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Book of Kells - Episode 18031
152 Plays6 years ago
The astonishingly beautiful, illustrated Gospel, known as the Book of Kells was created between the 6th and 8th centuries.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Book of Kells
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Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. The astonishingly beautiful illustrated gospel known as the Book of Kells was created between the sixth and eighth centuries. Now housed at Trinity College Dublin, it is considered one of the most cherished masterpieces of Ireland.
Introduction to ARK 365 Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
This is episode 31 for January 31st, 2018.
00:00:23
Speaker
I'm Chris Webster and welcome to the ARK 365 podcast, 2018 edition. ARK 365 is a podcast today, every day in 2018. This network is supported by our listeners. You can become a supporting member by going to arkpodnet.com slash members and signing up. As a supporting member, you have access to high quality downloads of each show and a discount at our future online store and access to show hosts on a members only Slack team.
00:00:51
Speaker
For professional members, we'll have training shows and other special content offered throughout the year. Once again, go to arcpodnet.com slash members to support the network and get some great extras and swag in the process. That's arcpodnet.com slash members.
History and Survival of the Book of Kells
00:01:08
Speaker
This episode is written by Christopher Booth. Named The Book of Kells after a town in County Meath, Ireland, this manuscript should probably be called The Book of Iona, as research has suggested that the manuscript was written or at least started in a monastic community on the Scottish island of Iona, founded in the 6th century by the Irish monk Colombo. The manuscript was completed by 800 AD.
00:01:29
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On the island of Iona, the monks had to deal with fierce Atlantic storms as well as the threat of Viking raids. One such raid in 806 left 68 of the community dead and the remaining monks moved to a newly founded monastery at Kells. It is thought that they brought the book with them.
00:01:43
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Amazingly, for a book that is over 1,000 years old, there are only 60 pages missing.
Materials and Artistic Features of the Book of Kells
00:01:48
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Medieval sources from Kells suggest that the manuscript was stolen in 1006 and recovered three months later. The book was sent to Trinity College Dublin after some fighting in County Meath in 1653 in the Cromwellian period, and that is where it remains today. A different page is displayed by the library there each day for thousands of tourists a year.
00:02:06
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The Book of Kells was a massively ambitious project at 340 folios long. It is written on vellum, a kind of calf skin parchment, and has been estimated that the skins of 185 calves were needed for the book. The impressive illustrations that appear on all of the pages include a range of pigments including blue made from indigo, or wode, yellow from orpiment, which is a yellow arsenic sulfide,
00:02:28
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red from red lead or organic sources which are difficult to identify, and a copper green. All of the pages are decorated in some form. On some pages, the corners and borders are filled with a detailed Celtic line design. There are also many images of animals throughout the volume, from exotic peacocks, lions, and snakes to the more domestic cats, hares, and goats.
00:02:46
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The significance of these animals has been extensively researched. The goats were presumably part of everyday life, but others could have been pagan symbols carried over into the Christian era. The most extravagant illustrations, however, are full-page illustrations on the title pages of the four gospels, which is the entire content of the text.
Function and Style of the Book of Kells
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The Book of Kells was used sacramentally rather than educationally.
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It is too large and lavishly illustrated to be easily read. The volume would likely have been kept on the high altar of the church during services and only moved during readings from the four Gospels in the text. The reader likely recited from memory rather than trying to read the text. The Chronicles of Ulster, when they recount the theft of the book from the church, mentions that it was stolen from the secrecy where the holy vessels and other materials for mass were kept, rather than the monastic library.
00:03:30
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The use of the book is attested through its appearance as well. It seems that design and appearance took precedence over the content and the ability to read it when the book was written. There are several uncorrected mistakes in the text and some lines were completed in blank spaces in preceding lines, so it would be difficult to follow. Further, some elements of the canon tables, which were used to indicate which passages are shared between any of the four gospels, were missing, making them unusable.
Comparison with Lindisfarne Gospel
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The style of the Book of Kells is known as Insular Style and this is not the only surviving manuscript in this style. Monks from the original monastery in Iona also set up other communities, including the monastery at Lindisfarne in Northumberland, England, established in 635. At this monastery, they created the Lindisfarne Gospel, another lavishly decorated manuscript that is comparable to the Book of Kells. Thank you.
00:04:22
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Thanks for listening to ARC 365. If you want to hear more ARC 365, check out www.arcpodnet.com slash ARC365 for the 2017 and 2018 episodes. Check out arcpodnet.com slash ARC365-G30 for the last 30 episodes. Please subscribe and rate on your service of choice. We're available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play, among others. Support the APN at arcpodnet.com slash members. Thanks for listening and thanks for being awesome.
00:04:51
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This show is produced and recorded by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.