still extant, which, of
course, more vividly speak for themselves, and only require pointing out
to the student.
The clearest method of study being to take things in the order of their
creation, so in order to understand the "character of savage grandeur
and na?ve originality" which has been attributed to this style, it will
be best to take up these MSS. chronologically. At the same time, if
anyone merely wishes to know what the style is like at its best, Dr.
Rahn must be his guide, as the Golden Psalter which he has selected for
study is as splendid an example as perhaps may be found in the whole
career of the art. We have noticed how the Irish missionary-artists
carried their work to their continental settlements, how they planted
their schools in Burgundy, Switzerland, and Lombardy. Of all their
depositories, however, numerous as they are elsewhere, none is richer in
the relics of their work than the celebrated abbey which takes its name
of St. Gall from that disciple of St. Columbanus, who in 614 founded his
little cell beside the Steinach, about nine miles south of the Lake of
Constance. Under Charles Martel the cell had become a monastery, which
he endowed as a Benedictine abbey. In 830 was founded its magnificent
library of MSS.
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