Book of Kells
Manuscript Information
Title of manuscript: Book of KellsMS call number (and folio selected): MS 58
Current location: Trinity College, Dublin
Place of creation: Iona
Date of creation: circa 800
Codicology and Paleography
Language(s) of text: LatinScript: Insular Majuscule
Abbreviations: None
Textual corrections: None
Contemporary: None
Later: None
Marginal commentary: None
Contemporary: None
Later: None
Rubrication: None
Instructions for scribe: None
Instructions for rubricator and/or artist: None
Provenance
Marks of ownership: NonePrevious owners:
The majority academic opinion now tends to attribute it [the Creation of the Book of Kells] to the scriptorium of Iona (Argyllshire), but conflicting claims have located it in Northumbria or in Pictland in eastern Scotland. A monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off Mull in western Scotland, became the principal house of a large monastic confederation.
In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath, and for many years the two monasteries were governed as a single community
It remained at Kells throughout the Middle Ages, venerated as the great gospel book of St Colum Cille, a relic of the saint, as indicated by a poem added in the 15th century to folio 289v.
In the late 11th and 12th centuries, blank pages and spaces on folios 5v-7v and 27r were used to record property transactions relating to the monastery at Kells. In 1090, it was reported by the Annals of Tigernach, that relics of Colum Cille were brought to Kells from Donegal. These relics included ‘the two gospels’, one of them probably the Book of Kells, the other perhaps the Book of Durrow.
Following the rebellion of 1641, the church at Kells lay in ruins, and around 1653 the book was sent to Dublin by the governor of Kells, Charles Lambert, Earl of Cavan, in the interests of its safety.
A few years later it reached Trinity College, the single constituent college of the University of Dublin, through the agency of Henry Jones, a former scoutmaster general to Cromwell’s army in Ireland and Vice-Chancellor of the University, when he became Bishop of Meath in 1661. It has been on display in the Old Library at Trinity College from the mid 19th century.
- Trinity College, Dublin
Mise en page
Columns: 1Lines per column: 17
Decoration (in hierarchical order)
Gilding: NoneSmall ink initials: Eight noticeable ones at the beginning of sentences, highlighted with paint in their centers.
Pen flourished initials: None
Painted initials: Nine initials where the letters themselves are not painted, but the interiors with a variety of colors. The most distinguished one is the M and A, featuring interlace as well.
Gold initials: None
Foliate initials: None
Zoomorphic initials: Three present, an M and A with the head of a dog in the descender; a P with a quadruped and a bird entangled together; a C or a G with a quadruped twisted into itself.
Anthropomorphic initials: None
Historiated initials: None
Monograms: None
Miniatures: A small animal wrapped around text at the bottom of the page.
Marginal Illustrations: None
Full page illustration: None
Other Information
This page is an excerpt from the Book of Luke, where Christ predicts his suffering and rejection at the hands of mankind.This particular folio was written on the flesh side of the vellum, as evidenced by the sprawling lines of veins.
Further Readings
“The Book of Kells.” Book of Kells - The Library of Trinity College Dublin , Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, 14 Aug. 2017, www.tcd.ie/library/manuscripts/book-of-kells.php.
Farr, Carol A. The Book of Kells: Its Function and Audience. London: British Library, 1997. Print.
Meehan, Bernard. The Book of Kells. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.
Pulliam, Heather. Word and Image in the Book of Kells. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006. Print.This page has paths:
- Lit 150 Winter Quarter Kristy Golubiewski-Davis
