Old English Libraries | Page 8

Ernest A. Savage
note on the
Continent. One, Dicuil, was an exponent of geography. He founded his
treatise (c. 825) on Caesar, Pliny, and Solinus; he quotes and names
many other writers, including fourteen Greek; and generally impresses
us with his earnest studentship. An Irish monk named Donatus
wandered to Italy and became bishop of Fiesole (c. 829); he, too, was a

scholar acquainted with Virgil, a teacher of grammar and prosody, and
a lecturer on the saints.[1] Sedulius, the commentator, an Irish monk of
Liege, copied Greek psalters, wrote Latin verses, knew Cicero's letters,
the works of Valerius Maximus, Vegetius, Origen, and Jerome; was
well acquainted with mythology and history, and perhaps had some
Hebrew.[2] Another Irishman, John the Scot (Joannes Scotus Erigena),
became the most eminent scholar of his time: he alone, among all the
learned men Charles the Bald had about him, was able to translate from
Greek (c. 858-860). Well might Eric of Auxerre, writing to Charles,
express his astonishment at this train of philosophers from Ireland, that
barbarous land on the confines of the world.[3] All these wanderers,
and many more, must have been responsible for the dissemination of
the books produced by Irish hands; and, in fact, many manuscripts of
Celtic origin and early in date, are still on the Continent, or have been
found there and brought to Ireland.[4]
[1] Stokes (M.)2, 206-7, 247.
[2] Sandys, i. 463.
[3] Moore, Hist. of I., i. 299; Boll. Iul. t. vii. 222.
[45] 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.
In some respects the evidence of book-culture in Ireland in these early
centuries is inconsistent. The jealous guard Longarad kept over his
books, the quarrel over Columba's Psalter, and the great esteem in
which scribes were held,[1] suggest a scarcity of books. The practice of
enshrining them in cumdachs, or book-covers, points to a like
conclusion. On the other hand, Bede tells us the Irish could lend foreign
students books, so plentiful were they. His statement is corroborated by
the number of scribes whose deaths have been recorded by the annalists,
the Four Masters, for example, note sixty-one eminent scribes before
the year 900, forty of whom belong to the eighth century.[17] In some
of the monasteries a special room for books was provided. The Annals
of Tigernach refer to the house of manuscripts.[3] An apartment of this
kind is particularly mentioned as being saved from the flames when

Armagh monastery was burned (1020). Another fact suggesting an
abundance of books was the appointment of a librarian, which
sometimes took place.[4] Although a special book-room and officer are
only to be met with much later than the best age of Irish monachism,
yet we may reasonably assume them to be the natural culmination of an
old and established practice of making and using books.
[1] Adamnan, 365n.
[2] 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.
[3] Tech-screptra; domus scripturarum.
[4] Leabhar coimedach. Adamnan, 359, note m.
Such statements, however, are not necessarily contradictory.
Manuscripts over which the cleverest scribes and illuminators had
spent much time and pains would be jealously preserved in cases or
shrines; still, when we remember how many precious fruits of the past
must have perished, the number of beautiful Irish manuscripts extant
goes to prove that books even of this character could not have been
extraordinarily rare. "Workaday" copies of books would be made as
well, in comparatively large numbers, and would no doubt be used very
freely. Besides books properly so called, the religious used waxed
tablets of wood, which were sometimes called books. St. Ciaran, for
example, wrote on staves, which are called in one place his tablets, and
in two other places the whole collection of his staves is called a book.[1]
Such tablets were indeed books in which the fugitive pieces of the time
were written.[2] Considering all things, Bede was without doubt quite
correct in saying the Irish had enough books to lend to foreign students.
[1] Joyce, i. 483
[2] At vero hoc audiens Colcius tempus et horan in tabula
describers.--Adamnan, 66. Columba is said to have blessed one
hundred polaires or tablets (Leabhar Breac, fo. 16-60; Stokes (M.), 51).
The boy Benen, who followed Patrick, bore tablets on his back (folaire,
corrupt for polaire).--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,
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