works include the so-called Proverbia Graecorum and
the Sententia Ciceronis de virtutibus et vitiis (drawn
from De inventione), excerpts from Cicero’s orations
and his works on rhetoric, and passages from Vegetius,
Valerius Maximus, Frontinus, and the Scriptores His-
toriae Augustae. Patristic works include Augustine,
Ambrose, Jerome, Lactantius, and Cassiodorus.
Sedulius’s poems, more than any other of his writ-
ings, have attracted the most attention in modern times.
His mastery of a variety of meters set him apart from
his Irish contemporaries, the Sapphic being particu-
larly favoured next to the heroic and elegiac; examples
of rhythmical verses are few. Most of the poems are
panegyrics to rulers and influential clergy, especially
Hartgar, but two poems have attracted attention for
their charm and wit: the De certamine liliae et rosae
(“Debate between the Lily and the Rose”) and an
amusing poem, De quodam verbece a cane discerpto
(“On a Wether Mangled by a Dog”). Sedulius’s glosses
on classical poets in the miscellany found in Bern 363
are identifiable—a hint that they may have been
drawn from lost full commentaries, or at least scholia
collections.
MICHAEL W. HERREN
References and Further Reading
Bischoff, Bernhard. “Irische Schreiber im Karolingerreich.” In
Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde
und Literaturgeschichte. 3 vols. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersmann,
1967–1981, 3: 39–54.
Contreni, John. “The Irish in the Western Carolingian Empire
(According to James F. Kenney and Bern, Burgerbibliothek,
363).” In Die Iren und Europa im früheren Mittelalter, edited
by Heinz Löwe. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1982, [Teilband 2]
758–798.
Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: le moyen âge, edited by
Robert Bossuat, Louis Pichard, and Guy Raynaud de Lage.
2nd edition. Paris: Fayard, [1991], 1371–1372.
Düchting, Reinhard. Sedulius Scottus, Seine Dichtungen.
Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1968.
Frede, Hermann Josef. Pelagius, Der irische Paulustext, Sedulius
Scottus. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1961.
Godman, Peter. Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and
Carolingian Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Hellmann, Sigmund. Sedulius Scottus. Quellen und Untersu-
chungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters 1.
Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1906.
Kenney, J. F. The Sources for the Early History of Ireland.
Ecclesiastical: An Introduction and Guide. Records of Civ-
ilization 11. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929;
revised by L. Bieler, 1966, 553–569.
Lapidge, Michael, and Richard Sharpe. A Bibliography of
Celtic-Latin Literature 400–1200. Dublin: Royal Irish Acad-
emy, 1985.
Löfstedt, Bengt, editor. Sedulius Scottus. Kommentar zum Evan-
gelium nach Matthaus. Aus der Geschichte der lateinischen
Bible 14. 2 vols. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1989.
Meyer, Jean, editor. Sedulii Scotti Carmina. Corpus Christianorum
Continuatio Mediaevalis 117. Turnhout: Brepols, 1991.
Simpson, D. W., editor. Sedulii Scotti Collectaneum miscel-
laneum. Corpus Christianorym Continuatio Mediaevalis 67.
Turnhout: Brepols, 1988.
See also Biblical and Patristic Scholarship; Canon
Law; Classical Influence; Devotional and Liturgical
Literature; Ériugena, John Scottus; Glosses;
Grammatical Treatises; Hiberno-Latin; Metrics;
Moral and Religious Instruction; Poetry, LatinSERFS
See Society, Anglo-Norman Grades ofSHEELA-NA-GIG
A sheela-na-gig (which may translate as “Síle of the
breasts”) is a medieval female exhibitionist figure posed
in a manner that displays and emphasizes the geni-
talia. Their background is to be found in European
Romanesque churches, particularly those located
along pilgrimage routes in France and Spain, where a
range of male and female exhibitionist figures and
related carvings are found that served to alert the faith-
ful to the dangers of the sin of lust. Emphasis on the
genitalia, which are usually enlarged, may relate to the
church’s teaching that sinners were punished in hell
through the bodily organs by which they had offended.
By contrast with the Continental carvings, most of
the Irish sheela-na-gigs are isolated figures located on
buildings that are otherwise sculpturally plain. Carved
in stone, they were placed on churches, castles, and
town walls, located usually near a door or window or
on quoins. Some variations in pose exist but it is by
no means certain whether these have any real signifi-
cance. In general, sheela-na-gigs appear to be evenly
divided between those which seem to be standing and
those that may be seated. The legs may be splayed
widely or, alternatively, the thighs may be splayed but
with the heels together. In some cases the legs appear
not to have been represented at all. The commonest
position of the arms is that whereby the hands are
placed in front with a gesture towards the abdomen or,
more explicitly, towards the pudenda. The hands may
join in front of the genitalia or may be shown gripping
the pudenda. In some instances the arms are placed
behind the thighs. Irish sheela-na-gigs occur predom-
inantly within or adjoining areas of heavy Anglo-
Norman settlement in north Munster, Ossory (the Co.
Kilkenny area), and the midlands, being virtually
absent from the far west and north of the island. One
of the most westerly examples, that from Aghagower,
County Mayo, is located along a pilgrim’s road to
Croagh Patrick. The earliest Irish examples are located
on churches where they fulfilled a purpose similar to theSEDULIUS SCOTTUS