Editing Book of Durrow (section)

==History==
[[File:BookDurrowChiRoPage.jpg|thumb|Page with [[Chi-Rho]] Matthew 1:18]]
The book is named after a monastery in [[Durrow, County Offaly|Durrow]], [[County Offaly]], founded by [[Colum Cille]] late in his life, while he was abbot of [[Iona]]. Although Colum Cille founded monasteries in Ireland, Scotland and the early medieval [[Anglo-Saxon]] kingdom [[Northumbria]] in today's Northern England, the rough recent consensus amongst scholars is that the book was produced at Durrow, or at least in Ireland, around 700, although the range of proposed dates around that year is fairly large, and largely dependent on the dating given to other related manuscripts.<ref>Meehan (1996), pp. 17-22</ref><ref name="on14">O'Neill (2014), p. 14</ref>

The [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]] of the book (f. 247r) contains an erased and overwritten note which, according to one interpretation, is by "Colum" who scribed the book, which he said he did in twelve days. This probably relates to the belief that Colum Cille (Saint Columba) had created the book, but its date and authenticity is unclear. Twelve days is a plausible time to scribe one gospel, but not four, still less with all the decoration.<ref>Meehan (1996), pp. 26-28, 2</ref> 

What is known for certain is that [[Flann Sinna]] (877-916), High [[King of Ireland]], commissioned a silver [[cumdach]], a "book-shrine" or metalwork [[reliquary]] for the book.<ref name="m29">Mitchell (1996), p. 29</ref><ref name="on14" />  The shrine is the earliest known cumdach, and was recorded by the [[antiquary]] [[Roderick O'Flaherty]] in 1677, after the MS reached Trinity College, but then disappeared in the disturbances of 1689, when Trinity College was taken over by the military.  By 1699 it had only "a plain brown rough leathern cover".  In the description of 1677, which is now bound into the manuscript as Folio IIv, the cover had a silver cross, an arm of which was inscribed in Irish with the name of the craftsman (not recorded by O'Flaherty) and on the main shaft an inscription "invoking the blessing of St Colum Cille on King Flann, who caused the shrine to be made". Typically, cumdachs were not easily openable, and once in the shrine it was probably rarely if ever removed for use as a book.<ref>Meehan (1996), pp. 13</ref> 

The manuscript was still at Durrow Abbey at some point around 1100, as a note on folio 248v by the Durrow scribe [[Flannchad Ua hEolais]], records the transfer to Durrow Abbey of land by another monastery.<ref>Meehan (1996), pp. 13</ref> The monastery seems physically to have been destroyed after the [[Norman Invasion of Ireland]], its lands passing to [[Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath]], who used the stones in his new castle at the site.<ref name="CathEncy"/> But the monastery may have maintained some sort of existence until the [[Protestant Reformation]], when all monasteries were dissolved in 1547.<ref>Meehan (1996), p. 14</ref><ref>Mitchell (1996), p. 4</ref>

Like other books thought to have been owned or scribed by saints, it was regarded as a relic, in this case of Colum Cille.  It was recorded that by 1627 the un-named custodian of the book ("the Ignorant man that had same in his Custody") used it to cure disease in cattle by immersion in water, which was then given to the cows. The present folios 208 to 221 show particular damage from immersion, and have a hole in the top right corner. Probably this section was detached from the rest, tied with a string through the hole, and used for this purpose.<ref>Meehan (1996), p. 14</ref>

[[File:BookDurrowQuoniam.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Folio]]
At the latest by 1547, when Durrow Abbey was dissolved, the book went into private ownership; whose is unknown.  It was borrowed and studied by [[James Ussher]], probably when he was [[Bishop of Meath]] from 1621 to 1623. In the period 1661 to 1682 it was given to the library at Trinity College, together with the [[Book of Kells]], by [[Henry Jones (bishop)|Henry Jones]] while he was Bishop of Meath.<ref>Meehan (1996), pp. 13-16</ref><ref name="on14" />