This interdisciplinary collection, which brings together new research on a range of patristic and medieval texts and visual materials, sets the cultural transformation of early medieval Ireland and Britain in the context of these islands inheritance from late antiquity and their engagement with the wider medieval world. It testifies to the imaginative ways in which scholars and artists assimilated and creatively re-interpreted the Christian and Mediterranean culture they encountered through the coming of Christianity, a central theme in the work of Dr. Jennifer O'Reilly, whose contribution to scholarship the volume honours.
The first section, "Inheritance and Transmission" sets the scene with contributions examining the interplay of classical and Christian ideas in late antique texts; early medieval Irish, English and continental responses to patristic themes in text and manuscript; cultural and political links between Ireland, Britain, and the continent.
The second section, "Monasticism in the Age of Bede" focuses initially on Bede as heresiologist, exegete, martyrologist, and historian, addressing issues that include orthodoxy, the cult of saints, church reform, and the representation of women. The section's later papers continue these themes: Anglo-Saxon views of conception and birth, the Irish and English cult of St. Gregory the Great, and the understanding of scripture in Adomnán's "Life of Columba".
The third section, "Exegesis and the Language of Pictures", explores the visual representation of scriptural exegesis in Insular sculpture and illuminated manuscripts. Papers investigate representations of secular and sacred figures in art, ideals of beauty, and the meaning and symbolism of artworks including the Ruthwell cross and the Book of Kells.
Author(s): Elizabeth Mullins, Diarmuid Scully (eds.)
Publisher: Cork University Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: L+460
List of Illustrations x
Introduction / Elizabeth Mullins and Diarmuid Scully xv
List of Abbreviations xxii
List of Contributors xxiii
INHERITANCE AND TRANSMISSION
"Proud Ocean Has Become a Servant": A Classical Topos in the Literature of Britain's Conquest and Conversion / DIARMUID SCULLY 3
Proserpina and the Martyrs: Pagan and Christian in Claudian's "De Raptu Proserpinae" / CATHERINE WARE 16
Martianus Capella and the Carolingians: Some Observations Based on the Glosses on Books I–II from the Oldest Gloss Tradition on "De nuptiis" / SINÉAD O'SULLIVAN 28
"In the Nets or on the Line": A Datable Merovingian Manuscript and Its Importance / DAVID GANZ 39
A Gemmarium for the Recognition of Precious Stones in the Cracow Chapter Library, MS 140: A Study on the Unity of Exegetical Themes / MAŁGORZATA KRASNODĘBSKA-D’AUGHTON 47
"Wide-Reaching Connections": The List of Abbots from Iona in the "Liber confraternitatum ecclesiae S. Petri" in Salzburg / DAGMAR Ó RIAIN-RAEDEL 60
"Whence the Splendour of such Light Came to Us": The Account of Ireland in Ermenrich's Life of St. Gall / DAMIAN BRACKEN 73
Thomas Becket and Ireland / COLMÁN Ó CLABAIGH OSB and MICHAEL STAUNTON 87
MONASTICISM IN THE AGE OF BEDE
Hunting Snakes in the Grass: Bede as Heresiologist / ARTHUR HOLDER 105
The Figure of Ezra in the Writings of Bede and the Codex Amiatinus / SCOTT DEGREGORIO 115
Bede and His Martyrology / ALAN THACKER 126
The Adornment of Virgins: Æthelthryth and Her Necklaces / MÁIRÍN MACCARRON 142
From Conception to Birth in Anglo-Saxon England / ELISABETH OKASHA 156
Doctor of Souls, Doctor of the Body: Whitby "Vita Gregorii" 23 and Its Exegetical Context / BRIAN BUTLER 168
The Representation of Gregory the Great in Irish Sources of the Pre-Viking Era / MÁIRE HERBERT 181
Seeking the Desert in Adomnán's "Vita Columbae" / AIDAN MACDONALD 191
Singing in the Rain on Hinba? Archaeology and Liturgical Fictions, Ancient and Modern (Adomnán, "Vita Columbae" 3.17) / ÉAMONN Ó CARRAGÁIN and TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN 204
EXEGESIS AND THE LANGUAGE OF PICTURES
Markers of Prestige, Emblems of "Amicitia": Attributes of Secular "Portrait" Figures in Insular Sculpture / CAROL NEUMAN DE VEGVAR 219
The Road to Hell: The Art of Damnation in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture / JANE HAWKES 230
"In Medio Duorum Animalium": Habakkuk, the Ruthwell Cross and Bede's Life of St Cuthbert / RICHARD N. BAILEY 243
"The Eyes of the Handmaid": The Corbie Psalter and the Ruthwell Cross / HEATHER PULLIAM 253
Cherubim and Seraphim in Insular Literature and Art / GEORGE HENDERSON 263
Bearded Sages and Beautiful Boys: Insular and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes to the Iconography of the Beard / MICHELLE P. BROWN 278
Cosmological and Eschatological Images in the Book of Kells: Folios 32v and 114r / CAROL FARR 291
The Canon Tables in Boulogne, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 10 / ELIZABETH MULLINS 302
Notes and References 313
Bibliography 399
Index 447
