The Wonders of Early Medieval Christian

applyparastyle “fig//caption/p[1]” parastyle “FigCapt” Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 55 2020 Albrecht Classen The University of Arizona 00 The Book of Kells - The Wonders of Early Medieval 00 Christian Manuscript Illuminations Within a Pagan 45 World 70 For a long time now, we have been misled by the general notion that the fall of the 2020 Roman Empire at the end of the fifth century brought about a devastating decline of culture and civilization. The Germanic peoples were allegedly barbaric, and what they created upon the ruins of their predecessors could have been nothing but primitive and little sophisticated. Research has, of course, confirmed already in a variety of approa- ches and many specialized studies that the situation on the ground was very different,1 but it seems rather difficult to deconstruct this mythical notion even today, as much as it needs to be corrected and extensively qualified. Recently, Deborah Deliyannis, Hendrik Dey, and Paolo Squatriti have published a volume treating an intriguing selection of fifty objects that could represent the early Middle Ages, each one of them proving by itself that the arts and technology to produce those objects continued to be extraordinarily sophisticated and impressive, and this well beyond the Roman period and well before the rise of the Gothic era.2 Those objects include ceremonial regalia, mosaic pavements, medallions, coins, stirrups, buildings, fibula, tunics, oil lamps, ships, and castles. The quality and aesthetic appeal of all of them is stunning, but they make up, of course, only a selection and do not reveal the more common conditions of the ordinary people. Nevertheless, how would we identify any culture, including our own, and how would we try to showcase, for instance, the culture of the United States today to other people across the world? We would certainly select the most impressive objects, artworks, technologies, and architectural creations. There is always the good and the bad, and unless we focus on the history of mentality, the history of everyday life, and the history of material objects per se, the preference for the supreme products seems to be a natural decision. Future generations will focus, quite as to be expected, on the masterpieces produced during our time and will judge us on the basis of our accomplishments.3 This theoretical model forces us to consider the situation of the Middle Ages in its relationship to the present and to question what that past world might mean for us today, why we would study medieval culture, and what conclusions we could draw from a more intimate engagement with that past society and its ideas. The purpose here thus will be to go almost as far back as possible in the history of the European Middle Ages and probe what that culture in Ireland, of all places, so far removed from the heartland of the Continent, could teach us regarding our cultural-historical categories, our ca- The online edition of this publication is available open access and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2020 Albrecht Classen https://doi.org/10.3726/med.2019.01.02 56 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 tegories and rubrics regarding the development of civilization at large, and the proper respect also for older societies and their artistic and technological accomplishments. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, things generally changed con- siderably, but we would not be justified suddenly to talk about the ‘dark ages,’ without really understanding what we might mean with that term. Did ‘dark’ imply the disap- pearance of Roman culture and civilization, which did not happen? Did ‘dark’ mean that artisans, artists, architects, scientists, medical doctors, musicians, craftspeople, and many others were no longer around, which was not true at all? Did ‘dark’ mean that society turned back to barbaric customs, with massive slaughter, genocide, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate killing, with no authorities in place to prevent all that or to combat the break-out of global violence? Of course, some violence certainly occurred, as did various wars, plundering, looting, whether we think of the Vikings or the attacks by the Muslim Arabs from the Iberian Peninsula against the Frankish kingdom and elsewhere, whether we consider the war campaigns by the Avars and later the Magyars coming from the Carpathian Basin and aiming against western Europe, or the wars waged by the Byzantine armies against the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and other migrant peoples. The various Germanic peoples were not less military and violent, but we observe all over Europe both the continuity of Roman traditions and the development of new cultural elements. In other words, new national entities emerged and created political and military order, such as the Arabic kingdoms, the Merovingian and then the Carolingian kingdoms, while the Byzantines overcame the Ostrogoths and managed to recapture their authority in northern and southern Italy. In short, the early Middle Ages were a long period of heavy disruptions, profound changes, shifting political alliances, and a sig- nificant transformation of the economic and political structures, as many historians have already pointed out to us. The extent to which individual power entities rose and declined rather rapidly might have motivated previous scholars to talk about the ‘dark ages.’ Much depends on the notion of external threats, for instance. Historians may have overemphasized the military campaigns by the Huns, the Saracens, the Vikings, and other peoples during the early Middle Ages, but future centuries, including our own, also witnessed many attacks from the outside, such as the terrorist attack against the World Trade Tower in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Would we hence call the twenty-first century a period determined by darkness?4 Nevertheless, and this gives us pause to reflect, both as scholars and as a generally interested person, the impact of the Catholic Church since late antiquity was an amazing source of stability and continuity, and this has continued until today. Benedict of Nursia established the first monastery under his authority in Subiaco, Italy, in 529, an institution which from then on spread across Europe, later across the world. The Bene- dictine rules regulating the life in a monastery are best captured by the central motto, “ora et labora,” pray and labor. The monks were supposed to dedicate their lives to the service for God (mass, the liturgy, praying, meditating, studying, etc.), and to physical activities to maintain their lives. In essence, a monastery was supposed to be autar- kic, hence independent from external sources. At the same time, monasteries quickly emerged as major centers of learning and cultural activities. Here we find the earliest scriptoria and thus also libraries, filled with many precious manuscripts containing Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 57 excerpts from the Bible, liturgical texts, prayers, and then also philosophical treati- ses, scientific observations, encyclopedic studies, hymns, and many other texts. Book production, as we might call it already then, was centered on medieval manuscripts. Monasticism quickly disseminated across Italy and then expanded to other parts of Europe. The situation in Ireland was, compared to the Continent, rather different because that island lacked the typical urban centers, had never been conquered by the Romans and maintained its strong Gaelic pagan traditions. By the fifth century, Benedictine missionaries arrived in Ireland, especially Patrick, who had been kidnap- ped from Britain by Irish pirates in his youth, but had then managed six years later to return home. He found his way to Christianity through his own studies and visionary experiences, and he subsequently traveled to Ireland again as the first missionary there. Many aspects of his life and that of his Christian fellows during the fifth century are matters of debate, which do not concern us here. We only need to keep in mind that Christianity began to spread all over the island, although the ancient pagan religion, dominated by druids, continued to exert its influence.5 Early medieval Irish art is dazzling, whether produced by representatives of the old, indigenous religion, or by representatives of the Christian Church, and our discussion will bring to light one of the most amazing phenomena in the history of books. The so-called ‘dark ages,’ both on the Continent and in Ireland, were the cradle of some of the most stunning bibliophile artworks ever produced. Just when most people think that the pinnacle of culture and the arts have been lost and replaced by primitivism and barbarity, whatever those terms might mean in their specific contexts, we are witnesses of some of the most sophisticated and powerful artworks and calligraphy in medieval manuscripts.6 One of those objects that I will discuss here is the famous Book of Kells, produced in the early eighth century and containing the four books of the Gospel, today held by the Trinity College Library in Dublin. The Book of Kells has gained such a reputation today that it is not only a prime object of study by art historians, but it is also appreciated as a national treasure, con- tributing in its own way to the formation of Irish identity today, and this after twel- ve hundred years after its creation.7 There is astounding beauty, profound learning, brilliant artistry, and extraordinary craftsmanship to be found in this ninth-century manuscript. Whatever the general situation in early medieval Ireland might have been like, considering the many incursions by the Vikings, the conflicts between the au- tochthonous religion and culture on the one hand and the new Christian Church on the other, the Book of Kells undoubtedly demonstrates that we have to be very careful with any modern judgments and evaluations of earlier times.

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