THE CELTIC SCHOOL OF MANUSCRIPTS.
One of the most extraordinary artistic developments that ever took place in
the history of the world has been the Celtic Monastic School of Art which
in the seventh century reached its highest aesthetic and technical climax,
more especially in the production of exquisitely minute gold jewellery and
no less minute and richly illuminated manuscripts.
_The Irish Church._
The Christian Church in the east of Ireland dated from an earlier period
than the establishment of Christianity in England[56]. It was founded about
the year 430 A.D., and the monks of Ireland, owing to their remote
position, were able for a long period to develope peacefully their artistic
skill, undisturbed by such successive foreign invasions as those which for
so many years kept Britain in a constant tumult of war and massacre.
_Celtic goldsmiths._
_Gold jewellery._
Thus it happened that by the middle or latter part of the seventh century
the Celtic monks of Ireland had learned to produce goldsmiths' work and
manuscript illuminations with such marvellous taste and skill as has never
been surpassed by any age or country in the world[57]. Not even the finest
Greek or Etruscan jewellery, enriched with enamels and studded with gems,
can be said to surpass the amazing perfection shown in such a masterpiece
of the goldsmith's art as the so-called "Tara brooch"[58] in the Museum of
the Royal Irish Academy. As a rule the skill of these Irish goldsmiths was
devoted to the service of the Church in the manufacture of such objects as
croziers, morses (or cope-brooches), shrines, chalices, textus-covers,
receptacles for Bishops' bells, and other pieces of ecclesiastical
furniture.
_Technical processes._
These precious objects are decorated by a variety of technical processes,
such as applied filagree, repoussé or beaten reliefs, enamels, both
_champlevé_ and _cloisonné_, and inlay of precious stones, especially the
carbuncle in minute slices, set in delicate gold _cloisons_ and backed with
shining gold-leaf. All these and other decorative processes were employed
with unrivalled skill by the monastic goldsmiths of eastern Ireland, a fact
which it is important to notice, since nearly all the methods and styles of
ornament which occur in the Irish illuminated manuscripts of the same
period are clearly derived from prototypes in gold jewelled work. It is in
fact often possible to trace in a fine Irish manuscript of the class we are
now concerned with, ornamental patterns of several quite distinct classes,
one being derived from the patterns of spiral or plaited form produced by
soldering delicate gold wire on to plain surfaces of gold, another being
copied from gold _champlevé_ enamels, and a third no less clearly derived
from the inlaid rectangular bits of carbuncle framed in delicate gold
strips or _cloisons_.
_Influence on illuminations._
This strongly marked influence of the technique of one art on the designs
of another is due to the fact that the arts both of the goldsmith and the
manuscript illuminator were carried on side by side in the same monastery
or group of monastic dwellings[59], and in some cases we have written
evidence that the scribe who wrote and illuminated an elaborate manuscript
and the goldsmith who wrought and jewelled its gold cover were one and the
same person[60].
_The Book of Kells._
It was in the second half of the seventh century that the Celtic art of
Eastern Ireland reached its highest point of perfection. To this period
belongs the famous _Book of Kells_, now in the library of Trinity College,
Dublin, which was probably written between 680 and 700, and for many years
was, with its jewelled gold covers, the principal treasure of the cathedral
church at Kells[61]. This church had been founded by Saint Columba, and so
in old times this marvellous manuscript was usually known as "the Great
Gospels of Saint Columba."
_Perfect workmanship._
No words can describe the intricate delicacy of the ornamentation of this
book, lavishly decorated as it is with all the different varieties of
pattern mentioned above, the most remarkable among them being the
ingeniously intricate patterns formed by interlaced and knotted lines of
colour, plaited in and out, with such amazingly complicated lines of
interlacement that one cannot look at the page without astonishment at the
combined taste, patience, unfaltering certainty of touch and imaginative
ingenuity of the artist. The wonderful minuteness of the work, examined
through a microscope, fills one with wonder at the apparently superhuman
eyesight of the scribe.
_Complex interlacings._
With regard to the intricate interlaced ornaments in which (with the aid of
a lens) each line can be followed out in its windings and never found to
break off or lead to an impossible loop of knotting, it is evident that the
artist must have enjoyed, not only an aesthetic pleasure in the invention
of his pattern, but must also have had a distinct intellectual enjoyment in
his work, such as a skilful mathematician feels in the working out of a
complicated geometrical problem.
_Microscopic intricacy._
The combined skill of eye and hand shown in the minute plaits of the _Book
of Kells_ places it among the most wonderful examples of human workmanship
that the world has ever produced. By the aid of a microscope Mr Westwood
counted in the space of one inch no less than 158 interlacements of bands
or ribands, each composed of a strip of white bordered on both sides with a
black line.
Giraldus Cambrensis, who visited Ireland in 1185 as secretary to Prince
John, writes in the most enthusiastic language of the splendour of a
similar manuscript of the _Gospels_ which he saw in Kildare Cathedral. It
shows, he says, superhuman skill, worthy of angels' hands, and he was lost
in wondering admiration at the sight.
_Copies of jewellery._
_Primitive spiral patterns._
One class of ornament in the _Book of Kells_ and in other manuscripts of
this class consists of bands or diapers formed with step-like lines
enclosing small spaces of brilliant colour. It is this class of pattern
which is derived from the _cloisonné_ inlay with bits of transparent
carbuncle used in gold jewellery. Other ornaments consist of various spiral
forms derived from the application of gold wire to flat surfaces of gold, a
class of pattern which appears to have come, as it were, naturally to the
gold-workers of many different periods and countries. Many of these spiral
designs in the Irish manuscripts are almost identical with forms which
occur so frequently among the gold ornaments of the Greek "Mycenean
period," one among many examples in the art history of the world, which
show the remarkable sameness of invention in the human mind at a certain
stage of development whatever the time or the place may be[62].
It should moreover be noticed that this close imitation of metal-work is
not limited to the separate details of the manuscripts. The main lines and
divisions of the decoration on whole pages are accurately copied from the
enamelled and jewelled gold or silver covers in which these precious
_Gospels_ were bound. Thus, the same design might appear in delicate
goldsmiths' work on the covers of a _Textus_, and also might be seen
represented by the illuminator in brilliant colours on a page within.
_Trumpet pattern._
One form of ornament, which occurs very frequently in the Irish
manuscripts, is what is often called "the trumpet pattern" from its
supposed resemblance to a curved metal trumpet. This kind of spiral
ornament is used not only in the Celtic manuscripts and goldsmiths' work,
but also on bronze shields and other pieces of metal-work on a large scale.
This special ornament is not peculiar to the Irish, but was commonly used
by the Celtic tribes of Britain from a very early date.
_Arab influence._
United with these purely native types of ornament, we find in these Celtic
manuscripts one curious class of foreign ornament derived from the patterns
on imported pieces of textile stuffs woven in Arab looms[63]. Among many
strange forms of serpents, dragons and other monsters of northern origin,
other animals, such as lions, eagles and swans, occur which resemble
closely those represented with such perfect conventional skill on the rich
silk stuffs and early Oriental carpets woven in Syria, in the Arab towns of
Sicily and in other Moslem centres. These beautiful stuffs were imported
largely into Northern Europe for ecclesiastical purposes, such as for the
vestments of priests or to form wrappings round some sacred reliquary[64].
_The human form._
Though these Celtic manuscripts show such marvellous dexterity of touch and
unerring firmness of line in every minute and complicated pattern, yet the
monastic artist appears to have been absolutely incapable of representing
the human form.
The figures of Christ and the Saints, which sometimes do occur in these
manuscripts, are treated in a purely ornamental and (in its stricter sense)
conventional way; the hair and beard, for example, are worked up into
scrolls or spiral ornaments, and the draperies are merely masses of varied
colour, with little or no resemblance to the folds of a dress.
_Colours without gold._
The pigments used by the Celtic monks are very varied and of the most
brilliant tints, prepared with such skill that after more than a thousand
years they seem as fresh and bright as ever.
Among these pigments is included the fine _murex_ purple which the Irish
monks used occasionally to stain sheets of vellum like those in the _Golden
Gospels_ of the Byzantines. We are told by the Venerable Bede that the
Irish monks had learnt how to extract this beautiful dye from a variety of
the _murex_ shell-fish which is not uncommon on both shores of the Irish
Channel. Splendid as they are in colour, there is one curious feature in
the early Irish manuscripts of the finest class, such as the _Book of
Kells_; that is, that no gold or silver either in the form of leaf or as a
fluid pigment is used. This seems specially strange when we remember the
close connection there was between the arts of the goldsmith and of the
illuminator of manuscripts among the Irish artists.
_Celtic art in Britain._
In later times, when the Celtic style of illumination was transplanted to
England, gold was to some extent introduced, but in the finest Irish
manuscripts of the best period, the latter half of the seventh century,
gold is completely absent. Nevertheless, so great was the decorative genius
of these Irish monks that, even without burnished gold and silver, their
illuminated pages quite equal, not only in artistic beauty, but even in
mere splendour of effect, any illuminations that have ever been produced.
_The Book of Durrow._
In addition to the _Book of Kells_ another manuscript of similar style and
date and of almost equal splendour should be mentioned, the _Book of
Durrow_[65], which, like the _Book of Kells_, was also known as the
"Gospels of Saint Columba," who is said to have left behind him, at his
death in 597, no less than three hundred manuscripts written with his own
hand. It is not impossible that the _Book of Durrow_ is one of these, as it
bears some signs of being earlier in date than the _Book of Kells_.
_Monks of Iona._
From Ireland the art of illuminating manuscripts was carried by monkish
colonists to the Western coasts of Scotland, and especially to the Island
of Iona, where a monastery had been founded by Saint Columba in the latter
part of the sixth century[66]. Great numbers of manuscripts resembling in
style the _Book of Kells_ were produced in Iona; and offshoots from the
monastery of Iona, established at various places on the mainland, became
similar centres for the writing of richly decorated manuscripts. No less
than thirteen monasteries in Scotland and twelve in England were founded by
Irish monks from the mother settlement in Iona. In fact the whole of
Britain seems to have owed its Christianity, during the Anglo-Saxon period,
to the Irish missionaries from Iona, with the important exception of the
kingdom of Kent, which was occupied by the Roman mission of Saint
Augustine.
_Celtic missionaries._
In the year 635, at the request of Oswald King of Northumbria, the Scottish
king sent an Irish monk from Iona, named Aidan, to preach Christianity to
the Northumbrian worshippers of Thor and Odin. Aidan selected the little
island of Lindisfarne as the head-quarters of his missionary church, which,
at first consisting mainly of a few Irish monks from Iona, rapidly grew in
size and importance. In a few years, Saint Aidan, Bishop and Abbot of
Lindisfarne, was able to establish a number of monastic houses throughout
the Northumbrian Kingdom, and his own Abbey of Lindisfarne became one of
the chief centres of Northern Europe for the production of fine illuminated
manuscripts of the Celtic type.
After the death of Saint Aidan other Irish monks succeeded him as Bishop of
Lindisfarne, and the school of manuscript illumination continued to
flourish.
_Gospels of St Cuthbert._
One of the most beautiful existing examples of the Lindisfarne branch of
the Irish school of miniature work is the famous "Book of the Gospels of
Saint Cuthbert[67]" as it is called, now in the British Museum (_Cotton
manuscripts, Nero_, D. IV). The history of this manuscript is a very
curious one; it was written some years after Saint Cuthbert's death in 688,
not during his lifetime as was formerly believed. Eadfrith, a monk of
Lindisfarne in Saint Cuthbert's time, and subsequently eighth Bishop of
Lindisfarne (698 to 721), was the writer of these _Gospels_, "in honour of
God and of Saint Cuthbert," as he records in a note. The illuminations were
added by the monk Aethelwold, afterwards ninth Bishop of Lindisfarne, and
the elaborate gold, gem-studded cover of this magnificent _textus_ was the
work of a third monk of the same Abbey named Bilfrith.
_Viking piracy._
_Travels of the Gospels._
In the ninth century the Viking pirates were constantly harrying the shores
of Northumbria; more than once the Abbey of Lindisfarne was plundered and
many of the monks were slain, till at last, in the year 878, the small
remnant who had escaped the cruelty of the Northmen decided to leave
Lindisfarne and seek a new settlement in the original home of the founders
of Lindisfarne, the eastern coast of Ireland. In 878 the survivors set off,
carrying with them the body of Saint Cuthbert, and the magnificent
manuscript of the _Gospels_, which was the chief treasure of their Abbey,
and which had been successfully hidden in Saint Cuthbert's grave at the
time of the invasion of the Northmen. The monks crossed to the western
shore of Northumbria, and there took ship for Ireland. A great storm,
however, arose; their boat shipped a heavy sea which washed overboard the
precious Gospels of Saint Cuthbert, which had been carefully packed in a
wooden box. Eventually the little ship was driven back, and finally was
stranded on the Northumbrian shore. Soon after reaching the land the
fugitive monks, wandering sadly along the beach, found, to their great joy,
the lost box with its precious manuscript thrown up by the waves and lying
on dry land. According to the chronicle of Symeon[68] (chapter xxvii.), the
brilliant illuminations were quite uninjured by the sea-water; this is not
literally the case; some of the pages are a good deal stained, but
wonderfully little injured considering what the book has gone through.
_Minster of Durham._
When after many wanderings the successors of the exiles from Lindisfarne
found, in 995, a final resting-place for the body of Saint Cuthbert in the
Minster which they founded at Durham, the manuscript of the Gospels was
laid on the coffin of the Saint. There it remained till 1104, when Saint
Cuthbert's body was exhumed, and soon after it was sent back to
Lindisfarne, where a Benedictine monastery had been founded in 1093 by some
monks from Durham on the site of Saint Cuthbert's ruined Abbey.
There it was safely preserved till the dissolution of the monasteries under
Henry VIII. The gold covers were then stripped off and melted, but the
still more precious manuscript escaped destruction; it was subsequently
acquired by Sir Robert Cotton, and is now one of the chief manuscript
treasures of the British Museum.
_Anglo-Celtic school._
In point of style the "Gospels of Saint Cuthbert" are a characteristic
example of the Irish school of illumination, modified by transplantation to
English soil. The intermediate stage in Iona and other monasteries of
western Scotland seems to have introduced no change of style into the
primitive Irish method of ornament. Whether produced in eastern Ireland or
in western Scotland the manuscripts were the work of the same Celtic race,
the Scots, who, at first inhabiting the north-east of Ireland, passed over
to the not very distant shores of northern Britain to which these Irish
settlers gave the name Scotland.
_Improved drawing._
When however the Irish monks passed from Iona to Northumbria the case was
different; they were surrounded with a new set of artistic influences
mainly owing to the introduction into Northumbria of fine Byzantine and
Italian manuscripts. The result of this was that though the Lindisfarne
manuscripts continued to be decorated with exactly the same class of
patterns that had been used in the _Book of Kells_ and other Irish
manuscripts for initials, borders and the like, yet in the treatment of the
human figure a very distinct advance was made. Thus in Saint Cuthbert's
_Gospels_ the seated figures of the Evangelists are drawn with much dignity
of form and with some attempt at truth in the pose, the proportions and in
the disposition of the folds of the drapery. The monk Aethelwold who
painted these miniatures must have had before him some fine manuscripts of
the Gospels probably both of Byzantine and Italian style.
_Use of metal leaf._
The whole result is a very splendid one, the _Gospels_ of Saint Cuthbert in
richness of invention and minute intricacy of pattern almost equal the
_Book of Kells_; while the figure subjects, instead of being grotesque
masses of ornament, are paintings with much beauty of line as well as
extreme splendour of colour. Another modification is the introduction of
gold and silver leaf, which are wholly wanting in the _Book of Kells_ and
the other finest purely Irish manuscripts.
_MS. of Bede._
_Italian influence._
Other typical examples of this combined Celtic and English style are the
magnificent _Gospels_ in the Imperial library in St Petersburg, and a
manuscript of the Commentary on the Psalms by Cassiodorus now in the
Chapter library at Durham. This latter manuscript, which dates from the
eighth century, is traditionally said to have been written by Bede himself.
The illuminations in this manuscript are specially rich with interlaced
patterns, dragon monsters and diapers of the most minute scale, all purely
Celtic in style, and all showing with special clearness their derivation
from originals in goldsmiths' work. Not only the distinctly metallic
motives of ornament are faithfully copied, but even the manner in which the
gold-workers built up their elaborate manuscript covers by the insertion of
separate little plates of gold filagree and enamel side by side on a large
plate or matrix is exactly reproduced by the illuminator. As in the case of
the Lindisfarne _Gospels_, the figures of the Psalmist which are introduced
are very superior to any figures which occur in the purely Irish
manuscripts, showing the distinct influence of Italian manuscripts of
debased classical style.
_The Corpus Gospels._
Another very interesting example of the Anglo-Celtic school of
illumination, with fine initials and a painting of an eagle of the
characteristic Northern type, is in the possession of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge; No. CXCVII. This is an imperfect manuscript of the
_Gospels_ containing only the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint John. The
decorative borders and initials have the interlaced Irish class of
ornament. This interesting manuscript was (in the sixteenth century) in the
library of Archbishop Parker, who inserted a note stating that it was one
of the manuscripts which were sent by Pope Gregory to Saint Augustine. The
actual date of the manuscript is probably not earlier than the eighth
century, in spite of the ancient appearance of the figure painting. An
earlier copy of the _Gospels_ in the same library has full page miniatures
of the two Evangelists of purely classical style, surrounded with
architectural framework of debased Roman form, very little modified from
similar Roman miniatures of the fifth century A.D.
_Gospels of MacDurnan._
Returning for the moment to the Irish school of Celtic art, it should be
observed that richly illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in
Ireland till the ninth and tenth centuries, but these later manuscripts,
fine as they are, do not equal in beauty the _Book of Kells_ and other
works of the seventh and eighth century. The Book of the _Gospels of
MacDurnan_[69], who was Archbishop of Armagh from 885 to 927, is a good
example of the later school of Irish art, in which the figures of the
Evangelists are no less grotesque than those in the earlier manuscripts,
while the interlaced and diapered patterns of the borders and initials are
inferior in minute delicacy of execution to such masterpieces as the _Book
of Kells_; see fig. 20.
_Book of Deer._
Another still stronger proof of artistic decadence among the Celtic
illuminators of this period is afforded by the _Book of Deer_[70] in the
Cambridge University library. This is a small octavo copy of the _Latin
Gospels_ after the Itala version[71]. In style it is a mere shadow of the
glories of early Irish art, with comparatively coarse and feebly coloured
decorative patterns. It appears to have been written in Scotland by an
Irish scribe during the ninth century[72].
[Illustration: Fig. 20. Miniature from the _Gospels_ of MacDurnan of the
ninth century.]
_Gospels of MacRegol._
One of the finest of the manuscripts of the later Irish type is the Book of
_the Gospels of MacRegol_ in the Bodleian library (D. 24. No. 3946)
executed in the ninth century. The ornaments and the very conventional
figures of the Evangelists are of the purely Irish type, unmodified by any
imitation of the superior figure drawing in Byzantine and Italian
miniatures[73].
_Gospels of St Chad._
The manuscript _Gospels of Saint Chad_ in the Chapter library of Lichfield
Cathedral is another example of the Irish school and of the same date as
the last-mentioned book. It is named after Ceadda or Chad who, in the
seventh century, was the first Bishop of Lichfield, nearly two hundred
years before the date of this manuscript of the _Gospels_[74].
_Celtic school on the Continent._
During the most flourishing period of Celtic art in Ireland its influence
was by no means limited to the Northumbrian school of illuminators. The
Irish types of ornament were adopted by the scribes of Canterbury and other
places in the South of England; and on the Continent of Europe Celtic art
was widely spread by Irish missionaries such as Saint Columbanus, and by
the founding of Irish monasteries during the sixth century in various
countries, as, for example, at Bobbio in Northern Italy, at St Gallen in
Switzerland, at Wurtzburg in Germany, and at Luxeuil in France. In these
and in other places Irish monastic illuminators worked hard at the
production of manuscripts and spread the Celtic style of ornament over a
large area of Western Europe. The library of St Gallen possesses a number
of richly illuminated manuscripts of the later Irish type, exactly similar
in style to those which during the eighth and ninth centuries were produced
in the monasteries of Ireland and Scotland[75].
_Psalter of St Augustine._
The result of this spread of Celtic influence was that borders, initial
letters and similar ornaments of pure Irish style were used in many
manuscripts in which the figures of Saints were designed after an equally
pure Italian or debased classic style. A good example of this is the
so-called _Psalter of Saint Augustine_[76] (Brit. Mus. _Cotton manuscripts
Vesp._ A. i) which for many centuries belonged to the Cathedral of
Canterbury. This is a manuscript of the eighth century; one of its chief
miniature paintings represents David enthroned, playing on a harp with a
group of attendant musicians and two dancing figures round his throne.
These figures are purely Italian in style, of the debased Roman School; but
the arched frame which borders the picture is filled in with ornament of
the Irish metal type, closely similar in style, except that gold and silver
are largely used, to those in the _Book of Kells_, though inferior in
minute delicacy of execution. It is of course very possible that the
illuminations in this _Psalter_ are the work of two hands, the figures
being painted by an Italian illuminator and the borders by an English or
Irish monk.
_Scandinavian art._
In later times, especially during the ninth century, the Celtic art of
Ireland appears to have been largely introduced into Scandinavia by means
of the Viking pirates who harried the whole circuit of the shores of
Britain and Ireland, and finally in the ninth century established a Norse
Kingdom in eastern Ireland with the newly founded Dublin as its
capital[77]. The Norsemen were far from being a literary race and it was
not in the form of manuscript illuminations that Irish art was introduced
into Norway and Denmark, but rather in the rich gold and silver jewellery
with which the Viking chiefs adorned themselves, and also on a larger scale
in the magnificently decorative reliefs which were carved on the wooden
planks which formed the frames or architraves of the doors of the
Scandinavian wooden churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, after
the worship of the Thunderer had been replaced by the Faith of the White
Christ.
Lindisfarne, Iona and the other chief Irish monasteries suffered again and
again from the inroads of the Vikings, who found rich and easily won
plunder in the form of gold and silver chalices, reliquaries and
book-covers in the treasuries of the monastic churches undefended by any
except unarmed and peaceful monks.
_The Golden Gospels of Stockholm._
One curious record of Viking plunder is preserved in the Royal library of
Stockholm. This is a very magnificent manuscript Book of the _Gospels_ of
the eighth century, commonly known as the _Codex aureus_ of Stockholm. It
is mostly written with alternate leaves of purple vellum, the text on which
is in golden letters. In general style and in the splendour of its
ornaments it closely resembles the Lindisfarne "_Gospels of Saint
Cuthbert_," described above at page 88, and most probably, like the latter,
was also written in the monastery of Lindisfarne. The interlaced ornaments
of the Irish type are marvels of beauty, while the dignified drawing of the
enthroned figures of the four Evangelists shows clearly the influence of
Continental manuscript art. In this case the Celtic or English illuminator
must have had before him a copy of the _Gospels_ not of the Italian but of
the Byzantine style, since the Evangelists and other figures in the book
which are represented in the act of benediction do so in the Oriental not
in the Latin fashion[78].
_Viking robbers._
On the margin of the first page of Saint Matthew's Gospel an interesting
note has been written about the year 850 by the owner of the Gospels, an
English Ealdorman named Aelfred; this note records that the manuscript had
been stolen by Norse robbers and that Aelfred had purchased it from them
for a sum in pure gold in order that the sacred book might be rescued from
heathen hands. Aelfred then presented it to the Cathedral Church of
Canterbury, and new gold covers appear then to have been made for this
_Textus_, as there is another note in a ninth century hand requesting the
prayers of the Church for three goldsmiths, probably those who replaced the
original gold covers which the Viking pirates had torn off[79].
_The two Churches in Britain._
Returning now to the manuscripts of the Celtic Church in Northumbria, in
order to understand the gradual introduction into Northern England of the
Italian or classical style of painting it is necessary to remember the
struggle which took place during the seventh century between the adherents
of the older Celtic Church and those who supported the Papal claims for
supremacy throughout Britain.
On the one hand the See of Canterbury, founded by the Roman Saint
Augustine, claimed jurisdiction in the north as well as in the south of
Britain, in opposition to the Celtic Abbot of Iona, who was then the real
Metropolitan of the Church in the north of England.
_Long struggle._
Wilfrid of York and Benedict Biscop of Jarrow spent many years in a series
of embassies, between 670 and 690, backward and forward between Northumbria
and Rome striving to introduce the Papal authority, by the aid of imported
books, relics and craftsmen skilled in building stone churches in place of
the simple wooden structures which at that time were the only
ecclesiastical buildings in Northumbria[80]. Very large numbers of
illuminated manuscripts were brought to England during the many journeys of
Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop; and important libraries were created at York
and at Jarrow which led to these places becoming literary and artistic
centres of great and European importance.
_Synod of Whitby._
_Defeat of the Celtic party._
In the end, after many failures, Wilfrid, Archbishop[81] of York, was
successful in bringing Northumbria under the supremacy of Canterbury and
Rome. In 664 a great Council was held at Whitby in the presence of the
Northumbrian King Oswiu. Bishop Colman, the successor of Saint Aidan at
Lindisfarne, represented the Celtic Church and the authority of Saint
Columba, while Wilfrid appeared to support the authority of Saint Peter and
the Bishop of Rome. After hearing that Saint Peter possessed the keys of
Heaven and Hell, while Saint Columba could claim no such marvellous power,
King Oswiu decided in favour of the Roman Supremacy. This decision, though
based on such fanciful grounds, was a fortunate one for the English Church,
since, in the main, learning, culture and established order generally were
on the side of the Italian Church.
The practical result of this Roman victory at the Synod of Whitby in 664
was that a classical influence gradually extended itself in all the English
centres for the production of illuminated manuscripts. It has already been
noted that the splendid manuscripts of Lindisfarne and other Northumbrian
monasteries, though of Celtic origin, show a distinct Roman influence in
the improvement of the drawing of their figures of Saints. By degrees the
Irish element in the illuminations grew less and less; though the
interlaced patterns and fantastic dragon and serpent forms lasted for many
centuries in all the chief countries of western Europe and form an
important decorative element till the thirteenth century[82].
_Baeda of Durham._
One of the chief schools of English manuscript illumination, that of the
Benedictine Abbey at Durham, was raised to a position of European
importance by the Northumbrian monk Baeda, afterwards called the Venerable
Bede, who was born in 673, a few years after the Synod of Whitby.
As the author of a great _Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation_,
Baeda ranks as the Father of English History; he did much to foster the
study of ancient classical authors, was himself a skilful writer of
manuscripts, and made the Abbey of Jarrow, where he lived till his death in
735, an active centre for the production of richly illuminated manuscripts
of many different literary classes.
_Northumbrian school._
_Celtic and Classic styles._|
In the eighth century the schools of illumination in the Abbeys of Jarrow,
Wearmouth and York in Northumbria, and of Canterbury and Winchester in the
south were among the most active and artistically important in the
world[83]. In these schools of miniature painting was gradually created a
special English style of illumination, partly formed out of a combination
of two very different styles, that of the Irish Celtic illuminators and
that of the Italian classical scribes.
This English School of illumination, which had been partially developed
before the close of the tenth century, became, for real artistic merit, the
first and most important in the whole of Europe, and for a considerable
period continued to occupy this foremost position[84].