The Book of Dimma and the legend of the sun that did not set

Not all medieval Irish books have the majestic size of the Book of Kells. The Book of Dimma is a pocket gospel book, small in format, designed to be carried by a monk or a travelling priest. Kept in the library of Trinity College Dublin, it is linked to the monastery of Roscrea, in today's County Tipperary, and to a legend that makes it a miraculous work, completed with heaven's help.

A gospel book for travel

The manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin and can be dated to the eighth century on the basis of its script and decoration. Each Gospel is preceded by a portrait of the evangelist or by his symbol, executed in the linear style typical of Irish art of the period, with bright colours and highly stylised figures. The book also includes liturgical texts for visiting and anointing the sick, a sign of its pastoral use.

The name Dimma appears in the final notes as that of the scribe. Some scholars believe these notes were retouched at a later date, perhaps to connect the book with a venerated figure and with the legend surrounding it. The debate concerns precisely the relationship between the surviving manuscript and the tradition that has accompanied it since the Middle Ages.

The legend of the forty days

According to a medieval life of Saint Crónán, founder of Roscrea, a scribe named Dimma was commissioned by the saint to write the Gospels, but said he had only one day available. Crónán asked him to work until sunset: the sun, miraculously, did not set for forty days, until the work was finished. The scribe, so the legend tells, felt neither hunger nor sleep.

The legend poses a problem of chronology. Saint Crónán lived in the seventh century, while the surviving manuscript seems several decades later. The story may originally have referred to an older book, later lost, or the volume that has come down to us may have been linked to the saint to increase its prestige and its value as a relic.

The metal case

Like other precious Irish books, the Book of Dimma was kept in a cumdach, a book shrine of decorated metal. The one that survives dates largely from the twelfth century, with later additions and repairs. The shrine shows that the manuscript was venerated as a relic, touched and carried in procession, not merely read during the liturgy.

In Ireland such books enclosed in precious cases were also used for swearing solemn oaths or carried into battle as protection. Their role thus went beyond reading: the book became a sacred object in itself, bound to the memory of the monastery's founder and able, in the belief of the faithful, to represent his presence.

The Book of Dimma shows clearly how medieval Ireland regarded the Gospels: as sacred objects, able to carry with them the presence of a saint. The legend of the sun standing still is a sign of this veneration rather than a historical record, and its small format recalls a Church of missionaries always on the move.