ABSTRACT
The earliest forms of writing to be found in Britain and Ireland resulted from the conversion of the Irish to Christianity in the fifth century. The type of script used by Irish monks from the middle of the first millennium Ce onwards was adopted somewhat later by their English counterparts when they came to write English in the late sixth and seventh centuries Ce. The insular script used for both Latin and Old Irish in Ireland had been developed from continental (half-)uncial models for Latin and came to be employed by members of the Celtic church in Ireland and the north of Britain, including Scotland. This practice was continued further south in England when writing became common in the monasteries which were established after the Christianisation of England from the south by Saint Augustine and his followers after 597 (Wood 1994).
