1981 "First Edition" stated; Little, Brown and Company publishers, Boston; hardbound; many vintage b/w photos; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good with very minor wear.
 
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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 & 12th centuries, when Ireland became the repository of classical Western civilization. Examining the meeting of two disparate cultures--the pagan Celts & the Christian saints & scholars--the author discusses how illuminated manuscripts, monastic libraries, and Romanesque churches preserved culture until the rest of Europe awakened from the Dark Ages.