“The roof now needs replacing at a minimum cost of €147,000, and the building needs to be relined because of damp. He said €500,000 was outstanding on capital costs, and the centre had been running at a loss of €88,000 per year. One volume displays pages of text, while the second volume is dediacted to pages of illustration.While efforts are under way to resolve the situation, including looking at alternative premises for the centre, the chairman of the local town council Brian Curran said the figures for the current centre “just don’t add up”. Two of the four volumes are on permanent display at Trinity College in Dublin. This was done to help preserve its exquisite, rare pages. The book was once again rebound in 1953, creating four separate volumes. In the 19th century the book was rebound, when the edges of the pages were unfortunately trimmed and gillded. It was found buried beneath the ground, but its precious holder was never recovered. The books was stolen around the year 1000 AD. The book was probably originally housed in a shrine, a jewel encrusted case of gold designed to hold relics. The delicate knotwork and links found in the illustrations are known for the inctricacy of their details and design. The book is written using a bold script known as "insular majuscule." The pages of vellum were hand sewn together and then given a protective cover of wood or leather. Large herds of cattle were kept by monks at Ireland's monastries, not only to provide milk and food, but also as a source of vellum, the monk's primary writing material. The Book of Kells was not written on paper, but on vellum created from the skins of about 185 cattle. There are artistic representations of the Virgin and Child plus a portrait of Christ. The text is dedicated to the four Gospels in Latin and is based on the Vulgate text, completed by Saint Jerome in 384 AD. These summaries of the gospel narratives are known as Breves causae. The opening words of the Gospels are also found. You will find the symbols of each of the evangelists, with Matthew depicted as a Man, Mark symbolized by the Lion, Luke associated with the Calf, and John assigned the symbol of the Eagle. In the Book of Kells there are full decorative pages dedicated to the canon tables. The illuminations are also another stunning feature of the book, where evangelist symbols and miniature depictions across ten full pages are still preserved. These complex patterns and the beautiful detailing is what makes the book stand out. This is also accompanied by the Anglo-Saxon tradition of bright coloring and energetic compositions. Inspired by the 7th-century style of Hiberno-Saxon, the Book contains motifs and initials from the Irish-Celtic tradition. These illustrations incorporate intricate detailing and bright colors like lilac, pink, green, and yellow, to name a few. There is more to the book than the text, and each page of writing is accompanied by an illustration. There is speculation that they did not jot down their lines directly from the Vulgate, but relied on their own memories of what they had read in the past. However, as discussed above, the scribes were rather inconsistent and careless in their writings. The Book of Kells is said to have copied the gospels of the new testament from the Vulgate itself. The Vulgate is a 4th century Latin translation of the Bible. Sometime around 1653 the book was sent to Dublin by the English governor of Kells for safekeeping.Ī few years later the Book of Kells is reported to have reached Trinity College, through the efforts of Henry Jones, a former member of Cromwell’s army. The other gospel is thought to have been the Book of Durrow.įollowing a rebellion by the Irish in 1641, the church at Kells was destroyed. In another ancient Irish text known as the Annals of Tigernach, it is reported that in the year 1090 AD, the relics of Columcille were brought to Kells from his native County Donegal.Īmong these relics were two gospels, one of which was probably the Book of Kells. It is believed that most of this book was created in Iona, and then brought back to the Abbey of Kells for safekeeping. In the early ninth century there was a threat of Viking raids to coastal monasteries. The design of the book is similar to the Lindisfarne Gospels which were created in Iona around 700 AD, which seems to link the creation of the Book of Kells to Iona rather than Kells. This monastery was founded by Saint Columcille of Donegal. It is believed that it was created by Celtic monks in the scriptorium of the monastery in Iona, an island of Mull in western Scotland. Columba, the place it was created is subject to much debate. While it is widely accepted that the Book of Kells was created by the monks of St.
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