DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47496#0109
METAL- WOJ?K.
89
could not be increased by gold or precious stones; but a
box was made on which was lavished all the artist’s skill,
and in this the sacred relic was preserved. One case, that
called the Cathach, was fastened so that the book was hermeti-
cally sealed from view; and into the minds of its possessors, the
chieftains of Tirconnell, a superstitious fear was instilled that
some great calamity would befall them were the case once opened.
Such precautions may be accounted for by the worn condition of
the manuscript, and by the fact that its keepers were not eccle-
siastics who could read the book, but chieftains who had the
shrine carried before them in battle by one who wore it as a
breastplate.
The first cumdach we read of, the date of which can be fixed
by any historical authority, was made for the “ Book of Durrow,”
by the king of Ireland, Flann Sinna, son of Malachy, who
reigned between the years 877 and 916. This is now lost, but it
was seen by Roderic O’Flaherty in 1677, who wrote the following
memorandum on the ssy-leaf of the Gospel it was made to en-
shrine, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin:
Inscriptio Hibernicis literis incisa cruci argentere in operimento hujus
Libri in transversa crucis parte nomen artificis indicat; et in longitudine tribus
lineis a sinistra et totidem dextra, ut sequitur :—
Oroit acus Bendacht choluimb chille do Flaund macc Maelsechnaill do
rig Herenn lasandernad acumdachso.
(Columb Cille’s prayer and blessing sor Fland, son of Maelsechnaill,
for the King of Ireland, by whom this case was made.)
The next cumdach recorded is that which was made in the
beginning of the tenth century, for the manuscript now known as
the “ Book of Armagh,” and which contains several ecclesiastical
writings, as well as the whole of the New Testament. It was
called the “ Canon of Patrick; ” and in the “ Annals of Four
Masters ” we read :
“A.D. 937. Canoin Phadraig was covered by Donchadh, son of Flann,
King of Ireland.”
89
could not be increased by gold or precious stones; but a
box was made on which was lavished all the artist’s skill,
and in this the sacred relic was preserved. One case, that
called the Cathach, was fastened so that the book was hermeti-
cally sealed from view; and into the minds of its possessors, the
chieftains of Tirconnell, a superstitious fear was instilled that
some great calamity would befall them were the case once opened.
Such precautions may be accounted for by the worn condition of
the manuscript, and by the fact that its keepers were not eccle-
siastics who could read the book, but chieftains who had the
shrine carried before them in battle by one who wore it as a
breastplate.
The first cumdach we read of, the date of which can be fixed
by any historical authority, was made for the “ Book of Durrow,”
by the king of Ireland, Flann Sinna, son of Malachy, who
reigned between the years 877 and 916. This is now lost, but it
was seen by Roderic O’Flaherty in 1677, who wrote the following
memorandum on the ssy-leaf of the Gospel it was made to en-
shrine, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin:
Inscriptio Hibernicis literis incisa cruci argentere in operimento hujus
Libri in transversa crucis parte nomen artificis indicat; et in longitudine tribus
lineis a sinistra et totidem dextra, ut sequitur :—
Oroit acus Bendacht choluimb chille do Flaund macc Maelsechnaill do
rig Herenn lasandernad acumdachso.
(Columb Cille’s prayer and blessing sor Fland, son of Maelsechnaill,
for the King of Ireland, by whom this case was made.)
The next cumdach recorded is that which was made in the
beginning of the tenth century, for the manuscript now known as
the “ Book of Armagh,” and which contains several ecclesiastical
writings, as well as the whole of the New Testament. It was
called the “ Canon of Patrick; ” and in the “ Annals of Four
Masters ” we read :
“A.D. 937. Canoin Phadraig was covered by Donchadh, son of Flann,
King of Ireland.”