The High Crosses of Moone and Castledermot: A Guided Tour – typescript visitor's guide with drawings of the Moone, Castledermot South and North crosses and early Irish church sources, Co. Kildare

The High Crosses of Moone and Castledermot: A Guided Tour – an undated typescript visitor's guide to two of the most important groups of early medieval carved stone crosses in Ireland, in south Co. Kildare. The front cover, hand-lettered in an insular script, carries line drawings of the three crosses side by side – Moone, Castledermot South and Castledermot North – labelled 'front or east faces'. Inside, the typescript pages guide the visitor around the crosses and include a section of 'Some early church sources' setting the carvings in the context of early Christian worship: Egeria's description of the daily evening office in Jerusalem (about 380 AD) and the procession 'behind the Cross'; the Communal Rule of Columban (about 600 AD), with its ritual for leaving the oratory and blessing oneself with the cross; and the Old Irish monastic rules – the seventh-century Rule of the Grey Monks (Riagail na Manach Liath) and the eighth-century Rule of Ailbe – quoted in Irish with English translations. The tall granite cross at Moone, with its famous panels of the Twelve Apostles, the Flight into Egypt and the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and the crosses in the churchyard at Castledermot, are among the finest examples of the Irish high cross tradition, and this home-produced guide is a characteristic piece of local heritage ephemera – a useful companion for visitors to Moone Abbey and the Castledermot round tower and churchyard, and for collectors of Irish antiquarian guides. About 20 pages, A4, typescript, stapled. THEMES: Irish high crosses, Moone, Castledermot, Co. Kildare heritage, early Irish Christianity, monastic rules, Celtic art, Irish antiquities, local guidebooks.

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: Generic

Publication Date: 1985

Binding: Saddle Stitch

Condition: Used - Good

Condition Note: Rubber stamp of the Moone High Cross Inn, Moone, Co. Kildare, on the front cover.