Studies in the Book of Deer

Katherine Forsyth

The tenth-century illuminated gospel-book known as the 'Book of Deer' has been justly described as 'one of the principal antiquities of Celtic Scotland'. Of great historical significance in its own right, the gospel-book was used in the early twelfth century to record grants to the monastery of Deer in Aberdeenshire. These property records are the oldest surviving examples of Scottish Gaelic prose and are of unique historical and linguistic importance. In this collection of specially-commissioned essays, leading scholars from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, history, archaeology, art history, and placename studies, examine the Book of Deer, its Gaelic notes, and their wider historical and cultural context. Together they throw new light on landscape and society in Gaelic Buchan and on the Church in the North-East from Pictish times to the Reformation. Katherine Forsyth lectures in the Department of Celtic, University of Glasgow.