Old English libraries; the making, collection and use of books during the middle ages

Dr Skene says the Psalter incident "bears the stamp of spurious tradition"; so does the Longarad story; but it is curious how often sacred books play a part in these tales.

[[1.14]]

Henderson, Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland, 5-6.

[[1.15]]

Moore, Hist. of Ireland, i. 266.

[[1.16]]

Healy, 379; Stokes (M.) 2, 118. Ergo quotidie jejunandum est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie laborandum, quotidie est legendum.

[[1.17]]

A ninth century catalogue of St. Gall mentions thirty-one volumes and pamphlets in the Irish tongue—Prof. Pflugk-Harttung, in R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 92. Becker names only thirty, p. 43. At Reichenau, a monastery near St. Gall, also famous for its library, there were "Irish education, manuscripts, and occasionally also Irish monks." "One of the most ancient monuments of the German tongue, the vocabulary of St. Gall, dating from about 780, is written in the Irish character."

[[1.18]]

D.C.B. sub nom.

[[1.19]]

Stokes (G. T.), 221.

[[1.20]]

Ib. 220.

[[1.21]]

Haddan, 267.

[[1.22]]

Hyde, 221.

[[1.23]]

Joyce, Short Hist of I., 165.

[[1.24]]

Bede, H. E., iii. 27; Healy, 101; Stokes (G. T.), 230.

[[1.25]]

Camb. Lit., i. 66.

[[1.26]]

Healy, 272.

[[1.27]]

Alcuin, Willibrord, c. 4.,

[[1.28]]

See full account, R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 75.

[[1.29]]

Sandys, i. 480.

[[1.30]]

R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 90.

[[1.31]]

Sandys, i. 480; Stokes (M.)2, 210.

[[1.32]]

"Sancte Columba tibi Scotto tuns incola Dungal
Tradidit hunc librum, quo fratrum corda beentur.
Qui leges ergo Deus pretium sit muneris, org."—Healy, 392.

[[1.33]]

Stokes (M.)2, 206-7, 247.

[[1.34]]

Sandys, i. 463.

[[1.35]]

Moore, Hist. of I., i. 299; Boll. Iul. t. vii. 222.

[[1.36]]

The following, among others, are still on the Continent: Gospels of Willibrord (Bibl. Nat. Lat. 9389, 739), Gospel of St. John (Cod. 60 St. Gall c. 750-800); Book of Fragments (No. 1395, St. Gall, c. 750-800); The Golden Gospels (Royal library, Stockholm, 871); Gospels of St. Arnoul, Metz (Nuremberg Museum, 7th c.).—Cp. Maclean, 207-8; Hyde, 267.

[[1.37]]

Adamnan, 365n.

[[1.38]]

Hyde, 220; Stokes (M.), 10, "Connachtach, an Abbot of Iona who died in 802, is called in the Irish annals `a scribe most choice.' "—Trenholme, Iona, 32.

[[1.39]]

Tech-screptra; domus scripturarum.

[[1.40]]

Leabhar coimedach. Adamnan, 359, note m.

[[1.41]]

Joyce, i. 483

[[1.42]]

At vero hoc audiens Colcius tempus et horan in tabula describers.— Adamnan, 66. Columba is said to have blessed one hundred pólaires or tablets (Leabhar Breac, fo. 16-60; Stokes (M.), 51). The boy Benen, who followed Patrick, bore tablets on his back (folaire, corrupt for pólaire).—Stokes (W.), T. L., 47. Patrick gave to Fiacc a case containing a tablet. Ib. 344. An example of a waxed tablet, with a case for it, is in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The case is a wooden cover, divided into hollowed-out compartments for holding the styles. This specimen dates from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Slates and pencils were also in use for temporary purposes.—Joyce, i. 483.

[[1.43]]

See Thompson, 236, where Irish calligraphy is fully dealt with; Camb. Lit., i, 13.

[[1.44]]

Trans. R. I. Acad., vol. xviii. 1838,

[[1.45]]

Stokes (W.), T. L., 75. The terms used for satchels are sacculi (Lat.), and tiag, or tiag liubhair or teig liubair (Ir.). There has been some confusion between pólaire and tiag, the former being regarded as a leather case for a single book, the latter a satchel for several books. This distinction is made in connection with the ancient Irish life of Columba, which is therefore made to read that the saint used to make cases and satchels for books (pólaire ocus tiaga), v. Adamnan, I l 5. Cf. Petrie, Round Towers, 336-7. But the late Dr. Whitley Stokes makes pólaire or pölire, or the corruption folaire, derive from pugillares = writing tablets.—Stokes (W.), T. L., cliii. and 655. This interpretation of the word gives us the much more likely reading that Columba made tablets, and satchels for books.

[[1.46]]

Stokes (M.), 50.

[[1.47]]

Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, 66.

[[1.48]]

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

[[1.49]]

Leborchometa chethrochori, and bibliothecae qruadratae.—Stokes (W.), T. L., 96 and 313.

[[1.50]]

Stokes (M.), 90.

[[1.51]]

Stokes (M.), 92-3.

[[1.52]]

See La Bibliofilia, xi. 165.

[[1.53]]

Acta SS. Ap., iii. 581c.

[[1.54]]

Healy, 524.

[[1.55]]

Other instances are cited in Adamnan, book ii., chap 8.

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