Dear Margaret,
I missed your original posting so this information may well be redundant by
now. Timothy O'Neill, The Irish Hand (Dolmen Press, Portlaoise, 1984) is a
very useful introduction to Irish paleography which gives representative
samples of script from the 6th to the 17th centuries. His general
introduction provides a summary of the development of the various Irish
scripts while his commentary on each plate draws attention to particular
developments in the course of time. He also gives a bibliography.You might
also like to glance through Peritia: Journal of the Medieval Academy of
Ireland which regularly carries articles on this topic.
I am not a paleographer, but noticed in the course of my work on the Irish
Franciscans between the 13th and 15th centuries that liturgical,
hagiographical and legislative texts written in Latin were written in a
standard continental bookhand while texts in the vernacular were written in
the characteristic Irish miniscule script. I have a clear memory of a set
of Franciscans statutes (Bodleian Library, Oxford, Rawlison MS c.320)
written by Friar Donal O'Cahalan for the Observant community at Adare in Co.
Limerick in 1482, in which the Latin text of the statutes were written in
standard bookhand and the Irish language glosses and colophon were written
in Irish miniscule. This very beautiful script was used for producing Irish
language texts until the 1960s and in the 17th century was used by the Irish
Franciscans in Louvain as the model for the typeface which they used to
print Irish language books.
Hope this helps
Colman O'Clabaigh, O.S.B.
Glenstal Abbey,
Murroe,
Co. Limerick,
Ireland
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