Thanks OddLane.
Posted on 03/06/2019 9:35:13 PM PST by OddLane
If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book of Kells. “One of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures” comments Medievalists.net, “it is set apart from other manuscripts of the same period by the quality of its artwork and the sheer number of illustrations that run throughout the 680 pages of the book.” The work not only attracts scholars, but almost a million visitors to Dublin every year. “You simply can’t travel to the capital of Ireland,” writes Book Riot’s Erika Harlitz-Kern, “without the Book of Kells being mentioned. And rightfully so.”
The ancient masterpiece is a stunning example of Hiberno-Saxon style, thought to have been composed on the Scottish island of Iona in 806, then transferred to the monastery of Kells in County Meath after a Viking raid (a story told in the marvelous animated film The Secret of Kells). Consisting mainly of copies of the four gospels, as well as indexes called “canon tables,” the manuscript is believed to have been made primarily for display, not reading aloud, which is why “the images are elaborate and detailed while the text is carelessly copied with entire words missing or long passages being repeated.”
(Excerpt) Read more at openculture.com ...
Have seen. Amazing.
Thanks OddLane.
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Seen this....fascinating....
I think a facsimile version, a coffee-table book, was published for the Xmas shopping season circa 1971, I remember seeing the cover on the wall display at Walden Books.
This is great! You could see the original in Dublin (I have) but it’s open to random page and every day they flip ahead a page. So even if you go every day for a week you can only see a fraction of the book. The pages I saw weren’t that spectacular compared to photos of other pages I’d seen, just bad luck that those were the ones that were up that day. It will be cool to be able to flip through all of them now/
Link from the article: https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=MS58_003v
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I have also and agree with you. I even bought a tie in the gift shop with the symbols from the book. Several people commented on it and mentioned their visit as well.
And it’s very dimly lit to protect the ink. I’ve seen some digitized pages before and I love how you can go in very deep and see finer and finer details. Amazing work of art.
Ping for later lookery.
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You must go where I cannot, Pangur Ban.
I have seen it. Beautiful!
nice
And imagine, this may just be the best surviving one -- when Vikings burned the monasteries and churches, much may have been lost.
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