Volume / Number: 3 / 311

• Milan Italy Biblioteca Ambrosiana C. 5 inf.

Written at Bangor in northern Ireland during the abbacy of Colman (680–91), according to the hymn entered by a contemporary hand on the last page. This makes the MS one of the important landmarks in Insular calligraphy. There is no precise record of the time it reached Bobbio, nor any sign of its having been used there. A MS of similar contents and doubtless with a similar history survives in part in Turin Cod. 882 N. 8, formerly F. IV. 1, fasc. 9. The present binding of our MS dates from 1953.

Script is an early example of Irish minuscule by more than one hand: a, d, g, and n have two forms; m is occasionally turned sideways, as in other Irish MSS; Ᵹ in ligature is s-shaped; u is often suprascript; y has both branches curving to the right, an Irish feature; shafts of tall letters have the characteristic wedge-shaped finial. Irish majuscule is used for headings. Initials have either the half-uncial or uncial form.

☛Introduction and edition by F. E. Warren here. ☛Steffens, Paléographie latine, Pl. 26.

• https://ambrosiana.comperio.it/opac/detail/view/ambro:catalog:28761

• Provenance: Bobbio library (Zironi 2004)