Insular & Anglo-Saxon: Art & Thought in the Early Medieval Period Edited by: Colum Hurihane The index of Christian art is rapidly approaching the hundredth anniversary of its foundation… it has felt the need over the last few years to evaluate and look at how the discipline it serves has changed during its lifetime. To that end, we have had a series of conferences that have attempted to look at some of the major styles of the medieval period. These started with a two-day study of the Romanesque, which was followed by an evaluation of the Gothic, and now we are at the third in the series with a collection of studies concerning Insular and Anglo-Saxon art. A fourth conference will look at Byzantine art. Like the other studies in this series the aims were two-fold. We attempted to look at the historiography of both styles to see what had been over-emphasized and what had been understudied. Paralleling the historiography, we also aimed to provide some new material for furute scholarship and have a series of iconographic studies that reflect the primary interests of the index itself. These will hopefully inspire future students in the field. I know it would have been possible to have looked at many other styles…. But the two we chose seemed to fall together naturally. Both are closely related and have received considerable attention over the last few years. The results of these two conference days are in this volume. Little research has been undertaken on the close relationships between the two styles themselves, and this also […] is touched upon in this volume. It would have been an easy task to devote all the studies in this volume to either the manuscript or the High Cross […] much more does exist in both of these styles. We simply have to think of wooden sculpture or frescoes to see just two of the many neglected areas. […]