland, it will
be necessary to mention the leathern
satchels called polaires, in which
these books were carried or were
hung upon the walls of the chamber
in the monastery or tower where they were
preserved, such as that called the Satchel
of the Book of Armagh, the Satchel of
FIG ' l6 - the Irish Missal at Corpus Christi, Cam-
bridge, and the Satchel of St. Moedoc's Reliquary; Mr. West-
wood has described the Satchel in Cambridge as of black
SCRIBES ON THE CONTINENT. 51
leather, the front being ornamented with diagonally impressed
iines and ciicles, now nearly obliterated by constant use. At
the upper angles are affixed strong leathern straps fastened with
leather ties to a broader central strap, which passed over the
shoulders, and by which the volume was suspended round the
neck.* It is a remarkable fact that all the books in the Library of
the Abyssinian monastery of Sourians, on the Xatron Lakes in
Egypt, were recently found by an English traveller in a condition
singularly resembling that of the "Book of Armagh." and adding
an interesting illustration of a practice probably derived from
that school. The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way,
sometimes in red leather, and sometimes in wooden boards, which
are occasionally elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices ;
they are then enclosed in a case, tied up with leathern thongs ; to
this case is attached a strap for the convenience of carrying the
volume over the shoulders ; and by these straps the books are
hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a peg, or more, if the
books were small ; their usual size was that of a small, very thick
quarto (Curzon's c: Monasteries of the Levant/' p. 93). From
the many instances in which such objects are mentioned in our
ancient histories, it would appear that they were as common in
Ireland as the sacred relics they were intended to preserve. St.
Columba is said to have blessed " One hundred polaires, noble,
one coloured" ("Leabhar Breac,'*' fol 16-60). And again in the
same " Life " it is said, " for it was a practice with him to make
crosses, and book satchels, and ecclesiastical implements " ;
Patrick also is described as appearing followed by the boy Benen,
with his satchel on his back, and this was an article necessary to
the episcopal character, as it would seem, and it is enumerated
amongst the presents given by Patrick to Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty :
" Patrick gave a ciimtach to Fiacc containing, to wit, a bell, and
reliquary, and a crozier, and a book satchel."
* See Gilbert's "Facsimiles of the National MSS. of Ireland," Part II.
App. ii. Fig. 2, where a photograph of this Satchel is given.
E 2
52 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
REFERENCES TO WORKS ON ILLUMINATION.
The subject of Irish Illumination has been treated of in the
following works :
Ferdinand Keller, " On the MSS. of St. Gall," published in
Zurich Society's " Transactions."
Rev. Dr. Reeves, "Ancient Irish Calligraphy" (Ulster Joiirnal
of Archeology}.
Westwood, " Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish MSS."
Westwood, " Palseographia Sacra Pictoria."
Waagen, German Art Journal, No. II.
O'Conor, "Rer. Hib. Script," Lib. I. cxliii.
H. Noel Humphreys, "Illuminated Books of the Middle
Ages."
H. Shaw, "Illuminated Ornaments from MSS. of Middle
Ages."
H. Shaw, " Decorative Arts of the Middle Ages."
"Essay on Illumination," appended to "Cromlech on Howth,"
with Illuminations in facsimile from the Books of Kells and
Durrow.
Purton Cooper, Report App. A, Record Commission Report.
Purton Cooper, Report on " Foedera."
M. D. Wyatt, " The Art of Illuminating." Illustrations by
W. R. Tymms.
" On the Colouring Matters employed in the Illuminations of
the Book of Kells," by W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., Royal College of
Science, Dublin.
M. Wattenbach, " Zeitschrift fur Christliche Archaologie und
Kunst," Leip. 1856, pp. 21-49.
J. L. Gilbert, " Facsimiles of the National MSS. of Ireland,"
Public Record Office of Ireland, Dublin, 1874.
CHAPTER IV.
METAL-WORK.
S the character of the arts introduced
into Ireland with Christianity was grafted
upon and modified by the arts of Pagan
Ireland, it will be well to learn what degree
of excellence in this art of metal-work had
been attained before the fourth and fifth
centuries of our era. This knowledge will
FIG. 17. better be acquired by the accurate obser-
vation of one particular example than by a more comprehensive
treatment of the bronze and gold antiquities of this early date.
There are two fragments of a bronze ornament in the Petrie
Museum which, as stated by Mr. Kemble, " for beauty of design
and execution may challenge comparison with any specimen of
cast bronze work that it has ever been my fortune to see."
These fragments, if examined with care, may teach much of what
la}- at the foundation of the success of the Irish metal-workers
in succeeding generations.
Commencing with the more perfect of these two fragments,
we find it to consist of five separate pieces, fitted with delicate
precision and joined together by small rivets. First, a band or
fillet of thin bronze plate ; then, 2nd. a circular plate ; 3rd, a
54 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
cone or tongue springing upwards from the band. Besides
these three principal portions there are two accessory objects a
stud and a shoe which help to keep the whole together. In
both cases the bands are broken at either end, from which
we may conclude that they formed part of a longer object. They
measure i|/ in. in height, and are slightly curved, as if they
had formed portions of a circular or oval ring they are pierced
at the upper and lower edges with small needle-holes, showing
that some fine fabric was stitched to them by a delicate thread.
The round plates are furnished with two little pegs or feet at the
back, by which they were fixed into the hollow at the base of the
cone into which the shoe is inserted, which supports the circular
plate in an upright position. The cone rests partly on the top-
most edge of the band or fillet, and partly in the hollow of the
stud fixed on the band. This cone, which measures 4% in.
in height by 3}^ in. in circumference at its base, is somewhat
like a horn or tongue, and the denticulated edge at its summit
shows signs of wearing, as if some hard object had rested there,
such as a small crystal ball. The three principal parts, i.e. the
band, the circular plates, and the cone, are decorated by the
spiral lines in relief to which Mr. Kemble drew our attention ;
but, instead of being as he declared " casting," it would appear
as if the result were partly obtained by stamping, as a coin is
stamped, and that then the lines were finished by hand. On
examining the reverse of the plates we find that, although the
delicate lines of the curves and spirals are not seen in intaglio, as
they would be if the work were repousse^ yet the minute bosses
on the surface are all clearly repousse, being seen pressed out, or
concave, on the back. Would this have been the case if the
bronze plate were cast? Again, there are four parts of apparently
the same ornament which might have all been cast from one
mould, if casting were the method adopted ; but it is clear that,
if cast at all, there must have been four separate moulds, for in
following each line of the curves and spirals a certain irregularity
METAL-WORK. 55
and difference is perceivable in every instance. This might occur
if the less mechanical process of stamping and handwork were
adopted, since the stamp, being possibly formed of a less durable
material than a mould, might require to be changed each time.
If not, then, the finest pieces of casting ever seen, yet, as
specimens of design and workmanship, they are, perhaps, unsur-
passed. The surface is here overspread with no vague lawlessness,
but the ornament is treated with fine reserve, and the design
carried out with the precision and delicacy of a masters touch.
The ornament on the cone flows round and upwards in lines
gradual and harmonious as the curves in ocean surf, meeting and
parting only to meet again in lovelier forms of flowing motion.
In the centre of the circular plate below just at the point or
hollow, whence all these lines flow round and upwards, at the
very heart as it might seem of the whole work a crimson drop of
clear enamel may be seen.
It has been suggested that these fragments are portions of two
such horns as are seen on an ancient British helmet in our
National Museum in London. The extreme delicacy and fragile
nature of these objects seem, however, to refute this theory a
theory most valuable at the same time as bearing out the idea of
the true origin of such things the horn or tongue of flame pro-
jecting from the head being one of the most ancient symbols of
divine power in man which we possess. The horns on the British
helmet are strong and massive, such as might be worn in battle,
but it is possible that the fragments now under consideration may
be the remains of an Irish radiated crown, formed of seven horns
or tongues, so arranged as to rise from a band or fillet intended
to encircle the head it may be of an image or of a king during
some sacred festival.
The question as to the probable date of this ornament is not
an easy one to solve. We should consider the working of the
material very clearly, comparing it with examples in other
countries before arriving at any conclusions. A late writer on
56 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the antiquities of the bronze age referring to the inhabitants of
Europe north of the Alps says :
" The art of metal-working, as proved by the remains associated together
in the various places of manufacture, was carried to a high pitch of perfection.
Most of the bronzes were cast and the moulds carefully designed : the metal
was also tempered by hammering, or engraved with various elaborate patterns,
or adorned with repousse work.
" Stamps were also employed for impressing thin plates of metal. In all
probability the art of casting preceded the tempering, stamping, and engraving ;
but on the evidence before us there is nothing to show that the first was derived
from a different source to, or known in Gaul, before the others."
In these fragments under our consideration we find :
ist. A complete mastery over the arts of tempering, stamping,
and engraving.
2nd. Exquisite skill in design and execution.
3rd. The design is a variety of a certain design found in
three stages of development on the monuments of Ireland.
This, belonging to the second and most perfect stage, corre-
sponds with that upon the bronze discs found at Monastereven,
and the spoon-shaped relics found in a bog in Ireland, which
correspond to those described by Mr. Albert Way (Arch. Jour.,
xxvi. 52 ; Arch. Cavib., 4th series, i. 199), a variety coming
between the primitive form seen on the stone and bone relics
above mentioned, and the more complex form occurring on
Christian monuments.
4th. These fragments are presumed to have been portions
of a radiated crown a form, of crown which is first represented
on the coins minted in Gaul and Britain, in the years A,D. 260,
287, and 293, i.e. a century before the introduction of Christianity
into Ireland.*
We may safely conclude that even at so early a date as the
time of St. Patrick's mission, new varieties of design were intro-
duced into Irish Art from the Continent. In the fifth century,
and at about the time when Patrick came from Gaul ro Ireland,
* See " Archaiologia," vol. xlvii. p. 473.
METAL-WORK. 57
the goldsmith's an was cultivated, especially in the southern
Gaulish provinces. Statuettes, bas-reliefs, vessels, shrines, reli-
quaries, and domestic utensils were manufactured. The first
churches built in Gaul were soon enriched with gold and silver,
as is proved by the will of Perpetuus, Bishop of Tours (circa 4/7):
" To thee, most dear Euphronius, brother and bishop, I give and
bequeath my silver reliquary. I mean that which I have been
accustomed to carry upon my person, for the reliquary of gold,
which is in my treasury, another two golden chalices, and cross of
gold, made by Mabuinus, do I give and bequeath to my church."
When Patrick came into Ireland (circa 440-46), he was,
as we learn from Tirechan, attended by some Gauls, along with
a multitude of holy bishops. It is not improbable that some of
these foreigners were artists. We read that bells were distributed
throughout the many oratories founded by St. Patrick. These
appear to have been of the very rudest character, if we may judge
from the iron bell of St. Patrick, now preserved in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy. Three smiths, " expert at shaping, :>
MacCecht, Laebhan, and Fortchern, are named as belonging to
St. Patrick's family, that is, to his religious associates, and
mention is also made of three artificers of great skill, Aesbuite,
Tairill, and Tassach ; and in the Tripartite Life it is stili more
explicitly stated, that the smiths should make the bells, and that
the braziers should make the patens, and the menisters, and the
altar chalices.
The works of these artists were executed at about the same
time as that in which the silver reliquary was made by Mabuinus,
in Gaul, for the relics of Perpetuus; and we may form some
conception of the condition of Christian Art in northern Italy,
when we remember that this was about the period in which the
throne of Dagobert, the ivory chair of Maximian, at Ravenna,
and certain of the relics of the Cathedral of Monza were executed.
We have an indication of the influx of foreign articles into Ire-
land with the first Christian teachers, in the mention of the
5 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
transmarine and foreign vestments of Bishop Conla, which
Bridget granted to the poor after the bishop's death, and which
are said to have come from Leatha, i.e. Italy. This Bishop
Conla was also Bridget's principal artist in gold, silver, and
other metals. In the life of the artificer, St. Dageus, who lived
in the sixth century, his works are enumerated: namely, cam-
panas, cymbals, baculos, cruces, scrinia, capsas, pyxides, discos,
altariola, chrysmalia, librorumque cooptoria, quaedam vero alia
auro atque argento, gemmesque pretiosis, circumtecta. ("Aet.
SS. Aug.," tome iii. p. 659 ?;.)
"It would appear," says Dr. Petrie, "from the number of
references to shrines in the Irish annals, that previously to the
irruptions of the Northmen in the eighth and ninth centuries,
there were few. if any, of the distinguished churches in Ireland
which had not costly shrines." But such objects became the
prey of the pagan invader, and thus we may account for the
fact that no fine specimen of Christian Art in metal-work is to be
seen in our museums to which we can assign a date earlier than
the tenth century.
Although we find the Tnsh annalists lauding "the great
skill" of those artificers who 'made St. Patrick's bells, patens,
etc., yet the only example of their work extant is of the rudest
possible character. The iron Bell of St. Patrick is at once the
most authentic and the oldest lush relic of Christian metal-work
that has descended to us. It possesses the singular merit of
having an unbroken history through fourteen hundred years.
This bell is quadrilateral, and is formed of two plates of sheet
iron, which are bent over so as to meet, and are fastened together
by large-headed iron rivets. The corners are rounded by a
gentle inclination of the parts which join. One of the plates
constitutes the face, the crown, and upper third of the back, 2.3
well as the adjacent portion of each side, being doubled over
at the top, and descending to meet the smaller plate, which
overlaps it at the junction. Subsequently to the securing the
METAL-WORK. 59
joints by livets, the iron frame was consolidated bv the fusion
of bronze into the joints and over the surface, Diving to the
whole a metallic solidity, which very much enhanced its reso-
nance, as well as contributed to its preservation. The inside
also was coated with bronze, though more irregularly than the
outside, owing to the unevenness of the surface ; and the coating
seems to have been effected by the clipping of the iron shell
into a vessel of the fused metallic compound, a process which
has been employed to a recent date in the manufacture of the
Wiltshire sheep-bells. The handle Is of iron. let in by ^rejecting
spikes to perforations on the ridge of the bell, and further secured
on the outside by bronze attachments of its straps **
One remarkable fact in connection with the reliquary in which
this bell was enshrined is, that, since it was made about the year
1091, it has never been lost sight of. From the beginning i: had
a special keeper; in succeeding generations its custody was
continued in the same family, and proved to them a source of
considerable emolument: and in after ages, when its pronts
ceased to accrue, long associations so bound it up with the
affections of the keeper's family that they almost held their
existence upon the tenure of its safe custody, and thus handed
it down from generation to generation, till the stock at last
became extinct, and the object of their former care passed
into a keeping established by friendship instead of blood. It
was one proof of the fact that these little iron hand-bells of
the first teachers of Christianity were among the relics held in
highest estimation among the Irish, These, when worn and
useless, as in the case of this bell of the great apostle of Ireland,
were enshrined in cases made in the form of the bell, and
adorned with gold and precious stones; 2nd, as in the case
of the book-shrines, also probably executed about 400 or 500
years after the death of the saint to whom the bell belonged.
* Trans. Roy. Irish Acadtmy, Maich, 1877; "On the Bell of Patrick/'
by Wm. Reeves, D.D.
60 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
FIG. IS. SHRINE OF ST. PATRICK'S BELL. (P. 66.)
METAL-WORK. 61
This rude iron bell is 2. fair example of the type which seems
to have also prevailed in Wales and Scotland during the first
centuries after the introduction of Christianity. Mr. Ellacornbe
has described and illustrated six such hand-bells of the Early
Welsh Church, and refers to fifty-three examples in Irish
museums of native work, besides one still preserved in Switzer-
land to which we have already alluded, the Bell of St. Gall ;
one in France, that of St. Godeberte in Xoyon ; and one at
Stival, in Brittany. Didron describes a similar bell preserved
at the Museum of Cologne, said to have belonged to Ciimbert,
the first bishop of that town. Dr. Anderson describes four of
such bells in Scotland, and notes that there are but two of the
same type in England, and adds : " As all those in Scotland
whose associations have been preserved are attributed to Irish
saints, we naturally turn to Ireland in search of the parent
group. There we find the type is well known, and examples
both in iron and bronze are abundant. The exact number of
those that are still extant in Ireland is not easily ascertained,
but they can be enumerated up to between fifty and sixty/'' The
antiquary may further find in Ireland that a large number of
these primitive iron bells can be said to possess an authentic
history. As we have shown in the case of St. Patrick's Bell,
the fate of many of these curious relics has been bound up with
that of the family in the present century descended from the
hereditary keeper of the bell in the old monastery. Thus, the
MacBeolans in Galway remained, till a few years ago, custodians
of the Black Bell of St. Patrick, now in the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy; the MacGuirks of Tyrone were hereditary
keepers of the Bell of Termon MacGuirk, now in the Dungannon
Museum, which descended from Columba, the founder of the
church; the McEnhills kept the iron bell of Drumragh, near
Omagh; the Magoverans that of St. Mogue in Templeport,
County Cavan ; the O'Rorkes were keepers of the Bell of
Fenagh, afterwards transported to Mohill : the Breslins, that of
62 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Conell of Iniscail, now in the British Museum ; and the Keanes
of the county of Clare were hereditary keepers of St. Senan's
Bell in Scattery Island, called the Clogh Oir, or Golden Bell.
FIG. 19. SHRINE OF ST. CULANUS 1 BELL.
It may seem like exaggeration to suggest that these relics are
twelve or thirteen hundred years old, and may be indeed the
very bells used by the founders in those monasteries by whose
servants and successors they were preserved to the present
METAL-WORK. 63
century ; and yet there is much evidence to support this
assertion. The custom of enshrining these rude iron bells in
cases, adorned with gold, silver, and enamels, and gems, which
FIG. 20. SHRINK OF ST. CULAMUS 5 BELL (BACK).
prevailed from the tenth to the twelfth century, shows the
reverence with which the relics of the patron saint of the
monastery were regarded. Thus we have the shrine of the
original Bell of Culanus, which is apparently the work of the
64 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
eleventh century;* the shrine of St. Mura ? s Bell, who was patron
of Fahan, in Londonderry, and was venerated on March i2th;
the shrine of the Bell of St. Mogue, who was bom A.D. 555,
died 625; the shrine of St. Senan's Bell, the patron of the
church on Scattery Island, who lived circa 540, whose festival
day was March 8th ; and the shrine of the Bell of Conall Gaol,
patron of the church of Inishkeei, County Donegal, which, in
the year 1835, was sold by Connell MacMichael O'Breslen, a
poor man but the oldest representative of the O'Breslen, who,
as appears from an Inquisition 7 Jac. I., was one of the Erenaghs
of Inishkeel. This bell-shrine has an inscription in black letter,
greatly defaced, in which the names of Mahon, O'Meehan, and
. . . O'Breslen are still legible.t
The Bearnan Ciaran and Bearnan Ailbe, surnamed the
" Broken or Gapped Bells," are mentioned by the Four Masters
at pp. 843 and 1097, and the Bell of St. Kevin and St. Fechin
in the twelfth century (p. 1072).
Many of the iron bells of the first Christian period were
distinguished by the epithet " Bearnan/' meaning " broken," or
f; gapped/' by the Annalists of the tenth and eleventh century ;
thus we read of the Bearnan Ciarain, and Bearnan Ailbe, and
Bearnan Brigde, and Bearnan Cualaun. But in the tenth century
bells of bronze, cast and moulded in a finer form, were in use.
To this class belongs the second Bell of Columb of Ros
Glandse in Roscommon, now in the Petrie Museum; the Bell
of Gartan in Donegal, in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy; that of Kilshanny, County Clare, in the same
Museum ; and two fine examples which show that these bells
were occasionally ornamented, the Bell of Cashel, now in the
Museum of the Earl of Dunraven, and that of Bangor, in the
county of Down, on the face of which a cross is incised, and
round the base a band of Irish ornament runs, which is very
* See ArchtBological Journal, vol. xx. p. 76.
t See note, " Ann. Four Mast.," A.D. 1616, p. 2373.
METAL-WORK. 65
similar in both cases. These fine bronze bells vary in size from
14 in. high by 9 in. wide at base to 5 in. high by 3 in. at base,
while the old iron bells measure on an average from 6 in. high
by 4^ in. wide to n in. by 8 in. wide.
Fortunately, the date of one of these fine bronze bells of
Ireland can be ascertained by the inscription which it bears,
and thus we have a clue
to the date of others of
the same class. This
is the Bronze Bell
of Cumascach, son of
Ailill, who was steward
in the monastery of
Armagh, and whose
death in the year 908
is recorded in the
Annals of Ulster. This
bell is of cast bronze,
without rivets; its
handle and clapper
are of iron, and it
measures n^ in. high
by 8 in. across at the FIG ' ai BELL OF CUMASCACH MAC AILEIXO.
base. (Fig. 21.)
The bell-shrine of Maelbrigde, son of Redan, Bishop of
Connor and Abbot of Muckamore and Ahoghill, who died in
954, comes next in order of date. Only a fragment of the top
of this shrine remains, but it contains the inscription : " Pray
for Maelbrigde, through whom it was made, and for the . . .
who made it." The material is bronze, overlaid with ornaments
and gold and silver interspersed with enamels. It measures
3j^ in. in breadih by 2 in. in height. (See Figs. 23, 24.)
The shrine of the Bell of St. Patrick's Will, or Bell of
Armagh, was made to enclose the rude iron bell of the apostle
F
66 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
of Ireland. This fine example of goldsmith's work must have
been executed between the years 1091 and 1105, when Donell
MacAulay, whose name is given in the inscription, filled the
See of Armagh. The shrine is made of brass, on which the
ornamented parts are fastened down with rivets. The front is
adorned with silver-gilt plates and knot-work in golden filigree.
The silver work is partly covered with scrolls, some in alto-
relievo, and some in , bas-relief. It is also decorated with gems
and crystal, and on the sides are animal forms elongated and
twisted into interlaced scrolls. (See Fig, 18.)
UCH covers or shrines for bells seem to be
unknown in any other branch of the Christian
Church. Six examples of these beautiful reli-
quaries are still in existence. Besides that
from the county of Antrim, already men-
tioned, we have the shrine of St. Patrick's
Bell in Armagh; the Barnaan Cualawn, or
shrine of the Bell of St. Culanus, in Tip-
perary (Figs. 19, 20); that of St. Mura's
Bell at Fahan in Donegal, that of the
Bell of Coneil Cael in Glencolumbkill,
County Donegal, that of the St. Mogue
or Moedoc from Templeport in the county
of Cavan, the Clogh Oir or Golden Bell of
Senanus in Scattery Island at the mouth
of the Shannon. We know of no other
FIG. 22. reliquaries of this exact nature outside of
Ireland except the two in Scotland, described by Dr. Anderson
in his work entitled ''Scotland in Early Christian Times;" the
bell-shrine found near Kilmichael Glassary which he believes may
date about the twelfth century, and may have belonged to
St. Molua of Lismore in Ireland ; and the bell-shrine of Guthrie
in Forfarshire.
METAL-WORK.
67
The earliest dated example of decorative metal-work of the
Irish style that we know of is perhaps the work of an Irish visitor
to the monastery in Austria to which it belongs, or, as some have
supposed, is of an early style which prevailed on the Continent
and spread into Ireland. If of foreign workmanship we cannot
but wonder at its exceptional character, when compared with other
FIGS. 23, 24. SHRIXE OF MAELBRIGDE'S BELL (PORTIONS OF).
examples of early metal- work on the Continent, while its similarity
to those of the Irish school is very striking. The relic to which
we allude is the silver chalice of Kremsmiinster in Lower
Austria, eighteen miles south of Wels near the Danube. There
is a distinctly Irish character in the traceries upon this cup, and
the monastery in which it is found is in a country long frequented
F 2
6S EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
by Irish missionaries from the eighth century to the eleventh.
I: ;s nor far from Gottweich, where Joannes who travelled from
Ulster with Marianus lived as a recluse. In the old " Life of St.
Altmann, 77 founder of Gottweich, we read : " In this venerable
bishop's time there came a priest to Mount Kotweich, by nation
a Scot, in profession a monk, in conversation religious. The
r.ame he bore, which was John, signifying c God's Grace,' was in
accordance with his disposition. Bishop Altmann loved this
grace which was in him; and that he might the more readily
ajide with him, a narrow cell was assigned him beside the church
or" the blessed Mary, in which, agreeable to his wish and
solicitation, he was immured." The date of the chalice of
Kreinsmiinster can be approximately fixed since it bears an
inscription :
Tassilo Dux fortis Luitpirc virga regalis.
This Tassilo was the last Duke in Bavaria of the race of the
Arjilosinger. He fought during his minority under Pepin the
Little, afterwards King of the Franks, and in the year 757 he
undertook the government of his own duchy. He afterwards
married Luitberga the daughter of Desiderius, the last king of the
Lombards. The time at which this chalice was presented was
somewhere between the year 757 when he became duke, and
shortly after which he married Luitberga, and 781 when he was
reduced to submission by Charlemagne and afterwards deprived
of his dukedom.
The chalice does not appear to have been so essential a
portion of the furniture of the primitive Irish church as the bell.
the crosier, and the book, so often enumerated as the gifts or
bequests of the founder. One of the few notices we have met
with of chalices is that legend in the " Life of St. Patrick " which
states that, when Ailill, his servant, required of him sacred vessels
for the service of his church, then, " the holy prelate, divinely
instructed, pointed out to the presbyter, in a certain stone cave of
METAL-WORK. 69
wonderful workmanship, an altar underground, having on its four
corners four chalices of glass." These chalices were probably
foreign and imported by some missionary who preceded Patrick.*
Chalices of glass were in use on the Continent down to the tenth
century. The rudest, and possibly the oldest form of chalice of
native workmanship in Ireland, was of stone. One example now
preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, is as rude
and archaic as the primitive cell in the monastery on the Blasket
Islands, from which it was taken. Another chalice, also of stone,
is preserved in the same Museum, and this is gracefully decorated.*!"
The earliest notices of metal chalices in Ireland appear to be
those referred to in Keating's "History of Ireland," where it is
stated that in the reign of Flann Sinna (A.D. 877 to 914)? Cormac
MacCullinain King, Bishop of Cashel, bestowed a gold and silver
chalice on Lismore, and bequeathed a gold and silver chalice to
Cashel. . However, bronze chalices seem to have been in use in
the seventh century in the Irish Church. St. Gall assigned as his
reason for declining to use silver vessels in the service of the
altar that his master, St. Columbanus, was accustomed to use
vessels of bronze. No chalice of the early Church exists in
Scotland ; but it is said that a chalice of bronze and a glass bowl
were dug up in the churchyard of Kiagoldrum, in Forfarshire, in
1843, "which have unfortunately disappeared.
It is much to be regretted that the date of the two finest
examples of the goldsmith's work of Christian Ireland cannot
be fixed by reference to such inscriptions as are found on the
other relics we have described.
The Tara brooch, and the chalice of Ardagh, give us no name
of king or ecclesiastic for whom they were wrought ask no prayer
for the artist by whom they were designed They have no later
history coming down through generations of hereditary custodians.
* An example of a chalice of glass may be seen in the church of Sta.
Anastasia in Rome, said to have belonged to St. Jerome.
t See *' Handbook of Irish Antiquities. 35 W. F. \Vakeman, p. 161
70 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Eoth of these exquisite works were discovered accidentally by
^ecsart?. The Tara brooch was found on the 24th of August,
:S>3, bv the child of a poor woman, who picked it up near the
sea-shore ; she afterwards sold it to a watchmaker in Drogheda,
ar.^ it is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
The chalice was found by a boy digging potatoes, near the old
Rath of Ardagh. We are therefore obliged to turn to other
forms of evidence before we can offer any theory as to the
date of these objects and their place in the history of Irish
metal-v/ork.
The further the study of archaeology advances, the more
possible it becomes to trace the existence and history of certain
laws, which may be applied with more or less confidence to
the formation of chronological classification of the objects they
are dealing with. The first step in this direction should be to
place in regular order the series of objects whose date has
been already ascertained, so that they may serve afterwards as
landmarks, starting-points for the future classification of undated
ones.
In each of the various classes of antiquities of Christian
Ireland, some examples may be found, the date of which is
fixed by the inscriptions that they bear ; certain variations take
place in the style and decoration, by which these variously dated
examples are characterised variations in the compositions of
the metals, in the methods of working the metals in the enamels,
and in the designing of the patterns and scrolls with which the
surface was adorned. It is found, on a comparative study of the
relics whose date is more or less fixed, that such designs as are
held to be peculiarly characteristic of Irish Art are not common
to every period in the history of its development, but are con-
fined to a more limited space of time than has been hitherto
believed. The reader should refer to the close of this work,
where he will find a table with a chronological arrangement of
those examples of Irish illuminated manuscripts, metal-work,
METAL-WORK* 71
sculptured crosses, tombstones, and architecture, the dares of
which have been approximately fixed.
This table is seen to cover a period extending from the fifth
to the twelfth century, and commences with the rudest example
of metal-work we can see the iron Bell of St. Patrick. It is
remarkable that the primitive Christian metal-work should have
been of so barbarous a character, since we know that the Irish
had already attained to great skill in the art of design and the
working of metals, as well as in various processes of enamelling
before the coming of Patrick. The bronzes of the late Celtic
period have never been surpassed in the metal-work of the
Christian period in Ireland, and many of their processes appear
to have been totally different from those introduced with
Christianity. After this new system had had time to settle and
bear fruit, we find the arts of filigree, damascening, mosaic, glass-
work, and enamelling are brought to much excellence. Interlaced
designs are introduced which never appear in the pre-Christian
Art of Ireland, and it would seem to be the case that they came
into Ireland with the first missionaries, since similar patterns
characterise the early Christian Art of the north of Italy, and
were probably Roman in origin. Indeed, designs formed of kno's
and plaited bands are common in the primitive Art of many and
various races.
Mr. Franks observes : "The art of enamelling on metal does
not equal in antiquity that of glass-making; we are, in fact,
scarcely able to show that it existed previous to the Christian era.
either by documents or the still more satisfactory evidence of the
objects themselves."
The Greeks appear to have had some slight knowledge of
enamelling, for the exquisite gold necklaces, which have been
principally found in tornbs in the island of Melos, are orna-
mented with minute flowers, the petals of which contain a
vitreous substance. It was probably fused with a blowpipe, and
at a low temperature. It is not till the third century after Christ
7 2 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
that we obtain any direct mention of the art of enamelling.
Ph:io?:rstus. a Greek sophist, who had been attracted to Rome
/T the court of Julia Domna, wife of Severus, has left a curious
w-rk entitled k The Icones." in which he describes a series of
paintings ; one of them is a boar hunt ; and, after mentioning the
variegated trappings of the horses, he adds: " They say that the
l^trbarians who live in (or by) the ocean, pour these colours on
to heated brass, and that they adhere, become as hard as stone,
.".i;: preserve the designs which are made in them." (Icones, I.
or., xx vi::. ;
A very elegant vessel, once enamelled, was found in 1838 in
the sea, at Ambleteuse, off the coast of Normandy, in company
wit.i newly-struck coins of Tacitus; which would fix its date to
about A.D. 276.
"The ancient processes," continues Mr. Franks, "appear to
have lingered in Ireland, as we find some of the details of these
earlier shrines executed in enamel. j;
The advance of any decorative Christian Art in Ireland was
but gradual. As we have already shown in one instance, nothing
can exceed the rudeness of those relics of the early teachers of
religion that have been preserved for us through the care of their
relic-loving successors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
T:ie iron and bronze Bells of St. Patrick or of St. Columba of
t'.ie rlfth and sixth centuries are as inferior to the bronze Bell of
Cumascach Mac Ailello, A.D. 904, as the uncemented stone
oratory is to the Romanesque church of the twelfth ; and we
read of crosier?, but find them to have been the oaken staff of
the itinerant bishop which is still visible through. the chinks
and openings of the metal case in which it was afterwards
enshrined.
But perhaps nothing helps the mind more vividly to realise
:he simple practices of these early Christians than the sight and
touch of the rude stone chalices, such as have been preserved to
the present date in a few of our most remote churches. Decora-
live Christian Art grew to gradual perfection from the ninth to
the tenth centuries, and it is interesting to see that it had been
grafted on the pagan Art of pre-Christian Ireland, and that
certain designs (besides those interlaced patterns which we hold
to have been of foreign importation'., common in the native Art
and in the bronzes of the late Celtic period, were used by
workers in metal of the Christian perisd, and carried :o great
perfection in the illuminations of me rescripts. These native
designs, however, are not seen at so lare a date as the interlaced
patterns, and rarely, if ever, appear in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries-, which period was distinguished by the nnest interlaced
work. In the ornament which enriched the surface of such
examples of architecture, sculpture, and metal-work as bear
evidence of having been executed before the year ic2c ? we in-
variably find one distinguishing design which fell into disuse
after the date 1050. This has been termed the divergent spiral,
or trumpet pattern.
This design consists of two lines wound in a spiral, on leaving
which the two lines diverge, and at the end of the space is a curve,
formed by the parting of the lines, like the mouth of a trumpet.
Then the lines converge again, whirling to a centre where they
turn, and, winding back again, diverge and converge as before,
thus forming a design the lines of which may be carried on in an
infinite series of circles and curves, the opening spaces of which
are filled with colour by the illuminator or with enamel by the
goldsmith. This design is found on the late Celtic and pre-
Roman works of Britain, i.e. between B.C. 200 and A.D. 200.
During the Roman occupation of Britain it seems to have be-
come extinct in that country ; but it lived on in Ireland, and
works in metal, marked by it, may belong to the third century.
It must be remembered also that in Ireland there are two
distinct modifications of this design, one appearing on the
bronze and gold ornaments of apparently pre-Christian Art,
the other on decidedly Christian monuments down to the
74 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
eleventh and twelfth centuries, and there are stone monu-
ments in Ireland where the transition from one to the
other may be clearly traced In the oldest variety the large
curves of the diverging lines formed the essential element
favoured by the artist; in the second, and later variety, the
curved spaces were treated as secondary to the spiral, and instead
of one whirl round the centre, you have twelve or more. After
t:e tenth, and perhaps the beginning of the eleventh century, this
design disappears from Irish Art, and its decay and death may
be traced in monuments whose dates have been satisfactorily
ascertained. Thus there is no trace of the divergent spiral upon
the shrine of St. Manchan, circa 1166. Neither is there on the
case or shrine of Dimma's book, A.D. 1150, on the Cross of
Cong, A.D. 1123, on the stone cross of Tuam, A.D. 1123, on the
crosier of Lismore. A.D. HOT, nor on the shrine of St. Lachtin's
arm. A.D. 1106.
In works of the eleventh century it scarcely ever appears. It
is not to be found on the shrine of St. Patrick's Bell, A.D. 1091,
nor does it appear on the Cathach of the O'Donnells.
The design is found, very sparsely used and as if in its
decay, upon the shiine of the Stowe Missal, A.D. 1023. It
occurs in a more excellent form on the shrine of Molaise's
book from Devenish, and on the crosier of Maelfmnia, of Kells,
A.D. 967, as well as the top of the bell-shrine of Maelbrigde, of
Ahoghill. Thirty sculptured and inscribed crosses and tomb-
stones in Ireland have been assigned with tolerable certainty
to dates varying from the years Sio to 1123; of these three
belong to the ninth century, which are ornamented with this
peculiar spiral ; seven to the tenth century, and it rarely, if ever,
appears in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The trumpet
pattern, or divergent spiral, is not used upon the high cross of
Tuam, erected by Abbot O'Hoisin in memory of King Turlough
O'Conor. It seems to have fallen into disuse before this date.
The testimony of the illuminated MSS. as to the decay of
METAL-WORK. 75
this design in the tenth century is very remarkable. There is
no trace of it in the MSS. of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, when interlaced patterns are still in use. It CDS not
occur in the oldest copies extant of " Leabhar Breac/ r the ki Book
of Ballymote," the " Book of Lecan," the : Psalter na Ram," the
" Leabhar na Huidre," the "Book of Leinster," the "Irish Missal,"'
in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in the ' Irish Psalter/' British
Museum, or the "Book of Hymns, "circa 1150, Trinity College.
Dublin. Neither is it to be found in the i; Psalter of Ricemarch,"
in the same library, or in the ^ Chronicle of Marianus Scotus,"'
now in the Vatican Library, Rome. It is seen in its most perfect
development in the illuminated books of the seventh, eighth,
and ninth centuries, but seems to die out after the year 900.
It appears in the greatest redundance in the oldest part of the
"Book of Kells," the date of which I begin to believe must have
been about the year 690. It also appears in the "Book of
Durrow," the "Gospels of Willibrord," A.D. 739: the "Book of
Armagh," A.D. 750 to 808 ; the c: Gospels of MacRegol," A.D.
820; the "Golden Gospels of St. Germanus," A.D. 871. now at
Stockholm.
The Tara brooch and the Ardagh chalice offer the most
perfect examples of the use of this peculiar spiral that have
been found in the metal-work of Irish Christian Art; and we
are strongly reminded of the decoration of Irish manuscripts
from the " Book of Kells," drc& 690, when we study them. That
these two relics are contemporaneous one with another there can
be little doubt. They show not only perfectly similar develop-
ments of this spiral design, but many other points of agreement
besides. The same filigree wire-work ; the same Trichinopoli
chain-work ; the same circles of amber and translucent glass ;
the same enamels, both " cloisonnes " and " champleves." (See
Figs. 25, 26.)
The native character which distinguishes the art of these
works has very much disappeared from the metal-work of the
7 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
eleventh and twelfth centuries. The shrine of St. Patrick's
Bell and the Cross of Cong belong to a time when the trumpet
pattern has fallen into disuse, just as it disappears from the
illuminated manuscripts after the year icoo.
FIG. 25. TARA BROOCH.
"The Tara brooch," says Dr. Petrie, "is superior to any
hitaerto found in the variety of its ornaments and in the
METAL-WORK.
77
exquisite delicacy and perfection of its execution." It is com-
posed of a metal harder than silver, formed by a combination of
FIG. 25. TARA BRCOCH (REVERSE).
copper and tin called white bronze. A silver chain is attached
to it, which was intended to keep the pin tight and in its proper
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND
K :
position This chain is of that peculiar construction
known as Trichinopoli work The face of the
ornament is overlaid with various ornamented pat-
terns, of the same class as those found in Irish illumi-
nated MS5-, designed with beautiful taste, and which
are not confined to the front but also enrich the
reverse. A lens of no moderate power is necessary
if we would appreciate the perfect execution of these
ornaments. There are no less than seventy-six
varieties of these designs, all of which exhibit an
admirable sense of ornamented beauty and happy
fitness for their relative situations ; in the fastening
used to keep these delicate traceries in their places
only a delicate bar, scarcely perceptible to the
naked eye, is found. In other places, however, and
particularly in the circular insertions of amber, the
gold rosettes placed upon them are fastened by pins,
which pass through the brooch, and are riveted also
on the opposite side.
It should be observed that insertions of amber
and variegated glass are frequently found in the
jewellery of early Christian Ireland. Niello-work,
of exquisite beauty, is also to be met with j but of
this and the carving and casting of glass into the
forms of human faces, such as is here seen, we have
no other example among the personal ornaments
hkherto found in Ireland
One special process in common use among Roman
glass-makers deserves to be mentioned separately,
as affording a useful hint to modern manufacturers.
A certain number of rods of glass, of different colours
PT r>**
PIN FOUND AT an( ^ sizes, were so placed together, as that a clean
CLONMACNOIS. C ross-cut through the whole should exhibit, on the
face of the section, a set pattern. When the bundle of rods were
METAL-WORK. 79
accurately placed according to design, and fixed, they were sub-
jected to precisely that degree of heat which would soften them
without absolutely melting, and so cement them together. The
mass, when cold, was rapidly cut by some means into thin slices,
each of which formed a perfect slab or tile, exhibiting on its
surface the same pattern.*
Mr. Longfield, of the Science and Art Museum in Dublin, has
drawn my attention to a pin in the Petrie Collection in the Royal
Irish Academy, which was found at Clonmacnois, and which is a
very perfect example of glass-work. The pin is of bronze, inlaid
with ornaments of glass (AA) ; a rose pattern, white on blue
ground, i-Sth inch diameter, is set at either side of a dianiona-
shaped ornament (B). consisting of a centre of
translucent crimson glass on a diaper pattern of ^^
yellow and white ; at c is a star of crimson and
blue, which ornament is repeated six times along
the side of the pin. Here it would seem thai \. ' *j
these pieces of coloured glass were put together ^ ^
so as to form a mosaic-work of canes of different HEAD OF PIN.
colours that they were fused together and drawn CLONMACNOIS -
out; and the pieces used in the ornament are sections of the
canes when drawn out.
Fig. 30 represents one of four brooches found at Ardagh,
along with the chalice next to be noticed. t
The workmanship upon these Ardagh brooches is larger and
less delicate in execution than in the Tara brooch, or the chalice
near which they were found. They do not exhibit many of the
archaic designs found in such variety upon the older specimens,
such as the double and divergent spirals, and the fine wire-work
resembling Trichinopoli chain-work. This leads to the belief
that the brooches found at Ardagh are of a later date than the
other antiquities discovered with them.
* Noel Humphrey's "Ten Centuries of An," p. 98.
t Traits. Roy a.1 Irish Academy, vol. xxiv. p. 453.
So EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The chalice found at Ardagh belongs to that early class of
tvro-handled cups, described in the old " Ordines Romani " as
c^::cs wiKisirakst a form in use before the tenth century, and
mean: for communion of the minor clergy and people, so long as
communion under both kinds was given to the laity. (See Pig. 31.)
FIG. 29. ROSCREA BROOCH (PETRIE COLLECTION).
This Irish chalice, which combines classic beauty of form
with the most exquisite examples of almost every variety of
Celtic ornamentation, is composed of an alloy of silver, which
may be stated generally as about three parts of silver to one of
copper. It is 7 in. in height, and 9>< in. in diameter; the foot
is 5; ~ in. in diameter; the depth of the bowl is 4 in.
METAL-WORK.
FIG. 30. ARDAGH BROOCH".
This cup is composed of the following metals : gold, silver,
bronze, brass, copper, and lead. The upper rim is of brass, much
PART i. G
S3 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
decayed, and split, from some local action on that particular alloy
of metal. The bowl is of silver, the standard value of which is
four shillings per ounce. The ornaments cut on the silver bowl
consist of an inscription, interlaced patterns terminating in dogs'
heads, and at the bottom a circular band of the Greek pattern.
The mode of ornamentation is peculiar to this cup, being done
with a chisel and hammer, as indicated by the lines being raised
a: each side, which could only be produced in the manner
described. Round the cup runs a band composed of two semi-
cyMncrica! nn~s of silver, ornamented with small annular dots
punched out with a hollow punch. The space between the rings
is nlled by twelve plaques of gold repousse work, with a very
beautiful ornamentation of fine filigree wire-work, wrought on the
front cf the re$?ussc ground, and carrying out, in its most delicate
execution, the interlaced pattern associated with the art of this
country. Between the plaques are twelve round enamelled
berc?.
The peculiarities of some of the enamels found on this cup
are so interesting, that they have been specially analysed and
described by Professor Sullivan, whose remarks we here quote :
* The enamels of the chalice are of three kinds :
** 1st. Round or bead, tabular or arched enamels (the latter are simply the
tabular tent to suit the handle), of one colour, with a pattern of metal.
fc " 2nd. Similar enamels of two colours, with a pattern of metal.
il 3rd. Similar enaaiels of two colours, without any pattern of metal.
f 4 The r&: class is formed of a bead or tabular piece of coloured transparent
glass imo the upper surface of which was pressed, while in a soft state, a
chambered cr cloi;onn pattern, cut out of a piece of solid silver the spherical
or fiat surface was afterwards polished. This kind may be considered to be a
peculiar variety of the em&ux cloisonnes^ the ' cloisons ' not being, however,
formed by soldering together slips of metal, and soldering the pattern on a
plute cf inetal, or ground, but being cut out of a single piece of metal, which
is then pressed into the softened surface of the enamel 3 which rises up into
and nils the open framework of the pattern.
" The second kind was made by taking a piece of silver of the proper
size, and cutting our the pattern ; one part entirely, and the other not quite
through, so as to form in the first case, an open frame-work, and in the second
Mule hollows or chambers ; this pattern was then pressed into the softened
METAL-WORK. 83
surface of a bead, a flat tabular piece, or arched piece of translucent blue-
coloured glass ; this glass up the open ' cloisons,' as in the first kind above
described. The little hollows or chambers, formed by not cutting the metal
quite through, were then filled by a more fusible opaque enamel, which did
not come into contact with the translucent or basic enamel. This variety
may be considered as a union of the peculiar variety of Imaux c+cizonnss
represented by No. I, and of the emaux en taiUe tfepergne or emcsix en
champlevcS) the base or translucent glass being much less fusible than the
second, or * champleve ' enamel, which, as has been observed above, is opaque.
" The third kind consists of flat, tabular, or arched pieces of translucent glass
(coloured blue), on the surface of which was engraved (Mr. Johnson says
FIG. 31. CHALICE OF ARDAGH.
'impressed'), in 'intaglio,' a design or pattern, which was afterwards filled up
with another coloured and opaque enamel. This is an interesting variety of
the emaux champleves in which glass is substituted for metal as the base in
which the pattern is incised. In this case the translucent glass and opaque
enamel are brought into direct contact, and show a considerable amount of
skill in producing glasses of different degrees of fusibility.
"There appear to be no specimens of pseudo cloisonne enamel on the
chalice, that is, enamels in which the glasses are cemented into the ( cloisons,'
and not fused into them ; they are rather mosaics than enamels. This variety
is essentially Oriental, and appears not to have been at all practised in Gaul,
where, undoubtedly, true enamels were made anterior to the Roman domina-
tion, and when they were not used apparently in Rome or Greece.
"It is generally very difficult to distinguish between true enamels and
G 2
S 4 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
p?s*j;dc-enssiels, or mosaics, which have been long exposed to the action of
the durcp, etc., cs the very fusible enamels are easily decomposed by water
c:r*:i:r.;sc carl >n;c nci-i, leaving along the points of contact of the metal
v ith :he class n residue, o"f:en so like cement as to deceive the most skilled
The handles of this chalice are composed of enamels (similar
to those in the borders) and plaques of gold filigree work of the
same style, but different in design. Each handle has four circular
pieces of blue glass, underneath which the rivets are secured
which fasten the handles to the bowl. Round the enamels was a
circle of amber, divided into eight spaces by pieces of bronze,
which has been eaten away. One of the enamels has a circle of
g^Id grains at the top, which has been pressed in while the glass
wr.s in fusion. The two circular ornaments on the side of the
bowl are of gold nligree work of the very finest kind, with an
enamelled boss in the centre ; the frames which hold them are of
silver. There are four settings at equal distances, which are
receivers of the rivets that secure it to the bowl. In the settings
were two pieces of blue glass (the same as in the handles), and
two pieces of amber, which have fallen out.
The stem and supports of the bowl are of bronze metal, gilt,
beautifully carved in interlaced and knotted patterns. They are
attached to the bowl by a bronze gilt ball, with a strong square
tang, and most ingeniously fastened by an iron bolt, which
secures all together.
The foot is of silver, circular, with a framework on the outer
rim, having eight spaces, which are filled alternately with gold and
bronze gilt plaques of open work ; behind them pieces of mica
are inserted, which throw out more clearly the very beautiful
pierced designs with which these plaques are ornamented. The
intermediate spaces contain enamels (inferior to those in the
upper part of the bowl;, set in bronze.
In the inside of the foot of the bowl is a circular crystal,
round which there has been a circle of amber, divided into
twelve tablets, with a bronze division between each tablet;
METAL-WORK. 85
surrounding this is a circle in gold filigree of the same style and
workmanship as those already described. The next circle had
tablets of amber, but they have all fallen out. In the space
between this and the silver is a circular bronze plate, highly
carved and gilt, in which are fine enamels in green.
The extreme outer edge, like the reverse side. Is divided into
eight spaces, in which are pieces somewhat similar to the gold
plaques on the opposite side, with this difference, that six are in
silver, and two in copper; two of the silver pieces are of :he most
beautiful plated wire-work I have ever met with. Between tho^e
spaces are square pieces of blue glass, underneath which are
ornamented pieces of wrought silver, which give them a brilliant
appearance when in strong light. Between the circles which form
the upper and under surfaces of the rim of the foot are plates of
lead to secure and give weight to the whole. The enamels on
the foot of the cup are of a coarse kind, the pattern being
impressed in the glass, and the enamel melted into it. The
number of pieces of which the cap is composed amounts to 354.
including 20 rivets.
oz. dwt.
\Veight of gold ----12
Silver 20 13
Bronze 9 o
The analysis of the different metals gives as follows :
Gold, between 18 and 19 carat fine, value per oz. $ 4^.
Silver, bad quality, averaging from 3^. $d. to $s. 3^^. per oz.
Lead has 12 grams of silver in the Ib. troy.
Bronze has 2 grams of silver in the Ib. troy, a small portion of tin, arvi
the balance in copper.
Gold assay
oz. dwt.
Fine gold in the Ib. - - > S 16
Fine silver - 2 16
Copper 08
12 o
S6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
or in each oz. there is,
dwt. gr.
Fine gold 14 16
Fine silver - - - 4 16
Copper - - o 16
20 o
Silver assay
Of the rivets c.t the handles, 4 oz. 9 dwt. worse in the Ib. troy,
s:anaaid value, 3^. 32. per oz.
Of the setting round the borders, 6 dwt. better in Ib. troy, standard
value, 5.-. 3/;'jr*. per 02.
Of the piece of the border that encircles the bowl, 3 oz. worse, standard
value, 4J. o.f. per cz.
Of the small setting on the handle, 4 oz. worse, standard value,
3.-. 5; 2 "-' per cz.
Underneath the boss which fastens the bowl to the stand there
wis a very slight trace of oil in the bottom of the bowl.
The ornamental designs upon this cup belong to the Celtic
school of Art, which, according to Dr. Petrie, reached its highest
perfection as regards metal-work in this country in the tenth and
eleventh centuries. Of these designs there are about forty
different varieties, all showing a freedom of inventive power and
;;.:A- of fancy only to be equalled by the work upon the so-called
Tcira brooch. These designs may be classified under three
heads :
i. Rectilinear.
The Greek fret pattern.
The step pattern, characteristic of Etruscan Art; eight
varieties.
The triangular pattern or the Celtic modification of the
Greek fret, in diagonal lines ; three varieties.
2. Curvilinear.
Single line spiral.
Divergent spiral, or trumpet pattern ; two varieties.
Interlaced bands and knots ; eleven varieties, some of
which are found in filigree wire on gold plates.
METAL-WORK. $7
Triquetra; four of them interlaced so as to form a cross.
This was a favourite design in Art of the tenth
century on the Continent, as well as in this country ;
it appears in a French manuscript written about the
year 900, preserved at Rheims. It is also found at
Clonmacnois, on the cross of Maelfinnia, who died in
the year 992, and on other tombstones, dating from
the years 860 to 900.
3. Arabesque patterns in filigree.
Of designs taken from natural forms nothing is more remark-
able than the absence of foliate patterns in the Irish metal-work
Defore the thirteenth century, although they occur in the great
illuminated manuscripts of the Celtic school, and on some of the
stone crosses. Animal forms, however, are used, though sparingly,
in the designs which are chased upon the silver bowl of this cup.
There are two varieties of birds, with heads, necks, and legs
elongated, and interlaced; and also animal forms interlaced.
There are four dragons' heads, with sharp teeth which bear a
strong resemblance to drawings of similar objects in the "Book
of Armagh " : also dogs, whose long protruding tongues form a
knot above their heads.
Besides these ornamental designs there are two pieces of
plaited silver wire, bearing a strong resemblance to Trichinopoli
work. There are two other examples of this kind of Art, in the
form of chains ; one attached to the so-called Tara brooch, the
other in the Petrie Collection.
Tha most interesting, as well as remarkable feature of the
cup, is the inscription already referred to. The letters are rather
more than half an inch in length and are beautifully preserved,
though the lines are very delicate and the outline faint Their
shape is clearly marked out by the stippling, which forms a
shaded background to them. The inscription runs thus :
Petri, Pauli, Andri, Jacobi, Johannis, Piliphi, Bartholomei,
Thorns, Mathei, Jacobi, Tatheus, Simon.
S3 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
This list of the Twelve Apostles is found in the commemoration in
the Canon of the Mass ; but in the Roman Missal the names are
placed cificrentiy. thus :
Fetri, F^uli, Andrre, Jacobi, Joannis, Philippi,
Lartholomxi, Thomse, Matthsei, Jacobi,
Thiddrei, Sitnonis.
It is also in the Litany of the Saints as given in an old Irish
MS. at Sr. Gall, but there is a slight difference in the order of the
r.:.:iies. It is also found in the Bobio Missal printed by Mabillon,
k 'Mu.-eum It^licum " (t. i. 279), the only difference being that
the crder of names at the end slightly varies.
No example has hitherto been found in Great Britain of the
?;/r.e class as this exquisite chalice. Indeed, with a few excep-
tions, such as the chalice in the Abbey of Witten in the Tyrol,
this is a unique example of the two-handled chalices used in the
tsrliest Christian times.
For illustrations and further particulars of this chalice, see
Paper by Edwin, third Earl of Dunraven "Transactions of the
Royal Irish Academy," vol. xxiv. p. 433 (1869).
BOOK-SHRIKES.
OOK-SHRIXES appear to be of rare occur-
rence save in Ireland. Elsewhere we find
that the sacred writings had splendid bind-
ings ; one side at least being often of silver
or gold, studded with jewels, so that the
book thus covered added to the general
splendour of the altars on which they were
placed. But a different sentiment seemed
at work in Ireland, where the book was held
as a sacred heirloom by the successors of
the Patron Saint, whose memory they had
cherished for perhaps five hundred years. Here
the old book was left untouched, as something whose value
METAL-WORK. 89
could not be increased by gold or precious stones ; bur a
box was made on which was lavished all the artist's skill,
and in this the sacred relic was preserved. One case, that
called the Cathach, was fastened so that the book was hermeti-
cally sealed from view ; and into the minds of its possessors, the
chieftains of Tirconnell, a superstitious fear was instilled that
some great calamity would befall them were the case once opened.
Such precautions may be accounted for by the worn condition of
the manuscript, and by the fact that its keepers were no: eccle-
siastics who could read the book, but chieftains who had the
shrine carried before them in battle by one who wore it as a
breastplate.
The first cumdach we read of, the date of which can be fixed
by any historical authority, was made for the " Book of Burrow/'
by the king of Ireland, Flann Sinna, son of Malachv, who
reigned between the years 877 and 916. This is now lost, but it
was seen by Roderic O'Flaherty in 1677, who wrote the following
memorandum on the fly-leaf of the Gospel it was made to en-
shrine, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin :
Inscriptio Hibemicis literis incisa cruci argeniece in operirnento hujus
Libri in transversa crucis parte nomen artificis indicat ; et in lonptndine tribus
lineis a sinistra et totidem dextra, ut sequitur :
Oroit acits Bendacht chohtimb chilk do Fttnmd mace Maelsechnaill do
rig Hdrenn lasa.ndc.rnad acumdachso.
(Columb Cille's prayer and blessing for Fland. son of Maelsechnaiil,
for the King of Ireland, by whom this case was made.)
The next cumdach recorded is that which was made in the
beginning of the tenth century, for the manuscript now known as
the "Book of Armagh," and which contains several ecclesiastical
writings, as well as the whole of the New Testament. It was
called the "Canon of Patrick j" and in the "Annals of Four
Masters " we read :
"A.D. 937. Canoin Phadraig was covered by Donchadh, son of Flann,
King of Ireland."
90 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The same authorities also allude to the cumdach of the
" Book of Kells," In the following passage :
"A.D. ioo5. The Great Gospel of Columb Cille was stolen at night
from the western erdomb. of the Great Church of Ceannanus. This was the
principal relic of the western world, on account of its singular cover ; and it
was found after twenty nights and two months, its gold having been stolen ofi
it, and a sod over it."
The following is a list of the Irish cumdachs of which any-
thing is known, from which we may conclude that the custom of
making these cumdachs prevailed in Ireland from the ninth to
the sixteenth century. The three first and oldest have un-
fortunately disappeared :
1. The Cundach of the "Book of Durrow." A.D. 877 to 914.
2. The Cumdach of the "Book of Armagh." A.D. 938.
3. The Cumdach of the " Book of Kells." A.D. 1007.
^. The Cumdach of " Molaise's Gospels." A.D. 1001 to 1025.
5. The Cumdach of the " Stowe Missal." A.D. 1023.
o. The Cum Jach of "Columba's Psalter" (called the Cathach). A.D. 1084.
7. The Cumdach of " Dimma's Book." A.D. 1150.
S. The Cumdach of "St. Patrick's Gospels " (called Domnach Airgid).
Q. The Cumdach of " Cairnech's Calendar " (called Miosach). A.D. 1534.
10. The Cumdach of Caillen.
The boxes vary from nine and a half to five and a half inches
h length. They are of various materials : that of Durrow is
described as having been of plated silver; that of Kells seems to
have been plated with gold. In those examples which we still
possess, that of Molaise is of bronze, plated with silver ; those of
the Cathach and Dimma's book, brass plated with silver; the
foundation is generally of bronze or brass, but in one instance,
that of the Domnach Airgid, it is of yew wood. These cases
were sometimes hung round the neck and worn as breastplates,
as we know was the practice with the Cathach of the O'Donnells.
Such portable reliquaries then belong to the class styled Encolpia.
The use of such dates back to a very early period, as we learn
from the Abbe Manigny, who refers to the Encotyia mentioned by
Nicepborus, Patriarch of Constantinople, in his refutation of the
METAL-WORK.
Iconoclasts. And that there may have also existed some custom
of enshrining sacred books in the early Church at the time of the
introduction of Christianity into Ireland, which lived on here
while it died out on the Continent, is borne out by the instance
of one such book-shrine of the Gospels now preserved in the
Basilica of Monza, which was given by Theodolinde, Queen of
the Lombards, in the year 616 a shrine for a prayer-book may
also be seen in the museum of this church. These relics are
distinctly Byzantine, and there is no resemblance to Irish Art in
their decoration. There are instances of Irish curndachs on the
Continent, probably imported from Ireland, or the work of Irish
clerics from the ninth to the eleventh century, who in this, as in
other instances, appear to have brought back to the Continent
primitive customs that had become extinct there some centuries
before. Such is the shrine of the Gospels In the Royal Library
of Munich, which formerly belonged to the Abbey of St. Emerau,
of Ratisbon of the year 870, and another shrine of the Gospels
which belonged to the Emperor Henry II.
OLAISE of Devenish gives his name to
the oldest of these cumdachs, or
shrines. This case was executed
during the abbacy of Cennfailad, which
lasted from the year 1001 to 1025, as
we learn from the inscription which runs
round the bottom of the box : " Pray for
Cenn(failad) for the successor of Molaise,
for whom this case (was made) and for
Gillabaithin, the artisan who made the . . J*
The case is formed of plates of bronze ; it is oblong in
shape, and the ornamental portions consist of plates of silver, with
gilt patterns, riveted to the bronze foundation. On the face of
the box the four evangelical symbols were represented with a cross
surrounded by a circle in the centre. The names of the symbols
FIG. 33.
92 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Leo, Aquila, Homo, can still be deciphered with those of the
evangelists. Mark, Johan, Math. The order in which the symbols
are arranged differs from that which we are now accustomed to, as
FIG. 34. CLASP OF CASE OF MOLAISE'a GOSPELS.
i? of:en the case in early Christian monuments; thus In the basilica
or S. Sabina, A.D. 424, the eagle occupies the first place, the lion
the second, then the angel, and lastly the ox.* (See Fig. 36.)
OOK-SHRINE of Stowe MissaL Next in date we
have the case made to enshrine the Stowe Missal,
the older part of which appears to have been
executed between the years- 1023 and 1052. In
the inscription which runs round the face of the
box we read : " A blessing of God on every soul
according to its merit.
" Pray for Donchadh, son of Brian, for the
King of Ireland.
"And for Mace Raith, descendant of Dorm-
FIG. 35/^1 ciiad > for &e Kin g of Cashel.
* Tais^ cumdach has been in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy since
e ^ lS59 ' when it: was obtained through the intervention of the Lord Bishop
cf Kilmore. It has been described and illustrated in "Archseologia," vol. xliii.
METAL-WORK.
93
" Pray for Dunchad, descendant of Taccan, of the fan::ly of
Cluain, who made this.
FIG. 36. CASE OF MOLAISE'S GOSPELS.
" Pray for ... nain descendant of Cat ... for whom it was
made and for ... (and for the descendants of T ... kch)."
Here a prayer is askejl for Donagh, son of Brian Borumha,
who was originally king of Munster, in conjunction with his
94 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
brother Tadhg, whom he delivered to the men of Ely O'Carroll,
"who accordingly killed him, as was desired of them by his
brother Donagh." - Ann. of Four Mast., A.D. 1023.
After procuring this murder he became king of Ireland, and
held the throne till the year 1064, when we read that "he was
deposed, and he afterwards went to Rome, where he died, under
the victory of penance, in the monastery of Stephen the Martyr.
The second name mentioned is that of MacRaith O'Donoghoe,
Lord of Eoghanacht of Cashel, and crown prince of Munster,
whose death is recorded by the Four Masters at the year 1052.
'This fact," says Dr. Todd, " still further limits the date of this
side of the box to the twenty-nine years between 1023 to 1052.
Of Dunchad O'Tagain, the next name mentioned, we know
nothing more than that he was a monk of Clonmacnois and the
silversmith by whom the box was made.
This cumdach is held to have belonged originally to the
monastery of Lorrha, in the county of Tipperary, whence it may
have been carried at a subsequent period to the Irish monastery
of Ratisbon. It was found in Austria by Mr. John Grace,
officer in the Austrian service in the year 1784, who died without
leaving any memorandum respecting the monastery or library
where he discovered it. Dr. O'Conor obtained it from the family
of Mr. John Grace for the library of the Duke of Buckingham,
whence it passed into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham,
and it has now been deposited in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy.*
This case, or cumdach, is made of oak, covered with plates of
silver. The lower and more ancient side is divided into four
compartments by cross bands, leaving the inscriptions above
mentioned. These have been mutilated at their intersection to
make way for a crystal set in an oval frame, of the same work-
manship and evidently of the same date as the top of the box.
* See Perrie's " Christian Inscriptions of Ireland." Edited by M Stoke-
\ol. 11. p. 93.
METAL-WORK.
95
The upper side of the box is also divided into four compamnents,
covered with engraved silver plates, but is evidently much later in
date. The Crucifixion, and the Virgin Mary, crowned and holding
a globe in her right hand, are here represented along w::h a
oourow
uoaoau
FIG. 37. CASE OF STOWE MISSAL.
figure of a saint holding a book and a bishop raising his right
hand in the act of benediction, while in his left he holds a staff.
Next in date to this cumdach is another and a larger case,
made to contain the Cathach of the O'Donnells, a copy of the
Psalter, so called because it was carried into battle by the army
96 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
of Cenel Conaill, ik hung on the breast of a hereditary lay
successor of a priest without mortal sin (so far as he could help),"
as we read in O'DonnelFs " Life of St. Columba." The inscription
on this box asks " a prayer for Cathbarr Ua-Domnaill, for whom
this case was made ; for Sitric, son of Mac-Aeda, who made it ;
for Domnali, son of Robartach; for the successor of Kells, for
whom it was made."
Domnali, the successor of Columba at Kells, is also named
in the second charter entered in the " Book of Kells," where the
grant of land to the Church of Kells is recorded. This charter
cannot be of a later date than 10845 to which period this reliquary
may safely be assigned.
No example of a cumdach has yet been found in Scotland,
although the custom of thus enshrining their sacred books must
have extended to that country, since we find two notices of such
in the ancient records. Thus, in the u Aberdeen Martyrology,"
the "Gospel of St. Matthew belonging to St. Ternan"is described
as enclosed in a metal case, covered with silver and gold ; and
it is said in Bowers continuation of Fordun, that the Gospels of
St. Andrew's were covered by Bishop Fothad before 960. With
these exceptions the type seems peculiar to Ireland
CROSIERS.
The history and authenticity of the old Irish crosiers generally
rests on the same foundation as that of the ecclesiastical bells.
Certain privileges, grants of land and others, appertained to the
custodianship of the relic committed in the beginning to some
servant of the monastery in whose family the office and its
emoluments descended, through successive generations, down to
the present century. In Scotland the title of this office was
dewar, a word derived from deoratt, a stranger, pilgrim, exile.
The crosier of St. Fillan, of Strathfillan, in Perthshire, and of
FertuIIagh, Westmeath, in Ireland, was itself called quigrich,
METAL-WORK. 97
signifying the stranger, and was in the keeping of the Debars,
a family whose name was derived from the ofnce of custodian
held by their ancestors. The word deoradh dewar first allied
to the representatives of those who took the pern's star*, and
FIG. 38. CASE OF DIMMA'S BOOK.
died upon their pilgrimage, reminds us that the crosier encrusted
to them was, not the pastoral crook of other churches, but the
Irish pilgrim's staff. The crosier of Dympna of Te Darner, in
the county of Monaghan, was thus an heirloom in the family
of O'Luan, the hereditary keepers of the relic, till the last repre-
sentative, whose name was changed to Lamb 3 sold it to Dr.
PART i. H
98 EARLY CHRISTIAN' ART IN
39. PORTIONS OF ST. DYMPXA'S CROSIER
METAL-WORK.
99
Fetrie; so also ^ith the crosiers of St. Tola, founder of Disert
O'Dea, whose hereditary keeper was of the family of O'Quinn ;
the crosier of Columba of Burrow, obtained from the custodian
in the MacGeoghegan family. The crosier of Colman Mac-
Duach, founder of the church of Kilmacduach, in Gal way, was
obtained from the O'Heynys
who succeeded the O'Shaugh-
nessys in the custodianship.
The Bachall Gearr Berach,
or short crosier of St, Berach,
of Termonbarry, in the count}
of Roscommon, is one of the
most interesting examples in
the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, since it has been
not only handed down through
the hereditary custodians, the
O'Hanlys, of Slieve Ban, suc-
cessors or erenachs of St
Berach, but is mentioned in
the ancient life of the saint
given by Colgan. "Act. SS./'
p. 345, February i5th. The
artificer, Dagaeus. at whose
school Berach was trained,
when sending his pupil to
Kevin of Glendalough for
further instruction, is de-
scribed as giving him this " short crosier," along with a bell,
called Berach' s bell. "After some time," says the legen;. "hj
was directed by an angel, in a vision, to follow a certain dcj.r
whom he would find at the entrance of the monastery. This c^-r
led him to a certain spot in the county of Roscommon, since
called Termon Berach, and then disappeared/' The ruins of
H 2
FIG. 39<2. IRISH CROSIER OF BRONZE.
EDINBURGH MUSEUM.
ico EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
s-me small churches are still to be seen there ; and there was a
round tower standing within the memory of some of the inhabi-
tants, in the year 1837. This crosier is a staff of yew wood,
covered with brass ; there is very little sign of decoration, and
the crest of the handle is missing ; it measures twenty-one inches
in Her jth.
T;:e Hstcry of St. Grellan's crosier, of Ahascra, in the county
cf Gal way. Is another instance proving that in Ireland, as well
c:s Scotland, these objects were regarded as sacred vexilta, or
La :tLe- ensigns. As the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant
into battle in the belief that victory would be secured to therrf
by its presence, so the Christians of the early Celtic Church used
to carry before them in their conflicts certain relics of their
saints, which, on that account, received the suggestive title of
C'j^j^s, or battlers. Thus, the shrine of St. Columba's psaltei
was carried before the O : Donnells so lately as 1497. Hanging
on the breast of its hereditary keeper, it was sent thrice rightwise
round the army of Columba's clan of the Cinel Conall. The
crosier cf St. Filian is said to have been borne before the Scots
on the field of Bannockburn ; and the sacred cross of St.
Margaret was borne with the Scottish Army, when King David II.
invaded England in 1346.
When St. Grellan, a contemporary of Patrick, established
Maine Mor, the ancestor of the Hy Maine and his people in
the territory of the Firbolg race, the old life of the saint relates
how he said that, on condition that they would protect and
"requent his sacred church, his blessing would rest on their
<f agile race, the sons of Maine of the chessboards/'* adding :
"That race shall not be subdued, so as they carry my crosier.
'Let the battle-standard of the race be my crosier ot true
value.
'And battles will not overwhelm them; their successes shall
be very great"
In the t Customs of Hy Many/' from the *' Book of Lecan,"
compiled for MacFirbis (circa 1468), we read: "The race of
METAL-WORK. ici
Maine . - Sf. Grellan presides over their battles,'"' i.e. the crosier
of St. Grellan i? borne in the standard of the kings of Hy Many.
Dr. Lynch, writing about the year 1660, mentions that this
pastoral staff was held in veneration in his day, and that the
irarge was stamped upon the standard of the O Kellys. The
staff itself remained with the family of the hereditary keepers,
O'Crcngaile (anglice^ Cronelly), till 1836, near Ahascrs, in the
tast of the county of Gahvay, but it has disappeared.
The next example of Irish ornamental metal-work, the date of
which may be surmised from the inscription which it bears, is the
crosier of Kells, in the County Meath. Before describing this
relic, we may say a few words on the peculiarities of the Ir.sh
crosier in general. This staff was not designed to represent ihe
shepherd's crook, only to be carried as an emblem of episcopal
functions, but it was the covering made to protect the old oak
staff or walking-stick of the founder of the church in which it
had been preserved. Thus the form differs from that of the
ordinary mediaeval crosier, the top of which, imitating the
shepherd's crook, takes the curve of an S reversed, a double
curve, not the mere crook-handle of the Irish staff. Xo example
of a crosier in the form adopted in the East not crooked, but
shaped like a letter T has been found in Ireland; and the
probability is that the "crook-like" staff of the first Christian
missionary is alluded to in an ancient prophecy preserved by the
Scholiast on Fiacc's Hymn (seeTodd's "Life of St. Patrick"), and
the oldest representations of crosiers preserve the same form
representations, such as may be seen on the box or cumdach of
the Stowe Missal, on the tympanum of the priest's house at
Glendalough, and on the ancient doorway of Maghera, The
foreign type, as we have it in the crosiers of Cashel and
Glendalough,* was probably introduced in the time of St. Malachy
the friend of Bernard of Clairvaux.t
Although no metal crosier, except perhaps that of St. Berach,
* Now in Museum of the Royal Irish. Academy.
t Sec Petrie, "Essay on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland."
102 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
has been found, the date of which is believed to be older than
the close of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century, yet
- it would appear from a passage in St. Bernard's "Life of Malachy,"
referring to the Staff of Jesus, taken in conjunction with another
passage in an old Irish poem, copied before the year 844, that
this staff also was of metal. St. Bernard speaks of it as one of
the insignia of the See of Armagh in the following words :
il Porro Xigellus. videns sibi imminere fugam, tulit secum insignia
lyjsedam aedis illius, textum, scilicet Evangeltorum qui fuit beati
Patrici:, baculumque auro tectum, et gemmis pretiosissimis
adornatum: cuem nominant baculum Jesu, eo quod ipse Dominus
(ut fert opinio) eum suis manibus tenuerir. atque forma verit."
In the poem of St. Fiacc. which was annotated in the ninth
century, it is stated that St. Tassach, said to have lived in the
fifth century, was skilled in the goldsmith's art, and that it was
he who first adorned it with a precious covering. From this
passage, it may with safety be concluded, that such a crosier of
metal was in existence, about the year 844, when Ferdomnach,
scribe of the " Book of Armagh," in which this poem occurs, died.
According to Doctor Anderson, Scotland can only boast
of two crosiers, that of St. Fillan, found at Killin, at the head
of Loch Tay, and a fragment now preserved in the Edinburgh
Museum. He illustrates another, which he says is of Irish
origin, but which in any case is of extraordinary interest as
exhibiting three periods in the history of Christian Art in these
islands. First, the wooden staff; secondly, the covering of
delicate and beautiful design of the best period of Irish Art ;
thirdly, the outer case of fourteenth century work, into the panels
of which the exquisite filigree golden traceries, taken from the
older cover beneath, are fitted. The earliest of these in date
appears to be that which is now preserved in the British Museum,
inscribed with the names Maelfinnia, and Condulig. There was
a Bishop of Kells, successor of Ultan and Carnech, named
Maelfiania, whose death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster, as
METAL-WORK. 103
having occurred in the year 967. This crosier is an eld oak
stick cased in silver, with an open work formed of interlaced
birds terminating at the upper end in a male head, and in the
lower in that of an animal. Below this there is a knob decorated
with trumpet pattern designs and interlacings inlaid with silver
and niello. The lower end appears to be a solid piece of brass
with bands of inlaid silver. It terminates with three little feet.
The crosier would seem to have been carried over the shoulder,
consequently the central knob, and not the upper one, is rubbed
and worn by handling.
The relic known as the crosier of Lismore. the date of which
may be inferred from the inscription which it bears, was me
crosier of Bishop Niall of Lismore.
The inscription runs thus : " Pray for Niall, son of Mac
Aeducain, for whom this work of art was made. Pray for Xectan,
the artisan, who made this work of art."
Mac Mic Aeducain, who appears to have held the Bishopric of
Lismore for twenty-three years, succeeded Maelduin, who died
in 1090, and he himself died in 1113. It may be concluded
that the crosier which bears this inscription was made during the
period of his bishopric.
IKE the Cross of Cong, this relic, which is
one of the finest examples of the goldsmith's
art that has been found in Ireland, is
divided into compartments which would
seem to have been filled in with interlaced
filigree work, the little pins with which
these portions were secured being still left.
The crosier measures 3 ft. 4 in. in length,
and consists of a case of pale-coloured
bronze which enshrines an old oak stick,
probably the original staff of the founder
of Lismore, St. Carthach, otherwise Mochuda. Most of the
T:J. EAT? Y CJfjRISTIAX ART 7-V IRELAND.
ornaments -re richly gi't, interspersed with
ethers of silver and nieho, a:: 1 ! bosses
of cil'jured enameis. The crook ?: the
star: is : ordered with a row of grotesque
a:: : :::^>. like lizards cr dr:^:ns. one of
Mr. L^rgr.eld rerr^r";?. on the glass
heads in the Lismore crcsier, that they
see::: tc be rr:c.ce in -/uite another v;ay
fr::;: rhat seen in the broitze :,in InLiid
are ^a*< :nh.:d into ..hiss on the same
pr:n:rfe as ihe Henri Deux, or Oiron
faience in pottery.
One of the finest as we; I as the best
preserved Irish crosiers in existence is that
of the Abbots of Clonmacnois, now in the
Mu?eurn of the Rcyal Irish Academy.
The shrine of the so-ca'.led Arm of
St. Lnchtin is another fine example of the
metal-work of about the same date which
was preserved in St. Lachtir/s church of
Donaghrriore, in the county of Cork, and
is r.v.v in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy. It is described in vol. vi. of
the "Vetusta Monumenta" in the follow-
ing words : " It is of brass or bronze ; the
hand, which is riveted to the arm at the
wrist, being inlaid, in me nails, the palm,
:id at the back, and round the wrist with
silver. The upper end of the arm is also
ornamented with the same metal, and
with a row of bluish-grey stones resem-
b;ic~ the chalcedony, and there appears to have been a second
row cf stones above the ether. Riveted across the centre of the
n ;. 41.
FGSTICN OF CP.OaIE
PE7RIE MUSEUM.
METAL-WORK.
r.nri ; s a broai band with kn-:t in r? v e';
and down the arm are 10 ar rLt, nanx- l ~
nlleS. at equal distances, rivetr:, r*-vi: ,
ir scrip: ions in the Irish characters upon
them. Nearly the whole of the srm. the
silver ^arts as well s.s those o r bronze,
are ornamented with various engraved
rlgures, mosily knots and scroll-work ; an 1
at the upper end, between the rows o:
stoats, arc animal forms.
The roDt of the arm was fastened bv
a circular cap, the face of which is inlai i
with silver, the centre having mosaic worx:
surrounded by silver niigree. The in-
scriptions have been thus read :
" Pray for Mi-eLsechnaii, descendant of
Cellachan, for the hi/h kinj. and for
Cormac, son of MacCarthaig : namely, for
the Crown prince of Miinster for Tadg,
son of . . . , for the king , . . , for
Diarmait, son of MacDenisc : for the
successor of . . . :
One of the most remarkable of the
FIG. 42. CROSIER
SISHOFb OF C LONMACXGIS.
ic6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IX IRELAXD.
Irish r^l : ^ur,ries is the shrine of St. Mogue or Breac Mcedcc,
v,v.:^h v,as a case made, so says the legend, for preserving
c;::r-:r. relics, brought by St. Molaise from Rome to his friend
lucei.c, then Abbot of Ferns. This shrine was preserved for
centuries in Druinhne, and was stolen In the present century
froni the Roman Catholic priest of that parish. In form, the
shrine closely resembles that of the old church of Druir.lane,
no-vY in ruins, being indeed the usual form of the shrines or
C' rjv.v of L::r..?zes work cf later date. The height of this
rel:;u;:rv is ~ : J in.. length $" in., breadth of the base 3jj in.
The front -AT^ c:vered \v:t>i ngures, twenty-one in number,
.:rrarged in three rows. These on the lowest line are of pale
/rcnze, -vhile the t\\D upper ones, though of the same metal, are
much redder in cc'.cur from the deficiency of tin in the alloy.
The back was covered by a pattern, consisting of parallelograms
cf pierced rectangular crosses. The same design is found at the
> ?::om of the shrine. The pierced work is of bronze, the border
cf the ba?e his a ground of red enamel, the margins, knots, and
squares hein^ of bronze gilt: while the pattern within the squares
is formed by four smaller squares of blue glass, apparently cast
in z mould and disposed alternately with five others of red and
-h::e tnar/.eh The "fylfot" in the base, which still remains in
ihe centre of the border on one side, is enamelled in blue on a
gold ground, surrounded by alternate lines of the same colour.
The third group represents three female saints, in uniform
costume; their hair hangs in long curls, and as Mr. O'Hanlpn in the
"Life of St. Dyinpna r observes: "We find nothing about the cutting
of hair, which was not practised in the profession of holy virgins
ns; early, or at least as generally, as the regulation of their wearing
a particular habit." One of the most interesting of the historical
notices in the "Chrcnicon Scotorum" refers to this custom: "A.D.
SS3, change cf cutting of hair by the Virgins of Erin." The very
long faces and broad low foreheads of these figures remind one
forcibly of the type of female face which we find in the k * Book of
METAL- :
107
the old
FIGi <3._7j ?J r S ON THE SHSI
veils." Fig. 43 is probably intended for St. John the Beloved
Apostle, or "John of the BGS.
Irish poem, " On the personal
appearance of Christ and His
Apostles." The attitude cor-
responds with the direct"',, ns
given in the Byzantine
*' Painters' Guide/' where it
; s directed that < St. John
Theologos stands in sorrow,
his cheek resting upon hi?
hand."
At the close of these notices
of Irish metal-work, the dates
of which may be inferred from
their inscription, we should
place the Cross of Cong. This beautiful processional cross was
originally made for the church of Tizam, seat of the Archbishopric
of Connaught. and for Muiredach O'Duffy. who died in the year
1150. It was made to enshrine a portion of the true Cross by
order of King Turlougb O'Conor as we learn from an entry in the
"Annals of Inisfailen," A.D. 1123, the year in which the first General
Council of Lateran was held, during the pontificate of Pope
Calixtus. The Annalist states : " A portion of the true Cross
came into Ireland, and vras enshrined at Roscommon, by
Turlough O'Conor." This statement is supported by in-
scriptions along the sides of the cross which may be thus
translated :
In this cross is preserved the cross on which the founder of
the world suffered.
Pray for Muredach U Dubthaig, the Senior of Erin.
Pray for Terdelbach O'Chonchobair, for the King of Erin,
fur whom this shrine was made.
Pray for Domnali MacFLannacan U Dubthaig, Bishop of
rxv APT /
CHRIST^ ART I-
,- 1 ''ic^SsjU^
i
%$
!j^3
>.:<Hf.^.
'yutju
%'^
. J. r < s^ - I
^.rS**'
f'^'lf
l. V&rfsS.- *,
S OF CONG-
METAL - WORK, i c,;
?-av for Maeijesu MacBratdan O'Echan, WHO maie this
?hrir*-.
The Siiatt of tnis cross measures 2 ft. 6 in. huh : br-adth o:
span of arms, i fr. 63_Tin.: thickness of shaft and Arms, i^'in.
It .s formed of oak, covered with plates of copper outside, which
;re placed five en the front and three on the back, with a pcrticn
>; 2 fourth pi^te cf brass, a'l adcrned with a richly interwoven
*'" i cerv O 7 ! *'" ^ Q-^'^ 4 -'-"'* *"l c *e on ^he fac^. at the ^unctiDn cf the
ETUIS, is a bcss suri-icunteci by a convex crystal. Thirteen jewels
remain of the c:~htee.i 7.v.:rh -vere disposed at regular intervals
along the ed c -es and on the *acr cf the shaft and arms, ani spaces
a- e visible for nine ether;, ''hich were placed at Intervals dovrn
the centre. T.\ D beads remain of four settings which surrounded
t/.e central boss. T.ie shaft terminates below in the -rotes r^e
head cf an animal, beneath which it is attached to a spherical
e'aborately ornamented ball, surmounting the socket in which
v;;s inserted the pole or shaft for carrying the cross.
This relic was carried from Tuarn to Cong, either by the
Archbishop O'Dufy, \vho died in the Augustinian Abbey there in
1150, or by King Rcderic C'Conor ? the last monarch of Ireland,
who himself founded and endowed the Abbey of Gong. It was
concealed at the time of the Reformation and found early in the
present century by the parish priest, the Rev. Mr. Prendergast.
in an oaken chest in a cottage in the village. It was purchased
:rom the successor to Mr. Prendergast by Professor MacCulIagh,
v.ho presented it to t.:e Museum of the Royal Irish Academy
in :S 39 .
no EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AV IRELAND
FIG. 45. BOOK-CLASP.
FIG. 47* BOOK-CLASP,
METAL-WORK.
Space does not pern:!: us to
illustrate the numerous miscel-
laneous articles in the Irish
museums which give evidence of
early civilisation, and show the
taste with which the simplest
domestic utensils of the Irish
were adorned. Such instances
may be seen in the situlse or
wooden vessels bound with richly-
chased bronze hoops, such as
were found at Clonfree in Ros-
common, at Clonard, or knife-
handles, two of which we en-
F,G. 4$. grave, the second being one of the few examples
known of coloured enamel on iron (Figs. 48. Z2*<. book-bindings
such as (Fig. 50) found at Gonmacnois, and ( Fig. 51) in the British
Museum, and book-clasps, the designs of which might be copied
with advantage in the present day. (Figs. 45, 47.)
I now proceed to describe some examples of Irish
metal-work of the Christian period, in the British
Museum.
Crcsier JVL\ i. Oaken stem encased In silver
and brass, with bands inlaid with silver, circa
950 to 1050.
Upper portion cased in silver, with an
open work formed of interlaced birds,
terminating at the upper end in a
male head, and at the lower in
that of an animal. Below
this there is a knop
decorated with
trumpet pattern
designs and
FIG. 50.
ii2 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
interlacing, inlaid -vith silver
:,nd niello. The lower part of
the crcsier consists of an
e-iken stem encased in brass, and
c- viced into three sections by polygonal
k:nps cf interlaced work. The junctio:
.. the brass plates, which are lapped ove
uiken staff within, were conc.-iled by a
crass rs in relief, three of which remain
xrr.vjd a b.inc alon the back of the crosie:
lid
of br
.TVcr en appears to be a soli
l.:::ds cf :r.l:.:c silver. It terminates with three little feet. Fia - s<
A.; Ir:<h inscription TLIHS under the crest:
Or ;^;t; u*j coKd;:3~ c::*z do 3ft\j~mzin 9
v;hich :::^y be translated, t Pray for Cudulig and for Melfir.ren."
/.n ecclesiastic of Kells, who died in the year 967, bore the name
Lelrlnne::, and an;ther ecclesiastic, belonging to the same
ii ^nast.ry, Cuiulig, died in the year 1047. It is supposed that
this crosi-:r belonged to the church of Kells, and may have been
the work ci ;he hereditary mechanics of the monastery, represented
ly Sitric 2vl.ic Aeda In the eleventh century.
Cosier .AV. 2. Fragment of head, bronze, wiih interlacings,
Caster J\A 3. Fragment of bronze, with interlaced ornament.
OiVjV/- J\1-. 4. Portion of crest, bronze.
Crcsitr /;!. 5. Knop of bronze inlaid with silver.
Crjss. Top of processional cross, bronze, inlaid with bands,
cecoration in compartments filled with interlaced bands, and
lozenge in borders.
Breeches. These ornaments twenty-two In number are of
TIG. 52. KNIFE-HANDLE. PETRIE COLLECTION.
METAL-WORK. 113
bronze, with three exceptions, which are of silver. One remarkable
bronze specimen was found in the County Rosccmrnon. The
diameter of the rings is 4*^ in., length of the acns, 7^ in.
Pins. A large number of these examples were found In
the Counties Westmeath and Gal way. Also bronze harp-
shaped pins, one of which was found in the Shannon, near
Athlone, County Westmeath. One of the bronze pins was
found in 1849 in opening a tumulus in the parish of Skryne,
near Tara, County Meath. About 7 ft. below the surface a
large deposit of ashes was discovered, and under this was a
layer of flints with calcined bones; near them the fibula was
found. The deep cavities of the flower-like ornaments are
chased with interlaced patterns, now indistinctly seen; these
were probably filled up with coloured paste, or inlaid metal
This would seem to belong to the Christian period, though, by
some accident, found near a pagan interment Arch. Journal,
ix. and xviii., p. 164.
Figure from Shrine. This figure was found buried near
St. John's Abbey, in Thomas Street, Dublin. It bears some
resemblance to those of the ecclesiastics on the face of the
shrine of St. Manchan; but it is of much finer workmanship
and evidently earlier date. The trumpet pattern, spiral and
rectilinear patterns are beautifully executed in the borders of
the robe with gilding in parts. The figure holds a book. (See
Arch. Journal^ ix. and xviii., p. 164.)
Bronze Buckle. This buckle was dug up in a rath near Navan.
Book-binding. This portion of book-binding was found in
the Phoenix Park, Dublin. (See Fig. 51.)
Bells. Of St. Cummin of Kilcommon, King's Co., Ireland.
Of St. Molua of Clonfert Molua now KyleQueen's Co. Of
Ruadan of Lorrha, Co. Tipperary (Bronze). Of Caimin of
Kilcamin, King's Co. (a fragment).
Bronze Bd!. This bell was found in a bog in the county
of Leitrim, at Ross Inver the handle and clapper are missing.
PART i. r
ri4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 7.V IRELAND.
It measures 9 : / in. In height there are punctured dots on
each side of one aryle of the rim, and there is a gap on one
side over which a plate has once been fastened with rivets.
The Maver Museum, in Liverpool possesses a decorated
cross of Irish workmanship.
There are still some remarkable antiquities In various parts
of Ireland which we should be glad to see under safe protection
in our museums, such ns the Shrint of St. Manchan supposed
to contain the rencs of St. Mnnchan, Abbot of Leth, in King's
Co., Ireland., who died A.D. 664, and whose bones were enshrined
A.D. I I<"'6.
The shrine is formed of wood, and in form resembles the
roof of a house or chapel, oblong in plan ; the sides meet In a
ri-i-e, and the ends are gables. It measures 24 in. long by
15 in. broad, and 19 in. high. On each side Is a cross
17 in. by ID in., composed of five bosses or hemispheres
elaborately ornamented, and united by arms, each of which
contains four i.lates of enamel , the ground of the enamels is
yellow, and a pattern Is formed on each side by lines of red.
The patterns are chiefly composed of straight lines, and several
of them bear much resemblance to Chinese or ancient Mexican
decoration. In texture aid colour these enamels closely resemble
those which ornament the fine bronze armlets in the British
Museum, found at Castle Drunimond in Perthshire. Above and
below the crosses were figures of men, about 6 in. in length.
Originally :t would seem there were nearly f.fty of those figures,
but now only ten remain. These present many remarkable
peculiarities in cress, arrangement of the hair, ere. One carries
a small axe, two a short hooked stick, and one a book. Below
these figures, and in the corresponding position at the ends of
the shrine, are rows of enamels of the same character as those
that derogate the crosses, and strips of bronze elaborately pierced
and engraved are ;!a.:ed at each an^le ; the ends are covered by
tnanji:!ar plates, ornamented in the same style.
METAL-WORK. 115
The ornamentation of these plates and strips, as well as of
the hemispheres of the crosses, is formed by Interlaced figures of
animals, sometimes quadruped, sometimes biped, but never
winged. The metal-work throughout was richly gilt. The whole
rests upon four bronze feet, and rings are fixed :it the corners
through which poles might be passed for the purple of Carrying
the shrine in procession.
When the shrine was opened, it was found to contain some
bones, some pieces of yew (apparently parts of the earlier
wooden frame of the shrine), and some thin pieces of silver.
which it was evident from their outline were fragments of the
original plating of the sides of the shrine, preserved Ly the cgures
which had been placed over them. (Arch J:uu:j\ vol. x. p. 157.;
The Ban^or Bell is in the possession of Colonel McCance 5
Knocknagony House, Holywood, Co. Down.
The Bell of Solar (Co. Antrim) is now in the Museum of
Belfast along with a second bell formed of iron and ccated with
brass, very rude.
Sf. Patrick's BelL Five chromo lithographic drawings, with
historical and illustrative description by the Rev. W. Reeves.
Belfast, 1850. Fol.
An Irish crosier head is also preserved in the Belfast Museum.
^See '"'Proc. R, Irish Acad.," vol. i. ser. ii. p. 261.)
Jfr. JBenxs collection is also in the Bel fas: Museum. This
includes the small bronze altar vessel belonging to the church
founded by St. Patrick at Island Magee, Co. Antrim. This
vessel is inscribed : kk Or do Mac Etain au Brolcham" (Pray for
MacEtan, descendant of Brolchan). See " Christian Inscriptions
in the Irish Language/' G. Petrie. Vol. ii. p. 119.
Enamds. At a meeting of the Archaeological Institute, June
6th, 1 36 2, Lord Talbot exhibited two specimens of enamelled
work found in Ireland ; one is a curious relic cf unknown use
of mixed metal, the incrustations upon which appear to be in
part of the nature of enamel, and partly tine mosaics of blue
u6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
and white vitreous pastes, affixed by fusion in cavities chased out
of the surface of the metal. It was found in the remarkable
depository at Lagore, Co. Meath. (See Arch. Journal, vol. vi.
P- 1^5.)
A remarkable specimen of early Irish enamel, preserved in
the Museum of St. Columba's College, near Dublin, is figured
in Mr. Franks' Treatise, "Art Examples from the Manchester
Exhibition, Glass and Enamels," p. 6. Mr. Franks in his remarks
on " Enamelling among the Ancients," observes: "The ancient
processes appear to have lingered in Ireland, as we find some of
the details of the earlier shrines executed in enamel. A fragment
of one of them belongs to the College of St. Columba. In
other parts of the West all traces of their existence were swept
away by the Teutonic invasions. The jewellery of the conquerors
does not appear to have been enriched with enamel."
The rnetal-work of Ancient Ireland has been illustrated in the
following works :
Kemble, " Hone Ferales," ed. by A. W. Franks.
Wilde, "' Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities in Museum
of Royal Irish Academy."
Albert Way, Arch. Jour,^ XXVL 52 ; Arch. Camb., 4th
series, i. 199.
Edwin, third Earl of Dunraven, " On Ancient Chalice and
Brooches' 7 (Trans. R. I. Academy^ vol. xxiv.
Ellacombe, ' ; Church Bells of Devon,'' contains section on
ecclesiastical bells of Ireland with numerous illustrations.
" Vetusta Monuments," vol. vi., en Arm of St. Lachtin.
" Archseologia," vol. xliii., description of the shrines of St.
Mcedog and St. Malaise.
Bronze sheaths from Crarmog at Lisnacroghera, Co. Antrim,
described and illustrated by W. F. Wakeman, Journal of the
R.H.A.A., vol. vi. p. 377. 1883.
O'Neill (H. \ <w The Fine Arts and Civilisation of Anciert
Ireland." 1863,
INDEX.
Abbondio, St., church of . - 33
Aberdeen Martyrology . . 96
Abyssinia, books of . . . 51
Adamnan's Life of Cohiraba S, 25
tract, De Lccis
Sanctis . . 40
Ae^buite, artisan . . -57
Ahascra 101
Ahcghill 74
Aileran, St. , Commentary of, note 49
Ailill . . . 30, 6S
Altmann, St 6S
Altmuhl 40
Ambl^teuse . . . .72
Anastasia, St 69
Anderson, Dr., quoted . I, 6l, 66
Anglo-Saxon art . . 28, 46
Anmchadh, St. ... 49
Annalists, Bavarian, quoted . 42
ignore Irish missionaries
abroad . . .30
on Book of Kells . 1 1
,, on Irish, scribes . 10, 20
Annals of Four Masters . . 89
Archowfogia . . . .116
Ardagh, chalice of 69, 75, 79, So, Si
Armagh, Book of . 10, 21, 75, 9
j Armlets, bronze . . .114
Arnoul, St., at Metz . . 43
Art, primitive . . . -71
Athlone 113
Aubert, St. , in Cam bray . , 50
Banncckbum .
BasHicc, of Moazs.
Basle
Bavarid . .
Bean:an Ailhe .
Brigde
Ciaran.
Cualauc
Bede
Belief Banger .
Berach .
Cashel .
Colismb of Ros Glandae
Conell Cael ..
Conell of Inlscail .
91
39
- 4
.64
. 64
. 64
. 64
38
64, 115
. 99
. 64
64
66
62
Bamberg .
PART I.
4 I
,, Curnascach, son of Ailill 65
Dnimragh . . 61
Fenagh . . . .61
Gall, St. . . 39, 61
Gartan . . . .64
,, Godebene, in Xoyon . 61
Mcgne, St. . 61, 64, 66
Mura, St . .64, 65
Patrick . . 57, 58, 71
Patrick's \VT1 . . 65
Rcss Inver . . . 113
Senan, St. . . 62
,, Solar . . . .U5
Stival, in Briitany , .61
, 3 Termon MacGuirk . . 61
Bell-shrine of Guthrie, in Forfar-
shire . . 66
Maelbrigde . 65, 74
nS
INDEX.
PAGE
Bells 57
in Scotland . 61
Benen, St 51
Benn, Mr., collection . .115
Bernard of Ciairvaux . 30, 101
Life cf Malachy, by . 102
Beme 39
Bethselinus .... 42
Black Bel! of St. Patrick . . 61
BobiOj in Xcrtb Italy . . 30
Missal . SS
Boniface, St., crcsier of . .49
,, relics of -49
shrine of . 49
Book of Amagb . . . 51
Eallymcte ... 75
Hymns, initials from
20, 33, SS, 91
Book cf Kells . . . .96
date of . n, 12
illuminated mon^grain 1 3
B^ok-chding . . , no, 113
clasp . . , .113
satchel of Fiacc . .51
, , shrine of St. Gall . . 39
shrines . . . SS, 91
Bowl of St. Fintan . . 39
Breastplates . . . .90
Brilgid, Lifecf. . . 40, 5 S
Britain, Roman occupation of . 73
British helmet .... 55
Musenrn . 29,62,102,111,
"4
Bronze buckle , . . .113
ornaments, fragments
=f . - . -53
Bronzes, late Celtic . . 71, 73
,, pre-Christian art upon . 31
Breaches 112
Salsaria 35
Byzantine artists in Italy and
France ... 33
relics . .91
Caimin of Kilcamin
Calixtus, Pope .
107
, . . . .
Cambray . . . . .50
Cambridge, Irish MSS. in . 29
Candidus, missionary to Raiisbon 41
Canon of Patrick
Canton of the Grisons .
Carlovingian MSS. . .
writing .
Carthach, crosier of . .
Cashel ... 43,
Cataldus, St
Cathach of the O'Donnells
74 90j
Celtic flate) style . .
Cennfailad, abbacy of .
Chalice of bronze .
,, glass ..
gold and silver .
j, Kremsmiinster .
,, metai .
,, stone . .
St. Jerome (note)
Chalices
Charlemagne . . .
Chronicle of Marhnus Scorns
Chromccn Ratisbonense .
,, Scotcnini. .
Chronological table . .
89
, 40
3'3j
.46
. 103
69, 94
30
95. I0
.31
.91
. 69
. 69
. 69
.67
.69
69, 72
. 69
57
49, 68
. 75
. 42
. ico
. 70
. 3I
. 32
49, in
Clermunt, in Auvergne
Clonard (note) . .
Clcnfree
Clonmacnois . . . .
Ccgiiosns ....
Coins minted in Gaul and Biitain
Coire .....
Cologne .....
Coloican ..... 30
Columba ... 39, 4O> 51
2. scribe . . 10, 20
college of . , .n6
Life of . . 39, 49
79
40
56
40
6 1
INDEX.
119
FAGS
32, 35, 37, 39, 69
3j
109
Cclumbanus
Como
Ccng, abbey of.
Conla 58
Constance, Lake . . 37
Conor O'Brien, king cf Munster 43
Connac MacCarthy . . .105
Cronellys, hereditary custodians
of St. Grellan's crosier . , 101
Crosier, Irish, in Edinburgh
Museum . . 99
of Belfast . . .116
Berach ... 99
,, Clonmacnois . 104, 105
Colinan MacDuach . 99
,. Durrow . . -99
Bympna . . 97,98
,, Fertullagh . . 96
Fiacc ... 51
,, Kells 74, 101, 102, 112
,, Lismore . . 74, 103
Maelfmnia , . 74
,, St. Fillan, borne in
battle as a vexillum ico
,, St. Grellan, borne in
battle as a vexillum 100
Cross of Cong . . 74, 103, 107
ofTuam. ... 74
processional . . .112
Cudulig 112
Cumbert 61
Cummin, St., of KLilcommon . 113
Cumdach . . .51, 89, 90, 91
of Molaise's Gospels . 93
of Stowe Missal . . 94
Cuthbert, St n
Dageus, artisan . . .58, 99
Dagobert, throne ot . . . 57
Damascening . .71
Darnasus, St 48
Danube . . . , .40
Deposition from the cross . . 37
Desiderius, king cf the Lombards 6S
Devenish, z^ok from . . 74
Dewar, name cf family cf hereditary
keepers of S:. Fillac's crcsier . 97
Dicuil 39
Didron, quoted . . . 3$, 61
Dimna Mace. Xathi, scribe , 23
Dimma, Book of . .23
5 . shrine of. , 74
Dicaysius 43
DisertO'Dea, founder cf church -.f 99
Divergent spiral . . 73
Domnus 42
Done!! MacAulay . . 66
Dorbene, a scribe . . 10
Douth 31
Drcgheda. . . . .70
Drurnlane, church cf . . . 106
Drummond Casile, Perthshire . 1 14
Dubtkach 50
Danchad O ! Tagcdn ... 94
Dungal 37
Dunraven, Edwin, third Earl of 64,
S3, 116
Durham ..... 29
Durrow, Book of . .17
,, autograph of scribe . 18
comdach of. 18, 52, 75, 89
Dympna, St., church of, in
Belgium . 50
,, crcsier of . 97
.. Life of . .106
Earth-houses .... 3
Egbert, Bishop, in Ireland . 28
Eichstadt 40
Ellaccmbe, Mr., quoted . 61, 116
Emerau, St, in Radsbcn . . 41
Emina, abbess . . . .41
Enamel 82
champleve . . . 83
,, cloisonne . * 82, 83
,, Oriental . . . 83
INDEX.
PACE
Enamelling, various processes . 71
Emmets no"
Erhar Life cf . 41
Euphroahs .... 57
Eutychzis ..... 49
Fd-jui ..... 66
Ferdomnach, scribe . . 20, 102
Fiacc, bUhcp of Sletty . .51
Finchm, St ..... 30
Filigree . . . . 71, 82
Filiss, St. ... $6, 102
Fint^n, St., towl cf, ^: SchafF-
kr-sen ..... 39
. 69, S 9
Foreign testimony to early Irish
writers ..... 31
Fcrtchem, nrtis^n of Patrick . 57
Fcrts, prehistoric ... 3
FcrhaJ, bishop ... 96
Francos;:: ..... 40
Franks, A. \V., quoted . 72, 116
Fridolin, St. ... 30, 40
Fdda . . . . 37,49
Gc!I, St ..... 30, 35, 69
Garland cfHowth ... 25
Gad . . . . 32, 56
Georgia, churches of . . -33
Gheel ..... 50
Gilbert, T. L., referred to . .52
Giilabaithin . . . .9!
Glass beads, two varieties of . 104
Glass-work . . . .7!
Glezcclunibkill . . . .66
Gold necklaces, found in Melos . 71
Golden bell . . . .62
Gclden Gospels of St. Ger-
nmnus . . . . *ir
Gospels cfMacRfigol . . 75
PAGE
Gospels of Willibrorc] . . 75
Gottweich 6$
Grace, Mr. John . . -94
Greeks, knowledge of enamel
among 71
Gregorius of Ratisbon . . 43
Gregory of Tours . . -32
Gregory's square tower
Handwriting .
Henri Deux ware
Henry IV. , Emperor
,, II., shrine of .
Hereditary custodians
,, mechanics
Hezecha, abbess
High crosses
Hilary of Aries .
Honau
Hor<e Ferales, Kemble
Horns on British helmet
Hovsth, Garland of .
H'-irnboldt, quoted
Humphreys, H. Xoel
Hy Many, Customs of, quoted . 100
Hymns, Book of, Trinity
College, Dublin . . - 75
. 43
9,21
. 104
. 42
. 91
59, 61, 96
. 112
. 42
2
. 40
- 49
. 116
* 55
. 25
. iS
52
Iceland .
Illumination
colours used
Ingolstadt
Iniscaltra
Innisfallen, Annals of
lona
35
6
S
40
49
107
10, 27
Ireland, Christian Art in, gives
a key to the history
of early Christian an-
tiquities elsewhere . I
, preservation of primi-
tive types in Art of . 3, 4
the ancient Scotia i, 2$
Irish radiated crown . . 55
scribes on the Continent . 30
IXDEX.
Irish style, engrafted on Car-
Lismore. crcs:i_r ,f .
iC3
lovingian . . . 31.
\ 33
Liverr;''-!
"4
Lior.b-rfy ....
33
Joannes, missionary to Gottweich
6S
Longh^I'.:, Mi. . . -79,
104
John, missionary to Ratisbon
41
"o
John, St., of the Bosom .
T 1
107
Lonha .... 94,
"3
, , styled Beloved Ap 35tle
107
Louvain
37
,, Theologus.
107
L'iiiCwT^a
6S
Lure
39
Keating, quoted
69
L>-nch, Dr
ICI
Keller, Ferdinand, quoted
10, 33, 3 s
-5^ ;
Mabillon .....
39
Kells
^J^IL _ ,.,
%7
/
- 1 .^Julllua .....
^/
crosier of ...
74 J
MacCech:
57
Keils, Book of . 7, 10, n, 52
,90
MacCulI-igh, Professor
109
,, Initials from
MacGecjhegans, hereditary cus-
6, 9, 12, 16, 17, 33, 35, 5o ;
j 53
tc'dians of crosier ;*f Darrow .
99
Kemble, Mr., quoted
53
MitcRaith O'Doncghce
94
Kilian, St. . . -3
, 40 ,
Maelbrigde, bell shnne
74
Killin, Loch Tay
102
MaelSnnia, crosier .
74
Kilmichael, Glassary
66
]NIjelseclinaiI, descendant of Cel-
Kingoldrum, in Forfarshire
69 !
lachan
105
Knife-handles ....
in ;
Magee, island ....
1 16
1
Magnus, St., in Ratisbon .
41
Lachtin, St. ....
icj. !
Malachy, St.
3O
,, shrine of arm .
^4
74
Hng ....
y**
Sg
Laebhan, artisan of Patrick
57 J
Malfinnen ....
112
Lagore
116
Malines, in Belgium .
50
Lambeth Palace
29 j
Maachan, St., shrine of 74, 113,
114
Lateran Council
107 '
Marcia
37
Laurentius ....
47 ''
Margaret, cross of St., borne in
Leabhar Breac ....
75
battle
ICO
Leabhar na Huidre .
75
Marianus S coins, of Mentz
37
Leatha, i.e. t Italy
5S "
., Ratisbon 41
,68
Lecan, Book of ...
75
ilartigny, Abbe, quoted .
90
Leinster, Book of ...
75
Maximian's ivon* chair
57
Leth, shrine of abb ^t
114
Mayence .....
37
Leyden
5?
Mayer Museum .
114
Lichfield
-9
Meath, county ....
116
Limoges
icS
Melcs, island ....
/i
Lindisfarne .
^7
Melrcse
27
Lineal designs ....
14
Meaisters
57
Lismore .....
69
Merovingian writing .
46
122
IXDEX.
Meta:- \vork
Meiz
Milan. Irish MSS. in
M:ss:.l s Irish, Oxford
IAGE
6. 53, 7i
43
36
75
Misr-Lcaries from Ireland S, 31, 35, 37
,. their aspect 34
., ,, in Germany 49
Mcedoc, St 106
Mceleaich, scribe . . . 22
McerpI 37
Mclaise, :f Devenish. . 91, 106
b-o!;of ... 74
, 5 clasp of Gospels of . 91
Moling St., Book of . .24
Molur, St., cf deafer! Molua . 113
Lismore . . 67
Monaghnn . . . -5
MocastereveTi . . . -5^
Moac^Kim XlT, in "Book of
Keils" . . , . .15
Mcnzs 57
Mosaic 7 1
Mottirigea .... 44
MuireJach O'Duffy . . .107
Munich 41
Royal Lilrary . .91
Murtagh at Otermunster , -41
Murtrgh O'Bri-jii ... 43
Msratoii . . . ... 37
rfcic, knowledge of . . .35
Xamitins 32
Naples, Irish MSS. in . . 36
Nstr?n lakes . . . .51
Xavan 113
Nt-'Cian, artisan. . . . 103
Xt_-\v Grange . . . -31
Nial!, bishop of Lismore . . 103
Xicephorus, latriarch of Con-
staatin^li . . . .90
Xi^lc-wsrk . . . . 7$
Ncrthir.en in Ireland. . . 58
Nuremberg .... 43
Obermiinster . . . .41
O'Conor, Dr 94
O'Conor 52
Oettingen-Wallerstein . . 43
Ogham inscriptions . . 2, 3, 22
O'Hanlon, Mr., quoted . .106
O'Hanlys, hereditary custodians
of crosier of Termonbarry . 99
O'Heynys, custodians of crosier
of Kilmacduach . . 99
Oiron faience . . . .104
O'Luan, hereditary keepers of St.
Dympna's crosier . . - 97
O'Quinns, hereditary keepers of
crosier of St. Tola . . 99
Origins of Irish Art . . 31,33
Orkney Islands ... 2
Osred, king of Northumbria . 28
Oxford, Irish illumination in
Corpus Christi College . . 29
Pagan arts of Ireland . .53
Paris, Latin Gospels in -34
Patens 57
Patrick, St. . . 51, 50, 57, 68
bell of . . .115
J5 shrine of . . -74
Pauline Epistles . . .40
Pavia 37
Pepia 49
the Little ... 68
Perpetuus, bishop of Tours . 57
Peter's, St, Ratisbon . . 41
Petrie, George, referred to 58, 76, 99
Museum . . 53, 79
Philostratus . . . .72
Pin, head of . . . 79, 113
Poland . . . , -35
Prendergast, Rev. Mr. . .109
Primitive Christian metal-work,
rude character , . .71
Psalter, Irish, British Museum . 75
INDEX
JAGE IAGE
Psalter za Ranr. . 75 Shetl^r.-i Islands ... 2
Pjrton Cooper . . . . 52 Shrine :f ba'I of Cor.a"! Gael . t.i
Ratisbnn . . . 40.43,94 . ?t. Cul^r/is' Le" . C2
Raveniu .... 32. 33 ,, St. Lad-iiLi s a~, . 104
Rebdorf, in Franc -nia . 40 St. M^ei^c . . ico
Reeves, Dr., r^ted 30,40,52,59 Stcue Mial . . 74
Reichenau .... 39 ,, St. Patrick's brT. . cc
Reliquary at G lire ... 40 St. Secar/s beX . . 64
ofFiacc . . .51 Sitric Mac Ae la, artisan . ,112
Rheims 34 Situ!;? m
Ricetnarch, Psalter of . 26,75 Sourians, AV'ssir.'.an a:on2St.-r- 51
Ro'lcric O'Flaherty . . . Sg St. Andic'.v's . . . . 96
Roman occupation of Briiairi . 73 St Err.erau, aLbey of . . 9:
Romanesque churches . . 72 St. Gall 37
Rome . . . 37, 41 S . Michtrlsberg . . .41
Roscommon, portion of the true S . SaLina . . . . 92
cross .... 107, HI S affo-f Je^us . . . .102
Rcscrea, brooch . .So Stockholm . . . -75
Round towers in Scot! snd . . 2 , Stone-cutting .... 6
Ruacan 113 StDwe Missal .... 21
Ruskin, quoted .... 14 book shrine 74, 92, 101
Strasbcrg 49
Samson, abbot of St. Edmund's . 34 Strathfillan, Perthshire . . 96
Sat chel called "polaire" . . 50 Sullivan, Professor, quoted > 82
,, Irish, Corpus Christi, Switzerland, Irish missionaries
Cambridge ... 50 in 30, 37
,, of St. Moedoc's Reliquary 50 Symbols 91
,, of the Book of Armagh . 50 , Syrian churches . . .33
Scattery Island . . 62, 66 '
Schafihausen . . 25, 3$, 39 , Tamil, artisan of Patrick . . 57
Scotland, Burghs in ... 2 Talbot, Lord . . . . 116
,, Christian monuments in i Talman, St 25
hereditary keepers in . 96 Tara brooch . . .69, 75
,, Ogham inscripti :r.i> ia . 2 Tassach, artisan of Patrick 57,102
Scribe, technical skill . 7, 10 Tassilo, duke of Bavaria . . 6S
Sculptured stones . . . 2 , Te Dav^ct, Co. Monaghan . 97
Se.iulius 49 Tegernsee 40
Sepulchral inscriptions in Ireland, Tcmpleport . . . .66
rrjmbtjr of 2 Ternan, St. . . -9^
rare in Sc^t- Theodolindc, .-jae-jn of tht
Jar.J . 2 Lombards . . . .91
Shaw, H. .... 52 , Thomas. St., Gospels of . .49
124
INDEX.
PAGE
PAG2
Tipperary.
94
Vetusta Monumenta, referred
to
Tirconnel, chieftains of
S 9 104, 116
Tirechan, quoted
57
Vienna
42,49
Tcid, Dr., quoted . 26, 27
, 32, 94
Tola, S:
99
Waagen
Tonsure, Irish and Roman
. iS
Ware, quoted
. II
Treves
49
Warren, Mr.,
quoted
23
Trichinopoli work
7S
Wattenbach
.
43,52
Trier ....
49
Way, Albert
.
56
Trumpet pattern
73
Weigh Sanct
Peter .
- 42
Tii^m
7-1 I0 7
Westwood, re
ferred tn
C**
Tuban ....
49
White, Stephen
j
. 42
Tactile, monk of St. Gall .
35
Wilde, Sir William .
. 116
Turl^ugh O'Conor, king .
. 107
Wilmousky, canon .
. 49
Turin, Irith MSS. in
. 36
Windberg
.
. 40
Witten, abbey
of
. SS
Ultan, a scribe .
. 28
Writing apparatus
.S, 9
his Life of St. Bridget
Utrecht ....
- 41
- 50
Wiirzburg . . 30,
Wyatt, M. Digby, referred to
40,43
52
Zeuss
- 37
Vatican Library. Rome
37. 75
Zurich
. 30
END OF PART I.
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND,
liart HE.
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
IN IRELAND.
BY
MARGARET STOKES.
WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SIX WOODCUTS.
Published for the Committee of Council on Education,
BY
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED,
II, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN.
IS94-
CONTEXTS OF PART II,
CHAPTER I,
MGE
SCULPTURE i , , ; . I
CHAPTER II,
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE , . , , f , , , 28
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EXAMPLES OF IRISH ART, THE DATE OF
WHICH CAN BE APPROXIMATELY FIXED , , , faty 82
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS TO PART 11.
FIG, ? A ^ E
53 Two Alphabets 3
54 Interlaced Pattern 5
55 Irish Cross 5
56 Tmrnpe: Pattern 5
57, 58 Inscriptions on Clonmacnois Cross ...... S
59 Initial C. "Bock of Hymns," fc I. 6 ..... li
60 The Temptation and Xcah in the Ark. Vel>ri . . .12
6 1 Noah and the Ark, on Cross cf Kells 12
62 High Cress of Durrow ........ 19
63 High Cross of Muredach, Mcnasterholce 20
64 Base of the High Cross, Tiuun 21
65 Head of Tiiam Cross ........ 22
66 Initial T. " Book of Kells " 2$
67 Doorway of Dun Aengas 35
68 Ground Plan of Monastery, Inismurray 39
69 Oratory, Gallarcs 39
70 Doorway cf Oratory, Senach's Island . . . . 40
71 Doorway of Oratory, St. Finan 4 1
72 Ground Plan, Monastery of Senach 4!
73 Way of the Cross, Skellig Michael ...... 43
74 Ground Plan of Monastery, Skellig Michael .... 45
75 Monastic Cell, Skellig Michael 45
76 Doorway of Kilcrony Church 46
77 Window in St. Caimin's Church 47
78 Doorway of Temple Martin, Kerry 47
79 Doorway of Maghera Church, Londonderry .... 49
viii ILLUSTRATIONS TO PART //.
FIG. FACE
80 Bell-house of Kells 50
Si Bell-house of Desert Aengus 52
$2 Bell-house of Ardmore , . . . . . . 53
83 Belfry of San Giovanni, Ravenna . 55
84 Belfry of St. Maurice, Epinal 55
85 Belfry of St. Genevieve . . 57
86 Clmrch and Bell-house, Iniscaltra ..... 64
87 Doorway of Kilmalkedar (Interior) , .... 65
88 Doorway of White Island Church . . ... 66
89 Doorway of St. Farannan's Church .... 67
90 Moulding on Doorway, St. Farannan's Church . 68
91 Capital, Rahen Church 68
92, 93 Mouldings, Clonaltin , . 69
94 Moulding, Clonmacnois ... ..... 70
95, 96 Mouldings on Doorways, Killeshin . . . . . 71
97 Arcade, Ardmore ..... ... 72
98 Mouldings, Aghadoe . . - 73
99 Cormac's Chapel, Chancel (Interior) 74
IOQ Cormac's Chapel (Exterior) ....... 75
101 Cormac's Chapel, Interior (Nave and Chancel) . . . . 76
102 Doorway, Cormac's Chapel .... 77
103 Doorway, Freshford ..*..... 79
104 Moulding, Tuaim Greine ........ 80
105 Roscrea (West End) *,,. 81
** Of these Illustrations, the Frontispiece and Nos. 5 to 9, 18, 25 to 31,
and 41 to 52, have been engraved for this work by Mr. J. D. Cooper.
Nos. 19 to 21, 39, 60, 61, 68, 69, 72, 74, and 75, are taken, by the author s
permission, from Anderson's "Scotland in Early Christian Times." The
remainder are chiefly from blocks originally engraved for "Notes on Irish
Architecture," and since presented to the Science and Art Museum, Dublin.
A few are taken from " Early Christian Architecture in Ireland."
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IX IRELAND.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
SCULPTURE.
THE sculptured and inscribed stones of Christian Ireland, as
yet described, may be thus divided : 200 Ogham stones, 250
tombstones, 7 pillar stones, 4 altar stones, i Mass stone, i quern
stone, and 45 High Crosses. The fact that the sepulchral
inscriptions of Ireland are mostly in the vernacular idioms of the
country, and not, as in other countries, In the Latin languages,
gives them a peculiar interest. It may arise from the fact that
Ireland never formed part of the Roman empire, and the
ignorance of Latin which consequently prevailed; but it also
bears testimony to the dignity which the native tongue had
already attained at a very early period ; and Mr. Rhys* has
noted that the circumstance that genuine Ogham inscriptions
exist both in Ireland and Wales which present grammatical forms
agreeing with those of the Gaulish linguistic monuments, is
enough to show that some of the Celts of these islands wrote
their language before the fifth century, the time at which
Christianity is supposed to have been introduced into Ireland.
Starting from the fifth century and passing on to the sixth and
seventh, we have a class of biliteral and bilingual inscribed stones
in Ogham characters with their equivalent in Roman letters, such
as the stone of Finten, of Juvene Dniides, of Colman, and of Curoi
* See " Lecture on Welsh Philology," p. 272, by John Rhys.
PART IL
2 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
on Caber Conn. When we enter on the eighth century we find,
especially at Clonmacnois. names are occasionally to be met with
in the sepulchral inscriptions which can be identified with those
of certain personages, the dates of whose deaths are recorded in
the Annals of the country. These identifications are rendered
more or less certain by bringing various forms of evidence to
bear on each example : such as the occurrence of the name in
the Annals, which corresponds to that on the stone ; the ap-
pearance of the same name in one or more of the old Irish poems
which record the interments in the royal cemetery of Clonmacnois
and in the registry of Clonmacnois, then the study of the Art on
the monuments, the philological and pal geographical peculiarities,
all revealing a gradual growth and development which will be
found to correspond to the periods assigned to the inscriptions
when taken in sequence.
For instance, the stone of Cellach at Clonmacnois is adorned
with a plain Irish cross incised upon the surface, without
ornament ; the letters are of a comparatively early character, and
differ from those of the eleventh and twelfth century. The poem
on interments at Clonmacnois, in a MS. preserved in the
Burgundian Library at Brussels, states that Ragallach with his
three sons, Cathal, Cellach^ and Donnell, are among the chieftains
buried in the city of Ciaran (i.e. Clonmacnois) " the prayerful, the
pious, the wise"; and in the Annals of the Four Masters as well
as those of Cionmacnois, we find it recorded that, in the year 704,
Ceallach, son of Ragallach, after having entered the priesthood,
died. Another poem on this cemetery that of Conaing
Mulconry in a MS. H.I. 77, in Trinity College, Dublin, states
tae father of Cellach Ragallach lies " buried under the green
sod" under the " stone and bed'' 7 of Guaire, king of Connaught
this Ragallach himself being of the same royal family. The
Cana Cellach we find in the poem of Enoch O'Gillan are
* k sleeping under the stones of Chain," und the Registry of
Cionmacnois has a similar entry as to the burial-place of the
SCULPTURE. 3
tribe of Cellach, kings of Hy Many. Thus seven branches of
evidence converge on this one inscription and identify the name
as that of a chieftain who died in the beginning of the eighth
century. The same system may be applied to ten out of 179 in-
scribed tombstones of Clonraacnois whose dates are thus iked
by collateral evidence; we may place these ten stones in regular
sequence, so that, arguing from the known to the unknown, they
may serve as starting-points for the future classification of un-
dated ones. In addition to these names for which we have the
help of these old poems on the cemeteries, are twenty-four more,
the identifications of which are supported by the Annals, and the
character of the art the letters the formulae, etc.
To begin with the letters, we observe that with the exception
of the letters F, G, S, and X, the Irish character is but a localised
Roman minuscule. Roman capitals are rarely found in Irish
lapidary inscriptions. The changes which took place in the
minuscule forms from about the seventh to the twelfth century,
will be seen by comparing the two alphabets here given
FIG. 53. TWO ALPHABETS.
4 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The first is drawn from the Abecedarium stone at Kilmalchedar,
Co.Kerry, and is held to date from the period of the foundation
of the church to which it belongs, in the seventh century, while
the second is drawn from inscribed stones of the eleventh and
twelfth century.
Roman capitals are the exception in Ireland, while they are
the nile in Wales, where the minuscule is the exception. It is
about Penally and Merthyr Tydvii that we find lettering of the
Irish type. In Gaul, also, the cursive, derived from the Roman
minuscule letters, is very uncommon, though, in the Museum at
Marseilles, a curious marble fragment, brought from Carthage,
with a portion of the fc * Gloria in excelsis ? ' inscribed upon it, is a
striking example of the use of the minuscule which at once recalls
the lettering on the Irish stones.* In Gaul we find forty inscrip-
tions showing the peculiar alphabetical forms in use before the
\ear 700, which, though dying out in Gaul, and always the excep-
tional forms there, as well as in Wales, yet, after that period,
become the rule in Ireland.
These observations lead us to suggest that the early stones
on which we occasionally find the Roman lettering, were the
work of a period before the Irish stone-cutters had time to form
a style of their own. They seem rather the occasional and tenta-
tive efforts of men who derived their knowledge of letters from
various sources abroad. Ireland, owing to its isolated position
on the outskirts of Europe, offered at certain periods in the civil
history of Europe a temporary refuge for scholars and pilgrims of
various nationalities, who fled from the disorders and lawlessness
still prevailing on the Continent, and the mixed elements thus
introduced into the country may account for much that is
enigmatical in the history of Irish Art It is possible that traces
of foreign design, imported by the Roman pilgrims whose coming
to Ireland in fifty currachs is recorded in the Litany of Aengus, may
* " Inscriptions Cluetiennes de la Ganle anterieures au VIII e Siecle,
iconics et aunotces par Edmond le Blant. Paris, 1856."
SCULPTURE. 5
be found In the Interlaced ornaments on our crosses and tomb-
stones which correspond with fragments from the basilica of Julia
in the Roman Forum, or the remains of the church on the Via
Appia Xova in the Campagna first founded by Deinetria, a
member of the Anician family in the fourth century. In
the fifth century, and during the pontificate of St. Leo, this
church was replaced by a basilica dedicated to St. Stephen.
Demetria was a contemporary of St. Augustine, and the frag-
ments of sculptured stones lying about which are covered with
FIG. 54. INTERLACED
PATTERN'. FIG. 55. IRISH CROSS.
FIG. 56. TRUMPET
PATTERN.
interlaced patterns strongly resembling those on the stones in
Clonmacnois, may have belonged to the time of the restora-
tion. They also strongly resemble the sculptures in Sant'
Abbondio in Como.
Corresponding to the development in the forms of the
alphabet from the seventh to the twelfth century, was that of the
forms of the cross ; and at first a great variety of patterns seem to
have existed, many of which resemble designs we have found on
stones at Ravenna, Torcello. near Venice, and in the churches of
Sant' Ambrogio and Sant' Eustorgio at Milan ; then, after the
ninth and tenth century, the form now known as the Irish cross*
6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the Greek cross with elongated shaft or pattern, the Latin cross
with circle at intersection, prevailed over the others.
This type having been fixed, and prevailing for the three
centuries following, it is interesting to observe that the trumpet
pattern or divergent spiral, which characterised the native bronzes
of the pre-Christian Art of Ireland, reappears on the crosses
of Irish type, while it is absent from those which are but rude copies
of foreign work. The two distinct modifications of this spiral,
to which we have already alluded, as well as instances of its
transition, from its pagan to its Christian variety, are found upon
these stones. The most perfect example of its transition are
fjund on two pillar-stones in Kerry, one of which belongs to the
list Christian period in Ireland and bears a bilingual inscription,
the other from the same district, inscribed Dne. The final
modifications of this design appear on the High Crosses, and
on the sculptured stones after the ninth century, but are manifest
in their fullest vigour in the illuminated MSS. of the Irish scribes.
When we come to study the formulae of the Irish epitaphs, we
are again struck by the variety that prevails among the oldest and
rudest examples and the gradual settling down, as it were, on
one stereotyped form, after the tenth century. This was " Oroit
do," oroit representing Oratio, the Latin substantive.
Before this period we find the following varieties of formula :
The cross of . . "crux" . . . " The stone of . ..."
or the simple name of the person interred or " Hie dormit ; : '
such a formula as " Lie Colum mec Mel " may be classed with
the simple one which consists of the name of the person interred
in the genitive case, "Dominus," "DXT" "AP," "Psplt."
The parallel to the first formula in the Roman Catacombs, is
" Locus Marcellus." The parallel to " Hie dormit," which occurs
in the island of Inismurray, is found in Gaul in the fifth century,
and in Rome about the year 359, along with " Hie jacet/' "Hie
pausat" A parallel to"DJSS," is found in Yaenor parish in
Wdes, "In nomine domine Sumilius," while in Rome and
SCULPTURE. 7
Gaul * In nomine del r; was a dedicatory form in the fifth
century. Thus these formulae on the earliest stones of Ireland
are evidently foreign importations of a style which never took
root in the country, whereas the prayer Oroit do the dead who
asked for the prayers of the living, which is rarely met with in
the early Christian period abroad, is the formula universally used
in Ireland after the ninth century. There is only one epitaph
known among the catacomb inscriptions with the prayer, "Qra
pro nobis," and once, in Gaul, we meet with "' Orapro me Rustico
vestro," on the tomb of St. Rusticus, Bishop of Xarbonne, in 427,
and " Ora pro eis/ J on the tomb of Hermer and Friule, found at
Lieusaint, in the department of La Manche. The Irish formula
therefore was a foreign importation which was gradually adopted
as a formula for epitaphs after the ninth center}'.
The form of the Irish Christian tombstone was in most cases
a flat slab laid upon the ground, inscribed with the above prayer
and a cross. It is true that, at a very early time, upright stones
with crosses carved on them were arranged so as to form a fence
or enclosure for a burial-ground, but this was at a primitive stage,
when such an arrangement may be taken as a reminiscence of
the pagan stone circle. The next form of stone monument to the
Christian tomb slab, is the pillar-stone, and the High Cross.
They were not sepulchral monuments, but dedicatory or com-
memorative.
The inscription on the pillar-stone of Kill-na-saggart states
that Ternoc, son of Ciaran, bequeathed a place under the pro-
tection of St. Peter, which was marked by this pillar-stone. The
inscriptions on one of the High Crosses of Clonmacnois, and
on that of Tuam, as well as one of the crosses at Kells dedicated
to the memory of Patrick and Columba for instance, show that
these monuments were commemorative : in others they were
terminal crosses, marking the bounds of the sanctuary, and were
stationed to north, south, east, and west This is very clearly
EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
indicated by the inscription on the Ruth well Cross, verses taken
from the " Dream of the Holy Rood," in which the cross is made,
as it were, to tell the purpose for which it was erected, that is,
that men seeing it from afar, might behold it as a sign.
The High Crosses still remaining in Ireland are forty-five in
number, thirty-two of which are richly ornamented, and eight of
which bear inscriptions, wherein the names of the following per-
sonages have been identified : King Flann, son of Malachy, d. 904 ;
Col man. Abbot of Clonmacnois, d. 904; Muireadach, Abbot of
Monasterboice, d 924; King Turlough O'Conor, d. 1106; Aed
Oissen, Abbot of Cong,
ii6i;GillachristOTua-
hail, 1161; O'DurTy,
d. 1150.
There is no evidence
whatever to prove that
such sculpture as we find
upon these High Crosses
in Ireland was executed
here before the tenth
century. The ornament
upon the sepulchral
slabs we have been con-
sidering which date from
:he seventh to the tenth century is incised that upon the High
Crosses is in relief such work as can only be executed by a
metal chisel and fine-edged and pointed metal tools, and which
shows a knowledge of the art of modelling the human figure, and
acquaintance with the early Christian Art of the Byzantine and
Roman schools, and their systems of iconography.
The dates of these fine monuments in Ireland may be limited
to a period ranging from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries.
The evidence for the age of the Irish inscribed crosses being
such as we have stated, they may be considered as giving a key
FIGS. 57. fS.
INSCRIPTIONS ON CLONMACNOIS CROSS.
SCULPTURE. 9
to that of monuments in Scotland and the North of England
which exhibit sculpture of a similar character, and we are there-
fore inclined to question the very early dates that have been
assigned to such examples as the stone crosses at Alnmouth,
I^ancaster, Collinghanij York, Hartlepoo^ Bewcastle, Ruth well,
which have been attributed by Stephens to the years 600, 651,
670, 680, some of which have Runic inscriptions.
The Scandinavian occupation of Scunlanc from the years 895
to 1064 sensibly affected the Art of that country, and also of the
Isle of Man and the North of England, and as eleventh century
monuments these crosses of Ruthwell and Bewcastie would fall
naturally into their place in the development of the arts of
sculpture and design during this period, while as seventh century
monuments they are abnormal and exceptional. The reader has
only to compare the beautiful art and good drawing of the scrolls
and figures on the Ruth well cross with the rude outlines and
letters on the coffin of St. Cuthbert a work which all authorities
allow to be of the seventh century to realise how unlikely It is
that they could be contemporaneous.
And when we consider the history of Christian iconography,
whether Byzantine or Latin, throughout Europe, we have an
additional argument for believing that the treatment of the
subjects carved in the panels of these crosses belongs to the
eleventh rather than to the seventh century. In the scrolls of
wreathed vine through whose branches birds and squirrels play,
we are at once reminded of Lombard ic sculpture, while the
figures recall those in the sculptured panels of the Irish High
Crosses. The subjects which appear on the Ruthwell cross are
The Annunciation ; The Salutation ; The Flight into Egypt ;
John the Baptist wirh the Lamb ; The Crucifixion, with Sun and
Moon at either side j Christ as the True Vine ; Christ as the
Lord of Nature \ " Beasts and Dragons know in the Desert the
Saviour of the World ; " and the legend, as given in the Byzantine
"Painters' Guide," of the meeting of Anthony and Paul the
ic EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AV IRELAND.
Theban in the desert* The guide is showing how the miracles of
St. Anthony should be treated in Art, and says :
" The saint is led by a lion into the grotto of St. Paul." The
desert ; the saint walks behind a lion ; at a distance before them
the grotto of St. Paul appears across the trees and mountains.
"St. Anihony having found St. Paul embraces him." A
grotto ; Paul the Theban wearing a mat which covers him from
tne shoulders to the knee ; he and St. Anthony embrace ; a raven
perched on the top of a tree holds bread in his beak.
"The entombment of St. Paul by St. Anthony. 57 St. Paul
stretched dead upon the ground ; St. Anthony covering him with
a winding-sheet ; close by two lions tear up the earth with their
fore-paws.
The sculptor of the Ruthwell cross has clearly followed the
Uvzantine guide in his work ; we see the raven perched on the
tree in one panel, giving Paul the bread in another, and in
a third, the meeting and embrace of the two saints in the
cesert.f
This Byzantine "Guide 13 was compiled in Greece, at Mount
Athos, from the works of Panselinos, a painter of the eleventh
century, and became the text-book of Byzantine Art %
The scenes on the panels of all our crosses, whether Irish,.
Scotch, or English, belong to a hieratic cycle of subjects into
which the Christian scheme was condensed, but it is not likely
that such symbols were subjects of the sculptor's art in the North
of England, in the seventh century, or that their execution would
be more perfect there than the carving of similar subjects in
Ravenna or in Milan at the same date.
* A favourite subject in later mediaeval Art, treated by Spagnoletto (Turin),
Pintuiicchio (the Vatican), Lucas van Leyden, Velasquez, Guido, etc.
t See "Old Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England,"
byGecrge Stephens, F.S.A. Vol. i. p. 413.
* See Appendix to Didron's " Christian Iconography," vol. ii., p. 262
(Bohn's series).
SCULPTURE. n
CHRISTIAN Iconography in Great Britain
and Ireland has yet to be treated in a
systematic manner, and Mr. Anderson, in his
work on early Christian Art in Scotland, has
pointed out the true method of investigating
the subject. We have yet to trace the sources
and origins of Christian symbols on the Con-
tinent before we can read those carved
on our own stones. In Ireland we
seem to see two currents meeting, one
Byzantine, the other Latin. The
iconographical scheme of the Byzan-
tine painters is laid down in the
"Painters 7 Guide" already mentioned;
that of Latin or of Western Art, in
the "Biblia Pauperum," "Speculum
Humanae Salvationist " Speculum
FIG. 59. Sancte Maria Virginia," as well as such
minor works as the middle age Bestiaries. In these
works the events recorded in the Bible were treated
not only as historic, but as prophetic of Christ when selected
from the Old Testament, and as symbolic when taken from the
New. The events recorded were turned to symbols. A system
of such symbols was developed expressive of the salient points
in religion. A hieratic cycle of subjects came into use, not
necessarily for doctrinal purposes, but as expressive of religious
faith. By adhering to the plan kid down in such works as
those we speak of, the walls and cupolas as well as pavements of
the churches, were intended to picture forth the Divine plan
for man's salvation, to be the mirror of God's work in Creation.
A very fragmentary impression indeed could be formed of
these manuals (which give us the plot of the Christian drama,
or the framework of the Christian Epos), if we were only to
study the iconography of these islands, yet such study is of para-
mount interest as bearing evidence to the gradual entrance
12 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
of the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland into the current
of European thought and culture, and their ultimate assimilation
with the larger, fuller life of Continental Europe. In the ancient
literature of Ireland we come across fragments that seem to be
translations from certain versions of the above-mentioned works,
manuals, and poems. Thus in the "Book of Ballymote " a passage
occurs, giving directions which the artist should follow in the
representation of Christ and the Apostles, which corresponds in
FIGS. 60. Ol.-THE FALL AND NOAH AND THE AKK, VELLETRT, AND
ON CROSS OF KELLS.
many points with similar instructions in the Byzantine "Painters
Guide." It runs thus :
Christ dark brown his hair, Jcag and airled ; he wears a forked beard.
Peter q~ite gray, with a brownish black beard.
Paul dark and rather bald.
Andrew dark, with bushy hair and a long beard.
Jacob son of Zebedee, dark hair and long beard. ^
John dark hair and bushy, and without any beard.
Philip red (haired) with long beard.
Bartholomew dark hair in ringlets, and with long bearX
Thomas very dark hair with long beard.
Matthew dark hair in tresses, and with no beard.
Jaraes, son of Alpheus dark hair with long beard.
Tons the Baptist dark hair in curls with long beard.
In the early Christian Art of France, St. Paul is always
represented as bald with a tuft of hair on his brow; James, who
in the Irish and Byzantine MSS. is represented as voung and
SCULPTURE. 13
dark-bearded, is in the Art of the Latin Church always old and
white-haired ; and while in Western Continental Art St. John is
young, fair, and beardless, in Byzantine and Irish An he is shown
as an aged man with a long white beard. In another place, the
Byzantine " Guide"* directs that in the pictures of :he Crucinxion,
near the Virgin Mother stands St. John Theologos, " in sorrow,
his cheek resting on his hand " just as he appears in the doorway
of the cathedral of Freiburg in Breisgau, which figure exactly
resembles that on the silver shrine of St. Moedoc. and also on
the sculptured panels of the doorway of the old church at
Freshford, Co. Kilkenny
Dr. Reeves has drawn attention to an Irish poem on the
personal appearance, and the manner of death, of Christ and His
Apostles,t which he says seems to be framed according to certain
rules that guided the ancient scribes in the illuminations of their
Biblical manuscripts, and may possibly find a partial illustration in
the figures which appear in the " Book of Kells," and other M3S.
of that class.
The order in which the Apostles are here named varies from
that of the Roman Missal, but resembles that of the names in the
inscription on the Apostles' chalice found at Ardagh y county of
Limerick (see p. 88, supra), as well as in the Litany in the MS. at
SL Gall and in the Bobio Missal. In the Byzantine " Painters*
Guide " found on Mount Athos the instructions are as follows :
THE CHARACTER OF THE FACES OF THE TWELVE HOLY APOSTLES.
St. Peter an old man with a round beard.
St. Paul bald, beard gray and rushlike.
St. Andrew an old man, frizzled hair, forked beard.
St. James young, beard beginning.
St. John Theologos an old man, bald, large, not very thick beard.
St. Philip young, beardless.
St. Bartholomew young, beard beginning.
St. Thomas young, beardless.
St. Matthew, evangelist old man, long beard.
St. Luke, evangelist young man, curled hair, small beard.
St. Simon Zelotes old man, bald, round beard.
* See Didron, " Christian Iconography," voL ii. App. pp. 317, 356.
t " Codex Maelbrighte," Fol. 9 b , Brit. Mus. HarL No. 1802.
M EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The correspondence in the order of this Byzantine passage
with that of the poem referred to by Dr. Reeves in the " Codex
Maelbrighte " is most interesting. In the old Irish poem, we
read :
OX THE APPEARANCE OF CHRIST AXD HIS APOSTLES.
Petty are (all) the forms save God's form.
Not a form which served one complexion.
Auburn hair of three locks had He,
And a beard red, very lor.g :
The form of Peter the apostle, the great champion,
His pure hair was bright gray.
Fair (and) discreet f? the happy man :
Rough, very short his beard.
Paul the apostle, delightful his visage.
With hair very beautiful, fawn-coloured,
Until his comrades cut it short
Paul's beard was truly long,
James (and) Andrew the comrades,
Fair their hairs, long their beard.
Dear, great deacons were the pair,
Both James and Andrew.
John of the bosom, dear God's fosterling,
Brown was his hair indeed.
The . . . was calm, loveable.
He was a young beardless. . .
Philip, a long beard on him.
And a red visage with excellence.
Red hair above a short beard
On Bartholomew the sweet-prayered.
SCULPTURE. 15
Curly black hair on Matthew's head,
Without ... of a tyrant's beard.
Curly hair on Thaddeus without disgrace,
A beard equally long, equally fulL
James the kneed, with a pure voice,
Son of AlpheuSj who was not merciless.
Gray hair on James all,
And a light-yellow beard.
Thomas, choice of form (was) his form,
Brown-curly his hair, not uncertain.
There was no blemish to my comrade
Rough, short (was) his pure beard.
Fair hair on Simon noble, slender,
And a skin all white, very tight,
And a beard jet-black, curly,
A ruddy face, a very blue eye.
John of the Baptism was not poor :
Brown his beard, brown his hair.
The forms of the men slender, tall
Meseems they are not very petty.*
The date of this second old Irish poem is said to be about
A.D. 1130, and we see that there is a variation from the Byzantine
to the Latin type in many instances ; thus John is no longer to be
represented as an aged man, but as we are accustomed to see
him in Art of a later date, young and fair and gentle.
Another instance may be brought forward of the light shed
upon obscure and incomprehensible forms in our early Art by
passages in our ancient literature. We find the Irish version of
the lion cub legend, so often illustrated on our monuments in
the Speckled Book ( Ai Lebor Brecc J: ), p. 1675, lines 63-68. It is
as follows :
" Jacob, son of Isaac, was the first who prophesied when he
* See " Revue Ceitique," torn. viii. p. 351.
1 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
was foretelling of his son, to wit of Judah, and said: 'This is
what I deem Judah like,' saith Jacob, *to wit, a lion's whelp,
what, who shall rouse him up? J For this is the peculiarity of
that whelp, that it is three days in death immediately after its
birth. And the male lion comes to it, and puts his breath round
it, and roars over it with a great voice, and then raises up the
whelp to life. Thus then arose Christ from the dead, through the
might of the Heavenly Father. 77
In this passage we find the explanation of a hitherto incompre-
hensible group on a panel of one of the crosses in the churchyard
of Kells, Co. Meath ; it also occurs on a stone at Dunfallandy in
Perthshire, and in the space above the arm of the cross at Shand-
wick in Ross-shire, Scotland. How greatly the interest of this
incident is increased when we recognise the same symbol taken
by Giotto from the " Physiologus," and used by him to signify the
raising of man from :he dead ! The Irish passage in the MS. of
the K Speckled Book v is evidently an extract from some such
work as " Physiologus :J or a Bestiaire, and in the writings of
Isidore we find the following explanation of i: :
"When the lioness has brought forth the cub she is said to
sleep during three days, until by the sound of the father's roar,
which causes her sleeping place as it were to tremble, she rouses
the sleeping cub : so Christ when he has given us birth upon the
cross, slept during three days until the great movement of the
earth was made, and he was roused in the blessed Resurrection,
SD when the three days were ended from Adam to Noah, from
Xoah to Moses, from Moses to the Maccabees at that time
came the father of all, Christ, who breathes by his sacred teaching
into their faces and brings them to life."
In the history of the origin and development of our icono-
graphy, it seems clear that we must follow the clue given us by
Mr. John Evans in the first chapter of his description of the
early British coins. In the early coinages of Gaul and Britain we
find that the successive copyists of some fine Greek or Roman
SCULPTURE. 17
original, departing farther and farther from the spirit and form
of rhe prototypes, at last developed typical forms which are
intelligible only when the series of steps by which the degraded
form was reached have been demonstrated. So it was with the
stone-cutters in the East of Scotland, and in Ireland with the
miniature-painters also. Their work, where tliey attempt the
human figure, is the degenerate form whose prototype may be
traced back to the first Christian sarcophagi, or the earliest Byzan-
tine painting. Rude as are these Irish and Scottish versions of
the old stereotyped subjects of early Christian Art, they are net
half so wide a departure from their prototypes as is the British
coin found at Pickering, in Yorkshire, in 1853, from the coin of
Philip the Second of Macedon to which Mr. Evans has traced i:s
origin. "It is difficult," he observes, "to imagine more bar-
barous art than is found on this coin ; nor can we well conceive a
type in which the noble laureate head and biga, on the
Macedonian prototype, are more completely degenerated, and
indeed entirely forgotten, than in this with which the series I
have attempted to describe concludes."
The usual variations from the prototype in the series of
British and Gaulish coins alluded to are as follows :
The face has been to some measure preserved, but vulgarised ;
the outline of the head has been destroyed, the hair convention-
alised, reduced to a formal system of lines, the front locks appear
as three open crescents, the curls and laurel- wreath are reduced
to a meaningless symmetrical pattern, while a hook stands for the
beautiful curve of the ear. On the reverse, the biga has entirely
disappeared, while the four horses have melted into one. The
original was probably seen by the Gauls when Brennus plundered
Greece, B.C. 279. And for four centuries after, copies more and
more degraded were multiplied as the type travelled northward,
till all resemblance to the original disappeared.
As the prototypes of Christian subjects on the Scottish stones,
PART. n. c
iS EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Mr. Anderson has brought forward examples drawn from the
Vatican Codex, from sarcophagi at Aries, at Ravenna, and at
Velletri, of such purely Christian subjects as Daniel in the
lions' den, the raising of Lazarus, the destruction of Pharaoh's
host in the Red Sea, the ascension of Elijah; and we see them
in his pages and illustrations brought, as it were, face to face
with their rude and, hitherto, incomprehensible copies on the
High Crosses at Kells and Moone Abbey in Ireland, and at
lona, and on the stone at S. Vigean's, or on that brought to
Abbotsford from Woodwray, on a sculptured stone at St.
Andrew's, and others at Dunkeld and Meigle.
The Ark of Xoah is seen occasionally grouped with the
representation of the Temptation, as it appears on a sarcophagus
at Velletri (Fig. 60;, and Mr. Anderson compares this with the
Ark on the High Cross of Keils and adds: " The sculptor of the
Irish cross, while adhering to the traditional elements of the
conventional group a box, a man, and a dove departed from
the earlier mode of expression by making the box in the form oi
a galley, with a high-curved prow and stern, and with windows in
its sides (Fig. 61). The vessel is shown riding on the waves, the
head of Xoah only is visible, and the dove appears resting on
the side. The variation in the form of expression is great,
but the essential elements of the group are present, and
recognisable." *
The iconography, so far as it has as yet been deciphered, of
the High Crosses of Ireland, embraces a variety of subjects
carved in the panels of the following crosses :
^lonasterboice (South-East Cross ).f The Fall of Man; Expulsion
from Eden ; Adam delves and Eve spins; Cain kills Abel;
The Worship of the Magi, with its type, the Three Warriors
before David; Michael and Satan at the Weighing of
Souls ; The Crucifixion and Last Judgment. These sub-
jects occupy nine out of twenty-two panels, the subjects
of the remaining thirteen being yet unexplained
* See "Scotland in Early Christian Times," 2nd Series, J. Anderson.
t See Frontispiece.
SCULPTURE.
Monasterboice (West
Cross). Crucifixion,
with its type, the
Sacrifice of Isaac;
The Empty Tomb
guarded by sleeping
Soldiers, with the
types of the Descent
into Hell, Samson
with Lion and Bear,
David with Goliath ;
Christ in Glory.
These six subjects
are the only ones
that have been ex-
plained out of the
twenty - four panels
on this monument.
CldJimacnois (North
Cross). Twenty-four
subjects in panels,
twelve of which have
been deciphered.
Facing west : Betrayal
and Seizure of Christ ;
Crucifixion, and
Tomb guarded by
Soldiers. East face:
The Resurrection, cr
Christ in Glory;
Musicians; Last
Judgment ; Trum-
peters to right, con-
demned to the left;
The Mission to the
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Ap os ties.
On sides:
Christ spear-
ing Satan;
David; The
Hand of the
Father ap-
pearing from
Clouds.
C lonmacnois
(South
Cross). On
west face,
the Cruci-
fixion, with
Lance and
Sponge.
Tuam Cross.
Crucifixion
on one side;
figure of a
Bishop on
the other; a
funeral pro-
cession, ap-
parently, on
the reverse.
K ilia mery.
Crucifixion,
on west side ;
in panel, a
chariot
wheel (that of
Elijah), type
oftheResur-
FIG. 63. HIGH CROSS OF MUREDACH, MONASTERBOICE.
SCULPTURE. 21
Dunnamaggan. Crucifixion on west side ; Sun, MOOD, and Stars
on the east side; figure of a Bishop with long crosier at
each side.
Kilklispem. Six Bishops with crosier getting their mission from
an ecclesiastic. On side of base, a chariot.
Uliard* ist Cross. Crucifixion in centre, and its type, the
Sacrifice of Isaac, on right arm of the Cross, with David
and his Harp on the left ; Peter and Paul above ; Demons
FIG . 64. BASE OF THE HIGH CROSS, TUAM.
below. On the 2nd Cross, the Crucifixion, and panels
filled with interfacings ; and on the 3rd Cross of Uuard
we find the Fall of Man, and the Crucifixion, with its type,
the Sacrifice of Isaac.
Tcrmon Ftchin. Crucifixion, with Lance and Sponge, on the east
side, and Christ in Glory on the west.
Moone Abbey. Twenty subjects in panels, seven of which have
been explained : The Fall of Man ; The Crucifixion,
and its type, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Twelve Apostles
below; The Flight into Egypt, and idols; the types
22 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
of Christ's Temptation and Descent into Hell ; Daniel
among Lions, and the Three Holy Children. A fish like
a dolphin is over the head of Christ,
ist Cross. On this Cross, which is dedicated to the
Kdk.
memory of Patrick and Columba, there are eleven panels,
FIG. 65. HEAD OF TUAM CROSS.
seven subjects in which have been identified : The Fall of
Man ; Cain and Abel ; and the four types of the Tempta-
tion of Christ and the Descent into Hell, viz., David and
Lion; Samson and Lion; David among Lions, and
Three Holy Children.
Ketts. and Cross. Ten subjects in panels, four of which have
SCULPTURE. 23
been explained as Noah In the Ark, and the Baptism of
Christ ; Adam and Eve ; The Fall of Man. and the Cruci-
fixion. (This Cross is unfinished, see O'Xeil, pp. ic, n.)
Kells. 3rd Cross. Twenty subjects in panels, eight of which
have been explained : on east side, the Fall of Man Cam
and Abel ; The Crucifixion , with its type. Sacrifice cf
Isaac. On the west side, the central figure is doiibtfi:'.
It may be Daniel, or it may be that the animals are the
Evangelical symbols in the midst of which Christ stands
in glory ; The Death of St. Peter ; David with Lion and
Bear ; Jacob wrestling with an Angel ; on the side, David
and Goliath.
In addition to those crosses, whose iconography has been
thus far deciphered, there still remain twenty-two crosses upon our
list, the subjects in the panels of which have not yet been described
or illustrated. A list of these monuments may be here given :
Kilkieran Co. Kilkennv.
Arboe ... ... Co. Tyrone.
Armagh Co. Armagh.
Kilcuuen ... . Co. Kildare.
Banagher ... Co. Kilkerny.
Dromore ,. Co. Down.
Xewtownards ... ... ... Co. Down.
Dnimcliff Co. Sligo.
Delgany Co. Wicklow.
Cong Co. Galway.
Castledermot ... Co. Kildare.
Tullagh. ... ... Co. Dublin.
St. Kieras's Cross Aian Island, Co. Galway
Biessmgton Co. \Vicklow.
Donaghmore Monaghan.
Lisnock Meath.
Killeony Arau, Co. Galway.
Roscrea Co. Tipperary.
King's Court ... ... ... Wicklow.
Dmmgoolan ... ... ... Co. Down.
Cashel Co. Tipperziry.
Durro w King's County .
The subjects most commonly met with in Scotland on
sculptured crosses of the same type as the Irish, are St. Michael
24 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
spearing the Dragon : St. Michael weighing Souls, with Satan
putting his hand in the scale ; the Fall of Man, the Nativity, the
Flight into Egypt, the Miracle of Healing the Blind, the Betrayal,
Crucifixion, Ascension of our Lord, the Last Judgment, Heaven,
Hell, Death, and the Trinity, which last is symbolised by three
globes or circles, or else by the figure of God the Father holding
the crucified Son, above whose head the dove is resting. It is
strange to find a scene from the " Dance of Death," upon a carved
stone in the churchyard of Soroby in the island of Tiree, or to
see, upon a cross in the island in Harris, angels carrying souls
through the air, and poor sinners torn to pieces in hell after the
manner of the resurrection angels and death demons of the
Campo Santo at Pisa. Of course, when we bring these rude
images, found among our islands, face to face, even in thought,
with the finest examples of the treatment of the same subjects
in Italian Art of the best style, it is difficult to realise that there
can be any connection between them, although the resemblance
is most striking when we compare them with the rude carvings
on such old buildings as San Michele in Pavia. or the cathedral
of Freiburg in Breissau.
o o
It seems strange that, upon these Christian monuments of
Great Britain and Ireland, we should find associated with the
symbols of Crucifixion and of Judgment, scenes from royal pro-
cessions, chariots, horsemen, hunting scenes, stags at bay, and
other such mundane delights as to us seem out of place beside
the sacred form of the dying or the risen Saviour. Can it be that
such scenes are meant to represent heaven and the joys of the
life to corae, as they were pictured in the fancy of the Irish or
Scottish Christian artist ?
These eyes will find
The men I knew, and watch the chariot \\hiri
About the goal again, and hunters race
The shadowy lion, and the warrior kings,
In height and prowess more than human, strive
Again for glory, while the golden lyre
Is ever sounding in heroic ears.
SCULPTURE. 25
We know that, in other instances, pagan forms and ideas lived
on in the Christian Art of these islands long after they had died
out elsewhere ; and it seems quite possible that these groups of
huntsmen, animals, trumpeters, and harpers found on Irish and
Scottish monuments may belong to visions of a future state re-
sembling that of Tennyson's seer.
Before we leave the subject of the sculptured and inscribed
stones of Ireland, it may be well to compare the Art of the Irish
schools with that of the Scotch, the so-called Anglo-Saxon, the
Manx, and the Welsh sculptured stones. In all, we do indeed
find the same ornamental material used, interfacings, trumpet
patterns, diagonal patterns, serpents, etc.; but this similarity in
detail proves nothing further than intercommunication. So total
a dissimilarity of spirit and feeling for Art exists in the works of
these different countries, that it becomes impossible to conceive
their productions as belonging to the same school. It would be
difficult to find two works of art more different in character than
the simple form of the Cross of Ualk in Clonmacnois, and the
barbarous extravagance of the Scotch slab at Halkirk in Caithness.
Something more than archeology is required to perceive this.
To the mere archaeologist, antiquity is everything, and Art nothing ;
but the mind of the great man who founded :he Irish
school of archceology, George Petrie, was one of wider grasp,
and such a mind as his is required to perceive the qualities which
form the essential elements of the individuality of Irish Art. It is
not in the quantity, it is not even in the nature of ornamental
detail, that true merit lies ; it is in its use, and in that indefinable
quality which, for want of a better word, we term feeling. It is
unreasonable to call sculpture, however perfect, which is merely
encrusted on an object, ornament Decoration is beautiful oniy
when found in its right place, when adding to the effect of the
fundamental form to be adorned : and when held in subordina-
tion and subjection to the primary idea, a noble reserve of power
is felt to exist, which comes forth at the right time, and in the
26 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
right place, to aid in the expression of the essential elements
of the subject, emphasizing its important points, and adding
clearness to the beauty of its outline. To take an illustration
from another art, we find that a great musician may lead the
simplest theme through labyrinths of delightful sound, and the
thread of melody is never lost ; while the inferior artist loses it in
torrents of notes. Redundance without self-restraint in all things
leads to failure, and there is no delight in beauty which will not
lose its freshness unless wisely governed. In the practice of all
Art, Shakespeare's words should be our guide : "But use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind
of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may
give it smoothness."
It is in such qualities that the Manx, Welsh, and some of the
Scottish stones are so deficient, as compared with the work upon
the sepulchral slabs of Clonmacnois, and Durrow, and other
Christian cemeteries in Ireland j and the conclusion our experience
would point to is that such Art out of Ireland belongs to much the
same date as that seen in this country, but is in no essential
element Irish, and merely belongs to a style which overspread
the three countries in the ninth and tenth centuries, and which
attained a more beautiful result in Ireland, because in the hands
of a people possessed of a fine artistic instinct
REFERENCES TO SCULPTURE.
The sculptured crosses and inscribed tombstones of Ireland
have been described and illustrated in the following works :
Petrie, "Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language."
Dublin, 1872. For Royal Historical and Archaeological
Association of Ireland.
O'Xeil, "Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland" London,
SCULPTURE. 27
Samuel Ferguson, " Photographs from Ogham Casts r
(Transactions, Royal Irish Academy), Vol. xxvii.
George Du Xoyer, " Sketches for Ordnance Survey." Memoir
24, D. 27. Library, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
Sir Samuel Ferguson, "Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland ar.d
Wales." Edinburgh: Douglas, 1887.
CHAPTER IL
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
y\ HE rise and development of Christian
architecture in Ireland cannot be
understood without some knowledge
of the buildings erected by her inhabitants
! before the introduction of Christianity. It
is evident from still existing remains, that
the first monks merely adopted the method
of building then practised among the natives,
and these early traditions give an archaic character to the
architecture of the country down to a comparatively late date.
The first builders of Ireland whose monuments still bear
witness to their labours were the dolmen or cromlech builders.
These primitive people appear to have advanced so far as to erect
megalithic monuments built with stones of great weight ; to
shape, polish, and sharpen tools of flint and stone. The fact that
they celebrated funereal rites in tombs of imposing grandeur, with
cremation and sometimes even urn-burial, bears witness to a
comparatively advanced religious condition. They formed axes,
chisels, gouges, daggers, knives, and spearheads in flint, and
hammers, discs, and axes of stone, while deposits of such objects,
along with strings of shells and amber, were laid in their tombs,
perhaps as propitiatory offerings. Besides this first industry, the
manufacture of tools, there is evidence of the use of fire for
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 29
boiling and baking food and for shaping and burning pottery, as
well as the rearing of domestic animals and culture of cereals. It
cannot be proved that any sculpture, however rude, or any
ornament whatever, was attempted by the dolmen builders of
Ireland.
There is a marked difference in the general aspect of the
dolmens of Ireland as we advance from the east to the west.
Those in the east are of much greater size than those in the west.
Thus, in Leinster, the roofing stones of the cromlech vary in
length from 18 to 29 ft., and their weight is on an average
no tons; in Ulster, the average length of the roofing stone is
25 ft, while in Connaught the average length is 8 to 10 ft., and in
Munster from 7 to 14 ft This gradual degeneration of the type
in Ireland as we travel westward across the island, would lead us
10 surmise that the dolmen builders, who have left still finer
monuments in Britain and on the Continent, reached the Irish
shores from the east, the stream of emigration pressing westward
till its final arrest on the Atlantic coast
We have records more or less complete of the excavations
made in twenty-three of the dolmens of Ireland, fourteen
kistvsens, and twelve tumuli. Bones have been discovered
beneath each of these dolmens examined, but urns have only
been found in four instances ; flint arrow-heads, stone hatchets,
sling-stones, rings of shale and jet, had been buried with these
bones. Where urns have been found, as at Cloughmore, in DOWB,
they are enclosed in a chamber, sometimes 8 ft long by 3 ft.
high, and 3 ft wide.
Traces of urn-burial have been found in every tumulus that
has been as yet excavated in Ireland. From a hundred and fifty
to two hundred urns were disinterred in the tombs on Rnih-hill,
near Drogheda, all filled with burnt bones ; a flint arrow-head and
bone pin was found near one. Occasionally, as at Loughanmore,
the urns are upside down, the ashes lying beneath ; a large urn in
the centre and smaller ones disposed around. In many instances
3 o EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
these urns are very beautiful in form and delicately ornamented.
They were sometimes placed upon the lap of the deceased ; thus
in a tomb within a tumulus at Tully-druid a human skeleton
sitting and holding an urn was discovered. Again, at Dysart in
Westmeath, another seated figure facing N.E., with an urn in its
lap, was found in a tomb with a paved floor strewn with burned
human bones and fragments of baked clay. The skeleton was
well preserved his skull showed that he belonged to a long-
headed race.
These dolmens are sometimes surrounded by circles of upright
stones, which circles measure from 150 ft. in diameter to 160 ft.
The tumuli or dome-roofed sepulchres of Ireland are many
degrees in advance of the dolmens. They are built without
cement, and betray the same ignorance of the principle of the
arch as is common to the primitive builders in all countries. The
urns found in them are of great size, and often of stone- but that
which marks these monuments as wholly distinct from the
dolmens, is the decoration carved upon their walls. The tumuli
in which we find such carvings are the royal cemeteries of
Newgrange, Dowth, Teltoun, and Rathkenny. Both walls and
roof are covered with incised patterns ; these are cups, and circles,
groups of concentric circles, spirals, half-moons, zig-zags, tenons,
semicircles, lozenges, rhomboids, dots, stars, and leaves with
stem and veinings. These cuttings are executed with chisel and
scraper, or often with a punch or pick.
These tumuli are mentioned in the Annals of Ireland as regal
cemeteries, whereas there is no historic legend connected with the
dolmens. It would be well, however, to gather all the superstitions
and fairy tales connected with such monuments throughout
Europe, since it is quite possible that comparative mythology
might cast some light upon their origin. In Ireland the following
traditions exist in connection with such monuments :
1. That they are the tombs of men killed on the field of battle.
2. That the isolated dolmens are the tombs of heroes.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 31
3. That they are giants' graves.
4. That they mark the grave or bed of a mythical cow, Glas
Gavlin.
5. That the dolmen Is the tomb of a wild huntsman.
6. That the dolmen is the grave of a famous hound.
7. Circles of stones are a group of fain- pipers turned to stone."*
The most common tradition in Ireland, and particularly in
the county of Galway, is that the dolmen or cromlech sheltered
the lovers Dermod and Grania, who, flying before the Avenger's
face, rested in caves and grottoes, on beds of fern and moss, or
within the chambers beneath the roofing stone of the cromlech.
Among the drawings of dolmens in the Petrie Collection, we
find one which looks like a transition from a primitive type. It
is the dolmen of Gleneask, at Tyreragh, in the county of Sligo.
In this instance the roofing stone does not rest simply on its
three upright pillars ; relieving stones have been inserted, one of
which measures 8 ft in length.
This is a remarkable indication of an early effort at building
proper, a link between the tomb formed of one great roofing
stone raised on pillars and the domed roof of the cave tomb ; such
a link as we might expect to find if the dolmens of Ireland are of
a later date than elsewhere in Europe, since it is because of the
more recent date of consecutive styles in this country that such
links are discoverable, indications of transition that have been
lost in the vaster tracts of time covered by the archaeology of
other races.
Among the various designs which compose the decoration of
the walls of these tumuli, such as New Grange, are many which,
though inferior in execution, ruder in design, yet seem but
repetitions of similar decorations in the cave tombs of Malta
and other islands in the Mediterranean. It is worthy of note that
the one design by which the bronzes of the late Celtic period are
* See Transactions of the OssizniC Society, vol. iii. p. lS5. Joyce. " Old
Celtic Romances," p. 25. Sir T. Ferguson, i{ Lays of the Western Gael," p. 57.
32 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
characterised in the British Islands is never found in the tumuli.
We refer to the double divergent spiral, or trumpet pattern
already described at page 73, Part I.
It yet remains to decide the date of this design in Ireland.
In Britain it seems to have flourished from two centuries before
the Christian era to the time of the Roman occupation, but
whether it is later in Ireland may still be questioned. It certainly
lingered much longer in this country than elsewhere, and works
in metal marked by it may belong to a period bordering on that
of the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, i.e. the third
century.
As we have observed, there is no connection between such
decorative Art as that which is characterised by this design, and
that of the tumuli builders, yet we do see this design in an early
and tentative form on carved bones found at Slieve-na-Calliaghe, as
well as upon the sides of a stone cist at Clover Hill, in the county
of Sligo.
Again, there are two distinct modifications of this design
found on the monuments of Ireland, one appearing on the bronze
and gold ornaments of apparently pre-Christian Art, the other
on decidedly Christian monuments down to the eleventh and
twelfth centuries ; and there are two pillar-stones in Kerry whence
we may trace a transition from the one to the other from the
pre-Christian form to that found in the Christian MSS., shrines,
etc. These stones belong to the first Christian period in Ireland ;
one bears a bilingual inscription half in Ogham, half in Roman
letters.
There seems little reason to doubt that the Ogham character
prevailed in Ireland about the transition period, from paganism
to the introduction of Christianity in the third and fourth centuries,,
and remained in use for some time after the introduction of the
Roman letter.*
* The formation of Ogham letters consists in groups of incised lines and
duts alan^ a stem line. The consonants are formed by incised lines from three
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 33
Stones thus inscribed are found in burial-places unconnected
with churches, old pagan cemeteries which continued :o be used
in Christian times and by a Christian people. Bu: in Ireland
they are also found in a class of building which seems certainly
to have been of pagan origin, and that is the Earth-house or
subterranean treasure-house.
In fourteen instances with which we are acquainted, Ogham
inscriptions are found on the walls of these earth-houses. ND
sijins of interments appear to have been found in any of the
buildings to which these inscriptions belong ; no human remains,
charcoal, or pottery were discovered in them. It appears to be
the case with the earth-houses of Ireland as with those of Scotland,
that there is no indication of Christianity in connection with them ;
and, in Scotland, the discovery of wheel-mace pottery of Reman
type, and fragments of red lustrous ware called Samian, with
querns, and implements of iron, bronze armlets decorated with
the trumpet pattern, all indicate a period between that of
the Roman occupation of Britain and the establishment of
Christianity.
It is to this late Celtic period that we would assign the erec-
tion of the first great non-sepulchral buildings of Ireland. This
period extended from two hundred years before the birth of
Christ, to the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. Ireland
is remarkable for the number and variety of Celtic bronzes, looped
spear-heads, ferules, socketed cells, trumpets, horns, etc. A
people who brought these industries to such perfection, may well
have been the builders of such vast fortresses as these of Dun
Aengus, Dun Conor, and Murvey Mil in Aran Mor.
These stone forts or Duns are found on the western shores of
the counties of Kerry, Clare, Galway, SI:go, while occasional
to five inches in length when above and below the stem line, and from fosr to
seven inches when across the same ; these last are sometimes vertical to the
stem line, sometimes oblique. The vowels are formed by strong, oval, and
sometimes round dots, on the angle or stem.
PART II. D
34 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
examples of them also occur in Mayo, Donegal, and Antrim.
Twenty-four such buildings were examined by Lord Dunraven on
the west coast of Ireland, seven of which were in the islands of
Aran. These forts are amphitheatres, encircled by outer walls,
rather than towers. They are either oval or circular buildings,
enclosing an area of from 227 to 142 ft., with external lines of
walls protecting this inner keep, enclosing a space in some cases
1,174 ft. in diameter.
For a period so primitive, and at a time when cemented and
lool-dressed masonry was unknown, the construction of these
walls is marvellously fine. Without mortar of any kind, they are
raised in such compact and close-fitting masses, that they have
been enabled to endure the wind and rain of many centuries.
Built of stones, varying in magnitude according to the districts in
which they are found, but often of great size, each wail consists
of a central core of rough rubble, faced on both sides by stones,
carefully chosen and laid so as to produce an even surface.
Three such structures, thus composed of a rubble centre and
faced in cry walling, form a triple, compact mass, usually 18 ft.
in thickness and 20 fr. in height. In many cases vertical
jointings are observable in these walls, a circumstance that
suggests the idea of the work having been portioned out in lots
to the labourers.
It seems as if the wall had been built in short lengths, each
completed independently of the other, and such a method would
resemble that which the French term building in pares. Then
the stones which are fixed as headers are tilted downwards
towards the face of the wall, so as to draw off the moisture from
the joints.
These details, along with the existence of regular doorways, at
once raise these forts to the rank of " buildings," and place them
far above the ordinary camps and strongholds of the Britons, the
entrances to which are but gaps in the bai:k. In these door-
ways, which are ail formed with inclined sides and horizontal
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
35
lintels, T7e see, as at Staigue Fort and DIIII Aengus, thai the v;e:ght
of the superstructure is thrown off the lintel by r.:eans of - s::Ii
36 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
wider stone placed a layer or two above it ; and at Dun Aengus
a vertical line, formed by a projection of the portion of the wall
around the doorway, seems to have been intended to follow and
mark out its outline, as did the architrave in apertures of a later
date. These doorways vary in depth from 1 6 to 27 ft., and are
roofed by a series of stone slabs from 6 to 8 ft. in length.
In some cases, a reveal in the centre of the passage shows
that it was occasionally furnished with double doors, which were
also fastened with bolts, or rather bars of wood, the holes for the
reception of which may still be seen. The door is sometimes
approached by a passage between two walls formed of long stones
t-et upright. And the approach to the outworks is defended by
stones set on end, so as to form a kind of chevaux-de-frise^ or
labyrinth, in the effort to penetrate which, any body of men must
become scattered and their lines broken.
Platforms, offsets, or banquettes ran along the inner sides of
the walls, to which four, and sometimes even ten, independent
flights of steps gave access. Passages and dome-roofed chambers
occur in the thickness of the walls, and in the inner area of the
fortress little round huts with conical roofs, or long ones like
upturned boats, are found constructed in clusters.
These huts with conical roofs or domes are formed in a
manner universally adopted by early races in all periods of the
history of man and in various portions of the globe, where stone
was available ; before the knowledge of the principle of the arch
had reached them. The dome is formed by the projection of one
stone beyond another till the wails meet in one flag at the apex.
This system, along with certain resemblances in masonry, has
caused our antiquaries to apply the terms Cyclopean and Pela?gic
to such structures, while the resemblance is purely accidental,
arising from the condition of the builders' knowledge, and a
certain similarity in the geological formation of the districts where
such buildings were found. Among the earliest architectural
remains found at Hissarlik by Schliemann, the walls, though of
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 37
massive construction, so far as their thickness and solidity are
concerned, have no resemblance to Cyclopean structures : but are
composed of stones of moderate size, with the interstices rilled
with clay. This difference may be accounted for by the fact that
the soft tertiary limestone of the hill of Hissariik is totally unsuited
to such massive work, and so in Ireland it may be questioned
whether the art of stone building in certain districts throughout
the country did not occasionally arise from the abundance of
stone and scarcity of earth, while in other places, where stones
were not available without quarrying, we find earthen forts, raths,
and embankments.
These duns or forts are held to belong to the culminating
epoch of the heroic legendary period immediately preceding the
introduction of Christianity, and are associated with che adventures
of Aengus and Conor and Muirbhech Mil of Fergus azid Cuchulair,,
heroes of the Firbolg race. They may have been in existence
two centuries or more before the introduction of Christianity into
Ireland, but at all events they appear to have continued in use
after the introduction of Christianity ; and many instances are
recorded in the Lives of the Saints, of a king or chieftain, on his
conversion to Christianity, offering to God his diin or fortress,
so that the missionary and his followers might erect their little
cells and oratory within the area of the amphitheatre.
The house of Conall, brother of the king of Meath, was given
up to St. Patrick upon the occasion of its master's conversion,
and the church of Donaghpatrick at Tailtenn was built upon that
site. The fortress of Dun Lughaidh was also given up to St
Patrick when the lord of the country and his four brothers and
father were baptized, and the church of Kilbennan was founded
within its walls.* The Cathair or stone fortress of Aodh Finn, the
son of Feargna, chieftain of Breifny, was given up to St. Caillen
that he might erect his monastic buildings within it, and the
interior of the fortress of Muirbheach Mil, the Firbolg chief, in
* See the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick."
38 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the island of Aran, is now occupied by the remains of the
primitive cells of the first Christian converts.*
With these facts before us it is easy to see how the first
Christian architecture in Ireland was developed from the pagan.
It would appear that the monks adopted the method of building
then practised by the natives before the introduction of Chris-
tianity, gradually making such modifications in form as their
difference of purpose and some traditional usage required. Within
the stone fort, now become Christian, or the Cashel, built in
imitation of it, the first Christians found shelter for their little
oratories, their round beehive huts, their wells, gardens, and
lezckta^ or burial-grounds or leaba-na-marabhan^ beds of the
dead, as they are called, where the practice of the primitive Irish
Cnurch was a transition from the primitive pagan practice of
raising a circle of upright stones, for they enclosed a green
oblong space with pillar-stones set close together, each stone of
the enclosure being marked with a cross. The oratories of this
pence, and within these cashels, are angular, oblong structures,,
with walls either sloping in a curve towards the roof, or built in
steps, and often formed like upturned boats. They measure on
an average 14 ft. long by 9 ft. wide, and 12 ft. high.
It seems probable that in these rude buildings we find the
germs of what in after times developed into characteristic features
of churches belonging to a more advanced age and style. Thus,
it is possible that the plinth, from which both tower and church
are seen to rise, may have originated in the retention of the first
step which forms tne base of the rude oratory; also the projec-
tions in front of the door at each side, evidently meant for
shelter, may have given rise to the deep pilasters at the corners
of the east and west walls of the later churches. The projecting
stones in the corners and roofs of these monastic cells like
brackets originally meant as supports for scaffolding, were after-
wards retained as ornamental features like gargoyles at the corners
of the buildings.
* See " Trias Thaum.," p. 204. " Life of St. Benen," Colgan.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
FIG. 6S. GROUND PLAN OF MONASTERY, INISMURRAY
FIG. 69. ORATORY, GALLALUS.
There is, besides, one feature in these oratories which marks
the beginning of Christian architectural decoration. Over the
40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
doorway five or seven quartz stones, rounded and waterworn,
whose whiteness tells in strong contrast to the dark slate of which
the walls are often built, are set in the form of a cross. As time
went on the rude form of the orator}-, resembling an upturned
boat, was changed to that of an ark.
In a representation of the Temple of Jerusalem, as it was
conceived by the scribe of the ''Book of Kells" in the seventh
century, we have an image of this early type as it appeared
externallyan oblong, rectarpr.ilar building with a high-pitched
FIG. JO. DOORWAY OF ORATORY, SENACH'S ISLAND.
root and finials on the gables, such as still are found in parts of
Ireland, near the buildings, from the roofs of which they have
fallen. It is not only the old traditional form of the ark, in
which the Church was rescued from the flood, but also of the
shrine in early Christian Art, in which the relics of the dead
were entombed. It has always remained the form of the mor-
tuary chapel and often of the tomb itself in Ireland. Indeed,
in such places as Clonmacnois, most of the small churches grouped
together within the cemetery were mortuary chapels, such as
Temple Kelly, Temple McLaughlin, and others belonging to the
kings of Hy Many, Moylurg, and North and South Munster.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
FIG. 71. DOORWAY OF OSATORY, ST. FIXAX.
FIG. 72. GROUND PLAN, MONASTERY OF SENACH.
42 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAXD.
Mr. Ferr-sson has shown us, it will be remembered, how the
circular churches of Romanesque architecture are also derived
from the tomb, such as that of Cecilia Metella, or Sta. Helena,*
Romr.
A mistaken idea has long prevailed as to the situation of these
early monastic establishments in Ireland. It has been thought
that their traces are only to be found on the smaller uninhabited
and inaccessible islands off the west coast, whereas the mountain
tops, and the islands in the mountain tarns of Ireland, offer just as
striking examples of anchorite establishments as do her western
islands. Slieve Donard, Slieve Gullion, Slieve Liag, Brandon
Mountain in Kerry, are still crowned by the beehive cells and
cashels of SS. Domangart, Aed, Brendan, while in Lough Lee
in Kerry, and in Goiigane Barra in Cork, the hermitages of
St. Finan and St. Finbar may still be seen. St. Finan is supposed
to have also been the founder of the monastery on the Skelligs,
the " St. Michael's Rock " of Ireland.
This rock rises perpendicularly out of the sea to a great height.
In stands twelve miles from the nearest land out in the Atlantic
Ocean, and on a ledge or platform of the summit of one shoulder,
the monastery was erected. It is approached from a landing-
piace on the north-east side. There are still remaining six
hundred steps cut by the monks in the cliff, which rises to
720 ft. above the level of the sea, the lower part of this ascent
being now broken away. The island has been the scene of
annual pilgrimages for many centuries, and the service of the
Way of the Cross is still remembered here ; different points and
turnings in the cliffs being named after the different stations,
such as the Garden of the Passion, Christ's Saddle, the Stone of
Pain, the Rock of Woman's Wailing, etc.
The plateau occupied by the monastic buildings is about
180 ft. In length, and from So ft. to ico ft. in width. These
buildings consist of the church of St. Michael, two smaller
* "Hist. Architecture," vol. i. pp. 319, 321, 381*
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
FIG. 73. WAY OF THE CROSS, SKELLIG MICHAEL,
.44 EARL Y CHRISTIAN ART IN ICELAND.
oratories, and six cells or beehive dwelling-houses, two holy wells
and five Icacnia^ or burial-grounds, with many rude stone crosses.
They are all enclosed by a cashel or wall running along the edge
of the precipice, which in its whole character strongly resembles
the wall of Staigue Fort on the mainland.
" It is astonishing, " writes Lord Dunraven, " to conceive the
courage and skill of the builders of this fine wall, placed as it is
01 the very ed::e of the precipice, at a vast height above the sea,
with no possible standing ground outside the wall from which
the builders could have worked; yet the face is as perfect as that
of Staigue Fort, the interstices of the greater stones filled in with
smaller ones, all fitted as compactly, and with as marvellous
firmness and skill" *
STOXE CHURCHES WITH CEMENT.
The transition from the dry wall and undressed masonry, to
the cemented walls and dressed stones of the later buildings, in
which picked and chiselled work is visible, took place in the
sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries. The cement first used,
especially in buildings on the sea-coast, was largely composed of
shells and sea-sand, while, inland, a compound of mud and gravel
was used. The walls were first dry built, the composition poured
in a liquid state upon the top of the walls and allowed to filtrate
downwards ; later on, the wall was well built with two faces and
a rubble core grouted in a similar manner ; while, in the time of
Cormac O'Cillen, circa 950, we have the stones well bedded in
good mortar.
The archaic and massive character of this masonry, especially
In the limestone districts, is very striking. The great stones,
varying from 10 and even 17 ft. to 8 or 6 ft. in length, are often
found dove-tailed and fitted into one another, and polygonal
masonry often appears in company with ashlar, while ashlar is
* See " Xotes on Irish Arcliitecture," vol L p. 30.
BUILDING A3D ARCHITECTURE.
FIG. 74. GROUND PLAN OF MONASTERY, SKELLIG MICHAEL.
FIG. 75. MONASTIC CELL, SKELLIG MICHAEL.
40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
seen occasionally superimposed by rubble, and wide-jointed,
irregular courses of stone.
The fact that masonry so archaic in character is seen in
company with sectional and surface mouldings, as in Temple
Martin, Temple Cronan, and St. Dervila's Church, Banagher and
Maghtra in the Co. Londonderry, is a phenomenon which could
FIG. 76. DOORWAY OF KILCRONY CHURCH.
only occur in a country where the chisel had been long in use, and
the progress of sculpture, with still ruder tools, from its beginnings
in the works of the primitive tomb builders, had been uninterrupted.
The features by which these churches are characterised are
the doorways with a great horizontal lintel stone and inclined
jarnhs, a round-headed east window, the arch being scooped out
of the stone, or pointed, the top being formed of two stones laid
so as to make two sides of an equilateral triangle. They have
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
pit;. 77. WINDOW IN ST. CAIMIN'S CHUR'T.
FIG, 78 DOORWAY OF Thill LE MAi.IIN, i.ER:,.Y.
48 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
pilasters running up the east and west wall, brackets, a projection
at the junction of the roof and wall, and are raised upon a
plinth.
At first these churches consisted of but one chamber, and the
chancels, where they now occur, are not bonded into the nave,
but are evidently additions of a later period. The earliest form
of the chancel arch is without imposts. The arch consists of a
single sweep or soffit only, no subarch and no moulding or even
chamfer, but the voussoirs are dressed and fitted with skill. A
projecting unsquared block of stone, inserted between the top of
the shaft and the spring of the arch in the rude church of
Kilmacduach in Aran, is the first indication we have met of an
impost being thought desirable ; then we have, a little later on,,
imposts with chamfered edges, about 6 in. high, but only pro-
jecting 2 in., and in some cases the arch is set back from the jambs
from which it springs, a peculiarity which is represented in an arch
in the " Book of Kells," and such as may be seen in the church of
Weir on the island in the Orkneys. The transition from the
false to the true arch is marked by such buildings as the church
on Friars Island near Killaloe, and St. Columba's at Kells, and
Sr. Kevin ? s at Glendalough. These, which all appear to be about
the same date, were erected about 807, when we read, in the
" Chronicura Scotorum," that the new establishment of Columcille
at Kells was in process of erection.
These buildings were sometimes roofed with shingles, but solid
stone roofs were not uncommon, and in the case of St. Kevin's
Church, Glendalough, to which we have already alluded, a small
round tower springs from the roof.
ECCLESIASTICAL ROUND TOWERS.
In the beginning of this century it was found that 118 of these
circular ecclesiastical towers of Ireland were still in existence.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
49
FIG* 79. DOORWAY OF MAGKERA CHURCH, LOXDONDERKY.
5
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The type was not peculiar to this country before the eleventh
century, and even now twenty-two foreign examples of similar
towers may be added. It becomes evident when we compare the
towers now remaining, one with another, that a certain develop-
ment of knowledge with skill in the art of building may be
FIG. SO. BELL-HOUSE OF KELLS.
traced in these various examples, and that these signs of change
are analogous to those which took place in the church architecture
of Ireland after the eighth century. A classification is given in
the following table, showing the gradation in masonry and the
corresponding change in the character of the apertures in these
towers ;
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
FIRST STYLE.
SECOND STYLE.
THIRD STYLE.
FO-T.TH STYLE.
Rough field-s ton es un-
touched by hammer or
chisel, not rounded, but
fitted by their length to
the curve of the wall, ]
roughly coursed, wide- j
jointed, with spalds or '
small stones fitted into
the interstices. Mortar,
of coarse, unsifted sand ;
or gravel. '
Stones roughly ham-
mer-dressed, rounded
to the curve of the
wall, decidedly
though somewhat ir-
regularly coursed. ,
Spalds, but often
badly bonded to-
gether. Mortar freely
used.
Stones laid in hori-
zontal courses, well-
dressed and carefully
worked to the rour.d
and batter, the w.iole
cemerued in sin
plain mortar cf I
and sand.
StrD =ff r ?=a jhb=sL-
! ceLent ash.ar masaary,
i rather cpen-'ointed, ad
1 therefore closely analo-
gous to the EnglLfh-
, Xcrnian mas;sry cf the
first half cf the twelfth
century ; cr, in some :r>
stances, freest possible
i example? of weLI-cressed
|i ashlar. Sancstcne is
' squared courses.
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF THE TOWERS
ACCORDING TO THE AVERAGE STYLES OF TKEIR MASONRY
AND APERTURES.
NAMES OF TOWERS, j DIMENSIONS
N.B. Exceptional towers < MASONRY. OF PERFECT
marked in italics, perfect ' ToWEI.S.
towers in small capitals. ,
| DGOS-.VAYS.
i
LUSK, CLONDALKIN, f
TEACHDOE, Drumboe,
Swords, Drumcliff,
Castledcrmot, Scat-
tery, Antrim^ Oran, :
Turlongh^ Trum-
rxeryi Drumcleeve,
Rcjthmichael, Fertagh.
Lusk, 100 ft.
, high by .13 ft.
circum ; CJ en-
First ' d^k* 11 " ^5 ft- hy
Style of 43ft-:Scattery.
'by soft ;*Tur-
' lough, 70 ft. by
57ft-
i Of same material as
; the rest of me build-
, ing, scmetimes stones
roughly dressed;
1 square - headed with
inclined sides 5 ft. 6 in.
(high by a ft. wide.
, 3 ft. to 13 ft. above
, grcund.
Same naterial
as the rest cf the
headed ecr V^n-
' gular, with in-
clined sides, near
level of dc-crs
' within tcwer.
Iniscaltra, Clones, ;\
MEELICK, Aghavuller, >
crea, Kildare^ Kilree, ;
Kilmacduach, Kilcul- j
len, Aughagower, Kil- \
bennan, C A s H E L, \
MONASTERBOICE, 1
Araamor, Tullaherin. '/
high by 42 ft.
!boice, no ft.
by 51 ft-
j First idea of arch T Same material
\ curve scooped cut of as rest of bcild-
] three or five stones. ' ing : sometimes
| Architrave cccasicn- , roughly en: acd
1 ally occurs : stones , squared. Same
of same material as ; form and size as
i tower, but roughly \ before,
worked to the round. \
DEVEXISH, Glenda- : N
lough, KILLALA, Kin-
netn, Cloyne, Armoy,
Rattoo, Ballagh, Diserr-
Aengus. usomiskin,
Kiikency, Drum lane.
Devenish, < First idea cf arch, ; Same form SLS
76 ft. high by 'curve scccped cut cf,' before, but cffrer
43 ft. circum. | three stoses : stones I material than tie
KLillala, 4 ft. ' of some rer material rest cf the to^er.
rhird },jgh by 51 ft. than the wall cf the ai:d the windows
Style, circum. tower, generally sand- ' generally __ belter
stones cr some free- proportioned
wcrkir.gstcne: pellet ihc.i: :h.e earlier
| , and roll nsuldingsoc- cne^;.
casic^ally introduced.
TIMAHOE, Anna-i
down, Aghadoe,'
TEMPLE Fix AN. Kells,
O'Rorke's Tower, ARD- '
MORE, Disert O'Dea.
1 Tim a hoe, Regular radiating Same fcnn as
96 ft, by 60 ft. round arch, of su; cr before, cf S3d-
Temple Fi- more sieves, with stcne cu,t a*::!
Fourth nan, 56 ft. by , architrave, cr r:a ex- squared.
St>-le. 49 ft. t amples cf tie deco-
Ardmcre^Sft. rated Irish Roisan- ,
by 52 ft. ; esque of the twe'fth
3: 2
52 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
All the references to these Bell-houses which we have been
able to discover in the seven books of Irish Annals are appended
to Lord Domavea's " Notes on Irish Architecture.''' The earliest
FIG. Si. BELL-HOUSE OF DESERT AEN'GUS.
occurs at the year 950 ; it is merely a reference to the tower of
Sane as existing at that day, but how long it may have stood
before this date is uncertain.*
1 An alphabetical list of all the high and slender round church towers c
which Dr. Petrie and Lord Dunraven collected the particulars, whether in
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
53
The conclusions to be drawn from the above table are :
I. That these towers ^vere built after the Irish became
acquainted with the use of cement and the hammer.
II. That the towers were built at or about the period of transi-
FIG. 82. BELL-HOUSE OF ARDMORE.
tion from the entablature style of the early Irish period to the
round-arched decorated Irish Romanesque style.
Ireland or abroad, is a'so appended to " Notes on Irisli Architecture. To the
list of Irish round towers I have teen enabled to add, with the assistance of
the Rev. Francis Shearman, the names cf the founders of the churches to
which they belonged ; a precaution only necessary in a country where many
still hold these ecclesiastical towers to he of pa^an origin.
54 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
III. That the largest number of these towers were built before
this transition had been established, and while the Irish builders
were feeling their way to the arch.
IV. That as this transition took place between the time of
Cormac O'Killen and Brian Boruma, i.e. between 900 and 1000,
the fi rst groups of towers now standing belong to the first date.
The average thickness of wall at the basement in the whole
seventy-two towers is from 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft, there being forty towers
out of the seventy-two which have walls of this thickness, and the
others only vary a few inches more or less. The average diameter
at the level of the doorway is from 7 to 9 ft. internally. Some are
unusually broad, as Oran, which is n ft across, Dysert O'Dea
i o ft 2 in. and Kildare 9 ft. 3 in. These towers taper and the walls
diminish in thickness towards the top. All their apertures have
inclined sides, being on an average 2 in. wider at the base than at
the top.
The doorways always face the entrances of the church to
which they belong, unless in those instances where the church is
evidently much later in date than the tower. The position of the
towers was almost invariably about 20 ft to the north-west end
of the church. This was probably from respect to the wish
which is even now generally entertained by the Irish, to be buried
to the east or south.
A number of towers which bear more or less resemblance to
those of this country, still exist, or are known to have existed, in
other places besides Ireland. They are high, slender, and
circular, with pointed roofs, and occasionally built of brick.
Such, for instance, were the eleven round towers of Ravenna, of
which six still remain ; the towers of San Nicolo at Pisa, San
Paternian at Venice, Scheness in Switzerland, St. Thomas in
Strasburg, Gernrode in the Hartz, two at Nivelles in Belgium.
one at St. Maurice, Epinal, one at St Germain des Pres, one at
Worms in Hesse Darmstadt, and two at Notre Dame de Maes-
tricht in Belgium. In Scotland such round belfries occur at
i-B,
'Ji
/' .-
FIG. 83. BELFR1- CF SAX GIOVANNI, KA\ ENKA.
FIG> 84. BELFRY OF ST. MAURICE, fiPISAL.
5 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Brechin ; at St. Brigid's Church, Abernethy ; St. Magnus in
Egilsha; and till a late period two such towers were standing at
Deerness in the Orkneys, and three in the Shetland Isles
St. Lawrence's Church in West Burra, St. Magnus's at Tingwail,
and another at Ireland Head while one has been described in
Strernoe, one of the Faroe Islands, and the tower near St. Patrick's
Church in the Isle of Man is another.
That this type of tower was in use at an early date upon the
Continent is apparent from the following passage in the life of
St. Tenenan of Brittany, by Albert Legrand. After describing
the erection of the churches of La Foret and Pioabennec, and the
settlement in the forest, as well as the ravages and burning of
churches in the Leonnais by the barbarians, his biographer pro-
ceeds : " He exhorted the people to penitence and amendment of
life, and providing for their defence and preservation, he appointed
a chief man of their troop as their captain, recommending him to
erect a little round tower near the church of Ploabennec, wherein
to deposit the silver-plate and treasure of the same church, and pro-
tect them against the sacrilegious hands of the barbarians, should
they wish to pillage the same church. This he accordingly did.
Meanwhile the barbarians approached, and St. Tenenan hastily
carried the sacred vessels into the rower wherein the captain
entered, and resolved to defend it at the cost of his blood."
This passage is an important one, as bearing both on the
origin and use of these towers, suggesting that the type reached
Ireland through Brittany, and showing that these buildings were
the keeps of the monasteries. Here we find in the seventh
century in Brittany this additional building added to a church for
its protection from the attacks of barbarians, as the round towers
were raised in the ninth century for a similar purpose in all the
principal monasteries of Ireland.
Till the invasion of the Northmen, the Irish ecclesiastic
possessed his church in comparative pence, and the wall that
encircled the groups of cells and oratories that formed his
BUILDING AXD ARCHITECTURE.
57
monastery was deemed security enough for him as was that of the
Egyptian monk in his Laura; but
in the year 8 DO all was changed; the
attempted colonisation of Ireland by
a pagan invader, resolved to extir-
pate the Christianity that he found
there, and to establish the national
heathenism of his own country, com-
pelled the monks to protect their little
churches and cells by means of the
lofty tower. Its great height, its iso-
lated position and small doorway about
fourteen feet from the ground, made
it fit to resist the attacks of an enemy,
chiefly armed with bows and arrows.
The signal once made announcing the
approach of a foe by those who kept
watch on the top, the alarm would
spread instantaneously.
The Annalists of Ireland do not
refer to such buildings till the year
950 ; and in the entries regarding the
attacks of the Northmen frnrn 789 to
845 it is recorded that the clergy f.ed
for safety into the woods, where they
celebrated the divine mysteries and
spent their days in prayer and fasting ;
but in the year 950 and for two cen-
turies later, we read of the "cloicc-
thech/' house of a bell, as a special
object of attack to the Northmen. FIG ^.
In the map at the close of Lord BELFRY CF ST. GEXUVI
Dunraven's volume an effort has been mnde to mark out the
course of the Xorse invasions in Ireland before the tenth
58 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
century ; the red lines mark the course taken by the invaders,
and the crosses the churches attacked many of them per-
sistently and repeatedly by these heathen warriors. The black
circle stands for the round tower, and it would appear that
the churches protected by such buildings were those situated
in places that had in the first instance proved most liable to
attack. They are along the coast and in the valleys of the
rivers most infested by the enemy. Before the year 900 the
Norsemen had first ravaged the coast and the outlying islands,
and then their boats repeatedly were seen on the Boyne, the
Liney, and the Shannon, while the principal lakes in which their
fleets were stationed were Loch Foyle, Loch Neaeh, Loch Ree,
and Loch Derg. In the valleys of these rivers distinct groups of
these towers and churches are to be seen which had been for the
first seventy years of this war attacked and desecrated with such
unparalleled fury. They were also raised in regular lines along
the coast from Gal way to the Shannon, and from Cape Clear to
Waterford.
If we take all those towers which appear to have fallen at an
early date, and place them beside those we have classified as ap-
parently first built, it Trill be found that they belong to the churches
first and most persistently attacked by the Northmen in the ninth
century. The towers of Ardbrackan, Armagh, Louth, and Slane,
were the first to fall, and are the first alluded to in the Annals.
Erected possibly by men inexperienced in raising such lofty
buildings, their fall was probably due to some imperfection in
their construction or insecurity in their foundation. The three
last are situated exactly in those places which the Kings Malachy
or Flann would have been most likely to fortify in the first
instance. We have already alluded to the position held by Armagh
as the principal ecclesiastical city of Ireland, and it was probably
on this account that it was so persistently ravaged. The church
was attacked three times in one month in the year 832 by the
D, and the same invaders repeated their acts of desecra-
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 59
tion in the years 839, 850, 873, 876, 890, 893, 895, 898, 914, 919,
9-*6, 931, 943^ 995> ICI2 > IDl6 -
During the peace which ensued between the years 875 and
916, the same vigorous efforts were made to restore the churches
and monasteries of Ireland that we again read of in the beginning
of the eleventh century ; and the communication with France,
which had existed in the reign of Charlemagne, was continued in
the reign of Charles the Bald, at whose court Johannes Scotus
Erigena remained for some time. It is stated by Ware that in
the year 848 Malachy obtained a signal victory over the Danes,
" whereupon he sent ambassadors to Charles the Bale, king of
France, with presents, desiring liberty of passage to Rome.*" And
it would seem from the following passage in the Norman Chronicle
that the Franks were fully cognisant of the successful resistance
made by the Irish to their common enemy : " In the year 848,.
the Northmen lay waste and burnt Burdegala (i.e. Bordeaux \ in
Aquitania, captured through the treachery of the Jews. After-
wards Metullus, which hamlet they lay waste and give over to the
flames. The Scots breaking in upon the Northmen, by God's
help victorious, drive them forth from their borders. Whereupon
the King of the Scots sends, for the sake of peace and friendship,
legates to Charles, with gifts." Another proof of the existence of
such friendly relations between Ireland and France, may be found
in the epistle of Alcuin to Colchu, lector of Gonmacnois, when
the former was resident at the court of Charlemagne. It was
also in the reign of this great king that two learned Irishmen,
Clemens and Albinus, were placed at the head of schools, the one
in France, the other in Italy. In the ground plan of the Irish
monastery of St Gall in Switzerland, said to have been drawn by
Eginhard, secretary to Charlemagne, we find the detached cir-
cular belfries introduced, and standing opposite the west door,
which we hold were afterwards copied in Ireland.
When we investigate the history of Art in France during the
eighth and ninth centuries, we find that little now remains save
60 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
the mere debris of monuments belonging to this period, and that
such fragments are examples of a very rude art, being a sort of
compromise between Roman traditions and influences spreading
from the East through Ravenna. In the eighth century, Leo the
Third is said to have caused a great influx of artists into Italy
and France. Painters, sculptors, took refuge on the coast of
Italy and spread through the whole country. It was among these
emigrants that Charlemagne found the artists who were to assist
him in developing the renaissance he projected. The round
towers of San Giovanni Battista and Sant' Apollinare in Classe,
with others of the same character in Ravenna, as well as the
tower of St. Maurice at Epinal, St. Genevieve, St. Germain des
Pres, Aix-la-Chapelle, may all derive their origin from this influx
of Byzantine workmen into the north of Italy, and to the court of
Charlemagne, and the circular tower may be a reminiscence of
the Eastern cylindrical pillar. However this may be, we find
that it was immediately after this accession of Eastern influence in
France, as well as in consequence of certain impulses or necessi-
ties not springing from the religious sentiment, that the first
ecclesiastical towers were raised. M. Viollet-le-Duc has shown
vrhat was this external cause. He attributes it entirely to the
necessity felt by the Franks of that time to protect their churches
from the attacks of the heathen Northmen in the valleys of the
Loire and Seine, and on the north and west coasts of France; re-
marking that they defended their churches with towers, which were
naturally buik above the door of the church, as being the point
most liable to attack ; and he adds, that it is indeed in those
countries which were particularly ravaged by the periodical incur-
sions of the Northmen that we see abbatial, and even parochial
churches, preceded by massive towers, " of which, unfortunately,"
be says, " nothing but the lower stories are now left to us."
Ozanam, speaking of the Irish ecclesiastics of this period,
observes : " Une sorte de piet^ filiale les poussait de preference
vers ces Eglises des Gaules d'oii ils avaient regu PEvangile.''
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 61
This being so, strengthens the probability that the two Churches
simultaneously attacked by the armies of a common foe should
adopt a similar method of protection and defence. But it may
be argued, if the type was originally imported from France, why
are such detached church towers not :o L-e seen there still, when
they are so common in Ireland? The answer to that is, that the
Continental church towers of the Carlo vir.gian age have been
almost wholly destroyed, and generally replaced by towers of a
later and more beautiful type, while they have been left to stand
in Ireland. However, we may learn from the few examples of
this date remaining in France and Italy, that the first ecclesiastical
towers may be divided into two types : one developed from the
cupola, the other tall, slender, pointed. The nrst is never seen
in Ireland ; the second, when round, generally stands alone. On
the Continent, the tall church tower, whether round or square,
is also occasionally detached, as at Sant 7 Apollinaris in Classe, and
Pisa, but is generally at the corner of a lofty church, such as St.
Maurice and St. Genevieve. Only the oldest and simplest type of
such belfries ever reached Ireland and Scotland, and their singu-
larity does not consist in their form, but in their isolation. The
round tower with conical top was a common form in the earliest
periods of Christian architecture, and is often represented in early
bas-reliefs, illuminated MSS., and frescoes, and such is the form
of the watch-tower of the feudal abbey as well as castle. The
circular form seems to be the first chosen in all primitive buildings,
and the conical roof is the simplest covering for such that can be
erected. The churches of Ireland, being but the size of an
ordinary cottage of the present day, never could have supported
the weight of a tower of 100 ft. in height, and would always
seem out of proportion to it ; but when a watch-tower and keep
for the monastery became necessary, when war and rapine called
forth the symbol of pride and power in Irish Christian architecture,
the lofty stronghold, bearing its cross on high, was erected in the
cemetery, and opposite the doorway of the church.
62 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
These Irish round towers may be assigned to three distinct
periods : first, from A.D. 890 to 927 ; secondly, from 973 to 1013 \
thirdly, from 1170 to 1238; and of these three periods the first
two were marked by a cessation of hostilities with the Northmen,
while the Irish made energetic efforts to repair the mischief caused
by the invasions of the heathen. It is clear that these three
divisions are distinctly marked by three steps in the progressive
ascent of architecture from the primitive form of the entablature
to that of the Decorated Romanesque arch. The churches built
by Cormac O'Cillen are characterised by the horizontal lintel ;
the church of King Brian at Iniscaltra, which exhibits a partially
developed Romanesque doorway and chancel arch, while retain-
ing the rude form in its minor apertures, marks a period of
transition from the horizontal to the round-arched style; and the
buildings of Queen Dervorgilla and Turlough O'Conor, with the
doorway of Clonfert, show what the latter style became in the life-
time of Donough O'Carroll. If Lusk, Glendalough, Timahoe,
and Ardmore are taken as types of this gradation in the towers,
we see such signs of progress as lead to the belief that a certain
interval of time had intervened between the first and last-mentioned
of these erections.
There is another point which should not be passed unnoticed :
that in the towers belonging to the Romanesque period, such as
Ardmore, the apertures at the top are either larger or more
numerous than those of the earlier bell-houses, and the walls are
decorated with bands and mouldings. Such features may
suggest that when the attacks of the heathen on our sanctuaries
were at an end, although the tower was established as a feature
in Irish ecclesiastical architecture, the type had begun to undergo
such modifications as, in course of time, might develop into a
work of greater beauty. The campanile of Ireland was passing
through such transitions as seem to foretell the advent of a type
that would have added to its strength the charm of finely executed
ornament, and have lightened its blind walls in storied arches, and
BUILDING AXD ARCHITECTURE, 63
opened its bell-chamber so that its music, no longer imprisoned,
might sound forth, and the reserved, self-centred, and resistant
tower have broken its hard outline into forms of varying l;e,iuty
under the influence of peace.
" There is perhaps no question of early Christen archieslogy,"
writes Mr. Fergusson, " involved in so much obscurity as that of
the introduction and early use of towers." The difficulty of
clearing away such obscurities has arisen chiefly from the wan: of
monuments remaining on the Continent to show what were the
earliest types in Western Europe. The light that Ireland might
cast upon the subject has not yet made itself felt, because of the
uncertainty that has too long lingered about the history of her
towers. Dr. Petrie, by his investigations, brought their date down
from a pre-Christian time to a period ranging from the sixth to
the thirteenth century, and firmly established their ecclesiastical
character. Lord Dunraven traced the type from Ireland through
France to Ravenna, thereby proving it analogous to that of
buildings belonging to an historic period elsewhere. Bui he felt
the area was far too wide over which Dr. Petrie bad extended the
practice of erecting these structures, and was gradually arriving
at the conclusion that such masonry as they exhibit was not to be
found in Ireland before the ninth or tenth centuries, and that
her Decorated Romanesque churches belong to the eleventh and
twelith. Starting from the standpoint of these two archaeologists,
we have arrived at conclusions which it is hoped may give to
these towers their true place in history.
IRISH ROMANESQUE.
The introduction of Romanesque architecture Into England
is marked by the erection of Westminster Abbey by Edward the
Confessor, in 1066, portions of which original building may still
be seen in the Canons' Garden of the Abbey. Fifty years before
this date, the little church of St. Caimin of Iniscaltra was built
6 4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
by King Brian Boruma, and this building marks the transition
to the enriched round-arch style of Ireland. It appears that at
this period in England a primitive Romanesque style already
prevailed, which, though it has been termed Anglo-Saxon, was
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 65
of purely Italian origin. This early style modified the character
of that which in the reign of Edward the Confessor can:e as a
fresh importation from Normandy, and to this source rsay be
traced whatever distinctive features separate English Norman from
that of Normandy itself. In Ireland, as we learn from such build-
FIG . $7. DOO&Vv'AY OF KILMALKZDAR (I
ings as the churches of Maghera, Banagher, and Temple
a distinct style also prevailed at the time in which the Romanesque
of Normandy was introduced there. Rude as many of its exarcp'.es
are, this primitive architecture still had sufficient character and
vitality to modify the incoming Romanesque, and to live on,
manifesting itself, notwithstanding the fresh forms engrafted upon
PART II. F
6fi EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
it. The style in Ireland of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
is an Irish Romanesque style, and the peculiarities by which it is
distinguished are "native traditions handed down from earlier
native buildings," such as the primitive erections oi the fort-
builders and of the early Christian missionaries, characterised by
;^i^^'^
FIG. SS. DOORWAY OF WHITE ISLAND CHURCH.
the horizontal lintel or the entablature, a style to be seen in the
first buildings of all countries, and which may be classed as
belonging to the architecture of necessity. The Romanesque
churches of Ireland are remarkable for their diminutive size and
simple ground plan. They are characterised by the lingering
cf horizontal forms, and incorporation of such in the round-arch
style; the retention of the inclined jambs of the primitive
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
doorways ; their rich and delicate decoration, and the constant
use of certain ornamental designs, characteristic of tlie late Celtic
..'X,.
^Lpj,.
. ^r j -' -"' 3*-^:
/// J * i^^t.: ; -- ;
///'
FIG. 89. DOORWAY OF ST. FA&AXNAX's CHURCH.
period, which had been common to Britain and Ireland before the
Roman occupation of Britain. F 2
68 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
The arches or orders of the Irish doorways spring more
directly than do the Norman, from the sides or jambs, which in-
cline towards them from the base, the sides of these doorways
seeming to be a transition from the jambs and actual shafts of the
older square-headed doorway. The angular sides of the three
or four orders are rounded off and channelled into groups of
bowtels, with merely slight projections at the feet, scarcely to be
- ~
/
' "
FIG. 90.
MOULDING ON DOORWAY,
ST. FARANNAN'S CHURCH.
FIG. 91.
CAPITAL, RAHEN CHURCH.
termed bases ; and, instead of separate capitals to each, a single
entablature unites the whole, often terminating at the angles with
heads of a strikingly archaic character. This archaic character
is shown in the accompanying drawings of capitals from churches
of Clonaltm and Inchagoile on Lough Corrib. The capitals of
the early Irish Romanesque period are generally cushion or bell-
shaped, and their rounded surfaces are often decorated, as in the
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
69
example from Banagher Church, with the divergent spiral design
or trumpet pattern; and sometimes assume the more complex
forms resulting from the division of the bell by recesses into
separate lobes or leaves, like those of a rose or tulip.
The bases are remark-
ably shallow, and, indeed 3
scarcely deserving of the
name, where, in some in-
stances, they only serve
as a termination for the
groups of bowtels which
form the jambs. They
often consist of two rounds
and an intermediate
square or hollow, but
seldom stand forward on
a square projecting pe-
destal or plinth.
Where such do
occur, as at Kille-
shin, Clonmacnois,
and Rahen, they
show that beautiful
feature of leaves
connecting the
bulbous portions
with the square
plinths at the
angles.
Thus the round- FIG. 93. CLONALTIN.
arch doorways of this style are stamped with a distinctly native
character. It would seem as if the inclined sides of Maghera
doorway (Fig. 79), encrusted with ornament, so as to resemble a
page in one of the illuminated MSS. of the Celtic school, carved
FIG. 92. CLONALTIN.
$V
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
and wrought in stone, had been developed into the jambs of a
doorway of the later churches, and these jambs are either
angular, or channelled into bowtels with their angles rounded off.
Along the tops of these semi-columns, the entablature, from
which the arches spring, is continued so as to form a kind of
horizontal band connecting them in place of the rows of distinct
capitals in the Norman style. The expression of horizontal
extension is still the idea lingering in the mind of the Irish
architect, and stamping it with sufficient individuality to give it a
place as a distinct variety of primitive Romanesque. These
points are well illustrated
in the doorways of White
Island, and St. Farannan's
Church, Donaghmore.
The twelfth century
churches of Ireland are
often enriched both inter-
nally and externally by
arcades, such as are seen
in Kilmalchedar, King Cor-
mac's Chapel at Cashel,
Ardmore, and Ardfert. In
the arcade upon the face
of the west wall of Ard-
more, the arches spring from very slender shafts, with capitals
and bases, the panels being filled in with sculptured figures,
either one or two in each panel, carved in low relief. Here,
among other subjects introduced, are a warrior with his shouldered
knee, in the act of kneeling for the blessing of a bishop who
stands above him, the Judgment of Solomon, the Dedication of
the Temple, and the Temptation.
Pilaster buttresses are often seen at the corners of the east
and west ends of these churches, but in the most beautifully
finished examples, such as the small church at Ardfert, Mona
FIG. 94. CLONMACNOIS.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 7:
^ -.. x . "
72 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
Incha, and the chancel of Tomgraney, these give place to beaut*
fully proportioned columns, on which, in the first case mentioned,
an enriched cornice, which crowns the side walls of the church,
is seen to rest. These quoin shafts are three-quarter columns,
with moulded bases and carved capitals, and give a classic
character to the building.
FIG. 97. ARCADE, ARDMORE.
The love of incised mouldings, such as we find on the door-
way of Killeshin, which give the face of the stone an effect of
beautiful and delicate engraving, is another striking characteristic
of Irish architectural decoration, and such ornament is very
common throughout the country, in the borders and crosses of
the sepulchral slabs of the ninth and tenth centuries. Then, as
in the windows of Annadown and Rahen, borders of chevron,
bead, and even foliate patterns are carved in very low relief,
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
73
as exquisitely felt in their treatment as they are gracefully con-
ceived. The pages of Ireland's sacred writings in the early days
when illumination of MSS. was practised with success in this
country, are, as it were, the precursors of her decorated churches,
and all the designs of Celtic Art given by the pencil in them, are
carved by the chisel on her stone monuments.
We must now draw this sketch of the Arts of Christian Ireland
before the thirteenth century
to a conclusion. As we look
back upon the history and
gradual development of the
four branches of ecclesiastical
Art, which we have dealt with,
it appears that the art of illu-
mination was first in date and
most perfect in result. It
seems to have been carried
to its greatest excellence at
the close of the seventh and
beginning of the eighth cen-
tury. The character of the
ornament is not wholly of
native origin, but the use of
ornament, the fine judgment
displayed in its application,
the exhibition of taste, the knowledge of architectural design,
distinguish the Irish school from the Celtic work elsewhere. The
origin of the interlaced patterns may be sought in the early
remains of decoration, probably of the second and third centuries,
in the North of Italy and Southern Gaul. The spirals, 2 ; gzags,
and other designs belong to the primitive, pre-Christian Art of the
-country, and were gradually grafted on that style introduced from
abroad with Christianity.
As regards the age of the first examples of metal-work, in
FIG. 98. MOULDINGS, AGHA-GE.
74 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
ecclesiastical Art, we have no evidence except what may be
o-athered from the records of the Irish Annalists and the lives of
the saints, to prove that the goldsmith's art kept pace with that of
the illuminator. Such objects as shrines adorned with gold and
FIG. 99. CORMAC'S CHAPEL, CHANCEL (INTERIOR).
silver, costly chalices and reliquaries, were more likely to have
become the prey of the pagan invader than the books of the
monastery. Enough remains from the ninth century down to the
twelfth to show that a distinctly Irish school of arts in metal
existed, whose designs, while resembling those of the illuminator^
are quite separate in character from such examples of the
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
ewellefs art as were clearly imported from the C:>ntir:
hongh found in Ireland. For example, the chalice of Ari.:;
:ompletely Irish, while the phial found at Church-avails in
:ounty of Down is foreign.* Such crosiers as that of C'. jnrar.:
are essentially Irish, both in form and design, while thos;
Glendalough and of Cashel are Limoges work
FIG. 100. CORMACS CHAPEL
When we consider the remains of sculpture in Ireland, we find
even less evidence of any remarkable skill in this art among the
Irish before the ninth century, than in that of metal-work. The
Annalists do not refer to the High Crosses till the beginnirg or
the tenth century, and these are the first monuments on wh:c^
we find sculpture in relief, with undercutting. It wo-Id seem that
* See Ulster Journal of Arni.Hky t vol. :i. p. 192.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE.
^ft-%',0
**** s
FIG. 102. DOORWAY, CORMACS CHAPEL.
- 7 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
until the ninth century the designs upon the sepulchral slabs of
Ireland were incised upon the surface of the stone.
The form of the Irish cross being that of a Greek cross with
arms projecting outside the circle, and shaft elongated, is a
-curious combination of the Greek and Latin cross, and seems
symbolic of the whole subject of Irish ecclesiastical Art, which
from its very beginning shows Byzantine and Latin elements
commingled. So also in the iconography of Irish sculptured
monuments, we have seen how in the system of representation of
Biblical scenes, types and anti-types were drawn alternately from
the Byzantine and Latin guides, text-books, and Bibles of the
Poor.
Finally, as regards the history of the builder's art in Ireland,
of which we have only been enabled to offer a mere outline in
this work, we can only repeat that which we have stated else-
where, that the special interest of its study lies, not in that it
possessed any singular antiquity or beauty as compared with
works of ancient Art in other countries, but rather that owing to
many circumstances in the history of the country, the remains of
a great number of monuments belonging to the period between
the fifth and the twelfth centuries of the Christian era, have
survived, untouched by the hand either of the restorer or of the
destroyer; and that in them, when arranged in consecutive series,
we can trace the development from an early and rude beginning
to a very beautiful result, and watch the dovetailing, as it were, of
one style into another, till an Irish form of Romanesque archi-
tecture grew into perfection. The form of the Irish church
points to an original type that has almost disappeared elsewhere
that of the Shrine or Ark, not of the Basilica.
It has been the writer's object throughout this book, while
tracing the foreign influences by which the arts were modified in
this country, to accentuate its native peculiarities, and indicate
such qualities in the work as, if studied in reverence, might sub-
serve to a further development in the same lines. The revival of
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 79
a native school in architecture, sculpture, metal-work y and
painting is a matter of pure aspiration for any people who can
FIG. 103. EOOBAVAY, FRESKFOBJ&.
claim possession of such in the past. An Irish church cf the
future as it may be foreseen, is a lofty, ark-shaped building trits. a
singularly steep roof; the style is Irish Romanesque, a, round-
So EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
arched western doorway of five orders surmounted by a canopy*
enriched with sculpture, round-headed windows set in frames of
delicately incised mouldings. Pillars, plain or twisted, rise at the
corners of the building, and support a cornice running round the
summit of the walls from which gargoyles and sculptured heads
project Within, the repose of the solemn round-arched style is
rather enhanced than interfered with, by the modestly applied and
delicately felt ornaments that enrich the orders of the arches or
the surface of the walls. The mural painter may repeat the
arcades and follow the architectural compositions of the grand
pages of the Eusebian canons in the " Book of Kells," and fill the
spaces between their columns with scriptural subjects such as are
found in the panels of the High Crosses, while the furniture of the
church, the'books, the book-bindings, bells, shrines, and crosiers
might well repeat the delicate work of the Irish goldsmith of
antiquity, and the two-handled chalice on the altar be none the
less sacred because it preserved the chaste and lovely form that
has come down to us from the Irish church of the ninth century-
G. 104. MOULDING, TUAIM GREINE.
BUILDING AND ARCHITECTURE. 81
FIG. I0. ROSCREA (WEST EN'D.)
PART II.
82 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.
REFERENCES TO WORKS ON IRISH ARCHITECTURE.
Petrie, " Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland."
Wilkinson, " Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of
Ireland."
Dunraven, " Notes on Irish Architecture, with Photographs. "
Rev. James Graves and J. G. A. Prim, " History, Architecture,
and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of St. Canice, Kilkenny."
"Early Christian Architecture in Ireland." Bell & Son,
London.
Edward Freeman, "History of Architecture/' contains an
important chapter on Irish Romanesque.
Parker, Gentleman's Magazine, "Notes on Architecture of
Ireland/ 7 No. III.
James Fergusson, "History of Architecture."
Rev Dr. Russell, Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxvi. 1845.
J. H. Parker, in conjunction with 0. Jewitt. " Notes on the
Architecture of Ireland " (Gentleman's Magazine). Vol. xvii. of
a new series, Lon don, 1864, pp. n, 140, 276, 411, 418; pp. 134,
26 7, 403, 539, vol. ii.
"Die runden Thiirme in Irland," von Prof. Dr. W. von
Zehender, in Rostock, 1885.
Wakeman (William R), "Handbook of Irish Antiquities,
Pagan and Christian." Dublin, 1848.
Keller, " Mittheilungen." See "Antiq. Gesellschaft in Zurich,"
vii. 61-94. 1850.
Waagen, in " Deutschen Kunstblattj" i. 83.
Schnaase, "Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste," iv., abth. 2,
s. 456.
Bucher, "Geschichte der technischen Kiinste," i. 184.
" Inismurray and its Antiquities/' by W. F. Wakeman. Journal
R.H.A.A. of Ireland, vol. vii
INDEX.
PAGE
Abbondio, St., church of . .5
Abbotsford , 18
Abecedarium stone ... 4
Abernethy, round tower at . 56
Aed, Oissen, high cross of . 8
Aengus, Litany of 4
Aghadoe, mouldings in * 73
Albinus ..... 59
Alnmouth .... 9
Anderson, Dr., quoted . . II
Annadown church, window of . 72
Annalists . . . . 30, 57
Anthony and Paul the Theban,
legend of . . .10
Aranmore . . . 33 , 38
Ardfert, arcades in . . .70
Ardmore, arcades in . . .70
,, bell-house of -53
scriptural subjects in . 72
Aries 18
Athos, Mount . 10, 13
Augustine, St. . * . .5
Banagher . . . 46, 65
,, capitals m . . . 69
Basilica of Julia , , 4
Beehive houses . . . . 38
Bell -house of Desert Aengus . 52
Bestiaries . . . . n, 16
Bewcastle. ... 9
Biblia Pauperum . . . 1 1
Bobio Missal . . . - 13
Book of Ballymote . . .12
Book of HymnSj initials from . n
FAG*
Brechin, round icwsr at . .56
Brennus . ... 17
Brian Boruma . . , 64
churches builr cy 62
British coins , . . . i5
Britons, camps cf . .34
Building and architect-jre in
Ireland ..... 28
Burgundran library at Brussels . 2
Burial gro-onds . . . . 38
Byzantine artists in Italy and
France. . . 60
,, iconography . . 8
,, influence in Ireland . II
,, Painters' Guide, quoted
Caher Conn .... 2
Caimin's church . . .46
Capitals, archaic character cf . 69
, y hi Clonalda . . 69
Carthage ..... 4
Cashels ..... 38
Cecilia Metella, to^ib .^f . . 42
Cellach, stone of , .2
Chalice of Ardagh . 13, 75
Charlemagne . . . - 59
Charles the Baid . . 59
,, Irid embi5y to 59
Christian Ar: in Irelaad, conclusion 73
,, drama . . . II
iconography, stereotyped
subjects of . .17
Church, early type of, in Ireland 40
INDEX.
Classification of round towers . 5 1
Clemens 59
Cloghmore, in Down , . 29
Clonaltin church . .69
Clonmacnois . . . 2, 5, 60
Clover Hill ... - 32
Codex Maelbrighte . . .14
Collingham ... 9
Colman J
abbot of Clonmacnois,
high cross of . .8
Columba, church of, at Kells . 48
Commemorative crosses . . 7
Comparative mythology . . 3
Conaing Mulconry, poem of . 2
Cormac's chapel, arcades in
60, 76, 77
interior . 74, 7&
,, doorway of . 77
Cormac O'Cillen ... 44
churches built by 62
Corner shafts .... 7
Crosier of Cashel ... 75
Clonmacnois . . 75
Glendalough . .75
Cross, first instance of, on build-
ings . . . .40
Greek and Latin . . 78
Irish, form of . . , 78
Cuchulain. . . . .37
Curoi stone I
Cuthbert, St 9
Cyclopean masonry . -36
Dance of death . . . .24
Decorated Romanesque . . 62
Demetria 5
Dervila's church . . .46
Dervorgilla, buildings of . ,62
Development of arch, links in . 48
,, traces o in
masonry 48
DisertO'Dea .... 54
PAGH
32
28,31
37
, 62
. 69
. 30
33
33
37
37
37
37
37
37
. 16
. 18
27
of, 34,
57, 63
3
33
63,65
. 56
59
England, inscribed crosses of . 9
Enoch O'Gillan, poem of . .2
Epinal, round tower at . 54, 60
Evans, Mr. John, quoted . .17
Farannan's church, St. . . 67
,, doorways of 70
,, mouldings of 68
Faroe Islands, round tower in . 56
Ferguson, Samuel . .27
Fergusson, James, quoted . 42, 63
Finan, St., founder of Skellig
monastery . . 42
,, oratory . . .41
Finten's stone .... I
Flann Sinna .... 8
Formulae in Irish epitaphs. . 6
Forts, prehistoric . . 33, 38
Divergent spiral .
Dolmens ....
Donaghpatrick, church of .
Donough O'Carroll, church of
Doorways, native character of
Douth ....
Dun Aengus . .
,, Conor
,, Lughaidh .
,, Murvey Mil
,, of Aodh Finn .
,, ofConall .
of Cuchulain
,, of Fergus .
Dunfallandy, Perthshiie .
Dunkeld ....
Du Noyer, George .
Dunraven, Edwin, third Earl
44, 5 2 ;
Dysart, Westmeath .
Earth-houses .
Edward the Confessor
Egilsha, round tower at
Eginhard ,
INDEX.
PAGE
PAC-S
France and Ireland, friendly re-
Isidore . .
16
lations between . 59
Isle of Man .
. 9
Freiburg, in Breisgau . 13, 25
,, round tower in
. 56
Freshford 13
Friar's Island, Killaloe . 48
Joannes Scotus Erigena .
59
John, St., representations ol
1 S
Gallarus . . * . 39
,* Theoiogus
17
Gall, St. . . . . 13
Juvene Druides . .
* J
. I
bell-houses at -59
Gaul 4.6,7
Kells, high crosses of.
. 18
Gaulish coins . . . .16
Book of .
13
Gaulish monuments I
Kerry pillar stones .
32
Gauls 17
Kevin's, St., Glendalough
. 4S
Gernrode, round towei in . 54
Kilbennan
- 37
Gillachrist O'Tuahail . , 8
Kilcrony church
46
Giotto 16
Killeshin, "bases of .
. 69
Gleneask, Tyreragh, Co. Siigo . 31
incised, moulding
72
Greece . . 17
T^ 1 1 ] Y[? S3 tTff^^T
7
Kilmalchedar, arcades in .
/
. 70
Harris, island of * . . 24
,, church of .
4
Hartleoool Q
20
Hermer and Friule, tomb of . 7
Heimitages on mountain lakes . 42
Lancaster ....
- 9
High crosses . . . 8, 9
Latin influence in Ireland .
. ii
iconography of 9, 18
Leabhar Breac .
IS
list of ... 23
Leo III
. 60
of Clonmacnois . 7
7
Hissarlik 36
Lion cub legend
. 16
Lombardic sculpture .
. 9
Iconography, systems of . . 8, 9
Loughacmore .
29
Iniscaltra, church of . . 63, 64
Innisicurray, ground plan of
Maeslricht, round tower cf
- 54
monastery . 39
Maghera ....
49,6$
island of .5
chuich doorway .
49,69
Irish Art, compared with Scottish,
Makchy,!^ .
59
Anglo-Saxon . . 25
Malta, cave tombs of
3i
, ; Romanesque, characteristics
Marseilles, museum cf
4
of .70
Meigle ....
. iS
fl Jt churches 63, 66
Merthyr Tydvil
* 4
not derived from
Michael, mc^^steryo- Ske!!ig
42-44
basilica . 40
fc-underof 42
,, development of
*tvl# fifi TR
Milan ....
S^io
. 13
INDEX.
PAGE
Mona India, comer shafts in . 7 2
Moone abbey . . . .18
Mortuary chapels . . .40
Muireadach, abbot of Monaster-
boice, high cross of . . 8
New Grange . . . 30, 31
Nivelles, round tower in . - 54
Noah and the ark , 18
on cross of Kells . . 12
Norman Chronicle, quoted . 59
Normandy .... 65
Norse invasions, map of . 57
Northmen in France . . 60
,j Ireland 56-59
O'Duny, high cross of . . 8
Ogham character . . . 32
,, stones, date of . . i
Oissen, abbot of Cong, high
cross of 8
O'Neil 26
Oran, bell-house of . . 54
Oratories . . . .38
Origins of Irish Art . . .17
Orkney Islands, round towers in 56
Ozanam, quoted . . . 60
Pagan forts occupied by first
Christian missionaries . . 37
Panselinos, painter, of Mount
Athos 10
Patrick, St 37
Pavia, San Michele, in .24
Penally 4
Petrie, George, referred to 25, 26, 63
Phial found at Church-walls . 75
Philip II., of Macedon . . 17
Pickering, Yorkshire r .17
Pillar-stone 7
Pisa, Campo Santo . . .24
towers of . . . ,54
Ploabennec, Brittany, round
tower at ... 55
PAGE
Rahen churcn . . 68, 69, 72
Rath-hill, near Drogheda . . 29
Rathkenny , . . -30
Ravenna . 5, 10, iS, 54, 55, 60
Reeves, Dr., quoted . . 13, 14
Representations of Christ and the
apostles, directions for . . 14
Rhys, Mr., quoted i
Roman catacombs, formula . 6
,, iconography ... 8
pilgrims to Ireland . 4
Romanesque, primitive, in Eng-
land . . ,64
Rome 59
Round towers . . . 48-63
localities of . .58
of Ireland belong
to three periods . 62
represented in bas-
reliefs, illumina-
ted manuscripts,
and frescoes . 61
,. type not peculiar to
Ireland . . 54
Rusticus, St. , bishop of Narbonne 7
Ruthwell cross . . . 8, 10
Saa Giovanni Battista, Ravenna
55,60
Sant' Ambrogio ... 5
Sant' Apollinare in Ciasse . . 60
Sant 5 Eustorgio . . 5
Santa Helena, church of . .42
Scandinavian influence
Scheness, tower at, in Switzer-
land 54
Schliemann . . . . 36
Scotland 9
pillar-stones in, icono-
graphy of . . 23
round towers in . -54
Sculptured stones i
Saxon, Manx, and Welsh 25
INDEX.
J>AGB PAGE
Senach, St., ground plan of
| Towers, two types of
61
monastery ....
41 Transition church .
64
Sbandwick, Ross-shire . .
16
from dry wall ma-
Shetland Islands, round towers in
56
sonry to cemented
Slane, tower of.
52
walls, date of
44
Slieve-na-Calliaghe .
32
from &lse to true arcli
&
Speculum HumanaeSalvationis .
ii
from Pagan practices
Speculum Sancte \\ ariaVirginis .
II
to Christian, in-
Spiral, divergent
6 stances of .
$
Soroby
24 ,, in forms of ioer
432
St. Andrew's ....
18
sign of, in: Insh iocr-
St. Germain des Pres . 54,
60
ways .
6S
Staigue Fort ....
35 Trumpet pattern . . 6,
32
Stephens, Runic inscriptions
9 , Tully-druid ....
30
Stone churches with cement
44 Tumuli 29.
3
circles ,
30 Turlough O'Conor, high cress of
S
cist ....
32
buildiLgs of.
62
Strasburg, round towers in
54
i Urn burial
29
Telltoun
3 i
Temple Cronan ,
46 \ Vaenor, in Wales
6
Temple Martin . . .46,
65
i$
Tenenan, St
56 Venice, tower at ...
54
Tennyson, quoted . . .
24 Via Appia Xova, church of
5
Terminal crosses
7 : Vigean, St
18
Ternoc, son of Ciaran
7
Violiet-le-Duc, quoted *
60
Tiree, island of.
24
Trim hit nne fnrm of
4
Tomgraney, corner shafts .
72
Ware, quoted .
59
Torcello
5
Way of the Cross
42
Towers, alphabetical list of
52
W'estminster Abbey .
63
earliest types in Europe
63
White Island church
65
,, gradation of type .
62
doorway of
70
investigations of Dr.
Worms, round lower at .
54
Petrie
63
>f TinmaTifxinnp r prinrl
_
9
THE END.
F. M. EVANS AND CO., LIMITED, CRYSTAL PALACE, S.S.