Codex
Overall appearance/size (folio, quarto, octavo, manual): The Book of Durrow may be an octavo codex, if one uses the standard sizes where an octavo manuscript is between 8 and 10 inches tall. The Book of Durrow is approximately 9.5 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide. It may also be manual, as it is an unusual size for the time period being tall and skinny.
Covers (clasps, material, decoration, text on the spine, press-mark): King Flann Sinna (879-916) had a cumdach (a cover or “portable shrine”) made for it in honor of St Columba. “The Durrow shrine was lost during the period of military occupation of Trinity College in 1689, the book being left with only ‘a plain brown rough leathern cover’, as Narcissus Marsh, then archbishop of Dublin, described it in 1699” (Meehan, 1996, p. 13).
Structure (number and composition of gatherings, disposition of hair and flesh sides of parchment/vellum), number of folios, list blank folios: The Book of Durrow consists of 248 folios of “calfskin vellum which… was variable in texture and colour and was made up in highly irregular gathering sizes” (Meehan, 1996).
“Examination of the manuscript revealed that it was written for the most part in gatherings of ten leaves, but there was considerable variation, and some of the decorative pages were on single leaves” (Calkins, 1983, p. 33-36). In 1954, the manuscript was taken apart and rebound. Examination of the manuscript at this time showed that the book was definitely not in the original order. “The original quiring has been lost, the manuscript had been whip-stitched into artificial gatherings of six leaves each” (Meehan, 1996, p. 74).
“The artist chose the flesh side of the skin for carpet pages and pages at the opening of the Gospels, but used the hair side for three of the symbols, the Man, the Eagle and the Calf. A pronounced follicle pattern can be seen on many pages” (Meehan, 1996, p. 76).
Folio 248r may have been blank at one point, but it is now a carpet page “composed of ‘lattice’ work with crosses…. This is a most unorthodox position, at least insofar as can be judged from surviving examples of insular Gospel books, and it may represent later work” (Meehan, 1996, p. 36-38).
Book plates or other signs of ownership (arms, etc), dates or evidence of provenance: There is a notitia or aide-memoire on folio 248r that “records the ceding to the monastery of Durrow of land belonging to the monastery of Glenn Uissen in County Carlow” (Meehan, 1996, p. 14).
A portion of the book (folios 208-221) was used to cure sick cattle in the seventeenth century. “A hole in the top right corner prompted the suggestion that a string was run through the leaves and the section hung on a nail when not in use. These leaves show particular signs of water damage, there is considerable depletion of ink, and the vellum has become quite translucent” (Meehan, 1996, p. 14-16).
The leaves were refoliated after the rebinding of 1954 by a British Museum staff member; “this can be seen in the top right corner of each leaf” (Meehan, 1996, p. 76).
Tomorrow, more about the physical aspects of the Book of Durrow.
References
Book of Durrow. (2006). In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved Sept 6, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Durrow.
Calkins, R.G. (1983). Illuminated books of the middle ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
De Hamel, C. (1994). A history of illuminated manuscripts. London: Phaidon Press.
Diringer, D. (1982). The book before printing: ancient, medieval, and oriental. New York: Dover.
Drogin, M. (1989). Medieval calligraphy: its history and technique. New York: Dover.
Harbison, P. (2005). Durrow – Monasterium Nobile. Irish Arts Review, 22(2), Retrieved Sept 6, 2006, from http://www.irishartsreview.com/html/vol22_no2/durrow/durrow_feature.htm.
Henderson, G. (1987). From durrow to kells: the insular gospel-books 650-800. London: Thames and Hudson.
Martin, H. (1994). The history and power of writing. (L.G. Cochrane, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1988)
Meehan, B. (1996). The book of durrow: a medieval masterpiece at trinity college dublin. Dublin: Townhouse.
Muir, B.J., Kennedy, N., and Smith, G. (2003). Ductus [Electronic resource]. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.
Vulgate. (2006). In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved Oct 3, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate.