Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Adomnán: a man and his work

1. A Man of Many Parts

1.a. Legislator

1.b. Adomnán the Scholar

1.c. A busy man

2. The rationale for this book.

2.a. The DLS and scholarly debates.

2.a.1. Hiberno-Latin exegesis.

2.a.2. The mainstream - fringe debate.

2.b. Topography and Exegesis.

2.b.1. The topographical tradition.

2.b.2. Adomnán's originality within this tradition.

3. Conclusion

Chapter 2: A Manual of Sacred Topography

1. The notion of sacred topography

2. Locating De locis sanctis within a genre and a tradition

2.a. Pilgrim literature

2.b. Itineraria

2.c. Topographical Resources

2.c.1. The Role of Topography in Theology

2.c.2. The Extent of the Tradition of Topography

3. The notion of an exegetical manual

3.a. Augustine's De doctrina christiana

3.b. The Introductores to Scripture

4. The De locis sanctis as a manual

5. De locis sanctis: a product of its age

Chapter 3: The Occasion of De locis sanctis

1. Why did Adomnán write on the Holy Places?

2. The inspirations to write

2.a. Geographical Problems

2.b. Eucherius of Lyons

2.c. Paula/Jerome

3. Aims in writing

4. Arculf and Adomnán

4.a. The state of the question

4.b. Inadequacies of the Arculf Hypothesis

4.c. Is Arculf the author of the DLS?

4.d. Arculf as empirical witness

4.e. Arculf's credibility in Adomnán's world

5. Arculf: a literary device?

6. Reading the De locis sanctis as Adomnán's book

7. Conclusion

Chapter 4: The Scriptures on Iona

1. ‘All scripture is inspired'

2. The Language of the Scriptures

2.a. Evidence for knowledge of Greek and Hebrew

2.b. Implications for Adomnán's exegesis

3. The Text of the Scriptures

3.a. The Problem

3.b. Surveying the evidence

3.b.1.  Gen 3:19

3.b.2.  Gen 35:21

3.b.3 and 3.b.4 : Ps 44:8 and Ps 88:21

3.b.5. Ps 73:12

3.b.6. Ps 77:16

3.b.7. Is 33:16-17

3.c. Drawing the evidence together

4. Adomnán's canon of scripture.

4.a. The Origins of the Problem

4.b. Method

4.c. Establishing a coherent view

5. Adomnán's appreciation of the scriptures.

5.a. Method

5.b. The christocentrism of exegesis

6. Conclusion

Chapter 5: The Exegete at Work

1. Working with Scripture

2. Case 1: Hebron and its tomb

2.a. The Problem

2.b. The background

2.b.1. Adam buried in Hebron

2.b.2. Adam buried in Jerusalem

2.b.3. Adam buried elsewhere

2.c. Jerome

2.d. In the aftermath of Jerome

2.e. Adam's burial in the DLS

2.f. The tradition after Adomnán

2.g. Locating Adomnán as an exegete

3. Case 2: Reconciling the Gospels

3.a. DLS 1,25 and modern scholarship

3.b. The Problem in the Scriptures

3.c. Augustine's De consensu euangelistarum

3.d. Adomnán's Approach

4. Case 3: Alexandria and the text of Nahum

4.a. The Problem

4.b. Adomnán's Sources

4.c. Working with the ‘facts' from the tradition

4.d. The problem's significance for understanding Adomnán

5. Extracting ‘Principles'

6. Conclusion

Chapter 6: Adomnán as a Theologian

1. Appropriate categories

2. Case 1: The uestigia Dei

2.a. The miraculous cleansing of Jerusalem

2.b. The umbilicus terrae

2.c. The wind on Ascension Thursday

2.d. Characteristics in common

3. Case 2: Christ as the Rock

4. Case 3: Waiting for the Resurrection

5. Case 4: The Gates of Hell

5.a. Gregory the Great

5.b. Isidore of Seville.

5.c. Adomnán

5.d. A Mosaic of Hell

5.e. The history of method.

6. Assessing Adomnán as a theologian

Chapter 7: Adomnán's World

1. Focus, Viewpoints, and Method

2. Adomnán's Mental Maps 1: The World of the DLS

2.a. The Status of the Question

2.b. Using Mental Maps with Mediaeval Texts

2.c. Map 1: A T-O Map from Isidore's De natura rerum.

2.d. Map 2: A Square-V Map of the Races of Man from Genesis 10 and its interpretation.

2.e. Map 3: A Map of Concentric Circles from Luke/Acts

2.f. Map 4: A Map of Scriptural Signs from the Scriptures and Patristic Commentators

2.g. Map 5: An Eschatological Map from the Scriptures and Patristic Commentators

3. Adomnán's Mental Maps 2: The World of Iona

3.a. The Problem: Imagining one's own location

3.b. The General ‘Picture'

3.c. Adomnán's Sources

3.d. Adomnán's Writings

3.e. Verifying the Reconstruction

4. Adomnán's Mental Maps 3: The Nations

4.a. The Problem of Perceiving the DLS

4.b. The Christians

4.c. The Jews

4.d. The Arabs

4.3. Conclusion

5. The DLS: its value and limits

Chapter 8: The Impact of the DLS

1. The blind sieve of time

1.a. Ways of Measuring Impact

1.b. The Survival of Manuscripts

1.b.1. Surviving Manuscripts and influence

1.b.2. Factors contribution to the survival of works

1.c. Survival and Fame

2. The Routes of Adomnán's Survival

2.a. Adomnán's Gift

2.b. Bede reads the DLS

2.c. Information going further afield

3. The Diffusion of Adomnán's DLS in the Mediaeval Period

3.a. The state of the question

3.a.1. Paul Geyer's work

3.a.2. After Geyer

3.a.3. Since the 1958 edition

3.b. Catalogue References to the DLS

3.c. The manuscript evidence for other routes of Adomnán's influence.

3.d. The situation presented by this evidence

4. Adomnán and Bede: Magister et Discipulus

4.a. The context of the relationship

4.a.1. Practical Links

4.a.2. Intellectual links

4.b. The epitome of the DLS

4.b.1. Bede replaces Adomnán

4.b.2. Bede produces an ‘Adomnán Reader'

4.c. The two authors viewed together

4.d. Comparing Adomnán with Bede

5. Adomnán the Illustrious

5.a. The Concept of ‘Illustrious'

5.b. ‘Up-dates' of Jerome

5.b.1. Bede, yet again

5.b.2. Sigebert of Gembloux

5.b.3. Honorius ‘of Autun'

5.b.4. The Anonymus Mellicensis

6. The afterlife of the DLS

Chapter 9: the DLS within Iona's Christian practice

1. Introduction

2. The martyria of Christ and the saints

3. The DLS and the exegesis of Scripture

4. The Holy Land and relics

5. The Holy Places and the liturgy on Iona

6. Conclusion

Appendix 1: The Edition of Adomnán's DLS

Appendix 2: The De situ Hierusolimae and Eucherius

1. The dating of the De situ Hierusolimae

2. Is the De situ Hierusolimae a work of Eucherius of Lyons?

Appendix 3: Latin Lists of the Canonical Books Compared

1. The Old Testament

1.a. The Problem of references to ‘Two books of Esdras'

2. The New Testament

Appendix 4: The Apocrypha on Iona

1. Additional note 1: The ‘semi-cave'

2. Additional note: The caenaculum

Appendix 5: The Parallels in the Four Gospels

underlying DLS 1,25 as presented using the Eusebian Apparatus

1. Reading Matthew 24:1-27:1 as one's basic narrative

2. Reading Mark 14:1-15:1b as one's basic narrative

3. Reading Luke 21:5-23:1 as one's basic narrative

4. Reading John 10:41-18:28 as one's basic narrative

5. The implications of the method of comparison

Appendix 6: Books available to Adomnán on Iona

Appendix 7: An Emendation of the Text of Gregory the Great, Dialogi IV, 31, 3

Appendix 8: Manuscripts of Adomnán's De locis sanctis

1. Consolidated list of extant or known manuscript copies of Adomnán's De locis sanctis

2. List of manuscripts studied or used by Geyer in his edition of 1898

Appendix 9: References to Arculf

1. In Adomnán's DLS

2. In Bede's DLS

3. In Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

Bibliography:

1. Ancient and Mediaeval Authors

2. Modern Authors

Indices:

1. Manuscripts

2. Biblical

3. Ancient and Mediaeval Names

4. Modern Names

Promotional Information

This book is a detailed account of the sites mentioned in the years of the seventh century. It is a detailed account of the sites mentioned in the Christian scriptures, the overall topography, and the shrines that were in Palestine and Egypt at that time.

About the Author

Thomas O'Loughlin is professor of historical theology in the University of Nottingham, UK. His research has focused on the theology of the early medieval period, and on the works of insular writers in particular.

Reviews

"it is careful and thorough and will be a useful eye-opener to modern readers of the Bible who are newcomers to this crucial period of rescue and retrieval of late antique and early Christian learning, taking place at the further edges of Europe, with almost empty libraries. Above all, it strives with fair success to take the reader inside the intellectual and spiritual realities of the lives of the monks Adomnan expected to read this book and profit from it in their religious life" ANVIL Vol.25 No.2 2008
*Professor G. R. Evans*

"...Thomas O' Loughlin's study of Adomnán's De locis must rank as a major contribution to the history of insular scriptural scholarship in the early Middle Ages." Ecclesiastical History, October 2009