- s. vii2/s. viii (?)
Through a detailed exploration of decorated folios within the seventh-century Book of Durrow and a discussion of relevant liturgical literature and referential artistic material from the early medieval period, this article constructs a framework for conceptualizing how early Insular artist-scribes created and understood biblical manuscript illumination. The multifaceted nature of studying and copying liturgical texts directly reflected the popular concepts of memoria and meditatio, committing knowledge to the mind and gaining a spiritual transcendence from the transformative powers of the Word itself. The unification of text and image as exegetical literary device in the Book of Durrow reflected mnemonic and allegoric conventions that stemmed from British, Frankish, and Byzantine traditions proliferated in Ireland via the Columban monastic network. Far from being mere textual decorations, elaborately interlaced carpet pages, stylized initial lettering, and zoo-anthropomorphic motifs echoed emerging theological understanding of spiritual consciousness and demonstrated Irish monastic facility in adapting cross-cultural artistic influences.
So-called ‘Rosenthal fragment’ (1 folio) of the Old Latin Gospel of Luke, 16:27-17:26, written in Insular/Irish half-uncial. It represents VL 44 in Bouron's numbering system.
- s. viii2
Manuscript of the Epistles of St Paul, written by an Irish scribe, presumably in Northumbria. It belongs with four leaves of BL, MS Cotton Vitellius C vii.
- s. viii
- Anonymous [hand of CTC B.10.5]
Welsh law-book, Tr of the Blegywryd redaction of the Welsh laws (Cyfraith Hywel)
- s. xivin
- Gwilym Was Da
- s. xv
- Donnchadh mac Mátha Mac Cruitín