CENTRES OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN IRISH MONASTERIES

In an Irish monastic school, as in the case of every other school, the most important centre of intellectual life was the class-room. Unlike our modern schools, however, these schools had to produce their own text-books. This work was carried on in a special room called the scriptorium. The work of the scriptorium was not limited to the production of text-books. Often valuable books of more permanent interest were written in the scriptorium and stored for reference in a special room, the library. In this way copies of many of the most treasured books of antiquity have been preserved for posterity. Indeed the educational work of the scriptorium and the library was scarcely less important than that of the class-room, or school proper. These three centres of intellectual life were closely related to each other, but each is sufficiently important to warrant a separate treatment.

THE SCHOOL:

In the last chapter we stated that the aim of the monastic school was frankly religious. In our next chapter we hope to prove that in practice this did not necessarily mean a narrow curriculum. Here we shall briefly state that the particulars we have been able to glean on a miscellaneous collection of topics are of some interest to the educationist. The data are so few on each topic that the treatment is necessarily somewhat disconnected. In general these topics refer to school age, accommodation of students, school buildings, methods of teaching and pedagogical principles so far as they are revealed in the meagre materials to hand.

Seven years was the age at which it was thought schooling should begin.[259] We do not know exactly what provision was made for young boys of this tender age, but we know that in case of the older students a few resided in the school itself, so it is possible that the younger children also resided in the school or in the houses of the teachers. Many of the students lived in the houses of people in the neighbourhood of the school, but the majority lived in huts which they built for themselves near the school. Where the school was a large one these huts were arranged in streets.[260] The poorer students lived in houses with the richer ones whom they waited upon and served, receiving in return food, clothing, and other necessities. Some even chose to live in this matter, not through poverty but through a self-imposed penance.[261]

There were no spacious lecture halls; the master taught and lectured and the pupils studied very much in the open air, when weather permitted.[262] Judging by the large number of monks in every monastery and recalling the fact that teaching was regarded as a most meritorious form of labour, we are inclined to think that there was a great deal of individual teaching, or at least teaching in small groups, especially when the weather was unfavourable for outdoor lectures. This conjecture derives some support from Bede, who informs us that of the Anglo-Saxons who went to Ireland many of them passed from one master’s cell to another for instruction.[263]

METHODS OF TEACHING:

In teaching reading it was usual to begin with the Alphabet. St.Columba’s first alphabet was written or impressed upon a cake which he afterwards ate as he played by the side of a stream near his tutor’s home.[264] Sometimes the alphabet was engraved upon a large stone.[265] The Psalms in Latin seem to have been the earliest subject of instruction.[266] As we have seen these were learned by rote, but judging by the numerous glosses and annotations[267] thereon it is almost certain that the teachers were not satisfied with mere repetition but explained the meaning thoroughly.

It may seem strange that the reading of Latin should be taught before the reading of the vernacular. The explanation is simple. The Irish alphabet is based on the Latin (as are the alphabets of most European languages) and consequently suits the phonetic system of the Irish language less perfectly than it does the Latin. Having learned the alphabet the reading of Latin is comparatively easy even for young students. At a later stage when the reading of the vernacular was introduced progress was no doubt rapid since the student had merely to associate the written symbols with sounds that were familiar to him.

The next stage was to teach writing. The letters were formed on a waxen tablet (polaire in Irish) with a pointed metal style (graib).[268] One of these old-time tablets is now in the National Museum, Dublin.[269] The writing on it is in Latin, apparently a pupil’s class notes.

Joyce thinks that there were no elementary books for teaching Latin and that the pupil had to face the difficulties of the language in a rough and ready manner, beginning right away at the author.[270] With this view we do not agree. There are still extant numerous vocabularies, paradigms, treatises on declensions, and several copies of Priscian’s grammatical tract all in the style of writing practised by Irish scribes. In such works we have clear evidence of preparations made to smooth the path for beginners. Our view is in harmony with the maxim laid down in the eighth century gloss: “It is the custom with good teachers (dagforcitlidib) to praise the understanding of their pupils that they may love what they hear.”[271] There is a similar reminder in another eighth century gloss.[272] This quotation is interesting as showing that oral teaching was practised, that good teaching was appreciated, that the methods of good teachers were commended for imitation and further that the learning process was to be as pleasant as possible. It would be a mistake to imagine that the desire to make learning attractive began and ended with the carving of alphabets on cakes. In the same connection we may refer to the practice of many eminent teachers who were wont to compose educational poems embodying the leading facts of history and other branches of instruction. A considerable number of compositions in old Irish MSS. are of this class. These poems were explained and commented upon by their authors and learned by rote by the pupils. Flann of Monasterboice followed this plan and we still have several of his educational poems on historical subjects.[273]

There is a curious geographical poem[274] forming a sort of text-book on general geography which was used in the school of Ros-Ailithir in Cork of which the author MacCosse was Principal (Fer-leighinn). This poem contained practically all that was then known of the principal countries of the world. It was written about the beginning of the tenth century. The tenth century map of the world drawn in England for an Anglo-Saxon is supposed to have been the work of an Irish artist.[275] Although inaccurate in many particulars this map is historically interesting as showing the state of geographical knowledge at this time.

In teaching Greek the Irish monks used the Nermeneumata of the Pseudo-Dositheus, the work of Macrobius De Differentiis et Societatibus Graeci Latinique Verbi, Latin glosses and interlinear versions.[276] With regard to the Pseudo-Dositheus and the book of Macrobius, Traube believes that were it not for the fact that these books were used by the Irish in teaching Greek both would have been lost to the afterworld. Mrs. Concannon conjectures that the earliest teachers of Latin brought with them to Ireland the third century Disticha Catonis and used them as materials for teaching as well as for moral instruction.[277] The many copies of Priscian with numerous glosses thereon would suggest that this work was extensively used in Irish monastic schools. Traube has shown conclusively that the St.Gall copy of Priscian was written by some friends of Sedulius (of LiÈge) and supposes it was copied in some Irish monastery about the beginning of the ninth century and brought by Irishmen to the Continent.[278] Indeed, the glosses everywhere furnish objective proofs that the Irish monks were skilled practical teachers as well as accomplished classical scholars. In all these interlinear and marginal notes so abundant in the MSS. of the Old Irish period (prior to 900A.D.) we see clear evidence of preparation for the work of teaching.

It is worthy of note that in the earlier stages of instruction the pupil was encouraged to ask questions about the difficulties which he encountered and the tutor was expected to explain everything that was obscure to the learner. At a later stage the learner was questioned to test whether he had grasped the meaning of what he read, and to raise difficulties which he was required to explain.[279] In fact the instruction would seem to have been thorough and in many respects was at least equal in efficiency, if not in technique, to that imparted in many of our modern schools. We are told that it was the special merit of the tutor who obtained the degree known as Sruth-do-aill that “he was able to modify his instruction to the complexion of the information in mercy to the people who were unable to follow the instruction of a teacher of higher degree. In other words he was able to make hard things easy to weak students who might get frightened in the presence of the formidable scholar.”[280] This would show that the question of “individual differences” was a live one in pedagogical circles in those days and that a genuine attempt was made to solve it. When we come in a later chapter to discuss the characteristics of the groups of figures represented on the sculptured crosses we shall see that the value of “visual instruction” was appreciated.

THE SCRIPTORIUM:

The function of the scriptorium was to supply text-books for the school, service books for the church and monastic community, and works of a more general and ambitious nature for the library. Our knowledge of the internal life of the scriptorium is unfortunately very limited and is deduced almost entirely from an examination of the MSS. produced therein. It would seem that the scriptorium was not unlike a modern school-room in some respects. In silence the younger members of the monastic community and other students sat there writing out and multiplying books, sometimes from dictation, sometimes by copying. An invigilator sat there also to preserve silence and to act as task master. On the margins of the MSS. we sometimes find short fragmentary notes devoid of literary value, but of deep human interest as showing that unregenerate human nature had its opportunities even in a monastic scriptorium as much as in a modern school-room. These notes[281] are supposed to be fragments of conversations carried on sotto voce to evade the rule of silence and doubtlessly notes were scribbled surreptitiously to companions. Though all too few these vivid human touches add not a little to our knowledge of student life in those far off days.

The scribes made all the writing materials: tablets, vellum, ink, pens. We have shown that wax tablets were used in teaching writing. They were also used in teaching reading, and for such temporary purposes as taking notes of a sermon or lecture.[282] Adamnan writing in the seventh century mentions that he inscribed certain writings first on wax tablets and afterwards on vellum.[283] For memoranda a slate and pencil were also used, as we learn from the story of Cinnfaela the Learned. When he was at the school of Tuaim Drecain, now Tom Regan in Co. Cavan, he wrote down roughly on slates what he heard during the day, but at night he transferred the entries into a vellum book.[284] These tablets were made of long strips of wood and covered with beeswax. In shape they were sometimes like short swords.

The schools prepared their own vellum or parchment from the skins of goats, sheep, and calves. This parchment was usually finely polished, but sometimes it was hard and not well cleaned. The parchment prepared by the Irish scribes was much thicker than that used by the French from the seventh to the tenth century: thus we have an additional means whereby we can identify Irish MSS. on the Continent.[285]

The ink was made of carbon. It has been found to resist all the chemical tests for iron. The blackness of the ink even at the present day is quite remarkable. The writing of the Book of Armagh, for instance, is as black as if it were written yesterday.[286]

The ink was very likely made of lampblack, or possibly of fish bone black.[287] When we come to describe the illuminated MSS. which remain to attest the artistic skill of the monastic scribes we shall see that not only were they experts at making a superior quality of ink but, what is still more remarkable, they manufactured a large variety of pigments which even at the present day have lost little of their original brilliancy after a lapse of one thousand years.

PENS:

The beauty, neatness, and perfect uniformity of the handwriting in old Irish MSS. have led some antiquarians to express an opinion that the scribes used metal pens; but such an opinion is quite untenable. Keller has shown that the pens were made from the quills of geese, swans, crows, and other birds.[288] This is also the opinion of Miss Stokes.[289] One of the pictures in the Book of Kells confirms this view. This is a picture representing St.John the Evangelist engaged in writing the Gospel. He holds a pen in his hand the feather of which can be clearly detected.[290] The inkstand is also represented by a slender conical cup fastened to the corner of the chair on which he is sitting or upon a stick stuck in the ground.

The old scribes sometimes wrote with the book resting upon the knees using a flat board for support. But when writing became more elaborate and ornamental a desk was used and, if necessary, a maulstick to support the wrist.[291]

THE SCRIBE:

In almost every monastery there was at least one especially expert scribe who was selected partly because of his scholarship, and partly because of his skill in penmanship. Outside of the time set apart for religious exercises the scribe devoted almost his whole time to the work of copying and multiplying books. At a time when there were no printed books we can easily imagine the important part played by the scribe in the educational life of the monastery.

Not only did the scribes produce the necessary books for class use, but by their indefatigable industry they preserved those valuable relics of the past—a large mass of historical records and numerous specimens of the literature of ancient times. To copy a book was considered a highly meritorious work, especially if it were a part of the Scriptures, or any other book on sacred or devotional subjects.[292] The scribe was therefore highly honoured. The Brehon Laws prescribed the same penalty for the murder of a scribe as for that of an abbot or bishop and, as we pointed out,[293] the Annals in recording the death of a man otherwise learned or eminent whether bishop, abbot, priest, or lay professor considered it an enhancement of his dignity to add that he was an excellent scribe, scribhneoir tocchaidhe. The Four Masters record the obits of 61 eminent scribes before the year 900 A.D. of whom 40 lived between 700 and 800A.D. One has only to glance at some of the MSS. that have come down to us to realise what excellent penmen these ancient scribes were. Such skill could only be acquired after years of careful training. As will be shown later the scribe was an accomplished artist as well as an expert penman.

IRISH SCRIPT:

The Irish style of writing played an important part in development not only of the modern Irish hand, but of the style of writing practised for centuries in England and to some extent on the Continent also, hence the necessity of giving a brief account of its history. There is little doubt that Ireland modelled her national script on the Roman half-uncial hand, but, as Reeves has pointed out, the Greek and Roman letters as written by the Irish scribes mutually affected each other and gave the Irish alphabet, especially in the capitals that peculiar form which distinguishes it from all others.[294] The Roman half-uncial hand, however, was the basis from which the characteristic Irish had developed. In the words of a recognised authority,[295] “The Irish scribe adopted the Roman half-uncial script and then with his own innate sense of beauty of form he produced from it the handsome literary hand which culminated in the native half-uncial writing as seen in perfection in the Book of Kells and contemporary MSS. of the latter part of the seventh century. But the round half-uncial hand thus formed was too elaborate for the ordinary uses of life. It was necessary to produce a script that would serve all the duties of a current hand. Therefore, taking the Roman half-uncial hand the Irish scribe adapted it to commoner uses, and writing the letters more negligently he evolved the compact, pointed minuscule hand which became the current form of handwriting of the country and which again in its turn was in the course of time moulded into the book hand which superseded the half-uncial.” The absence of an extraneous influence was an important factor in aiding the development of a strongly characteristic national hand which ran its uninterrupted course down to the late Middle Ages and is still retained with slight variations in the writing of Modern Irish. The high degree of cultivation of Irish writing did not result from the genius of single individuals, but from the emulation of various schools of writing and the improvements of several generations. “There is not a single letter in the entire alphabet which does not give evidence both in the general form and in its minutest parts of the sound judgment and taste of the penman.”[296]

IRISH HAND ABROAD:

Not only did the Irish perfect this script in the schools of their native land, but they carried it with them when they went abroad and taught it in the schools which they founded in foreign countries. Owing to the fact that the Irish schools kept up the tradition of Greek and Latin learning, philologists and palaeographers have studied the development of Irish writing very carefully with a view to determining the dates of classical MSS. which were transcribed by Irish monks or their pupils. The most important of these studies are those made by Keller[297] and Lindsey.[298] The work of these scholars has placed the question of the influence of the Irish style of writing beyond dispute.

“England borrowed it en bloc; and in the Early Middle Ages the Irish missionaries who spread over the continent of Europe and who became the founders of religious houses carried their native script with them and taught it to their pupils. Thus in such centres as Luxeuil in France, WÜrzburg in Germany, St.Gall in Switzerland, and Bobbio in Italy, Irish writing flourished and MSS. in the Irish hand multiplied. At first there was no difference between the writing in these MSS. and that in the Irish codices actually written in Ireland. But as might be expected the script thus employed in isolated foreign places gradually deteriorated as the bonds with the native hand relaxed and the Irish monks died off.”[299] From these MSS. written in the characteristic Irish script we are able to form some idea, though an inadequate one, of the magnitude and importance of the work done by the Irish monks in preserving the ancient classics. Moreover, in addition to those MSS. described as Scottice Scripta by continental librarians, Zimmer has shown that many of the MSS. ostensibly the work of the continental scholars are in reality the work of Irish monks.[300] The explanation is that those monks who studied on the Continent tried as far as possible to accustom themselves to the forms of the letters used by continental scholars. For instance, this is the case of all the documents written by Moengal at St.Gall between the years 853–860A.D.[301]

LIBRARIES:

An important feature of every monastic school was the library, or tech screptra, as it is styled in the older Irish MSS. When we recall the fame of these schools, the needs of the students, and the number of scribes whose business it was to cater to these needs we might reasonably infer that these libraries were provided with text-books and with books for general reading. These libraries differed widely from our modern libraries. There were no shelves for rows of books, but there was another arrangement which was more suitable for the type of book then in use. The books were kept in satchels hung on pegs or racks round the room. Each satchel containing one or more volumes was labelled on the outside. The satchels were of embossed leather beautifully adorned with designs of interlaced ornament so common in Irish art. Many specimens of these satchels are on view in the National Museum, Dublin, and there is one in Corpus Christi College, Oxford.[302] These satchels were also used when carrying a book from place to place.

The book itself was of parchment. Manuscripts which were greatly valued were usually kept in elaborately embossed leather covers of which two are still preserved, namely, the cover of the Book of Armagh,[303] and that of the Shrine of St.Maidoc.[304]

Books abounded in Ireland when the Danes made their appearance there about the end of the eighth century; hence the pride with which the old writers referred to “the hosts of the books of Erin.” But with the first Danish incursions began an era of burning and pillaging the monasteries and consequently a woeful destruction of MSS., the records of the ancient learning. The special fury of the invaders appears to have been directed against books, monasteries, and monuments of religion. All the books they could lay hands upon they either burned or “drowned” by throwing them into the nearest river, or lake. For two centuries this wanton destruction continued, and ceased only when the Danes were finally crushed at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014A.D.[305]

During the Danish period missionaries and scholars who went abroad carried with them great numbers of MSS. As a result of the exportation as well as of the destruction of MSS. we can merely conjecture as to the extent and value of the books in a library attached to a great Irish monastic school during the period covered by our investigation. Fortunately, however, we are able to describe the contents of the libraries of the Irish establishment of St.Gall in Switzerland, and Bobbio in Italy, and this may serve to give us some idea of the wealth of material the Irish libraries once possessed, but most of it is now irreparably lost.

A catalogue of the Bobbio library was made between the years 967–972A.D. It is attributed to the Abbot Gerbert who afterwards became Pope Silvester II.[306] At this time the library contained about 700 volumes,[307] of which 479 had been acquired gradually from various unstated sources, and over 220 had been presented by scholars who are named with the list of books they had given,[308] 43 having been a donation from the famous Irish monk Dungal who presided over the school of Pavia.[309] This catalogue itself is strong objective evidence for the claim we are making that the classical authors were read. The list of MSS. shows that both Greek and Latin classics, were well represented. Among others we find works by the following authors: Terence, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucian, Martial, Juvenal, Claudian, Cicero, Seneca, and the Elder Pliny;[310] also Persius, Flaccus, Horace, Demosthenes, and Aristotle.[311]

The greater part of the Bobbio collection has been dispersed through the libraries of Rome, Milan, Naples, and Vienna.[312] It is practically certain that the Ambrosian palimpsest of Plautus and those of several of Cicero’s orations and of the letters of Fronto discovered in the Ambrosian Library (Milan) early in the ninth century all came from the monastery founded by the Irish monk of Bobbio.[313] Among other MSS. which once belonged to Bobbio may be mentioned fragments of Symmachus (in Milan) and the Theodosian Code (formerly in Turin), Scholia on Cicero (v. century) MSS. of St.Luke (v.–vi. cent.), St.Severinus (vi. cent.), Josephus (vi.–vii.), Gregory’s Dialogue (c. 750) and St.Isadore’s (before 840). Last but not least we must mention the “Muratori Fragment” (viii. cent., or earlier), the earliest extant list of Books of the New Testament.[314]

St.Agilius (St.Aile), a pupil of St.Columbanus the founder of Bobbio, was first abbot of the monastery founded at Resbacus (RÉbais, east of Paris) in 634A.D.[315] The MSS. copied there included the works of Terence, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Donatus, Priscian and Boethius.[316]

The libraries of the Irish monasteries of WÜrzburg and Reichau seem to have been large and important. Many existing Irish MSS. come from these two monasteries. Unfortunately, no old catalogue of the WÜrzburg collection seems to have come down to us. In the case of Reichau (Augia Major) on Lake Constance a catalogue was made while Erlebald was abbot between 822 and 838A.D. The number of MSS. given in this catalogue is 415 of which 30 were written in Erlebald’s time.[317]

Important though the collections of RÉbais, WÜrzburg and Reichau undoubtedly were they are overshadowed by the greater fame of Bobbio. Indeed there is only one library that could compare with Bobbio either for the extent or the value of its MSS., and that was the library of St.Gall or Sangallen in Switzerland. This great monastery was founded by St.Gall (in Irish Cellach), the pupil and companion of St.Columbanus, about the year of 612A.D. In the ninth century the library of St.Gall possessed 533 volumes, nine of them being palimpsests.[318] This library was famous during the Middle Ages. The Fathers who attended the Council of Constance depended mainly for reference on the valuable MSS. in this library to which they had free access; and, sad to relate, when the Council broke up in 1418A.D. many of these holy men neglected to return these valuable old theological works in Latin and Greek.[319] This same library came to another loss two years earlier, in 1416, when Poggio, the Florentine scholar, with two learned friends who had been engaged at the Council visited St.Gall. Having a season of leisure they made a search for some missing volumes of Cicero, Livy, and other classical writers. Nor were they disappointed. Among other precious tomes they discovered the well-known Argonauticon of Flaccus, copies of eight of Cicero’s orations with valuable commentaries by Asconius Pedianus, the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius, also the works of Priscian, of Quintilian, of Lucretius, and of other great scholars.[320]

In many libraries of Europe there are MSS. written, or copied, by Irish monks during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. These MSS. are bound together into Codices which are named either after the principal work included therein, or after the monastery where they were written, or sometimes from the library where they are at present deposited. These Codices contain copies of the classics, treatises on grammar, the Psalms, the Epistles of St Paul, and other portions of the Scriptures, Lives of the Saints, Hymns, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England, &c. Scribes when studying these often added glosses and scholia either on the margin or between the lines to explain the Latin and Greek words of the text. Sometimes as in the case of the Psalms and of Priscian’s grammatical tract these glosses were copious and show that the scribe had availed himself freely of the work of earlier commentators. These glosses have been a rich mine to students of philology and have been extensively used for linguistic purposes containing as they do many of the most archaic forms of the Irish language. The meaning of these Old Irish words can now be obtained from the Greek and Latin words which were originally explained by the Irish words. Some of these MSS. were written by Irishmen on the Continent, while others were written in Ireland and carried to the Continent by other monks who deposited them in the libraries of their monasteries.

LIST[321] OF LIBRARIES CONTAINING MSS. WITH IRISH GLOSSES THEREON NOT LATER THAN END OF NINTH OR BEGINNING OF TENTH CENTURY:

1. Trinity College Library, Dublin.
2. Library of the Franciscan Monastery, Dublin.
3. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
4. British Museum, London.
5. Lambert Library, South London.
6. University Library, Cambridge, England.
7. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
8. St.John’s College, Cambridge.
9. Bodleian Library, Oxford, England.
10. BibliothÈque Nationale, Paris.
11. Library of Nancy.
12. Library of Cambray.
13. University Library, Leyden.
14. University Library, WÜrzburg.
15. Hof-und Landesbibliothek, Carlsruhe.
16. Royal Library, Munich.
17. Library of the Monastery of Engelberg.
18. Library of St.Paul’s Kloster in Carinthia.
19. Royal Library, Dresden.
20. Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen.
21. Royal Library, Vienna.
22. Stifsbibliothek, St.Gall.
23. Stadtbibliothek, Berne.
24. Ambrosian Library, Milan.
25. Vatican Library, Rome.
26. University Library, Turin.
27. Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin.
28. Laurentian Library, Florence.

These numerous and valuable MSS. that have come down to us are in themselves the most convincing evidence of the zeal of the Irish monks for the promotion and transmission of classical learning. There can be little doubt that these Irish scholars under the most adverse circumstances fostered learning during the dark ages that preceded the Renaissance and, as we have seen, when the great awakening came one of the sources from which the treasures of classical antiquity emerged were the monastic libraries that contained the MSS. copied, or preserved, with loving care by Irish scribes and scholars.

In this chapter we have endeavoured to show how the zeal for learning which inspired the teacher in the class-room was carried into the scriptorium; how the scribes with patient industry copied, and so transmitted, the relics of classical antiquity; and how these relics were preserved to the afterworld in the great monastic libraries. The direct contribution made by the Irish monks of the Early Middle Ages to contemporary education will be studied in the next chapter. Here we would emphasise the fact that the full significance of the Irish monastic schools as an educational factor cannot be understood unless we realize the importance of the combined, as well as the separate, contribution of these three great centres of intellectual activity, the school, the scriptorium and the library.

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