Roman Empire (117 CE)

Migration Period (aka Barbarian Invasions)

Medieval Europe after the fall of Western Rome (476 CE)

A Brief History of the English Language

Looped Fibulae

6th cent. CE | Merovingian

Map of Celtic Cultural Region

Purse Cover from the Sutton Hoo Burial Ship

c. 625 CE
Hiberno-Saxon

Celtic Hinged Clasp showing Cloisonné decoration

Interlaced Belt Buckle

c. 625 CE
Hiberno-Saxon

Sweden, 11th-12th cent. CE

Spain, 1st cent. BCE

Other Examples of Interlace Art

South Cross
Ahenny, Ireland

Late 8th cent. CE
Hiberno-Saxon

Examples of Christian Celtic Crosses

St. Matthew
(from the Lindisfarne Gospels)

c. 698-721 CE
Hiberno-Saxon, Northumbrian

Reproduced Pages from The Lindisfarne Gospels

Reproduced 'Carpet Page' from The Lindisfarne Gospels

An Example of the Secrets within Medieval Manuscripts

Chi-rho-iota
(from the Book of Kells)

9th century CE
Hiberno-Saxon

Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not notice it.

Look more keenly at it and you . . . will make out intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and links,

with colors so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this was the work of an angel, and not of a man.

For my part, the oftener I see the book, the more carefully I study it,

the more I am lost in ever fresh amazement, and I see more and more wonders in the book.

- Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hiberniae (1185 CE)

Palantine Chapel of Charlemagne

805 CE
Frankish, Carolingian

Cutaway view of the original Chapel

Interior of the Chapel

Floorplan of the Chapel

Charlemagne's Marble Throne

St. Matthew
(from the ​Coronation Gospels)

c. 800-810 CE
Frankish, Carolingian

Celtic vs Carolingian styles

Lindisfarne Gospels

Coronation Gospels