The flowering of Ireland: Saints, scholars, and kings

In the early Middle Ages, when European scholarship was buried beneath centuries of barbarism, Ireland became the seat of an extraordinary literary, artistic, and cultural blossoming. This book traces the era between the 5th and 12th centuries, when Ireland became the repository of classical Western civilization. Examining the meeting of two disparate cultures-the pagan Celts and the Christian saints and scholars-the author discusses how illuminated manuscripts, monastic libraries, and Romanesque churches preserved culture until the rest of Europe awakened from the Dark Ages.