Celtic (600-900)

Celtic manuscripts based on the Old Latin and Jerome’s Latin translation with old English interlinear summaries in Britain's pre Roman Catholic Christianity. These  were Gospel books and books of Psalms produced by Irish monks. Examples include the Book of Kells, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Book of Darrow among others. Features include zoomorphic figures struggling. Script for the text is referred to as insular. The Viking raids on the monastery on the Isle of Lindisfarne in Northumbria in 793 are recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles. The Vikings came for the gold and silver artifacts and therefore did not plunder the the Gospel Book at Lindisfarne, which is now in the British Museum in London. BBC broadcast on early medieval church history is here. Also, read Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization for insights on the period.

Lindisfarne Gospels, Cotton MS Nero D IV, British Museum, circa late 600s - early 700s