HIBERNO-LATIN LITERATURE
Hiberno-Latin literature is the name given to a vast body
of literature written in Ireland or by Irishmen abroad
between the fifth and twelfth centuries. In some cases,
this category includes material with a Welsh, Scottish,
or Western European background. But if it can be shown
that this material appears in manuscripts exhibiting insu-
lar paleographical features, or otherwise has content,
style, or language characteristic of texts of known
Hiberno-Latin provenance, then that also may be
included in the category. The great bulk of Hiberno-
Latin literature has not been preserved, either in Ireland
or in Irish manuscripts; so that it has been rightly said
by Mario Esposito, one of the pioneers in the field, that
“a just appreciation of the nature and extent of Latin
learning in medieval Ireland can only be obtained by a
critical study of the Latin literature produced either in
that country, or by Irishmen who had emigrated to
Britain and the continent” (Esposito 1929). The survival
of these texts in Anglo-Saxon or Continental manu-
scripts, often in copies made centuries after their original
composition, testifies to the influence of Hiberno-Latin
literature throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. Con-
troversy still surrounds the authorship, provenance, and
date of some of them.
The study of rhetoric, as part of the first stage of
the monastic curriculum of grammar, rhetoric and
dialectic, led to the cultivation of various kinds of
composition—more elaborate, ornate composition for
the epistolary style, of which the earliest examples are
the letters of Columbanus, and for the rhetorical intro-
ductions to commentaries, treatises, and hagiographical
compositions. A plainer Latin style was used for texts
which were not meant to be read as literature, but as
legal or instructional documents, such as monastic
rules, penitentials, and canon texts.
The great period of literary activity began in the
seventh century, from which about fifty original works
survive. But the greatest period of productivity was
among the Irish
peregrini
(those living abroad) in the
eighth and ninth centuries, so that the quantity of lit-
erature from the entire period is consequently too
numerous to be listed. Many texts are still in manu-
script or have yet to be properly edited and studied.
Only a handful of works survive from the sixth century.
Grammar
No grammar textbooks survive from before the mid-
seventh century, but some from the later period show
evidence of having been based upon seventh century
originals. Perhaps the earliest are the
Ars Asporii
, a
Christian adaptation of Donatus’s
Ars Minor
, the
Anonymus ad Cuimnanum
and the commentary on
Virgil compiled perhaps by Adomnán. Numerous other
grammar texts, glossaries, and short tracts also survive.Hagiography
The earliest Latin life of an Irish saint is possibly Jonas
of Bobbio’s Life of Columbanus, which, although writ-
ten under the influence of the Irish educational system
on the continent circa 639 to 643, is not Hiberno-Latin.
The earliest Irish hagiographical composition is
Cogitosus’
Vita Brigitae
, the Life of Brigit of Kildare,
written circa 650. The next are Muirchú and Tírechán’s
lives of Patrick, dating between 661 and 700. Adomnán’s
Vita Columbae
was completed circa 700, but perhaps
as early as 692. It is based in part upon living tradition
transmitted to Adomnán by people who had known
Columba (Colum Cille). Cogitosus’ Life of Brigit is
fantastic and is little more than a catalogue of miracles
and stories of the marvellous, whereas Muirchú’s Life
of Patrick is an attempt to form a consecutive narrative
out of the disparate traditions relating to Patrick. There
are fragments also of an early life of Brigit called the
Vita Prima
, which may have been written by Ailerán
of Clonard (d. 665), a biblical scholar. Some of the
later Irish
Vitae
may be based on earlier material.Monastic Rules
The earliest now surviving is that of Columbanus of
Luxeuil (d. 615), a very strict Rule modeled upon that
written for the early foundation of Bangor, County
Down, by Comgall (d. 602). The Rule of Comgall itself
does not survive, but it is listed among other Irish
monastic rules in a ninth-century catalogue of manu-
scripts from the medieval library of Fulda. Some docu-
ments from the British church may be even earlier than
these. The anonymous Rule known as
Regula cuiusdam
patris ad monachos
(The rule of a certain father for his
monks) was written on the Continent sometime in the
late seventh century by an Irishman. Both it and the
lengthy
Regula Magistri,
as has been recently sug-
gested, are Continental-Irish adaptations of the Colum-
banian rule to the milder rule of Benedict of Nursia.Penitentials
Penitentials are booklets prescribing certain penances
for various categories of sins, both for monks and
laymen. The penitentials for laymen were both for
monastic tenants (
manaigh
) or ordinary lay persons
being ministered to by monastic clergy. The earliest
penitential is that of Finnian of Clonard, which dates
to the first half of the sixth century. Columbanus’HIBERNO-LATIN LITERATURE