8 - The design and decoration of Insular gospel-books and other liturgical manuscripts, c. 600 – c. 900

Summary

Gospel-books produced in Ireland, Britain and Insular centres on the Continent between about ad 600 and 900 constitute an important phase in the history of medieval book design. Often elaborately decorated and written in formal script, these impressive witnesses to the sacred and authoritative nature of Christ’s words and actions, were essential to every stage of Christian learning (see Plates 8.1–3). They supplied spiritual truth to those who studied them privately as well as to those who listened to a passage read daily from the altar during the service. When carried in church processions, they served as a tangible embodiment of the faith, especially for recent, probably illiterate, converts.

From the fourth to the seventh century a gradual process of conversion to Christianity introduced the peoples of Ireland and Britain to a comprehensive system of literacy and spawned the demand for books required to practise the liturgy. As a result, a large number of gospel-books must have been produced; most do not survive. One indication of how prolific such production might have been in Ireland is found in the Book of Armagh written in 807. Primarily a New Testament, the manuscript also contains a series of notes relating to St Patrick (that may have been displaced from a seventh-century text) including a list of books – among which are copies of the gospels – that Patrick dispersed to a notable fifty new churches.