I have long felt that there must be a market for accessible editions of the lesser known Insular manuscripts to supply the ever-increasing interest in Celtic art among art historians and craftspeople. Everyone has heard of the Books of Kells, Durrow and Lindisfarne, but there are some dozens of other surviving manuscripts equally worthy of detailed study, even if their artistic worth does not rival that of these supreme masterpieces. The Book of Deer is the first in a series of visual analyses of famous Celtic illuminated Gospel books to be published by Constable, and it is to be hoped that more of the obscurer manuscripts will be covered by the other books in the series.

The Book of Deer is a case in point, of which, to paraphrase Tolkien: "many had heard, but few knew where it lay". It undeniably lies a long way off from the Book of Kells artistically, but most PAS members will know that this is a very important work for Scottish Dark Age history and art, as one of the very few Celtic manuscripts whose Scottish origin is undisputed. Its pages contain marginal notes giving priceless historical information which are also the earliest surviving written form of Scottish Gaelic.

The book has three sections: a short introduction to the manuscript itself, The Artwork - line reproductions of the chief illuminations in Deer, and Notes on the Artwork. The text has been written by P B Ellis and the illustrations prepared by Australian-born artist Roy Ellsworth. This edition is much more a picture-book of the art of Deer than an in-depth historical or art historical analysis of its contents, as the author writes (16):

The intention of this volume is firstly to provide accurate representations of the illustrations from The Book of Deer and then to provide simplified drawings to demonstrate construction methods and to allow an exploration of one’s own colour arrangements using, as a guide, the full colour plates.

This is perhaps just as well, as the text, though short, contains numerous errors, perhaps betraying haste of composition. The original legend of Deer is recorded in the manuscript, but here the author seems to have confused the place the founding saints Columba and Drostan are first said to have come to (Aberdour, Buchan) with the site of the Celtic monastery itself (11). Bede, the Pictish Mormaer who gave the lands for the foundation, is here called Bruide, in confusion with the Pictish High King mentioned earlier in the text (12). Columba’s name is given as Colmcille; I believe Columcille or Colum Cille would be more correct. Cele Dé should be Céli Dé (13). Maol-Callum should be Mael-Coluim (14), at least if it is to represent the ancient form of the name, and the Old Irish Macbeathad, if it has to Anglicised, should at least be spelled Macbeth (with small "b"), so that it does not look like a patronymic.

The history of the House of Moray is gone into in some detail, though Gruoch is incorrectly described as the daughter rather than the granddaughter of Kenneth III (15). That monarch’s Celtic name is given here as Coinneach - the modern Gaelic equivalent of Kenneth. I rather think that the ancient form looked back to the Pictish Cináed or Ciniod, at this early date at least. The author is on firmer ground dealing with the later history of the manuscript itself.

It is suggested on pages 12-3 that the manuscript could be the work of native Pictish rather than Irish scribes - a notion well worth considering - and that its motifs can be compared to those on the Pictish stones. It seems a shame, therefore, that in the commentary on the artwork this is a source of artistic parallels that is barely touched on, except in the matter of borders (65). Parallels for human and animal figures are instead sought in Iron Age objects of Celtic or supposed Celtic origin from all over Europe except Scotland, all of which date from centuries earlier than the Book of Deer. The suggestion that the artists - who were after all monks - originally drew the Evangelist figures without feet: ". . following the pagan tradition of depicting gods . . in squatting postures." (59) is a fantasy. Not only does every human figure in the manuscript actually have feet, if Roy Ellsworth’s drawings are any guide, but their undeniably "added-on" look is easily paralleled in contemporary Irish Evangelist portraits and Picto-Scottish sculptured stones. Equally dubious is the comparison of the many figures in Deer shown with raised hands with the postures of much earlier Celtic gods (66-7). Why cast back so far in time when it seems transparently obvious that the Deer figures must be a Picto-Scottish version of Early Christian orantes, represented in Roman Britain, and even elsewhere in early Scotland?

Turning to the illustrations, here we seem to be on much firmer ground. Simply to have good drawings of all the major illuminations in Deer is very valuable as a source of reference, as it can be quite hard to get the chance to learn what is in the manuscript unless one has access to the specialised works in a major university library. Here all the Evangelist portraits, decorated initials and borders from the beginnings of the Gospels, and carpet pages are given; first in line drawings whose accuracy can be compared with the three folios reproduced in colour on the covers, then on the opposite page in rationalised form, with the lines straightened and the areas of colour outlined.

The artist has been at some pains to reproduce the variations in tone and density in the colours by hatching, and to follow the wandering lines of the monkish illuminators accurately, and the general effect seems true to the manuscript. The schematised versions naturally show a great deal more interpretation, but there is no danger of taking them for the originals. The three colour photos on the covers are well reproduced, and it is good to have the chance to appreciate the now rather faded simple colour scheme. Unfortunately, the front and inside front covers’ photos seem to have been printed back to front.

With the illuminations of The Book of Deer available to a wide public for the first time, we can expect to see use being made of them by craftsworkers and artists. One can look on the originals as enjoyably naive or almost unbelievably crude according to one’s taste, though any indication at all of the sort of gospel books that monks in eastern Scotland were producing around the C9th or C10th is valuable art historically. We cannot say what the general level of achievement in manuscript illumination was in Scotland at this time, all the other books having disappeared long ago. Deer may be a hurriedly made "pocket" version of a major gospel book, with the Evangelist portraits only sketched in as rough impressions. What is certain is that it is a miracle it has survived at all, though it would be nice to see it in the National Library in Edinburgh instead of Cambridge University.

In the meantime, this edition will be a useful reference work to the illuminations of The Book of Deer, so long as it is not confused with a serious academic study of the manuscript.

Niall M Robertson.