ARMIESigiturprayer of the Roman canon. Gregory was espe-
cially revered in the early Irish Church, as was Martin
of Tours, and some authorities have claimed that the
text of the Vita Martiniin the Book of Armagh was
transmitted to Ireland within half a century of Sulpicius
Severus’s death (410).
Whereas the Patrician section is undecorated, the
four gospels are elaborated with large and small ini-
tials, often with bird- or animal-heads and spirals,
and pen-and-ink drawings of the evangelist symbols,
while some initials in the third (Martinian) section
are also elaborated. Initials towards the end of the
book, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and
the Life of St. Martin, are colored. On folio 170r.
there is a diagrammatic representation of Jerusalem,
the walls of which are decorated with interlace in the
Irish style. The closing texts of John’s Gospel and
the opening of the Apocalypse are written in spec-
tacular diamond-shaped patterns of exquisite callig-
raphy. There are some individual Latin words written
in transliterated Greek.
The Book of Armagh is important also as the oldest
dateable Irish manuscript containing continuous prose
texts in the Irish language. Its value for linguists is
therefore exceptionally high. Passages from the Patri-
cian dossier also preserve the oldest surviving evidence
for the use of charters to record land and property
transactions in early Ireland. So also, Ferdomnach’s
scribal note Scripsi hunc ut potui librum(“I have writ-
ten this book as best I could,” folio 18v.) is likewise
the earliest dateable example of Irish Latin hexameter
verse.
Despite its substantial contents, the Book’s small
dimensions, and the arrangement of the gatherings,
suggest that it was intended originally to be used as
six separate booklets. Superficially akin to the well-
known Irish class of “pocket gospels,” it is unlikely
that the gospels (or the entire New Testament sections)
were used for liturgical or ceremonial purposes. A pair
of wooden boards, apparently from an early binding,
still survives, which may at some earlier date (perhaps
already in the ninth century) have formed the cover of
the New Testament or some other part of the manu-
script. On the other hand, its exalted status was the
reason why, in 1004, when Brian Boru visited Armagh
in the course of a triumphal circuit around Ireland, he
had his secretary (Calvus Perennis, alias Máel-
Suthain) insert a note in the Book claiming Brian as
imperator Scottorum(“emperor of the Irish”).
The earliest datable reference to the Book of
Armagh is preserved in the (seventeenth-century)
Annals of the Four Masters, who record that in 937 a
shrine or case (cumdach) was provided for the Book
by Donnchad mac Flainn, King of Ireland. In the fif-
teenth century, the Book was provided with a leather
carrying-satchel, which still survives. At some
unknown date the hereditary office of “Steward of the
Canon” was created to ensure the safekeeping of the
manuscript. It seems to have passed from the posses-
sion of the keepers sometime after 1680 into the hands
of Arthur Brownlow of Lurgan (County Armagh), and
was eventually deposited by a member of the Brown-
low family in the library of the Royal Irish Academy,
in Dublin. In 1853 it was donated, after purchase, to
the Library of Trinity College Dublin.
DÁIBHÍÓ CRÓINÍNReferences and Further Reading
Gwynn, John, ed. Liber Ardmachanus. (The Book of Armagh).
Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1913.
Kenney, James F. The Sources for the Early History of Ireland:
Ecclesiastical. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929.
Gwynn, E. J., ed. Book of Armagh, the Patrician documents.
Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1937.
Alexander, J. J. G. Insular manuscripts, 6th to the 9th century.
Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 1,
no. 53. London: Harvey Miller, 1978.
Bieler, Ludwig, ed. The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh.
Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 10. Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1979.
See alsoAnnals of the Four Masters; Armagh;
Brian Boru; Devotional and Liturgical Literature;
Manuscript Illumination; Patrick; ReliquariesARMIES
Armies in Ireland trace their origins to the legendary
Fianna and their leader Finn mac Cumaill. From at
least the eleventh century, the Irish kings maintained
small permanent fighting forces later known as their
teaghlach orlucht tighe—meaning “troops of the
household.” These were well-equipped and were
divided into footmen and marcshluag (cavalry). Highly
skilled professional soldiers, they were often given
houses and lands among the king’s mensal lands. It
was clear that, from the reign of Brian Boru (d. 1014),
Irish kings could take large forces of spearmen,
swordsmen, archers, slingers, and horsemen on cam-
paign, often combining them in operations with naval
forces. To put such forces into the field, Irish kings
must have developed an extensive support network to
maintain, arm, and feed their troops on campaign. The
size of these armies and the destructive scale of Irish
warfare were aptly demonstrated in 1151 at the battle
of Móin Mór, where seven thousand soldiers fell, if
the annals are to be believed. What characterized Irish
warfare during this period was the rapid mobility of
armies. For example, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (d. 1198)
developed large forces of highly mobile and well-
armed horsemen—mainly drawn from the upperclasses