, which are also attached with tacks to a core wooden box. Commission and production Historians are generally confident in identifying who commissioned the shrines, and their providence. Exceptions include the Book of Durrow and the Stow Missal. Inscriptions on two examples (Durrow and Stowe) indicate they were for a King of Ireland. Almost nothing is known of the metal-workers who produced them. A number contain inscriptions that can be read as signatures, but that is the extent of their historical record as even first rank craftsmen of the time were not mentioned in annuals, and were not given obituaries when they died. As craftsmen were not given a high social status, it seems many were illiterate. Some of the signatures are unclear, with instance where the scribe was tasked with writing in Latin, but did not understand how to formulate language. Function basic utilitarian functions were as practical protective covers for their manuscript or relic, and to provide, sometimes portable, private centers of devotion, or were of liturgical use. The majority were intended to hold by then centuries older manuscripts, in instanced assumed to be written by major saints, such as Patrick, or legendary local monastery founders who had died 100s of years before the actual date of the manuscript. For this reason, many of the very early manuscripts owe their survival to their later, active status as relics. Most other early medieval Irish manuscripts were stored away in secure stone buildings, but were over the years sold, stolen or plundered, and thus lost. The shrines were used during both ecclesiastical and secular ceremonies, such as granting insignia of office, swearing of oaths or signing treaties. The books of Dimma and Mulling were found with inserts containing texts from masses of the dead, indicating they were used for healing purposes. The book of Durrow was periodically removed from its (now lost) during the late medieval and early modern periods so that it could be used to bless and cure sick animals. Battle standards Reliquaries were often used as battle standards in medieval Ireland, with expectation that they would boost morale, protect the troops, or grant victory. Typically the relics would be held in, or represented by, crosiers, bell-shrines or cumdachs, and carried onto the battlefield by a cleric, who would often be employed by the family as its "hereditary custodian". The most well-known used for this purpose is the