Even if you can and want to read them in Latin, you would still turn elsewhere, because all the decoration seriously obscures parts of the text. If your goal is to read the gospels, there are much better books to do it in. You don’t view the Book of Kells for its verbal content any more than you visit the Roman Colosseum because of the entertainments once performed inside. All of this together makes the Book of Kells a strong candidate for the title of World’s Most Famous Book, which it’s frequently claimed to be.Īs I said before, the text contained in the Book of Kells isn’t what’s most important. The reasons for the profuse decoration in general and the symbolism behind many particular elements are lost on us today, further enhancing the book’s allure. You feel that you can’t ever fully understand its secrets, but what you see makes you happy and light-hearted all the same. This trait makes the Book of Kells seem mysterious, magical, and whimsical. You could stare at one page forever and still continue to discover new features. The decoration is so dense that much of it is essentially hidden from view unless you look long and hard. Animal forms such as mice, rabbits, moths, fish, lions, funny little bird heads, and more appear amidst all this interlace. Miles of twisted and tangled interlace, which comes from the rich Irish metalworking tradition, mesmerizes the eye almost everywhere. They’re called “carpet pages” for that very reason. There are whole pages filled with just a few letters so elaborately decorated that they more closely resemble intricately-woven carpets than text in a book. For example, a single capital letter might transform into an owl, or the word “ et” could become part rabbit. There are several illustrations of stylized human figures, but most of the decoration centers on the letters themselves. The Book of Kells contains pages and pages of intricate, colorful artwork. What makes the Book of Kells fascinating to so many people today – Meehan says that more than half a million people come to see it every year – is its incredibly dense and masterful decoration. Instead, the book is highly valued today as a work of art and a symbol of Irish cultural achievement. It contains the Latin texts of the four Christian gospels, but that’s actually its least noteworthy feature. The Book of Kells is a medieval illuminated manuscript handwritten and decorated by Irish monks living in the British Isles around 800 CE. I haven’t included many photos here, since the available Public Domain images aren’t of very high quality. Follow along with Trinity College Library’s complete digital facsimile of the manuscript. I can’t stand for people not to know about this great work of art, so let me explain what the Book of Kells is and why it’s so special. Questions like: “What is a Kell?” “Can you read Latin?” “Is that book full of strange gods?” I thought that everybody was familiar with the Book of Kells, but I now see that’s not true. I got some confused questions yesterday while unboxing my deluxe The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan (London: Thames & Hudson, 2012). Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland. Irish (probably Iona, Scotland or Kells, Ireland), c. Learn About Art from the Comfort of Your Home.Be the Critic: How to Evaluate Museum Exhibitions.Part Two: Where and When Did Gargoyles Come From?.The Book of Durrow is preserved in Trinity College Library, Dublin. 680." (Alexander, Insular Manuscripts 6th to the 9th Century No. Textual and paleographical evidence is adduced by those who, favouring an origin in Northumbria (Lowe, Bruce-Mitford, Brown), also tend to a slightly later date c. The later provenance and the colophon give some reasons for thinking that the book was produced in a Columban monastery, and are used as supporting evidence by those who consider the manuscript to have been written in Ireland or Iona (Henry, Nordenfalk). 9) in the middle of the second half of the 7th century seems most probable, and, though in the past the book has been dated both earlier and later, this dating seems now to be generally accepted by both art historians and paleographers. "A date falling between the Durham Gospel fragment (no. Thus, its date is uncertain and controversial. It was long considered the earliest surviving fully decorated insular Gospel book, and thought to date from the mid-seventh century, yet it was executed with such a degree of sophistication that recent scholars argue for a date more contemporaraneous with the Book of Kells. The Book of Durrow, which derives its name from the Irish Columban monastery of Durrow, County Offaly, is an early medieval Gospel book decorated with carpet pages and framed symbols of the Evangelists.
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