Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 From Vindolanda to Domesday: the book in Britain from the Romans to the Normans
- PART I THE MAKING OF BOOKS
- PART II THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS
- PART III TYPES OF BOOKS AND THEIR USES
- PART IV COLLECTIONS OF BOOKS
- 27 Patrick, apostle of the Irish
- 28 The library of Iona at the time of Adomnán
- 29 Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England
- 30 Aldhelm’s library
- 31 The library of the Venerable Bede
- 32 The library of Alcuin’s York
- 33 The library of Cynewulf
- 34 King Alfred and his circle
- 35 Ælfric’s library
- 36 The library of Byrhtferth
- 37 The library of Wulfstan of York
- 38 Rhygyfarch ap Sulien and Ieuan ap Sulien
- PART V CODA
- Bibliography
- Concordance of named manuscripts
- Index of manuscripts
- General Index
- Plate 4.1: The Lindisfarne Gospels"
- Plate 5.1: The Lichfield/St Chad Gospels"
27 - Patrick, apostle of the Irish
from PART IV - COLLECTIONS OF BOOKS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- 1 From Vindolanda to Domesday: the book in Britain from the Romans to the Normans
- PART I THE MAKING OF BOOKS
- PART II THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS
- PART III TYPES OF BOOKS AND THEIR USES
- PART IV COLLECTIONS OF BOOKS
- 27 Patrick, apostle of the Irish
- 28 The library of Iona at the time of Adomnán
- 29 Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England
- 30 Aldhelm’s library
- 31 The library of the Venerable Bede
- 32 The library of Alcuin’s York
- 33 The library of Cynewulf
- 34 King Alfred and his circle
- 35 Ælfric’s library
- 36 The library of Byrhtferth
- 37 The library of Wulfstan of York
- 38 Rhygyfarch ap Sulien and Ieuan ap Sulien
- PART V CODA
- Bibliography
- Concordance of named manuscripts
- Index of manuscripts
- General Index
- Plate 4.1: The Lindisfarne Gospels"
- Plate 5.1: The Lichfield/St Chad Gospels"
Summary
Two authentic works have survived to the modern era, an Epistola ad milites Corotici, ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’, in which Patrick excommunicates a post-Roman British tyrant who had murdered some Christian catechumens and sold others into slavery, and a Confessio, ‘Confession’, in which Patrick explains himself to those whom he had converted in Ireland and justifies his mission to those who had opposed it in Britain. The letters survive in eight manuscripts: the earliest giving an abridged text copied at the beginning of the ninth century in Armagh; a second during the tenth century, perhaps in the diocese of Soissons; a third about the year 1000 at Worcester; a fourth during the eleventh century, owned if not written at Jumièges; three during the twelfth century in northern France and in England; and one during the seventeenth century. As among these eight manuscripts seven are independent of each other, the text of the letters is fairly secure. In these compositions Patrick describes his fatherland as Brittanniae ‘the Britains’ and neighbouring regions as Galliae ‘the Gauls’, and he refers incidentally to coinage, solidi and scriptulae, implying that he was born while Roman administration still functioned in a Britain divided into several provinces, perhaps about ad 390, certainly before 410. He states that he was born into a family of landowners, slaveholders, civil servants and churchmen.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain , pp. 563 - 569Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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