| The Book of Deer |
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| The Book of Deer is a 9th century illuminated manuscript written in Latin, hand-copied |
| by a scribe from other manuscripts of the Gospels of the time. It contains primarily the |
| Gospel of St. John and parts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. |
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| It is thought that The Book of Deer was probably transcribed at the monastery of Deer in Buchan and gets |
| its name from six Gaelic 'notes', along with a Latin charter of David I, confirming grants of land to the |
| monastery of Deer which were written into the margins and other blank spaces of the manuscript between |
| AD 1130 & 1150. |
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| The notes are the earliest known example of Gaelic written in Scotland. The form of Gaelic used is called |
| 'Middle Gaelic' [also known as 'Middle Irish'] and was the form of Gaelic common to Ireland and parts of |
| Scotland AD900 - 1200. |
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| The Gaelic notes are written as if in a 'family bible' describing farm names, woodland and other parcels |
| of valuable land along with those to whom the land has been granted [primarily the Church], but also to |
| landowners, Mormaors [closest equivalent 'lord', laird or 'lord lieutenant'] as well as to local crofters & |
| farmers in Northeast Scotland, in the 11th and early 12th centuries. |
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| The young monk-scribe had little knowledge of Latin as many of his transcriptions contained errors in |
| copying from the original Gospel Latin and he clearly had time on his hands, or a preference for artistic |
| doodling judging by his fondness for stylistic animals such as the two on this page which decorate panels |
| left blank between passages of gospels. |
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| The original Book of Deer is in safekeeping within the Archives at the University of Cambridge while there |
| are plans to make its illuminated gospels available on the web by the Book of Deer Project in Aberdeenshire. |
