Writing culture of Ireland in the early middle ages

Abstract

The author describes the writing culture of Ireland in the middle ages, joining family and Latin-scholar traditions, which was a specific feature of Irish writings of that time. The writing culture was introduced in Ireland by Christianity. It had developed in monasteries, which had become one of the most important centers of clerical life since the 6^th century. The monks’ writings contributed as an important part of the literature of Europe in the early middle ages. As the author emphasizes, “the Irish culture is predominantly the culture of the book for the European tradition”. He focuses on respect and esteem for the books, reading and copying them in monasteries, describing works of Irish copyists (writers, scribes), methods of books’ storage, types of insular (Irish) script, the art of the book of Irish scriptoria. The culture flourished in the 6^th-9^th ages. It was destructed by the Vikings invasions, who destroyed libraries in Ireland.