About sacred places

Presented in a bilingual Latin–Czech edition, this book offers the first-ever translation of a major work by St Adamnan (627–704), an Hiberno-Scottish monk and abbot of the monastery on the island of Iona (Hy). This detailed description of important sites in the Holy Land was originally intended to instruct monks in his home monastery. However, it soon spread to key centres of the Carolingian Renaissance, introducing readers to the topography of 7th-century Palestine through the testimony of the (likely fictitious) Gallic bishop Arculf. An extensive introductory study places Adamnan's writing into the context of Hiberno-Scottish literary production of the pre-Carolingian period.