Part 5

• The Book of Kells in popular culture

Unlike any other book of its age, the Book of Kells has implanted itself into the popular conscientious of the western world. Two recent examples of this are the Academy Award nominated animated film The Secret of Kells, and the Google Doodle used in place of the Google logo for St. Patrick’s Day, 2012.

Movie Still from The Secret of Kells (2009)

The Secret of Kells (2009) is a feature length animated film telling the story of the production of the manuscript from the standpoint of a novice monk Brendan. It incorporates elements of Irish folklore and history to tell a story that is highly enjoyable. The film makers clearly took their time to research elements of the production of the manuscript into the film. The story included Viking raids, references to St. Colum Cille, Iona and the Gall nuts used to produce the ink for the text. The film successfully incorporates insular motifs without appearing wholly durative of the forms contained within the manuscripts.

St Patrick's day 2012 Google Doodle

The 2012 St. Patrick’s Day Google Doodle, produced by Jennifer Hom, was based on the Book of Kells. Hom noted that “she wanted to go deeper than clichéd shamrocks and leprechauns and wee pots o’ gold (Cavna, 2012).” The Doodle, produced in forty hours over four days, takes elements directly off the Chi Rho page, the human head in the second O being a prim example, as well as interpreting elements of the swirl and interlace art work found throughout the manuscript.

• Summary

There is little that can be said about the Book of Kells that has not been said already. It represents the height of insular manuscript production although it was never completed. The artwork contained on its pages have awed and inspired a millennium of onlookers, although the scribes who wrote it did not take the same care with their words. It has been stolen, recovered, rebound, defaced, and repaired; yet thought it all it has remained, in a word, magnificent.

 

·         Reference Page

Analysis of the book of kells. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2012 from the Trinity College Dublin website:

http://www.tcd.ie/Library/preservation/research/analysis-book-kells.php

Brown, P. (1980). the Book of kells: forty-eight pages and details in color from the manuscript in

trinity college, dublin. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Brunner, D., Fleteren, V. V., Young, P. (Producer), Moore, T., Twomey, N. (Director). (2009) the Secret of kells

[Motion picture]. Ireland, France, Belgum: Celluloid Dreams.

Cavana, M. (2012, March 17). St. patrick’s day google doodle: the emerald style! Artist reveals the real inspiration

behind elegant irish logo. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/st-patricks-day-google-doodle-artist-illuminates-the-true-inspiration-behind-todays-elegant-irish-design/2012/03/16/gIQAIHQnHS_blog.html?tid=pm_entertainment_pop

Meehan, B. (1994). the Book of kells: an illustrated introduction to the manuscript in trinity college dublin. London,

England: Thames & Hudson.

Simpson, B. (Editor). (2010). the Book of kells [DVD-ROM]. Available from http://www.bookofkells.com/the-dvd.htm
Stalley, R. (1994). Investigating the book of kells [Review of the book the Book of Kells: forty-eight pages

and details in color from the manuscript in trinity college, dublin¸ by B. Meehan]. Irish Arts Review Yearbook, 94-97. Retrieved from http://irishartsreview.com/irisartsreviyear/pdf/1994/20492768.pdf.bannered.pdf

Sullivan, E. (1986). the Book of kells. New York, NY: Crescent Books

Part 4

• Mistakes

                The text of the Book of Kells is full of errors (Simpson, 2010). The majority of these errors are minor spelling mistakes on the part of the scribes; a good number of which were never corrected. However, the most glaring error in the book is the duplication of a full page of text.

• Rubrication

The Book of Kells does not include any instances of rubication. In place of the traditional red letter headings, illumination and paintings were used to denote the beginning of sections.

• Decoration, Illuminations and Paintings

Due to the wide variety of artistic embellishments present in the manuscript it is necessary, for the purpose of clarity, to define the three subject headings of this section. To that end, for the purpose of this blog decoration will be defined as any non-textual ink based adornment or small pigment based doodle; illuminations will be pigment based embellishments or figural drawings incorporated into the text pages of the manuscript; and full page art piece will be defined and described under the heading of paintings.

While the Book of Kells’ age makes it a rare treasure, it is the decorations, illustrations and paintings that have earned the manuscript its justly deserved fame. Any discussion of the art of the manuscript must by its nature be a brief survey as one can find multiple monographs dedicated to the beauty of the artwork to be found within. This review will seek to point out the highlights and illustrate what makes the manuscript so special.

All but two of the surviving pages, 29v and 301v contain decorations or illuminations and there is evidence that these pages were intended to be embellished before the manuscript was left unfinished. It was not only illuminations that were left incomplete. There is strong evidence that at least one page (123v), was intended to house a painting, which was never begun; this will be covered in more detail below. It is also believed, based on the structure of the surviving pages, that other folios containing paintings have been lost.

Brown (1980, p. 90) states it well when he says that “More than any other Insular manuscript, the Book of Kells has a profusion of illustrations and ornaments, the elements of which are found in other manuscripts but nowhere in such variety.”

Decorations:

Decorations made using dots of red lead. Folio 124r

 Decorations in the manuscript are most commonly seen in either the brownish iron Gaul ink used for the majority of the text or pure red lead. Common motifs include small clusters of grapes (200r) and geometric designs completed through the use of dots or lines. The latter is incorporated into a painting to great effect in folio 124r,

Lion. Folio 206r

Illuminations:

Cat. Folio 183v

As anyone who has seen even a simple page from the Book of Kells would tell you, the illuminations are fantastic. Depictions of at least of 18 different animals have been notated (Simpson, 2010); the most common of which is the cat, but others include the otter, eagle and snake. It is noted that the inclusion of many of the symbols are intended to be a reference to Jesus. It is believed that repeated inclusion of the peacock, fish, lion, and snake were intended to reinforce the message that the book was the word of God. It is also noted that the animals with which the monastic illustrators and scribes were less familiar were drawn in a less realistic manor. This can be clearly seen by comparing the illustration of a cat with that of a lion or a snake.

Along with animals, another common illumination is the initial capital at the beginning of a verse. There are over 2000 illuminated initial capital letters (Simpson, 2010). These letters often include, or are made entirely of, either human and/or animal forms. Examples of both can be seen on folio 253v where two men pulling each other’s beards are used to create the letter N, while a two animals eating humans are used to create a letter A.

Paintings:

It is believed (Meehan, 1994) that if completed the plan for the manuscript would have included a page of evangelist symbols and portrait page and a decorated page at the beginning of each of the four gospel book. There are 33 surviving pages that can be described as containing paintings. As stated above the pages containing paintings were often single folios, not bifolia, this may be the reason why, if they were completed, they have not survived through to the present day.

Onlookers. Folio 124r

The cost of the velum and pigments required to produce the Painted pages required that they be well thought out and planned before an illuminator ever touched a page. It is believed that these practice runs would have been undertaken using wax tablets, (Simpson, 2010) a medium that would have allowed for trial and error as a reheating of the wax allowed a fresh attempt at the artwork.  A double border on all sides encloses the decorated pages in the Book of Kells. The areas between the two lines are often filled with interlace and knot work. The initial design of the pages were done using tools such as set squares, compasses and rulers to ensure true lines and angles. The more intricate interlace work appears to have been completed by hand.

A common practice among the illuminators was to paint a group of onlookers into the border of the painting to draw the eye of the reader to the important section. This can be seen in the paining of the Virgin and Child (7v) as well as folio 124r, a page of ornamental text describing the crucifixion of Christ. It is the presence of these onlookers that lead scholars to the conclusion that the blank page adjunct to it, (123v) was intended to contain an image of the crucifixion (Simpson, 2010). Of all the full page paintings contained in the book, my favorites are 291v and 129v.

The painting of St. John (291v), while not as complex as many other pages, is remarkable to me for a number of reasons. The apostle is depicted holding the tools of the scribe. He holds a book in his left hand, a quill pen in his right and has a bull horn, commonly used a an ink well, at his feet. From an artistic perspective, I am drawn to the artist’s use of the natural color of the vellum to fill in the negative space in his halo. The portrait is also noteworthy for its illustration of damage done in by Mullen in his 1821 cropping of the margins. The painting is meant to show a figure whose hands and feet are still intact standing behind the image. However, through the process of cropping, only the beard and lower section of the halo remain of the person's face.

The other image that I find to be fascinating is that of the four evangelists (129v). Their symbols are Matthew as a man, Mark as a lion, Luke as a calf, and John as an eagle. The page is broken into four sections using a cross. Each evangelist has their own section in which their symbol is enclosed in a circle of Orpiment yellow. Although it is busier than the portrait of St. John, I again find the still restrained ornamentation and the use of negative space in this painting to be pleasing.

St. Mark as the Lion. Folio 129v

St. Matthew as the man. Folio 129v

St. Luke as the Lamb/Calf. Folio 129v

St. John as the Eagle. Folio 129v

Part 3

• Hands of different scribes?

Illuminated peacock illustrating a device known as a turn in the path. Folio309r

As with many other aspects of the production of the Book of Kells, there is debate about the number of scribes and artists that had a hand in production of the manuscript. Bernard Meehan (1994) summarizes the scholarly opinion nicely in his section scribes and artists. Minor variations in letter formation have lead experts to identify three or four principal scribes, who have unimaginatively been dubbed scribes A, B, C, and D. It is believed that the scribes worked out of the same scriptorium due to their use of similar techniques, notably the continuation of text on the line above as opposed to the line below. This technique, known as ”turn-in-the-path” or “head-under-wing”, was done both for aesthetics and to reduce wasted space on the vellum. It can be clearly seen on lines three and four of folio 309 (R), where a peacock is used as an indicator in the text.

Correction of a spelling error. Folio 253v.

Along with the primary scribes and the illuminators, an unknown number of minor, or correcting, scribes are thought to have been present. Evidence for their work is found folio 253v where a spelling error has a noted correction in the margin between the lines.

The attribution of work to specific illuminators seems to be more heavily debated than the scribal work.

There are three experts who have attempted to portion out the illuminations present in the manuscript. They are Francoise Henry (1928-1982), William O’Sullivan (1921-2000), and Jonathan J. G. Alexander (1935- ). For ease in viewing, I will show the attribution of works in list form.

Henry sees the presence of three illuminators in the works. She has named them the “Goldsmith,” the “Illustrator,” and the “Portrait Painter.”	O’Sullivan agreed with the Henry’s attribution of the “Goldsmith” however, believed that the “illustrator” and the “portrait painter” were the same person.	Like O’Sullivan, Alexander saw the work of two artists in the manuscript, but attributed work to them differently.
Goldsmith: 33r the eight-circle cross 34r Chi Rho 5r (top of page) 29r (Liber) 130r (initium 292r (In Principio) Illustrator: 202v: the temptation page 114r the arrest of Christ 7v the Virgin 290v Evangelist symbols Portrait Painter: 32v Christ 28v St Matthew 291v St John 27v symbols for St Matthews gospel (Possible)	Illuminator 1: 33r “the eight-circle cross” page 34r “the Chi Rho” page 5r (top of page) 29r (Liber) 130r (initium 292r (In Principio) Illuminator 2: 202v: the temptation page 114r the arrest of Christ 7v the Virgin 290v Evangelist symbols 32v Christ 28v St Matthew 291v St John 27v symbols for St Matthews gospel (Possible)	Illuminator 1 32v Christ 33r the eight-circle cross 34r Chi Rho 130r (possible) 202v (possible) 290v (possible) Illuminator 2: 7v-8r 28v 29r 114r 291v-292r 27v (possible) 129v (possible) 188r (possible)

It is important to note that even the experts show some uncertainty when attributing work to a specific illuminator. It is highly possible that illuminators collaborated on and drew inspiration from each other’s pages.

• Ink/pigment

The majority of the manuscript was produced using brownish iron Gaul ink. This was made using crushed oak apples and sulfide of iron suspended in a medium of gum and water. A few pages at the beginning of the book were written in black carbon ink, made using ask or lamp black, again suspended in a medium of gum and water. There is additional text dispersed throughout the work that was written in red, purple or yellow ink.

The pigments, through their number, quality, and sources speak to the wealth of the monastery that produced the manuscript.  Recent research has led to a reduction in the traditional list of materials used to develop the color pallet of the manuscript. The two lists below illustrate both the traditional selection of materials as well as the updated list.

The list below was derived from the Inks and pigments section of Book of Kells DVD-ROM released by Trinity College in 2010.

Color	Material	Source
Orange	Red Lead	Made by heating cooling and palavering and washing white lead.
Yellow	Orpiment	Mineral, likely imported from Italy, Hungary, Macedonia, Asia Minor or Central Asia.
Green	Verdigris	Made by heating copper in a bath of acetic acid
Blue	Indigo	Indigo: Came from “Oriental” sources.
Blue	Woad	Woad: made from a plant native to northern Europe.
Red	Kermes	Kermes: made from the body and eggs of a female insect found in the Mediterranean region.
Red	Vermillion	Vermillion: is a mineral most likely imported from Spain.
Purple	Folium	Made from the roots of a Mediterranean marsh plant
White	White Lead	Made by roasting lead over vinegar
Cobalt Blue	Lapis Lazuli	Only known mine producing the material in medieval times was in Afghanistan.

The list below was derived from the Trinity College Library website under Preservation & Conservation – Research

Color	Material	Source
Blue	Indigo	See above
Red-Orange	Red Lead	See above
Yellow	Orpiment	See above
Green	Indigo and Orpiment	See above
Green	Verdigris	See above
Black	Carbon and Iron Gall Ink	See above
White	Gypsum	Mineral found commonly throughout the British Isles.

               This new list has been developed thought the use of micro-Raman spectroscopy. Research was conduction only on the major decorated pages of the manuscript; as such, it is not possible to determine all of the pigment sources. However, it is no longer believed that lapis lazuli was used.

                Another material that should be noted as absent from the manuscript is gold. Although many other insular manuscripts had little or no gold in them Françoise Henry (1974, p. 160) goes so far as to argue that the wide use of the yellow produced by orpiment was an attempt on the part of that the illuminators to compensate for the lack of availability of the precious metal.