About pangur's bookshelf

What is Pangur's Bookshelf?

Pangur's Bookshelf was originally called "Insular Bookshelf" and was created by Polly Smith in 2010 as part of the Master's program of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, in Illinois. This site is intended for personal study; it has no commercial purpose and is not funded by advertising.
Contact Polly at pangursbookshelf@gmail.com with questions or comments. 
Please see copyright information below.

Polly Smith was a volunteer at Chicago's Newberry Library (Archives & Special Collections) for several years and is now a working librarian. This site has been expanded and developed as a personal interest.

This site is about insular books--what does "insular" mean?

Insular means "of or relating to an island" or more generally "isolated or remote". In respect to medieval history, it refers to a tradition that was centered in the monasteries of Ireland, Scotland and Northern England in the early medieval period--from the beginning of Christianity (around 450 CE) to the beginning of Norman/English rule in Ireland in the 1100s.

The earliest Christians in Ireland sought a hermitic existence and some of the first monastic settlements were little more than a collection of beehive-shaped huts in remote areas--definitely insular! Later, whole communities formed around monasteries, but they were still relatively isolated centers of learning and worship that functioned outside of Roman rule.

Ironically, these insular monks would come to have a far-reaching impact on medieval culture, founding dozens of monasteries across Europe.

What kind of books did Irish monks create?

Most are books of the church--these include Gospel books (like the books of Lindisfarne, Kells and Durrow) and books of Psalms (called psalters--like The Cathach or Faddan More). These books also often contain commentaries and letters, translations into Irish or Old English, prayers, lives of the saints, etc.

Some books are small and were likely intended for personal use, such as the Book of Armagh which is about the size of a modern-day paperback. Some books were very large, such as the Book of Kells. These books would have been the prized possession of a monastery and were treated like sacred relics; they were so beautiful and brightly colored that monks and pilgrims would have felt blessed just to look upon them.

The Irish monks were unique in that they also copied and preserved the myths of the pre-Christians: cycles of stories about great warriors like Cuchulainn (pronounced "Coo-Hoolan"), Queen Maeve, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Finn mac Cool and the goddess Morrigan. The Ulster Cycle includes the story of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). The oldest surviving version of this story is found in the Book of Dun Cow.

Another type of book are called Annals, which include church calendars and records of historical events. These are later books, generally written after 1400 and are not covered on this site. They are important, however, because the dates and places they list (for instance, the death date of a scribe or the location of a Viking raid) provide important information about some early manuscripts.

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What was life like for the monks who created these books?

The life of a monastic scribe was a difficult one; the work was tedious and painful. The scriptorium was cold (candles were used only sparingly for fear of fire) and each monk sat at a desk on a stool with no back. He would be copying from an exemplar: a (hopefully) error-free version of the text, from the permanent collection or borrowed from a neighboring monastery.

Sometimes it's possible to tell if a manuscript was the work of a single scribe (such as the Lindisfarne Gospels) or several--the Book of Kells had as many as four. In the case of the earliest insular manuscripts, a single scribe might have worked alone in his little beehive hut, but in later years (even in cases where the script appears to be in a single hand) it would have taken the combined efforts of many to create a book.
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A scribe might have designed the lay-out, ruled the pages and written the text, while a specialized illuminator created elaborate initials and decorative introductory pages. Parchment makers would soak, scrape and stretch calf or sheep skins that binders would cut and form into folded sections of the book, called quires. Metal or woodworkers might have created gem-encrusted covers, or built a cumdach (shrine) to hold the book. The abbot may have acted as proofreader. Even years after the book was produced, another scribe might add translations or commentary in the margins or between the lines of text. These are called glosses--from which we get the word glossary.

Why aren't these books called Celtic?

The word "celtic" has become synonymous with Irish, but Celtic culture began in Scandinavia and by 400 BCE had spread through the British Isles, Germany, France, Spain and Turkey.

The Celts in Ireland were pagans-- they worshipped gods, goddesses and spirits of nature.
They had a strong oral tradition; their stories celebrated heroic battles and passionate love triangles. Their stone and metal work featured intricate patterns of spirals, knots, and images of animals . The names of their dead were carved on grave markers with an alphabet of lines and symbols called ogham.

When Christianity took hold around 450 CE, many of the converts would have already been trained as druid priests or bards--keepers of the oral tradition. It is natural that the pagan-Celtic mythology and craft helped form a unique hybrid of traditions. In addition to psalters and Gospels, the monks copied the ancient myths and stories and decorated their manuscripts with ancient motifs of Celtic design. This Celtic form of Christianity existed outside of the influence of Rome for hundreds of years.

Everyone's heard of the Book of Kells...these other books not so much. Why is it so famous?

The reason the Book of Kells is so famous is because it (almost) stands alone in terms of the quality and intricacy of its illumination. The fanciful decorations and abstract designs are so detailed that it is hard to imagine that they were done without the use of a magnifying lens. Also, the sheer extravagance of the materials used to produce it are impressive. Several hundred calves would have been needed for enough high quality vellum, and the pigments used in making inks came from Mediterranean plants and insects. Some might argue, however, that the Lindisfarne Gospels are equally beautiful, and equally important.

The Book of Kells is particularly significant because it contains the earliest depiction of Mary and baby Jesus in a Western manuscript.

Got a question? Email us and we'll do our best to answer it!

how about a 2-minute
irish history lesson?

When Christianity came to Ireland--around 450 CE--missionaries like St. Patrick and St. Columba established communities of followers. These early monastic settlements were little more than some beehive-shaped dwellings and a small stone church. Starting in 795 these settlements (and the communities that grew up around them) were under continuous attack by Vikings. By 850 the Vikings had formed permanent settlements along the coast of Ireland and founded the city of Dublin.

Early Ireland was made up of many small kingdoms called tuatha led by warrior chieftans. The early clans were constantly at war--with Vikings and with one another. There was not a true King of Ireland until Brian Boru ended the dominance of the Ui Neill clan in 1002. The Vikings were finally driven out in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf, where Brian Boru died leading the Irish forces and their allies. Ireland once again fell to feuding regional kings. One of the local kings invited the help of the Normans in regaining rule; Norman forces landed in Wexford in 1169.

Also in 1169 the Synod of Cashel (a conference of bishops) brought the Irish church more strongly under the governance of Rome, abandoning the Celtic-influenced local liturgies for English ones. Rome also established a system of dioceses, in closer line with the administrative structure of the larger church than the earlier system of independent abbeys.

In 1172, King Henry II of England invaded in force at Waterford and took Dublin. Struggles between local Irish lords and Anglo-Norman forces continued for several centuries, until the English took official control of Ireland and its church in the 16th century.

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All written content on this site is the work of Polly Smith and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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