Irish high crosses feature a number of clear-cut instances where Old Testament figures can be understood to prefigure events in the New Testament. Examples are cited from the North Cross at Castledermot, the Market Cross at Kells and Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice. Two further panels are here re-interpreted as prefiguration scenes: The Fall of Jericho on the Tall Cross at Monasterboice and Joseph and the Pharaoh's Butler on the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnoise. Acceptance of the latter interpretation implies that this cross need no longer be associated with the erection of the Cathedral at the site in 909, and could open the way to a potential dating of this and similar crosses to the late ninth century.

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In Retrospect Françoise Henry’s published works – an overview PETER HARBISON* Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson St, Dublin 2 It is easy to locate the bibliographical details of Franҫoise Henry’s fifty years of prolific publication. They were usefully assembled by the late Hilary Richardson for inclusion at the end of the third volume of Henry’s collected Studies in Early Christian and medieval Irish art, which was published by the Pindar Press in London in 1983–85.1 It is, however, all but impossible to provide an adequate account of the full extent of her published work in a survey of this length and so, by overlooking most (though by no means all) of the shorter contributions, it is proposed here to concentrate on Henry’s major oeuvres (in French and English) that changed the course of the study of early Christian Irish art. Following in the pioneering footsteps of Margaret Stokes (1832–1900), Henry engaged with the various different strands of metalwork, manuscripts and stone work of the period, thereby revealing how they relate to one another—and how they revealed Ireland to have been a major contributor to the art of early medieval Europe. Franҫoise Henry published her first article on an Irish subject in 1928, only two years after her arrival in Ireland in 1926. It was devoted to a monument—the Romanesque Cormac’s Chapel in Cashel—and to demonstrating that it was an exotic implant in an Irish context, with influences from as far away as Regensburg in Bavaria.2 It comes as no surprise that Romanesque was the primary subject to capture the interest of Henry’s pen, for that was the major sphere of study of her greatly admired maître Henri Focillon, who perceived it as the basis of medieval European art. For him she wrote a most elegant eulogy following his death in 1943. Henry’s article on the Tipperary Chapel was included in a volume of essays by Focillon’s students at the Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie in Paris, which engaged with themes on parts as distant as Hungary, Armenia and Georgia, and included a commentary by Paul Valéry. Henry’s paper on Cormac’s Chapel was followed in 1930 by an article entitled ‘Les origines de l’iconographie Irlandaise’ in Revue Archéologique, which turned * Author’s email: p.harbison@ria.ie doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2017.117.06 1 Franҫoise Henry, Early Christian and medieval Irish art Vol III: architecture and sculpture (London, 1985), 13 unnumbered pages. 2 ‘La Chapelle de Cormac, à Cashel: note sur les influences étrangères en Irlande au début du XIIe siècle’, in Année 1927-1928. Travaux des Étudiants du Groupe d’Histoire de l’Art de la Faculté des Lettres de Paris (Paris, Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie, 1928), 109–17. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 117C, 263–274 © 2017 Royal Irish Academy Peter Harbison 264 out to be ground-breaking.3 This was her initial venture at assigning Ireland’s High Crosses into various types—starting with Carndonagh and Fahan Mura (comparable to the Book of Durrow), through the Ahenny group in Ossory, the Barrow Valley granite crosses, those in Ulster and the classic midland biblical sculptured crosses before engaging with the twelfth-century examples. It was the first airing of a categorisation that she was to follow in many subsequent studies. She suggested that the Irish High Crosses’ closest links were with Scotland rather than England. She interpreted the Ahenny crosses as translations from metal ornament related to the Tara Brooch and linked to the Lindisfarne Gospels, which provided her with a date for them in the first half of the eighth century. She conceived the Moone/ Castledermot group of crosses as an entity apart, not resembling anything else in Ireland, and queried whether they are precursors of the Ulster and Midland crosses or were produced in an old-fashioned atelier. The Ulster and midland crosses she took to be roughly contemporary, the latter providing completely evolved sculpture after the Viking raids. She included a detailed account of spiral ornament but, as the title of...

Two Carolingian ivory panels decorating the covers of the Evangelium Longum (St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 53) have been attributed to an all-round craftsman named Tuotilo, and are generally dated to around AD 900 because abbot Salomo is credited with having commissioned them during the mid-AD 890s. But, because the figures of Earth and Ocean carved on one of the panels are comparable to some counterparts on Crucifixion ivories from the lifetime of the Emperor Charles the Bald (AD 843-877), this paper suggests that the St Gall figures should be derived from them and from a contemporary manuscript, and ought possibly to be dated a decade or more earlier. At the same time, around AD 880, Tuotilo may also have been decorating the walls of the monastic church with frescoes containing New Testament scenes analogous to those found on Irish high crosses, both of which presumably go back to a common pattern-book source in an atelier of Charles the Bald. Tuotilo may well have been trained in the imperial workshops in the AD 870s, and could subsequently have conformed to a pan-European pattern of artists/craftsmen abandoning them upon the collapse of artistic patronage after the emperor’s death, and going to various other places including Ireland, but also possibly as far away as the court at Constantinople, where their iconography could have contributed to the illumination of the great 9th-century Byzantine manuscript of the Homilies of Gregory Nazianzen (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Gr. 510).

Conocemos en España muchos castros en los que hay colocadas "piedras hincadas" fuera de sus murallas con objeto de prevenir un acercamiento repentino del enemigo. Los dos castros con "piedras hincadas" conocidos en la provincia de Zamora, los de Vivinera y Tejera, han sido ya brevemente descritos por Gómez Moreno.

Art and devotion in late medieval Ireland. Edited by Rachel Moss, Colmán Ó Clabaigh and Salvador Ryan. Pp. xxii+234 incl. 64 ills+8 colour plates. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006. £50. 10 1 85182 987 3; 13 978 1 85182 987 3 - Volume 58 Issue 3

The purpose of this paper is to present to the public for the first time the Society of Antiquaries’ original watercolours of Limerick's fifteenth-century mitre and crozier that served as the basis for engravings published in a paper by Dr Milner in the journal Archaeologia in 1814. These watercolours are still so wonderfully fresh that they convey something of the excitement and sparkle of the original medieval episcopal pontificalia, and they enable us to document their original state – and sadly note the subsequent losses and changes that occurred to the mitre and crozier during the nineteenth century.

InRetrospect TheRoyalIrish Academy's onlyarchaeological excavation: Dowth intheBoyne Valley1 Peter Harbison RoyalIrish Academy, 19DawsonSt,Dublin2 Thetwoillustrations below(Pis I andII) arereproductions ofthestart andfinish ofthereport ofanexcavation atDowthcarried outbyMr.R.H.Frith,2 onbehalf of theRoyalIrish Academy, from lateSeptember until thelastweekbefore Christmas in 1847.3 Thecomplete original is preserved onpages269-76 ofvolumeI ofthe Minute BookoftheAcademy's Antiquities Committee foritsmeeting of20April 1848.However, itwasnotuntil1983that thewholetext wasfirst published byM.J. andClaireO'Kellyinvolume 83ofthe Academy's Proceedings,4 thus obviating the necessity ofreproducing ithereinitsentirety. Itisa valuabledocument becauseit isthesole(and,for itstime, a comparatively extensive) report ofwhat I believewas theonlyarchaeological excavation everundertaken bytheAcademy - andprobablythefirst inIreland authorised byanofficial body. Inanarticle published justas theexcavation wascoming toanend, William Wilde5remarked thata desirehad longexistedto exploresomeof theBoyne Valleytombs. Thismayshedlight on a passageintheMinutes oftheAntiquities Committee's meeting of6 December 1841,where itisrecorded that oneofitsmembers ,J.H.Smith, was authorised to expenda sumnotexceeding tenpoundson excavating 'a tumulus nearDrogheda'.On 6 January following, Smith reported on hisvisitto 'therath nearDrogheda', andwas paid£7 12s7d insettlement ofhis billofexpenses. Ifhisvisitinvolved someexcavation, which theamount ofmoneyspent might suggest itdid,no detailsofhisactivities survive.6 Itwouldnotbe 1Thisretrospective piecerelates toMinutes oftheAcademy's Antiquities Committee (1848), 269-76. 2 R.H.Frith wasa Co. Dublin surveyor orengineer, according toWilliam Wilde, 'Irish rivers. No.V TheBoynethird article - conclusion', TheDublinUniversity Magazine 30(1847),741. 3 ThedatesarebasedonFrith 'sclaimfor expenses onpage265 ofvolume I oftheMinutes oftheAcademy's Antiquities Committee meeting for 20 December 1847.Although thiswas theendofthelastyearoftheGreat Famine, there isnosuggestion that thework wascarried outas famine relief. 4 M.J. O'KellyandClaireO'Kelly,'Thetumulus ofDowth, County Meath', Proceedings of theRoyalIrish Academy 83C (1983),185-8. 5 Wilde, 'Irishrivers', 741. 6 Ifthere wereanydigging at Dowthin 1841/42, Smith's andFrith 's excavations areboth placedunder thesameumbrella as faras thetitleofthispaperis concerned. Thiswould alsoapply toa further seasonofexcavation that is saidtohavetaken place(seeO'Kellyand O'Kelly,'Thetumulus ofDowth',143),butofwhich norecord survives. Proceedings ofthe RoyalIrish Academy Vol.107C,205-213© 2007RoyalIrish Academy PeterHarbison Pl. I- The first pageoftheminutes oftheRoyalIrish Academy's Antiquities Committee meeting of20 April1848 where theprevious year's excavations ofthetumulus atDowth isdiscussed. 206 TheRoyalIrish Academy s only archaeological excavation Pl. II- Part ofthelast pageofthe minutes oftheRoyal Irish Academy's Antiquities Committee meeting of20April 1848 where Frith discusses hisdisappointment atthe outcome of the excavations. unreasonable tosupposethat thetumulus orrath was,infact, Dowth(PI. Ill), as it was namedspecifically ata meeting oftheAntiquities Committee somesixyears later. Bythat time, WildeandThomasLarcom, theDirector oftheOrdnance SurVfcy, hadboth beenappointed members oftheCommittee, and,iftheir advent mayhave stimulated renewed discussion aboutexcavation whichwentunrecorded, itmight helptoexplainan otherwise unheralded letter from GeorgeAlexander Hamilton, MP,which wasreadtotheCouncilmeeting of4 May1846,informing themembers that hehadobtained permission from MrNetterville Blaketoopenthetumulus at Dowth.Hamilton's letter suggested, furthermore, that a deputation oftheCouncil ortheAcademy be appointed tosuperintend andreport upontheexcavation, and Councildulyobligedbyappointing Pétrie, Wilde,LarcomandtheSecretary, J.H. Todd,7 tobe itsconstituents. Thecontinuation ofthestory more than a year later may begleaned from the Antiquities Committee meeting of10September 1847.Having taken into account 'the subject oftheprojected opening ofthetumulus atDowth', theCommittee resolved tomakeanapplication 4to the Trustees oftheNetterville Charity, onwhoseproperty theTumulus is situated, forpermission tomakethenecessary excavation'. Atthe samesession, theCommittee decidedtosenda letter tothedirectors ofthenewly openedDublintoDrogheda Railway asking forfree passagetoAcademy members, 7Todd hadchaired the meeting ofthe Antiquities Committee inDecember, 1841, atwhich Huband Smith hadbeen authorised toexcavate. 207 Peter Harbison Pl. Ill- Page8 ofRoyalIrish Academy's manuscript, 3.C.31illustrates GabrielBeranger's copyofa drawing taken in 1775ofthepassagegraveatDowth, showing the'gala musicroom'ontopwhich wasdemolished intheexcavation of 1847. pointing outinthesamebreath theadvantages fortherailway whichnewsofthe archaeological discoveries would bring! Asanexpression oftheCommittee's hopes, among other things, itisworth reproducing infull: TotheDirectors oftheDublin andDrogheda Railway September 1847 The Committee of Antiquities of theRoyalIrishAcademyhavinghad under their consideration theimportance to IrishHistory ofa systematic examination of our earlysepulchral remains, and havingfixedon the great tumulus atDowthas theonemostlikely torepay anexamination by disclosures of Historic interest, I am directed to bring thesubjectunder theconsideration oftheBoardofDirectors witha viewtoascertain what assistance andfacilities theCommittee mayexpect intheundertaking from theRailway Company. Theinterest which would beexcited bysucha proceeding conducted bytheCommittee oftheAcademy wouldunder anycircumstances leadto considerable traffic ontheRailway; and, iftheexpectations ofthe Committee 208 TheRoyalIrish Academy s only archaeological excavation shouldbe realisedby thediscovery of a Sepulchralchamberprobably containing objectsofgreat curiosity, andhistoric value,their project would resultin a permanent sourceof attraction to visitors8 and of increased emolument totheRailway Company. The Committee havealreadysubscribed individually a sumwhich will enablethemto commenceand possiblyto completetheimportant objectsthey haveinview, buttoconduct theoperation as efficiently as they woulddesire, itmaybe necessary for them...

This is a partial reconstruction of an antiquarian sketching tour of counties Wicklow and Wexford undertaken in 1780 by the artists John James Barralet and Gabriel Beranger at the behest of William Burton Conyngham who, on behalf of the Hibernian Antiquarian Society, wanted to have their work engraved in a series of volumes intended to highlight Irish antiquities. Its literary base includes excerpts from Beranger's diary already recorded by Sir William Wilde in the 1870s, and a hitherto unrecognised descriptive Catalogue of places visited. Visually, it uses engravings from Grose's Antiquities of Ireland based on artwork from the tour, as well as drawings, copies and plans from the Cooper Collection acquired by the National Library of Ireland in 1994. The collection includes some original Barralet watercolours published here for the first time.

The prehistoric sources the Christian revival the 7th century the 8th century - the golden age of the silversmith's and goldsmith's trade the enlightenment of the 8th century and the start of the 9th century the silversmith and goldsmith's trades at the end of the 8th and in the 9th century the stone monumental crosses of the 9th and 10th century the first churches the artistic production of the Alb in the year 1000 the year 1000, between ruptures and traditions the silversmith and goldsmith's trade at the end of the 11th and in the 12th century Romanesque architecture and sculpture in the 12th century.

Early Irish pilgrimage sites are documented through pilgrims' deaths there as early as the seventh century AD. Though not included among them, the Dingle Peninsula provides a microcosm of most stone monument types which may be associated with early Irish pilgrimage: Saint's Road, tomb-shrine, Ogham stones, slabs bearing a cross of arcs, bullaun stones, Romanesque church, sun-dial, beehive huts and boat-shaped oratories. On the peninsula, pilgrimage in honour of St Brendan was undertaken to Mount Brandon, a view of which must have been important in the choice of monument location. The main approach to the holy mountain was from the Atlantic Ocean end of the peninsula, showing that pilgrims must have come by sea. Maritime pilgrimage to islands along the west coast of Ireland and beyond must be postulated, and St Brendan's voyage, described as a peregrinatio in the Navigatio Brendani, should be seen as a literary reflection of it.

J.P. Mallory & T.E. McNeill. The achaeology of Ulster: from colonization to plantation. x + 367 pages, 369 illustrations, 8 maps. 1991. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast; ISBN 0-85389-352-7 hardback £15. - Volume 66 Issue 251

Since its first publication in 1970, this classic Guide has introduced countless thousands to the archaeological riches with which the Irish landscape is endowed. Detailed plans and reference maps, reconstructions and illustrations enliven the text, which describes all the monuments in close detail. A comprehensive introduction places these monuments within the context of Irish history. The author's unparalleled knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, his subject have ensured that this Guide is an indispensable companion for everyone travelling through Ireland who wishes to appreciate the riches of its ancient building heritage.