TCD Book of Kells
Research
The Book of Kells which is preserved in Trinity College Dublin is a pinnacle of Irish art. It’s a book which is “1200 years old” containing the “Four Gospels” (Book of Kells facts, TCD).
It was named after a town in County Meath, but it is believed to have been created on the remote Scottish island of Iona, by monks who were the original artists. "They were inhabitants of a monastery founded there in the 6th Century by the Irish monk Columba, or Colm Cille as he's known in Irish. In fact, for many centuries the manuscript was believed to be the great Gospel of Columba. But scholars now place the book in a later period and think it was completed by 800 AD". “The monastery, like many early Christian communities, came under the threat of Viking raids. In 806, following a raid that left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a newly-founded monastery at Kells in County Meath in Ireland to keep them safe. The most likely theory is that the monks took the manuscript with them”. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure
“There are 680 pages and just 60 pages missing or 30 folios”. All these pages are majestically illustrated. “The Book of Kells was never completed. Two pages are blank and in a few others we can see some decorative elements that were begun but left unfinished”. (Book of Kells facts, TCD)
"Scribes and artists spent long hours preparing colours and vellum and they had to work with poisonous and foul-smelling materials" (Book of Kells facts, TCD). "Practically all of the 680 pages are decorated in some way or another. On some pages every corner is filled with the most detailed and beautiful Celtic designs". http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure
The making of the book
The pages are made out of vellum which is calfskin. “It took the skins of approximately 185 calves to make the Book of Kells”. “The skin is soaked in water and lime and then using a blade, the hairs and impurities are removed. It’s smoothened using a pumice stone and then stretched onto a frame. Then it’s cut into double pages called bifolium” (Leaving Cert art essay). The pages are numbered like this: “Folio 1r (or f 1r for short) means the front of page 1 and folio 1v (or f 1v) means the back of page 1” (Book of Kells facts, TCD). I think this style of page numbering is an interesting method that I can apply to my own design.
Tools that were used were ‘quill pens’ and ‘cow horns’ as inkwells. The book was bound by “sewing groups of pages along the spine and attaching them to wooden boards , which formed the covers” (Ni Charthaigh, Aine, O’Sullivan, Aidan, Appreciating Art for Leaving Certificate, pg.146). A stylus is a pointed implement, generally made of metal or bone, which was used for ruling a manuscript. It was also used for writing on wax tablets.I want to use these basic techniques to create my designs in order to recreate the authenticity of the initial design.
Calligraphy and Inks
The style of calligraphy used is called ‘insular majuscule script’. The majuscule style included enlarged capitals between 2 ruled lines with very few ascenders and descenders above or below the lines (Leaving Cert art essay). It’s a “form of half uncial used in Britain and Ireland in which certain capitalised letter forms from uncial are also included” (http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/glossary.htm#insularmajuscule).
These were the materials used to produce the inks:
“Orange-red -Red lead
Yellow-gold- Orpiment, a toxic mineral, containing a poison called arsenic
Blue- Indigo or woad (a plant widely grown in Ireland)
Green- Verdigris, which comes from corroded copper
Dark green- ‘Vergaut’ was made by mixing two other pigments, orpiment and indigo
White- Mostly made from gypsum, a mineral which is plentiful in Ireland
Purple- ‘Orcein’ which is a dye made from a species of fungus” (TCD, Teacher’s Guide- Primary)
Designs
The Book of Kells is well known for its intricate illuminated designs. Each gospel begins with three full pages of illustration conveying the Evangelist’s symbols and also their portraits. “On each individual page of the Book the first letter of each paragraph is huge and brightly adorned with animals, men and mythical creatures engaging in battles or performing a range of actions...As well the first letter of each paragraph there are similar designs placed all around each page, both on the headers and margins as well as between paragraphs, and sometimes even between lines of text” (https://www.claddaghdesign.com/history/irish-treasures-the-book-of-kells/). The design elements also include spirals, interlace, animal interlace, human figures, animals and triskels.
"Spirals: These are common throughout the book and trace their origin to the Iron Age. They reflect the art style that was popular in Ireland from approx. 200 BC up to the introduction of Christianity in the early fifth century AD.
Triskels: "Derived from the Greek word "Triskeles" meaning "three legs", the Triskele or Triple Spiral is a complex ancient Celtic symbol". https://www.blarney.com/triskele-_-triple-spiral-_-tri/?rand=8
Triskels: "Derived from the Greek word "Triskeles" meaning "three legs", the Triskele or Triple Spiral is a complex ancient Celtic symbol". https://www.blarney.com/triskele-_-triple-spiral-_-tri/?rand=8
Interlace: Plain ribbons knotted together were a feature of art in various mediums in the Mediterranean.
Animal interlace: Careful examination of much of the interlace in the Book of Kells shows that it is formed from the bodies of birds, animals, snakes and humans. This was a popular form of art in Germanic territories at the time" (TCD, Teacher’s Guide- Secondary).
Scribes and artists
Scholar Francoise Henry has identified three scribes and three separate artists who have created the Book. She calls the artists “the Goldsmith, the Portraitist and the Illustrator”. (Ni Charthaigh, Aine, O’Sullivan, Aidan, Appreciating Art for Leaving Certificate, pg.152) The Goldsmith is credited with “the Chi Ro page and the eight circled cross page”, the Illustrator for the “temptation and arrest of Christ pages” and the Portraitist for the “portraits of Christ, St. Mathew and St. John”. “The Goldsmith, who liked using the orpiment colour, with its lustrous golden quality, produced art of a fine and detailed nature that resembles metalwork and illustrated the sacred text as if with precious jewels and textiles” (TCD, Teacher’s Guide- Secondary). I found the Goldsmith and the Chi Ro page quite interesting and so I decided to focus my research on that element of the Book of Kells.
Conclusion
Conclusion
"So why did the monks go to so much trouble to create these amazing pages? It's as if the book itself flaunted the spiritual qualities of the text to those who saw it. The large pages and illustrations could be seen from further back in the church to make an impact on a congregation that for the most part couldn't read or write. Recent research has shown that books were used in religious processions, enhancing the notion that they were almost objects of worship themselves or at least had talismanic properties for a medieval populace. There won't be many modern visitors who will be convinced of that but take a look at the images yourself and you will be transported into a magical world of awe-inspiring skill". http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure
Extended Research
A Goldsmith’s story
I thought it would be interesting to produce a design based on the Chi Ro page which is told from the perspective of the Goldsmith, its assumed creator. “The entire page celebrates the mystery of the Incarnation as it opens the Nativity story described in the Gospel of Matthew: Christi autem generatio sic erat (‘Now the generation of Christ was in this wise’, Matthew 1:18)” (http://blogs.ucc.ie/wordpress/theriverside/2017/06/01/the-book-of-kells-student-exhibition-ma-in-medieval-history-the-chi-rho-page/). The page itself is a “monogram of Christ taken from the first two letters of his name in Greek” (Ni Charthaigh, Aine, O’Sullivan, Aidan, Appreciating Art for Leaving Certificate, pg.152). It contains 3 letters, X for Chi, a P for Rho where its loop is turning into a spiral and an I which passes through the loop. “All three letters are abundantly decorated, their curves...embellished with discs and spirals, filled with..occasional animals and angels” (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/anonymous-the-chi-rho-from-the-book-of-kells-c800-828951.html).
The details..
“At the top of the page two moths feature within a spandrel of the letter chi. According to the early Church Fathers, moths symbolise the Resurrection due to their natural metamorphosis”. Every space is filled with elaborate designs like circles, spirals, trumpet ends and triskeles which resemble clock cogs.
At the bottom of the page, one can see two mice eating a Eucharist and two cats behind them. “The cats can signify the devil lying in wait for human sinners (the mice) who are saved by the Eucharist. To the right of this image there is a small black otter with a fish in its mouth, which corresponds to stories about Irish monks being supplied with fish by otters” (http://blogs.ucc.ie/wordpress/theriverside/2017/06/01/the-book-of-kells-student-exhibition-ma-in-medieval-history-the-chi-rho-page/). I want to incorporate these animal imagery into my design as well.
“The animals on the Chi Rho page, according to Suzanne Lewis, can be understood as representing three parts of creation: earth (cats and mice), sea (otter) and sky (moths). Placed around Christ’s initials these animals underline Christ’s role as creator”. http://blogs.ucc.ie/wordpress/theriverside/2017/06/01/the-book-of-kells-student-exhibition-ma-in-medieval-history-the-chi-rho-page/
The colour scheme
Compared to other pages, the colour scheme on the Chi Ro page is more subtle. The striking yellow and red are in contrast with the delicate blues and violets.
The Eight - Circle Cross
The Eight - Circle Cross is a carpet page at the beginning of a Gospel. A carpet page is dedicated completely to illustration.The name comes from its resemblance to “Turkish carpets”. It demonstrates spirals, discs and dots in addition to trumpet patterns. “There is a theory that the four elements are symbolised in this style of ornamentation. Interlacing represents water, snakes as earth, birds as air and the key- patterns as fire” (Simms, O. G, The Book of Kells, pg. 5).
Brochure design research
Font research - insular majuscule style
For the headings, I investigated a decorative typeface called Kells which resembles the insular majuscule script used originally in the book. On the contrary for the body text, I wanted to use a simple sans serif typeface which would stand in contrast to the headings. “It's a classic way of pairing; take a decorative serif for the heading and a sure-footed sans-serif for the body.” https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/a-beginners-guide-to-pairing-fonts--webdesign-5706
By Angela Johnson
Printing 2
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