Opening the text
Celtic art in Pagan and Christian times

John Stuart Mill · en
The most important collections of Irish and Hiberno-Saxon MSS. in
this country are in the libraries of Trinity College, Dublin; of the
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; and the British Museum, London. There
are other smaller collections, or in some cases single volumes only,
in the University and College libraries of Oxford and Cambridge; in
the Cathedral libraries at Durham, Lichfield, and Hereford; and in
the Archiepiscopal library at Lambeth. The chief libraries on the
Continent which are fortunate enough to possess specimens of Irish
calligraphy and illumination (either acquired by purchase or still the
property of monasteries originally founded by Irish missionaries) are
at Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Paris, St. Gall and Basle in Switzerland,
and at Nuremberg, Fulda, and Trèves in Germany. The Irish MSS. from the
monastery founded by St. Columbanus in A.D. 613 at Bobio, in Piedmont,
are distributed over the libraries at Milan, Turin, and Naples.
For descriptions and illustrations of these MSS. the reader may be
referred to Prof. J. O. Westwood’s _Palæographia Pictoria Sacra_ and
_Miniatures of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS._; C. Purton Cooper’s
_Report on Rymer’s Fœdera, Appendix A_, Sir H. James’ _Facsimiles of
the National MSS. of Ireland_; _Publications of the Palæographical
Society_; Miss Margaret Stokes’ _Early Christian Art in Ireland_; Dr.
J. Stuart’s _Book of Deer_, published by the Spalding Club of Aberdeen;
J. A. Bruun’s _Illuminated Manuscripts of the Middle Ages_; and Dr. W.
Reeve’s paper on “Early Irish Calligraphy” in the _Ulster Journal of
Archæology_, vol. viii., p. 210.

The following is a list of Irish MSS. selected on account of the beauty
of their illuminated pages:—

                          GOSPELS
    Book of Lindisfarne            British Museum (Nero D. iv.).
    Book of Kells                  Trinity College, Dublin.
    Book of Durrow                 _Ibid._
    Book of Armagh                 Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
    Book of St. Chad               Lichfield.
    Book of MacRegol               Bodleian, Oxford.
    Book of MacDurnan              Lambeth.
    Book of Deer                   Public Library, Cambridge.
    Codex No. 51                   St. Gall, Switzerland.
    Golden Gospels                 Royal Library, Stockholm.
    Gospels                        Imperial Library, St. Petersburg.
    Gospels of St. Arnoul, Metz    Nuremberg.

                          PSALTERS
    Vespasian A. i.                British Museum.
    Vitellius F. xi.               _Ibid._
    Psalter of St. John’s College  Cambridge.
    Psalter of Ricemarchus         Trinity College, Dublin.