Lismore Crozier

Lismore Crozier
View of crozier’s drop, crook and upper knopes
Materialwood, silver, gold, niello, glass
Sizeheight: 116cm
Createdearly 12th century, probably c. 1100
DiscoveredLismore Castle, County Waterford, Ireland
Present locationNational Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin
The Lismore, Clonmacnoise and River Laune croziers on display.

The Lismore Crozier is an Irish Insular-type crozier dated to between 1100 and 1113 AD. It consists of a wooden tubular staff lined with copper-alloy plates; embellished with silver, gold, niello and glass; and capped by a crook with a decorative openwork crest.[1] The inscriptions on the upper knope record that it was built by "Nechtain the craftsman" and commissioned by Niall mac Meic Aeducain, bishop of Lismore (d. 1113). This makes it the only extant insular crozier to be inscribed, and the only one whose date of origin can be closely approximated.[2] It was rediscovered in 1814, along with the 15th-century Book of Lismore, in a walled-up doorway in Lismore Castle, County Waterford, where it was probably hidden in the late Middle Ages during a period of either religious persecution or raids.

The crozier is held in the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) on Kildare Street, Dublin.[3] During a 1966 refurbishment, two small relics and a linen cloth were found inside the crook (the curved top-piece). An early 20th-century copy is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[4]

  1. ^ "The Lismore Crozier was discovered at Lismore Castle in the 19th Century, and dates from 1100 AD". National Museum of Ireland. Retrieved 26 September 2021
  2. ^ Murray (2007), p. 88
  3. ^ Murray (2007), p. 83
  4. ^ "Lismore Crozier early 20th century (original dated early 11th century)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 26 September 2021