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similar; and his monastic mission to Ireland
was preceded by monastic training in what
is now France, possibly on the Lerins islands
(off the Riviera) where the early Egyptian tra-
dition was followed.

In East and West alike scholars can trace how
the role of the written word shifted over time.
Books became holy objects or talismans. Irish
tribes carried them into battle; a Greek Chris-
tian writer called a completed Gospel a "pre-
sence" which somehow sanctified its environs
without being opened. Yet books had practical
as well as ritual purposes; they were intended
to be read aloud in church or at monastic din-
ner-tables. And when practical needs chan-
ged, old writing was (nearly) erased.

Silent reading also developed at both ends
of Christendom. Ambrose of Milan, a
Latin writer who was well laiown in Ireland,

impressed Augustine of Hippo voice could render ... commu-
with his quiet perusal of a text. nication all the richer". A si-
From another Christian writer, milar passion for the written
Isaac of Syria ... the noiseless word, the process, the product
contemplation of the written and the effect on the reader can
word was balm to the soul. By be detected in Western scribes
giving the reader extra time like Columba of Iona and Bede
and space to absorb the text of Northumbria.
and its many layers of meaning
"the very absence ofthe human ITA MARGUET

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