The Cathach of Colum Cille: An Introduction
Book Details
Published by Royal Irish Academy
January 2002
Mixed media product A product consisting of two or more items in different media or different product forms, eg book and CD-ROM, book and toy, hardback book and e-book, etcNumber of pages: 84
ISBN: 9781874045922
The Cathach of Colum Cille: An Introduction is now open access and the electronic version can be dowloaded free of charge from the download area on the right hand side of this page.
The Cathach of St Columba is the oldest extant Irish illuminated manuscript, dating to c. AD 600. The surviving 58 folios contain psalms 30:10 to 105:13. It is understood that Colum Cille copied the manuscript from a psalter lent to him by St Finnian. A dispute over the ownership of the copy was resolved by the King of Tara in a very early copyright ruling in which he stated: ‘To every cow her calf, so to every book its copy’. This full-color 84-page booklet introduces readers to the provenance, art history and biblical content of the manuscript. The accompanying CD-ROM presents the manuscript in digitized form, with a brief overview of its origins and art history. The manuscript folios can be read against a transcription by H.J. Lawlor or an English version of the relevant psalms. High-resolution files allow art historians, calligraphers, palaeographers and other researchers to examine the script and illuminated initials in detail.
Please note that the CD-ROM will only run on a PC.