|
The Book of Kells is a great masterpiece of Irish Art, amongst the illuminated
manuscripts it is most famous. It holds the Four Gospels of the New Testament
written in Latin and illustrated in a myriad of color. Much controversy
surrounds its origin and its creators, although the most popular theory believes
it was written and illuminated around the time of Saint Columba, but paleography
shows the Latin script style examples in the book were not used until after his
death.
Another widely held theory, places the beginnings of the Book of Kells in the
late eighth century, not at the Abbey of Kells in Ireland, but at a monastery in
Iona, on a Scottish Hebrides island. It was supposed to be the work of three
scribes whose names are not known, but research of the book shows that at least
three different hands had worked on it.
The Book was said to be highly protected, during frequent raids of the Vikings
on the Iona monastery, and to this end, it was thought to have been moved to the
Abbey of Kells . During the raids, the monks at Iona travelled to the monastery
in Kells. These occurrences could explain why the Book was never completed.
However incomplete it may be, the Book of Kells is considered to be the finest
of the Insular Gospel Books. At the beginning of each of the Gospels there are
three pages of unimaginably intricate decoration. The scribes used animals,
nature and human depictions in many of the illustrations. They also included a
spectacular illustration of the incarnation of Christ and the Crucifixion.
It has been said by those that have seen the Book that no words can describe the
beauty and unimaginable splendor of the deeply colored lettering and
illustrations, which are more vibrant than in any other manuscript created.
Giraldus Cambrensis, a twelfth-century scholar after seeing the book himself was
attributed as saying, "Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not
notice it. Look more keenly at it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of
art. You will make out intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so exact and
compact, so full of knots and links, with colors so fresh and vivid that you
might say that all this was the work of an angel and not of a man."
No matter the beauty of the Book, there are errors in it. The monks labored on
the Book from dusk until dawn with their only light source coming from the
outdoors. With the working conditions and the difficulty in translations , they
repeated a word, mistranslated a phrase, and made spelling mistakes. The monks
would also pen complaints, short notes or prayers in the margins of the book.
In 1006, the Book of Kells was stolen from Kells, stripped of its ornate gold
covering and left in a ditch, until it was discovered and made its way back to
Kells. Due to its time in the water-soaked ditch, the outer leaves and margins
of the vellum are damaged and there are wormholes throughout the Book. Some
portions at the beginning and end of the manuscript are lost, and during the
1800’s an overzealous and ignorant bookbinder cut off the margins of some of the
pages. However, for its age and the history it has seen, the Book of Kells is in
a very good state of preservation. Its final resting place is on display at the
Trinity College Dublin Library in Ireland.
|