The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin

by Françoise Henry

This is one of the most beautifully executed books of illuminated manuscript of the early Middle Ages. Presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in connection with the exhibition, Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., it contains ninety-three pages and seventy-six enlarged details which are reproduced from the original manuscript. Illustrated in color and black and white. Indexed. 226, 4 pages. cloth, dust jacket. large 4to..

Genres: Art, Classics, History, Nonfiction

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Ruth]

The first time I saw an illustration from the Book of Kells, in an Art History class, I fell in love. This beautiful slip-cased book has full-sized photographs in color of every page in the original Book of Kells, plus interesting and explanative text, and lots of close-ups of the fantastic interlace designs. They still blow my mind every time I look at them.

When it came out in 1974, I yearned for this book, but it was $50, which was a lot to spring for a book then. In those pre-Amazon days, my husband drove 75 miles into LA to buy it for me for Christmas. I treasure it.

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[Jan]

Just astonishing. Wish I had time to read it again stoned, but I want to give it away as a Christmas gift. The color reproductions alone would be life-changing, but the accompanying critical essay is also fascinating and amusing. Francoise Henry gives off an air of being extremely exasperated with the scribes who planned and executed the book.

[Jamie Burke]

Saw this in the window of a used bookstore and I have never been so got. An absolute treasure.

[Mark]

I recently watched "The Secret of the Kells" the 2009 animated movie which got me curious about this text. In the movie they never address what is in the Book of Kells, just that it an amazingly beautiful book. I got ahold of The Book of Kells: Reproductions From the Manuscript in Trinity College Dublin and it turns out it is an elaborate medieval manuscript of the four gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. In reviewing this text I thought I would see a quintessential Irish medieval manuscript, churned out by some isolated monks caught in the Dark Ages.

What I found was medieval manuscript with influences from Byzantium, Egypt, Italy, and Merovingian France. The Book of Kells predates the Great Schism of 1054, which saw the splitting of the Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church, so there is a fantastic amount of iconography from Byzantine and Coptic sources in this Irish manuscript (e.g.: the footwear of the saints and angeles is Levantine, the depiction of the Devil is a standard Eastern Orthodox type, the angels hold flabellum fans). The Book of Kells also has the first surviving illustration with the Madonna and Child in Western European art which stylistically appears very Greek.

According to author Franciose Henry the Book of Kells is the "Insular Style" and is related to The Book of Durrow, the Book of Armagh, the Book of Lindsfarne, the Lichfield Gospels, and the Lenningrad Gospel. All of these texts were produced in Ireland, Scotland, or Northern England, in the early medieval period but are definitely still linked to a pan-Mediterranean culture.

The art in the Book of Kells is quite impressive. Henry asserts that the Book of Kells from its inception was intended to be an objet d'art to be displayed in the sanctuary of Kells monastery. Apparently the Latin Vulgate text is riddled with errors, however since it was to be an alter showpiece the scribes did not bother to correct any these mistakes. In that way it is kind of an early Easton Press book, pretty to look at but terrible to actually read.

[Sam]

Even having just taken an online course which gave an overview of this manuscript, there were still interesting things to learn in the analysis. There is also a value in having the thing in front of you to study in detail.

It is worth noting that since this book was published in the 70's there was a more recent scanning of the book in the early 90's which appears in more recent reproduction books as well as available to peruse for free online at: https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/hom...

[Stephanie]

This is an older collection of reproductions of the Book of Kells, so the plates aren't as fantastic as Bernard Meehan's book, but the manuscript study is much more thorough. I found it very interesting and entertaining reading.

[James]

Some great enlargements of some of the better parts of the book. Fun to look at.