Insular script is a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they founded monasteries such as Bobbio. The scripts were also used in monasteries like Fulda, which were influenced by English missionaries. They are associated with Insular art, of which most surviving examples are illuminated manuscripts. It greatly influenced modern Gaelic type and handwriting.
The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow
St Chad Gospels: Et factum est iter[um cum sabbatis ambula]ret Iesus per sata (Mark 2:23, p. 151)
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, was produced in the post-Roman era of Great Britain and Ireland. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe. Art historians usually group Insular art as part of the Migration Period art movement as well as Early Medieval Western art, and it is the combination of these two traditions that gives the style its special character.
This page (folio 292r) of the Book of Kells contains the lavishly decorated text that opens the Gospel of John.
David from the Durham Cassiodorus, early 8th century (?), Jarrow
One of hundreds of small initials from the Book of Kells
Early Anglo-Saxon shoulder-clasps from Sutton Hoo, early 7th century. Gold, garnet, and millefiori glass.