Scientific secrets of the Irish-related manuscripts at St. Gallen
In recent years, exciting new techniques have expanded the range of analysis which can be used to examine the manuscripts. The Words on the Wave exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland provided the perfect opportunity to use these on Irish-related manuscripts at St. Gallen with the kind permission of the Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen.
The Inks and Skins team (https://inksandskins.org/about/), which is managed from University College Cork by Prof. Pádraig Ó Macháin, applied techniques like X-Ray fluorescence to these manuscripts to see if they could find the secret recipes behind the inks and pigments used to write and illuminate the sacred words within, with some fascinating insights. They also took samples from pages using an eraser for genetic analysis.
Scientists from the School of Genetics and Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin, led by Prof. Dan Bradley, sequenced these samples as part of wider projects on the ancestry of cattle and the creation of early books (https://www.tcd.ie/Genetics/molpopgen/sadbh.php). The project looked at samples from four key Irish-related manuscripts from St. Gallen: the Irish Gospel of St Gall (Cod. Sang. 51), the Gospel of St John (Cod. Sang. 60) and two illuminated fragments of Cod. Sang.1395. The team successfully extracted samples of both human and animal DNA. The team used a technique called Principal Component Analysis on the ancient DNA and cross-referenced the results with a genetic database of ancient and modern cattle in Europe. This produced some very exciting conclusions, with further results to come. Have a look at our film and find out more.
For more on our exhibition see https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology/Exhibitions/Words-on-the-Wave-Ireland-and-St-Gallen-in-Early-M
Gillis, J. 2025 ‘The materiality of the St Gall Manuscripts’, in M. Seaver, D. Ó Riain and M. Sikora (eds), Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe, National Museum of Ireland, 85–92.
Ó Macháin, P., France, F., Hill, M. and Hoffman, A. 2025 ‘Writing and colouring the Irish monuments in the Abbey Library of St Gall’, in M. Seaver, D. Ó Riain and M. Sikora (eds), Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe, National Museum of Ireland, 93–100.
Bradley, D, Carrick, S, Mattiangeli, V and Mullin, V., 2025 ‘DNA analysis of St. Gallen parchments written in Irish script’ in M. Seaver, D. Ó Riain and M. Sikora (eds), Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe, National Museum of Ireland,101–107.