IRISH HAND ABROAD:
Not only did the Irish perfect this script in the schools of their native land, but they carried it with them when they went abroad and taught it in the schools which they founded in foreign countries. Owing to the fact that the Irish schools kept up the tradition of Greek and Latin learning, philologists and palaeographers have studied the development of Irish writing very carefully with a view to determining the dates of classical MSS. which were transcribed by Irish monks or their pupils. The most important of these studies are those made by Keller[297] and Lindsey.[298] The work of these scholars has placed the question of the influence of the Irish style of writing beyond dispute.
“England borrowed it en bloc; and in the Early Middle Ages the Irish missionaries who spread over the continent of Europe and who became the founders of religious houses carried their native script with them and taught it to their pupils. Thus in such centres as Luxeuil in France, Würzburg in Germany, St. Gall in Switzerland, and Bobbio in Italy, Irish writing flourished and MSS. in the Irish hand multiplied. At first there was no difference between the writing in these MSS. and that in the Irish codices actually written in Ireland. But as might be expected the script thus employed in isolated foreign places gradually deteriorated as the bonds with the native hand relaxed and the Irish monks died off.”[299] From these MSS. written in the characteristic Irish script we are able to form some idea, though an inadequate one, of the magnitude and importance of the work done by the Irish monks in preserving the ancient classics. Moreover, in addition to those MSS. described as Scottice Scripta by continental librarians, Zimmer has shown that many of the MSS. ostensibly the work of the continental scholars are in reality the work of Irish monks.[300] The explanation is that those monks who studied on the Continent tried as far as possible to accustom themselves to the forms of the letters used by continental scholars. For instance, this is the case of all the documents written by Moengal at St. Gall between the years 853–860 A.D.[301]