Bobbio in the Early Middle Ages

The Abiding Legacy of Columbanus

Michael Richter

• Publisher: Four Courts Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781846829154
• Subtopic: Italian History
• Index: History

Bobbio was the last monastery founded by St Columbanus, who died two years after its inception. It soon became the most important monastery in northern Italy. Several dozen manuscripts, some lavishly illuminated, have survived from the first three centuries of its existence. The largest body of Old Irish glosses passed through Bobbio before ending up in Milan. The evidence for Bobbio in the early Middle Ages is richer than for any Irish monastery in those times, with a substantial amount of source material available on the economic status of the monastery in the late 9th century. This is the first full-scale study of this institution which will celebrate its 1400th anniversary in 2012.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1. The establishment of the monastery of Bobbio
• 2. Columbanus
• 3. The legacy of Columbanus
• 4. The monastic scriptorium in the seventh century
• 5. A dark century
• Plates
• 6. The Carolingian century
• 7. The physical appearance of the monastery
• 8. The economy of the monastery
• 9. The monastic library in the ninth century
• 10. Abbot Agilulf (c.882-896)
• 11. Columbanus’s last journey
• 12. Manuscripts with Irish language material
• 13. Epilogue
• List of manuscripts
• Bibliography
• Index