The Book of Kells- A Must Visit
December 2, 2011Every visitor to Dublin will want to go to Trinity to see one of the World’s most precious books, the famous book of Kells. The book is taken from its case every evening for safe keeping in the vaults, and every morning it is carried back to its place and one leaf is turned over so as not to let the daylight cause any further destruction, by being exposed all at once.
What’s the value of this book, well its priceless really, so how old is it, it must be 1400 years and at this time monks were writing in an Abbey in Kells in Meath and this abbey was founded by St Columba, These monks were seen as some of the greatest artist of this time and maybe should be seen as same as Michael Angelo. The book was enriched with a thousand fantasies of tremendously intricate designs which just poured out with wonderful imagination.
Did they have help?, you would wonder about the fertility of a person’s brain that was capable of this and the keenness of normal human sight that it was possible to carry this out unless he had some sort of magnifying glass. The designs are so small and so perfect and some only the size of a postage stamp and when enlarged show no flaws at all in all this interlocking lines and spirals
This great relic of Irish art was placed in a costly gold shrine and there is a record that it was stolen but recovered and it is amazing that it has indeed managed to survive through the ages. The inks that were used have maintained their original blackness until the present day, although some inks did fade to an almost brownish colour but this has enhanced the sheer individual characteristics of the manuscript
It is on the great writings that Ireland’s great history, turning back the pages turns you back in time to a period of Irish saints, Irish poems, and legends of tales of boats sailing across the oceans bringing the light of the Christian church into the darker places of the time.
This book of Kells in Dublin’s remarkable Trinity setting must astonish those who do not the position this country held in early AD history. The future will still reveal secrets held within this book, and it wills current Irish scholars who will unlock those secrets
We will see the book on our travels but we must have patience and wait. There is always a queue, and we have just to be in tune with the Monks who did the work and the painstaking time it took to create this masterpiece
Bob
www.CelticConnexionstours.com
Posted by bob wallace. Posted In : Ireland
