The Annals of Ulster are a chronicle of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 and AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhri Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the province of Ulster. Later entries (up to AD 1540) were added by others.
(Schottenklöster) meaning Scottish monasteries in German, is the name applied to the monastic foundations of Irish and Scottish missionaries in Continental Europe, particularly to the Scottish Benedictine monasteries in Germany, which in the beginning of the thirteenth century were combined into one congregation whose abbot-general was the Abbot of the monastery of St. James at Ratisbon. The first Schottenklöster of which we have any knowledge was Säckingen in Baden, founded by the Irish missionary, St. Fridolin, towards the end of the fifth century. The same missionary is said to have founded a Schottenklöster at Constance. A century later Saint Columbanus arrived on the continent with twelve companions and founded Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines in France, Bobbio in Italy. During the seventh century the disciples of Columbanus and other Irish and Scottish missionaries founded a long list of monasteries in what is now France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. The best known are: St. Gall in Switzerland, Disibodenberg in the Rhine Palatinate, St. Paul's at Besançon, Lure and Cusance in the Diocese of Besançon, Beze in the Diocese of Langres, Remiremont and Moyenmoutier in the Diocese of Toul, Fosses in the Diocese of Liege, Mont-St-Michel at Peronne, Ebersmunster in Lower Alsace, St. Martin at Cologne.
The rule of Saint Columbanus, which was originally followed in most of these monasteries, was soon superseded by that of St. Benedict. Later Gaelic missionaries founded Honau in Baden (about 721), Murbach in Upper Alsace (about 727), Altomunster in Upper Bavaria (about 749), while other Gaelic monks restored St. Michel in Thiérache (940), Walsort near Namur (945), and, at Cologne, the Monasteries of St. Clement (about 953), St. Martin (about 980), St. Symphorian (about 990), and St. Pantaléon (1042). Towards the end of the eleventh and in the twelfth century, a number of Schottenklöster, intended for Scottish and Irish monks exclusively, sprang up in Germany. About 1072, three Scottish monks, Marianus, Iohannus, and Candidus, took up their abode at the little Church of Weih-St-Peter at Ratisbon. The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 787 AD (Asturias).
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The Annals of Inisfallen are a chronicle of the medieval history of Ireland. There are more than 2,500 entries spanning the years between AD 433 and AD 1450, but it is believed to have been written between the 12th and 15th centuries. It was written by the monks of Inisfallen Abbey, on Innisfallen Island on Lough Leane, near Killarney. As well as the chronological entries, the manuscript contains a short, fragmented narrative of the history of pre-Christian Ireland, known as the pre-Patrician section. This section has many elements in common with Lebor Gabála Érenn. |
Outside the sphere of influence of Charlemagne and his successors, however, the new legible hand was resisted by the Roman Curia (sic) Vatican; nevertheless the Romanesca type was developed in Rome after the 10th century. The script was not taken up in England and Ireland until ecclesiastic reforms in the middle of the tenth century; in Spain and the kingdom of the Picts, a traditionalist Visigothic hand survived; and in southern Italy a 'Beneventan minuscule' survived in the lands of the Lombard Duchy of Benevento through the thirteenth century, although Romanesca eventually also appeared in southern Italy. Codices, pagan and Christian texts, and educational material were written in Carolingian minuscule throughout the Carolingian Renaissance. The script developed into Blackletter (Gothic script) and became obsolete, though it forms the basis of more recent scripts. Blackletter form was a script of Gothic although without its alphabet was used from 1150-1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Textualis, a calligraphic form most widely used in France, the Low Countries, England, and Germany.
Emperor Charlemagne sent for the English scholar Alcuin
of York to run his palace school and scriptorium at his capital, Aachen.
Since the dawin of recorded history, the town of Aachen, located where modern
Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet, has been a worship site. Many other
Celtic toponyms are identifiable in the immediate locale. During the Middle Ages
Aachen was one of the largest cities of the Empire. The Celtic healing god Granus
was worshipped at the Aachen springs. King
Peppin, the father of Charlemagne, built his capital at Aachen and constructed
the cathedral over the ancient Roman well and sanctuary.
Carolingian
or Caroline minuscule used in Charlemagne's empire between approximately 800 and
1200. The script began to decline slowly after the 9th century. In the 10th and
11th centuries, ligatures were rare, and ascenders began to slant to the right
and were finished with a fork. The letter w also began to appear. By the 12th
century, Carolingian letters became more angular and were written closer together,
less legibly than in previous centuries; at the same time, the modern dotted i
appeared. The script ultimately developed from Roman Half Uncial and its cursive
version, which had given rise to various Continental minuscule scripts, combined
with features from the "Insular" scripts that were being used in Irish and English
monasteries. Traditional charters for example continued to be written in a Merovingian
"chancery hand" long after manuscripts of Scripture and classical literature were
being produced in the minuscule hand. Documents written in a local language, in
Gothic or Anglo-Saxon
rather than Latin, tended to be expressed in traditional local handwritings.
The Ada Gospels is a late eighth century or early ninth century Carolingian
Gospel Book. The manuscript contains a dedication to Charlemagne's sister Ada,
from whence it gets its name. The manuscript is written on vellum in Carolingian
minuscule. The manuscript is illuminated. Its illuminations include an elaborate
initial page for the Gospel of Matthew and portraits of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
The illuminations show both Insular and
Byzantine influences.
Caroline minuscule reached far afield: the
10th century Freising manuscripts, the first Roman-script record of any Slavic
language, which contain the oldest Slovene language are written in Carolingian
minuscule. In Switzerland, Carolingian was used in the Rhaetian and Alemannic
minuscule types. In Switzerland, Carolingian was used in the Rhaetian and Alemannic
minuscule types. Manuscripts written in Rhaetian minuscule tend to have slender
letters, resembling Insular script,
with the letters a and t, and ligatures such as ri, showing similar to Visigothic
and Beneventan. Alemannic minuscule, used for a short time in the early 9th century,
is usually larger and broader, very vertical compared to the slanting Rhaetian
type. In Austria, Salzburg was
the major centre of Carolingian script, while Fulda, Mainz, and Würzburg
were the major centres in Germany.
English blackletter developed from
the form of Caroline minuscule used there after the Norman Conquest, sometimes
called "Romanesque minuscule." Textualis forms developed after 1190 and were used
most often until approximately 1300, afterwards being used mainly for de luxe
manuscripts. English cursiva began to be used in the 13th century, and soon replaced
littera oxoniensis as the standard university script. Italian blackletter is also
known as rotunda, as it was less angular than in northern centres. The most usual
form of Italian rotunda was littera bononiensis, used at the University of Bologna
in the 13th century. Italian Rotunda is also characterized by unique abbreviations,
such as q with a line beneath the bow signifying "qui", and unusual spellings,
such as x for s.
Book of Hours -The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux
was created between 1324 and 1328 by Jean Pucelle for Jeanne d'Evreux, the third
wife of Charles IV of France. In the middle of the Hundred
Years War and serious internal conflicts, John was a consensual figure in
France.
In the 13th century Paris there was also an extremely small
version of textualis used to write miniature Bibles, known as "pearl script."
French cursiva was used from the 13th to the 16th century, when it became
highly looped, messy, and slanted. Bastarda, the "hybrid" mixture of cursiva
and textualis, developed in the 15th century and was used for vernacular texts
as well as Latin since there are 300 enriched capital letters. A more angular
form of bastarda was used in Burgundy,
the lettre de forme or lettre bourgouignonne, for books of hours such as the Très
Riches Heures of John, Duke of Berry. Each illustration is surmounted with its
appropriate hemisphere showing a solar chariot, the signs and degrees of the zodiac,
and numbering the days of the month and the martyrological letters for the ecclesiastic
lunar calendar.
The formata form of English cursiva was used until the 15th century
and was also used to write vernacular texts. An Anglicana bastarda form developed
from a mixture of Anglicana and textualis, but by the 16th century the principal
cursive blackletter used in England was the Secretary script and its forms of
the letters a, g, r, and s are unique, unlike any forms in any other English script.
Despite the frequent association of blackletter with German, the script
was actually very slow to develop in German-speaking areas. It developed first
in those areas closest to France and then spread to the east and south in the
13th century. The German-speaking areas are where blackletter remained in use
the longest. German cursiva is generally similar to the cursive scripts in other
areas, but forms of "a", "s" and other letters are more varied; here too the letter
"w" is often used. A hybrida form, which was basically cursiva with fewer looped
letters and with similar square proportions as textualis, was used in the 15th
and 16th centuries.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries most Schottenklöster
monasteries were on the decline since the merge of Hiberno-Scottish
mission, partly for want of Scotch or Irish monks, partly on account of great
laxity of discipline and financial difficulties. In consequence, the abbeys of
Nuremberg and Vienna were withdrawn from the Scottish congregation and repeopled
by German monks in 1418. The Abbey of St. Jacob Würzburg was left without
any monks after the death of Abbot Philip in 1497. It was then repeopled by German
monks and in 1506 joined the congregation of Bursfeld. The abbey of Constance
began to decline in the first half of the fifteenth century and was suppressed
in 1530. That of Memmingen also disappeared during the early period of the Protestant
Reformation. In consequence of the Protestant
Reformation in Scotland many Scottish Benedictines left their country and
took refuge in the Schottenklöster of Germany during the sixteenth century.
The Scottish monasteries in Ratisbon, Erfurt, and Würzburg again began to
flourish temporarily, but all endeavors to regain the monasteries of Nuremberg,
Vienna, and Constance for monks of Scottish nationality were useless. In 1692
Abbot Placidus Flemming of Ratisbon reorganized the Scotch congregation which
In 1595, however, it was restored to the Scottish congregation and continued to
be occupied by Scottish monks until its suppression in 1803.