PENS:
The beauty, neatness, and perfect uniformity of the handwriting in old Irish MSS. have led some antiquarians to express an opinion that the scribes used metal pens; but such an opinion is quite untenable. Keller has shown that the pens were made from the quills of geese, swans, crows, and other birds.[288] This is also the opinion of Miss Stokes.[289] One of the pictures in the Book of Kells confirms this view. This is a picture representing St. John the Evangelist engaged in writing the Gospel. He holds a pen in his hand the feather of which can be clearly detected.[290] The inkstand is also represented by a slender conical cup fastened to the corner of the chair on which he is sitting or upon a stick stuck in the ground.
The old scribes sometimes wrote with the book resting upon the knees using a flat board for support. But when writing became more elaborate and ornamental a desk was used and, if necessary, a maulstick to support the wrist.[291]
THE SCRIBE:
In almost every monastery there was at least one especially expert scribe who was selected partly because of his scholarship, and partly because of his skill in penmanship. Outside of the time set apart for religious exercises the scribe devoted almost his whole time to the work of copying and multiplying books. At a time when there were no printed books we can easily imagine the important part played by the scribe in the educational life of the monastery.
Not only did the scribes produce the necessary books for class use, but by their indefatigable industry they preserved those valuable relics of the past—a large mass of historical records and numerous specimens of the literature of ancient times. To copy a book was considered a highly meritorious work, especially if it were a part of the Scriptures, or any other book on sacred or devotional subjects.[292] The scribe was therefore highly honoured. The Brehon Laws prescribed the same penalty for the murder of a scribe as for that of an abbot or bishop and, as we pointed out,[293] the Annals in recording the death of a man otherwise learned or eminent whether bishop, abbot, priest, or lay professor considered it an enhancement of his dignity to add that he was an excellent scribe, scribhneoir tocchaidhe. The Four Masters record the obits of 61 eminent scribes before the year 900 A.D. of whom 40 lived between 700 and 800 A.D. One has only to glance at some of the MSS. that have come down to us to realise what excellent penmen these ancient scribes were. Such skill could only be acquired after years of careful training. As will be shown later the scribe was an accomplished artist as well as an expert penman.
IRISH SCRIPT:
The Irish style of writing played an important part in development not only of the modern Irish hand, but of the style of writing practised for centuries in England and to some extent on the Continent also, hence the necessity of giving a brief account of its history. There is little doubt that Ireland modelled her national script on the Roman half-uncial hand, but, as Reeves has pointed out, the Greek and Roman letters as written by the Irish scribes mutually affected each other and gave the Irish alphabet, especially in the capitals that peculiar form which distinguishes it from all others.[294] The Roman half-uncial hand, however, was the basis from which the characteristic Irish had developed. In the words of a recognised authority,[295] “The Irish scribe adopted the Roman half-uncial script and then with his own innate sense of beauty of form he produced from it the handsome literary hand which culminated in the native half-uncial writing as seen in perfection in the Book of Kells and contemporary MSS. of the latter part of the seventh century. But the round half-uncial hand thus formed was too elaborate for the ordinary uses of life. It was necessary to produce a script that would serve all the duties of a current hand. Therefore, taking the Roman half-uncial hand the Irish scribe adapted it to commoner uses, and writing the letters more negligently he evolved the compact, pointed minuscule hand which became the current form of handwriting of the country and which again in its turn was in the course of time moulded into the book hand which superseded the half-uncial.” The absence of an extraneous influence was an important factor in aiding the development of a strongly characteristic national hand which ran its uninterrupted course down to the late Middle Ages and is still retained with slight variations in the writing of Modern Irish. The high degree of cultivation of Irish writing did not result from the genius of single individuals, but from the emulation of various schools of writing and the improvements of several generations. “There is not a single letter in the entire alphabet which does not give evidence both in the general form and in its minutest parts of the sound judgment and taste of the penman.”[296]