Global InformationDomnach Airgid information
| Domhnach Airgid | |
|---|---|
 14th century front cover | |
| Material | Yew-wood, copper, silver |
| Size | height 23cm, width 16.7cm, depth 9.8cm. |
| Created | 8th or 9th century, added to in the mid-14th century, 15th century, and after |
| Discovered | County Fermanagh, Ireland[1] |
| Present location | National Museum of Ireland, Dublin |
The Domnach Airgid ([ˈd̪ˠõːnax ˈaɾʲəɟədʲ]; also Domhnach Airgid, English: Silver Church or Shrine of Saint Patrick's Gospels)[2] is an 8th-century Irish wooden reliquary. It was considerably reworked between the 13th and 15th centuries and became a cumdach or "book shrine", when its basic timber structure was reinforced and decorated by elaborate silver-gilt metalwork. Its front-cover was enhanced by gilded relief showing Jesus in "Arma Christi" (with Instruments of the Passion), alongside depictions of saints, angels and clerics, in scenes imbued with complex iconography. It is thus considered a mixture of the early Insular and later International Gothic styles.
The Domnach Airgid is one of the few extant Irish shrines thought to have held non-Irish relics.[3] When opened in the 19th century, the shrine was found to hold badly decayed leaves from a 6th-9th century manuscript recounting the Gospels written in Vulgate Latin. Thirty-nine pages of the manuscript survive, each measuring about nine inches in height.[4] Based on the inscriptions, it is thought to be one of the earliest surviving depictions of apostles portrayed with their attributes and Instruments of the Passion.[5] It has been in the National Museum of Ireland (Kildare Street site) in Dublin since 1847. There is an early 20th century replica in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[2]
The earliest records title the shrine as "Domnach" (pronounced Donagh), a word derived from the Latin "Dominicus"[6] (Belonging to God or of the Master). The antiquarian George Petrie (1790–1866) was one of the first to describe the Domnach Airgid, and strongly believed the early medieval box was created as a host for relics, and only later became decorative shrine and container for Gospel manuscripts.[7]
- ^ Orpen (1918), p. 531
- ^ a b "Shrine of Saint Patrick's Gospels: early 20th century (original dated 1080–1100)". New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2 July 2021
- ^ Moss (2014), p. 295
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
oc12was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Moss (2014), p. 294
- ^ Petrie (1839), pp. 17–18
- ^ Petrie (1839), p. 20