Pindar Press - publishers of art history and archaeology

Medieval Western

Studies in the Layout, Buildings and Art in Stone of Early Irish Monasteries

by Michael Herity

24 x 17 cm 325 pp. 144 illus.
£130.00
Publication: 1995
ISBN 0 907132 81 2
Buckram Bound

Professor Herity is one of the leading archaeologists in the Early Christian period in Ireland. These papers document a sustained interest in the early development of Irish Christian monasteries and hermitages between the years 400 and 700. Major concerns include the form and layout, buildings and other monuments of these early foundations, particularly those on islands in the Atlantic, most of which were founded before 600. Examination of their cross-carved slabs and pillars has led to a study of the forms of the Tomb of the Founder Saint and the characteristic pilgrimage round known in Irish as an Turas and still performed today. The development of ideas based on the pioneer work of Françoise Henry is documented in two papers on Fechin's hermitage at Ardoiléan or High Island off the Galway coast in 1977 and 1990. Recent papers are also concerned with the forms of the Chi-rho and other early crosses in the insular context.

Contents

Preface
The High Island Hermitage
The Buildings and Layout of Early Irish Monasteries before the Year 1000
The Layout of Irish Early Christian Monasteries
The Ornamented Tomb of the Saint at Ardoiléan, Co. Galway
Early Irish Hermitages in the Light of the Lives of Cuthbert
The Antiquity of an Turas (the Pilgrimage Round) in Ireland
Cathair na Naomh and its Cross-slabs
Carpet Pages and Chi-rhos
Building in Unmortared Stone to the Early Christian Period in Ireland
The Hermitage on Ardoiléan, county Galway
The Forms of the Tomb-shrine of the Founder Saint in Ireland
The Chi-Rho and Other Early Cross-forms in Ireland
Early Christian Decorated Slabs in Donegal
Additional Notes
Index