[1] Stokes (M.)2, 206-7, 247.

[2] Sandys, i. 463.

[3] Moore, Hist. of I., i. 299; Boll. Iul. t. vii. 222.

[45] The following, among others, are still on the Continent:
Gospels of Willibrord (Bibl. Nat. Lat. 9389, 739), Gospel of St.
John (Cod. 60 St. Gall c. 750-800); Book of Fragments (No. 1395,
St. Gall, c. 750-800); The Golden Gospels (Royal library,
Stockholm, 871); Gospels of St. Arnoul, Metz
(Nuremberg Museum, 7th c.).--Cp. Maclean, 207-8; Hyde, 267.


In some respects the evidence of book-culture in
Ireland in these early centuries is inconsistent. The jealous
guard Longarad kept over his books, the quarrel over
Columba's Psalter, and the great esteem in which scribes
were held,[1] suggest a scarcity of books. The practice of
enshrining them in cumdachs, or book-covers, points to a
like conclusion. On the other hand, Bede tells us the
Irish could lend foreign students books, so plentiful were
they. His statement is corroborated by the number of
scribes whose deaths have been recorded by the annalists,
the Four Masters, for example, note sixty-one eminent
scribes before the year 900, forty of whom belong to the
eighth century.[17] In some of the monasteries a special
room for books was provided. The Annals of Tigernach
refer to the house of manuscripts.[3] An apartment of this
kind is particularly mentioned as being saved from the