THE LARGEST EVER loan of historical manuscripts with Irish connections will be on display at the National Museum of Ireland from the end of May.
The 17 manuscripts, which will be on loan from Switzerland, will return to Ireland for the first time in a millennia. Some of the manuscripts were likely written in Ireland or by Irish scribes.
The manuscripts will be at the centre of an exhibition entitled ‘Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe’. The exhibition will focus on early medieval Ireland and its “profound impact on ideas in Europe”, and include over 100 Irish artefacts from the time period.
These will include imported pottery and glass, wax tablets used by scribes, and the only Irish manuscript ever found in a bog—the Faddan More Psalter.
Opening on 30 May at the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street in Dublin, the exhibition will run for four months.
The artefacts have been loaned to the National Museum from Swiss UNESCO World Heritage site Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen. Also known as the Abbey Library of St Gall, the library, which dates from the eight century, holds “one of the world’s most significant collections of early medieval manuscripts”.
St Gall was an Irish monk who travelled to Switzerland and spread Christianity. The manuscripts reflect his work and the work of fellow Irish monk, St Columbanus. Both monks had studied in a monastery in Bangor – the teachings at the monastery said to have been the origin of Ireland’s reputation of being “the land of saints and scholars”.
The manuscripts also highlight Ireland’s connection with Europe and the “Irish thirst for knowledge”.
Another key object that will be on display is the Lough Kinale Book Shrine. The artefact is the earliest and largest container for a sacred book, found broken at the bottom of Longford Lake, and which has now been conserved and will be on display for the first time.
Priscian’s Institutiones Grammaticae, a manuscript that features thousands of scribbles in the margins by the monks in their own language, will also be on display. The more everyday thoughts of the monks are showcased through this book, which include doodles and “grumbles about the Vikings."
Following the exhibition’s four month stint in Dublin, it will be relocated to Switzerland. It is set to open at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich in 2027.