28 - The library of Iona at the time of Adomnán

Summary

Introduction

The monastery of Iona, situated just off the north-west coast of Britain, was founded by Columba (521 – 9 June 597) sometime in the latter half of the sixth century. However, most of our knowledge about the monastery comes from the end of the seventh century, during the abbacy of Adomnán (679–704). From Adomnán’s pen we have two works, the Vita sancti Columbae and the De locis sanctis (both, as internal evidence shows, written while he was abbot), and these constitute the principal sources of our information about Iona. Our third source is Bede, whose information in his abbreviation of Adomnán’s De locis sanctis (probably written early in the eighth century), and in the fifth book of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (finished in 731), relates to the same period, Adomnán’s abbacy. Since no library list from Iona has survived, and the only extant manuscript that can be linked with certainty to the island is a copy of the Vita sancti Columbae, it is on the basis of the texts quoted in Adomnán’s two books (Bede’s information about the island and Adomnán adds nothing here) that we must reconstruct the contents of the island’s library. Over the years several famous illuminated biblical manuscripts have been linked with Iona, usually on the basis of their decorative style; but even if there were conclusive proof of their connection with Iona, this would add nothing to our knowledge of its library resources, as it is obvious that the community possessed copies of the New Testament in Latin.