Now that the recent find of more than 400 waxed writing tablets from Roman London has been published,¹  it is an appropriate time to turn our attention to the evidence of writing culture in early  Medieval Ireland.

Writing was an important part of monastic life.  The biographies of many holy figures include direct or incidental reference to writing and copying sacred texts.  Adomnán of Iona recorded several episodes when the monastery’s founder, Columba, performed scribal tasks, including copying the famous Cathach Psalter.  Increased prestige and sanctity was conferred on our project manuscript, the Book of Dimma, through a spurious claim that the scribe of Saint Crónán copied the text at the request of the saint (see previous post).  Similarly, the colophon in the Book of Mulling  (see previous post) names the scribe of that text as Mulling who came to be identified as St. Molling (see previous post).  It was meaningful for a holy text to have been inscribed by a saint; equally, the act itself of copying scripture acquired devotional qualities.

Learning to write was a skill most likely taught at a monastic scriptorium.  From Irish accounts of the lives of saints, we know that new scribes were trained to write by copying the handwriting of their teachers.  The beginning text from which most novice writers learned to form letters was that object of daily devotion, the   Psalter.²

Continue reading Tools of the Trade – Writing in Early Medieval Ireland →