We have three sources of evidence that the writings of the great classical writers were not neglected as has sometimes been asserted. These sources are: 1, the numerous works of classical authors which have been copied and preserved in the Irish monastic libraries especially those of St. Gall in Switzerland and Bobbio in Italy; 2, the marginal and interlinear glosses on various MSS. earlier than the tenth century; 3, the quotations and imitations of classical writers which are revealed by study of the actual writing of early Irish mediæval writers.
In the section of Chapter V dealing with Irish libraries we discussed fully the first source of evidence and pointed out the influence of these libraries in late mediæval times. In more than one instance we had occasion to refer to the glosses as exemplifying different phases of intellectual activity in the Irish monastic school. Here we would emphasise the fact that these glosses furnish another objective proof that the Irish monks studied and taught the classics as well as the writings of the Fathers. There is considerable variety in the glosses. Generally they are in the nature of explanations written usually in Irish or Latin but occasionally in Greek. They consist mainly of explanations of obscure passages. They give various historical, mythological, and archæological details. They contain definitions, translations of individual words, free translations of idiomatic expressions, illustrations of the correct use of certain words, a summary of the observations of previous commentators and an elucidation of obscure allusions. In short they contain all that varied and supplementary matter which is essential when making an intensive study of a difficult book. These notes were at once grammatical and encyclopædic.[341]
A good example of this kind of work occurs in the _Codex Sangallensis_ containing one of the many copies of Priscian’s Grammar which were written by Irish scribes. Traube has shown that it was written by some of the friends of Sedulius (of Liège) and supposes that it was copied in some Irish monastery and brought by wandering Irishmen to the Continent. The text is in different hands. The glosses too are in different hands from those which wrote the Latin text. At least three different hands are distinguished. The authorities relied upon by the glossators are: Origen, Isidore, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, Hilary, Primascius, Virgilius, Ambrosius, Boethius, Cassianus, Dionysius, Thrax, Gaudentius, Baeda, Orascius, Cicero (not the orator, but an obscure grammarian), Hieronymus, Lactantius, Maximianus, Papirinus, Polibius, Medicus, and Probus.[342] The very fact of being familiar with such an array of grammarians and authors is enough to justify Sedulius (at Liège 840–860 A.D.) in describing himself and his fellow-countrymen as _docti grammatici_.[343] One of them wrote a treatise on the Art of Versification, _Tractus de Metrica Ratione_,[344] which Zimmer styles a grammatical treatise of importance.[345] Clement (d. 826 A.D.) who succeeded Alcuin as Instructor to the Imperial Court of Charles the Great,[346] _magister palatinus_ as he was called, wrote a grammatical work[347] which is famous for its erudition and for the wide range of reading which it shows, especially interesting is his reference to the Greeks “who are our masters in all branches of learning.”[348]