The Book of Kells [antikvár]

Introduction to the Book of Kells The most famous manuscript in the Library of Trinity College Dublin is the Book of Kells, the most sumptuous of the books to have survived from Europe's early Middle Ages. Its Latin text of the four Gospels, written in majestic hnes of the most beautiful Insular majuscule script, is accompanied not only by large lavishly painted illuminated pages with intricate shapes and patterns but also by brilliant decorations within the lines of the text itself, so that only two of its 680 pages (340 folios) are without colour. The Book of Kells has not survived completely intact, and originally had about 370 folios; some of the Preliminaries before the Gospels are missing and St John's Gospel breaks off in the middle of the 17th chapter. It is a very large book both in the number and in the size of the pages, which on average measure 3 3 cm X 24 cm (i 3 in. X in.). This magnificent book was not made for daily use or study. It was a sacred work of art, produced i ,200 years ago as a dazzling decoration presumably to appear at the altar for very special occasions. The origins of the Book of Kells are shrouded in uncertainty. Although it has some features that link it with Sth/century Ireland, there are other elements that point to the early Church in Northumbria. Its text of the Gospels is a mixture, long retained by the Irish Church, of the Vulgate with many words and phrases from the earlier Old Latin translation of the Bible. The sources of its illustration and decoration seem to be many: from Ireland, from the Anglo-Saxons, from the continent and perhaps beyond. Where and how all these traditions and influences came together in the Book of Kells poses a problem that still remains to be fully solved. But these questions apply to other manuscripts as well, and it would be wrong to consider the Book of Kells as an isolated phenomenon. Some of the evidence has to be sought particularly in a group of manuscripts (in which there are some similar features of text, of script and of illustration) belonging to the group of islands off the west coast of the European continent and, therefore, given the name Insular. What has survived represents only a very small part of the books produced by the monasteries in these islands. The Scandinavian raids of the 9th century destroyed the majority of what must have existed. But there are also other sources of evidence in the fields of archaeology and art history, and perhaps it is from these that we have to look for further information and guidance. I have aimed, in the brief text that accompanies the reproductions, to give some picture of the various elements that led to the Book of Kells being produced, going back to the early centuries of our era, to trace the foundations for the Latin text, and to those diverse developments of the Christian Church in Celtic Britain, Ireland and