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Visit to the Book of Kells

© Suzanne Hill

"Look closely at it and you will penetrate the innermost secrets of art; you will find embellishments of such intricacy, such a wealth of knots and interlacing links that you might believe it was the work of an angel rather than a human being."

-Giraldus Cambrensis, 13th century scholar

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to visit breathtaking Ireland. In Dublin I made a point of seeing the Book of Kells where it's housed at Trinity College.

Customers line up in the gift shop to buy tickets. I got a glimpse of all sorts of souvenirs as I waited: silver jewelry, books of Irish names, Irish cookbooks, brass doorknockers, linen kitchen towels, tin whistles and bodhran drums, CDs of images from the Book of Kells.

The rooms inside were darkened, immediately casting a hushed spell. In the first room I explored an exhibit of large panels with descriptions of details from the Book, allowing close inspection of pages from this beautiful work of art - Ireland's treasure. The book, created about 800AD, is perhaps the most beautiful representation of Celtic art and incorporates images in a wonderful mix of pagan superstition and Christian belief.

tunc, et

The capital letters at the beginning of each paragraph are decorated with brightly colored entwinements of birds, snakes, distorted men and animals fighting, swallowing parts of one another, or performing all sorts of acrobatic feats. Sometimes the figure of an angel or an Apostle peers over the top of the initial letters and his feet jut out beneath.

The words "tunc" (Latin for then) and "et" (Latin for and) are frequently depicted at these spots at the beginnings of paragraphs. The small words are ornamented with incredible detail. It is said that modern viewers can't see all the detail without a magnifying glass, yet these instruments were not available to the monks, scribes, and illustrators at the time the book was created.

Coptic dots

Tiny drops of pure red are used to form outlines within the designs, a style of ornament common in early Irish manuscripts. The use of small red dots in Celtic manuscripts does not (contrary to some modern interpretations) represent the "universal life force," but was simply a decorative device. The technique, known to calligraphers as rubrication, was borrowed by the Celtic monks from Egyptian Coptic Christian manuscripts brought to Ireland by missionaries in the fifth century. The small red dots are used to outline large initials or to make a particular line of text stand out from the page.