cumdach

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English

Cumdach for the Stowe Missal
Main face of the Soiscél Molaisse

Etymology

From Middle Irish cumdach, from Old Irish cumtach.[1]

Noun

cumdach (plural cumdachs)

  1. An elaborate ornamented metal reliquary box or case used to hold Early Medieval Irish manuscripts or relics.
    • 1878, Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, volume II, Dublin: the University Press, , page 159:
      The following is a list of the Irish cumdachs of which anything is known, from which it is evident that the custom of making these cumdachs prevailed in Ireland from the ninth to the sixteenth century.
    • 1904, J Romilly Allen, Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times, page 208:
      Three MSS. still in existence are known, from historical evidence, to have had cumdachs, although they have been lost.
    • 1909, The Library, page 369:
      Other cumdachs are those in the Royal Irish Academy, for Molaise’s Gospels (c. 1001-25), for Columba’s Psalter (1084), and those in Trinity College, Dublin, for Dimma’s book (1150), and for the Book of St. Moling. There are also the cumdachs for Cairnech’s Calendar and of Caillen; the library of St. Gall possesses still one more silver cumdach, which is probably Irish.
    • 1946, Edith Diehl, Bookbinding, Its Background and Technique, volume I, New York, N.Y., Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., page 130:
      There were noteworthy exceptions to the Irish plain bindings, but there have been identified only a very few Celtic bookbinders who ornamented their bindings in something of the styles they used in decorating their cumdachs.

References

  1. ^ “cumdach, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

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