Out of the shadow of Kells

THE Book of Durrow is a copy of the four gospels named after the monastery of that name near Tullamore, Co Offaly. Written on vellum in the late 7th or early 8th century, it is one of the masterpieces of "insular" art of the Early Medieval Period.

(The term "insular" is used to denote works which could have been produced either in Ireland or in areas of north Britain in which Irish influences were strong during the 7th and 8th centuries). It is an exceptionally beautiful and compelling work of art.

Overshadowed by the Book of Kells, Durrow is a key work, encapsulating in its eclectic art the issues of the origin and development of Irish Christian art. Around Durrow, disputes about where the great manuscripts were produced have crystallised.

One page of the manuscript (in St Luke's Gospel) is ornamented in a style derived from Anglo Saxon animal ornament; other pages owe a debt to the wider Christian church and to the decoration of Celtic enamel work - Durrow more than many manuscripts reflects the arts of the contemporary bronze and goldsmith faithfully.

Its Evangelist symbols, with their strange stylised forms and postures, are echoed on sculptured monuments of the Picts of Scotland, and the usual chicken and egg arguments have followed from these observations.

Meehan negotiates the academic obstacle course with skill, style and commonsense judgment. He emphasises that the manuscript was anciently associated, with Durrow, which was founded by Colmcille, and an inscription in the book attributes the creation of the manuscript to Colmcille himself.

While this should not be taken at face value it may have been copied from another manuscript - it is impressive evidence for the Columban associations of the gospels. The wide contacts in Britain and Ireland of the Columban monasteries are sufficient to account for the eclectic art of Durrow.

The Book of Durrow has features in common with the late Book of Kells, which seems to require some continuity of tradition, if not actually a Columban house style.

We are extremely lucky to have the Book of Durrow at all, as this superb guide chronicles. One 17th century owner used to dip the book in water to make a cure for sick cattle. Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath from 1661 to 1682, sent it to Trinity College where, during the military occupation of the university in 1689, it lost the shrine which had been made for it by the High King, Flann, sometime between 877 and 916.

That we known there have been a shrine for the book is due to a note made by the antiquarian, Roderick O'Flaherty, in 1677.

In the 700 years or so in which the book was kept in its protective shrine, it suffered abrasion damage - the box had evidently been "too large and the book was shaken about whenever it was carried around.

Folios had been misplaced, and when the manuscript was rebound in the 1950s by Roger Powell, his findings on its structure assisted A.A. Luce (who edited the commentary volume for the facsimile) in reconstructing the original ordering of the folios. (Meehan quotes a letter from Luce in which he frets about The Irish Times getting hold of his conclusions in advance).

The book is lavishly illustrated with full page colour photographs of the decorated folios and small black and white pictures of comparative material. It is printed on a vellum coloured paper and handsomely laid out. A small criticism might be that the Evangelist symbol, the eagle. which appears on the cover, is reversed when it appears inside.

The book is a pleasure to read, and its appearance in the year before the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Colmcille is timely. It will make this remarkable treasure more accessible to all.