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The Stowe Missal (sometimes known as the Lorrha Missal), which is, strictly speaking, a sacramentary rather than a missal, is a small Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin with some Old Irish in the late eighth or early ninth century, probably after 792.
In the mid-11th century, it was annotated and some pages rewritten at Lorrha Monastery in County Tipperary, Ireland. Between 1026 and 1033 the manuscript was encased within a protective cumdach (a reliquary book-shrine), which was refurbished and embellished a number of times in the late medieval period, in particular before 1381, the year of death of Pilib O'Ceinneidigh (Philip O'Kennedy), Lord of Ormond, who then had possession of the shrine.Riain, 288
The manuscript and shrine had been found inside a stone wall at Lackeen Castle near Lorrha in the eighteenth century, where they had been hidden for centuries from Normans and later Protestant attackers, as well as Irish looters.O'Neill, 18 The claim that they left Ireland after about 1375 and were collected on the Continent in the eighteenth century has been discredited.Warner, lvii – lviii
It is known as the "Stowe" Missal as it reappeared in the eighteenth century as part of the Stowe manuscripts collection formed by George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham at Stowe House.De Paor, 139 When the collection was bought by the nation in 1883, it and the other Irish manuscripts were handed over to the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, where it remains, catalogued as MS D II 3.Warner, vii – viii The cumdach was later transferred with the rest of the academy's collection of antiquities to the National Museum of Ireland (museum number 1883, 614a).
The version of the mass used is thought to be older than the manuscript, and reflects the early usage of Celtic Christianity. The five original scribes of the Missal wrote in an angular majuscule script. A more cursive hand was used by a scribe signing himself Moél Caích (f 37) who revised several pages and added to the mixture of Gallican Rite and Roman Rite elements found in the text of the prayers. A later scribe, working before 1033, decorated the plain initials with heads and other designs using a pointed pen. The dating to before 1033 for the later phase is assumed as that was the year Find Ua Dungalaig, the presumed commissioner of the shrine of the missal, died.O'Riain, 292
A few initials are decorated, notably on folio 1, where extracts from John contain a "crude" full page evangelist portrait of the saint with his symbol of the eagle, decorated with Insular art interlace. The lower end of the page contains the body of an elongated animal.Moss, 251 Apart from the eagle, it is rather similar to the portrait of John in the Book of Mulling,Warner, xi and Plate IX; image and its style has been compared to the eighth century Lindisfarne Gospels. Other folio initials are of the "knotted wire" type (f 48r & 51r). Two folios show human faces within the letters O (f 12v) and D, with the latter resembling anthropomorphic designs in the Book of Kells.
The manuscript's small size indicates that it was intended to be a portable "pocket book" that could be carried by a cleric for mass in nearby towns and villages, or used at baptisms or for last rites.
The older "lower" face, which is today detached from the case, is in silver-gilt copper alloy, with a large cross inside a border that carries the inscription in Irish, which also runs along the arms of the cross. The centre of the cross was later replaced ("severely embellished" as the National Museum put it),Wallace, 234 probably at the same time as the later face, by a setting for a large stone (now missing) with four lobed sections, similar to the centre of the later face.
The inscription has missing sections because of this, but can mostly be reconstructed: "It asks for a prayer for the abbot of Lorrha, Mathgamain Ua Cathail (+1037) and for Find Ua Dúngalaigh, king of Múscraige Tíre (+1033). It also mentions Donnchadh mac Briain, son of Brian Boru, styled 'king of Ireland', Mac Raith Ua Donnchada, king of the Eoganacht of Cashel (+1052) as well as the name of the maker, Donnchadh Ua Taccáin a monk 'of the community of Cluain (Clonmacnoise)'."O' Floinn The four spaces between cross and border have panels of geometric openwork decoration, and there are small panels with knotwork decoration at the corners of the border and inside the curved ends of the cross members.Wallace, 219, 234, 253; Stokes, 74Mitchell (1996), 18
The sides have unsilvered copper alloy plaques with figures of angels, animals, clergy and warriors, set in decorative backgrounds.Stalley, 190 The newer "upper" face, of silver-gilt, is again centred on a cross with a large oval rock crystal stone at the centre and lobed surrounds, and other gems. The inscription, engraved on plain silver plaques, runs round the border and the spaces between the cross and border have four engraved figures of the crucified Christ, Virgin and Child, a bishop making a blessing gesture, and a cleric holding a book (possibly St John). The inscription "invokes a prayer for Pilib Ó Ceinnéidigh, 'king of Ormond' and his wife Áine, both of whom died in 1381. It also refers to Giolla Ruadhán Ó Macáin, abbot of the Augustinian priory of Lorrha and the maker, Domhnall Ó Tolairi".O'Floinn; Wallace, 271, 294
Black niello is used to bring out the engraved lines of the inscription and figures, and the technique is very similar to that of the later work on the Shrine of St Patrick's Tooth (also in the NMI), which was also given a makeover in the 1370s, for a patron some 50 km from Lorrha. They were probably added to by the same artist, something that can only rarely be seen in the few survivals of medieval goldsmith's work.Wallace, 262–263
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