Gilla Baithin, Metal Worker
(fl. early 11th century)
Metal Worker
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
The maker of the shrine for a copy of the Gospels believed to have belonged to St. Molaise, who died in 563; a small oblong box made of five plates of bronze covered with worked silver plates which were filled with interlaced ornament in gold filigree. The symbols of the four Evangelists and a cross are on the face of the box. In the inscription engraved on three sides appears the name of the maker, "Gilla Baithin, the artisan who did the work." It was made for Cennfaeled, who was Abbot of Devenish from 1001 to 1025. It was purchased by Charles Halliday from a member of the family of the Meehans, its hereditary keepers, and passed to the Royal Irish Academy in 1859. It is now in the National Museum, Kildare Street.