Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

s/ FIFTH SERIES.—VOL. XVI, NO. LXI. JANUARY, 1899. EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN WALES. BY .1. ROMILLY ALLEN, F.S.A. The materials available for the study of Celtic Christian art in Wales consist almost exclusively of sculptured stones. With the exception of the Gospels of St. Chad,1 now at Lichfield, but which formerly lay on the altar of St. Teilo at Llandaff, and of the Psalter of Ricemarchus,- Bishop of St. Davids, now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there are no illu¬ minated MSS. of the pre-Norman period connected directly with the Principality. The two MSS. men¬ tioned also differ in no respect from the Irish or Scotic school as regards their ealigraphy and illuminations. The only examples of Celtic ecclesiastical metal-work in Wales are some quadrangular bronze bells with zoomorphic handles,3 having nothing to distinguish them from those found in Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany. The sculptured stones which form the subject ot the present investigation may be classified thus :— 1 Scrivener, Codex S. CeaddcB Latinm ; Palroographical Society's Publications. 2 Arch. Camb,," 1st Ser., vol. i, p. 117. As at lilangwynodl, Carnarvonshire. Arch. Camb., 4th Ser., vol. i, p. 274. 5TH 8EK.% vo,,. XVJi 1