This morning it was an early start heading off to Trinity College and the Book of Kells. A little birdie (thanks Rachael!) told us to get there early as the queues formed quickly. After planning a list of areas we could park, we got parking in the first and cheapest place I had planned for us and we walked into Trinity College with all the other students. Trinity College, officially the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin. The college was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother" of a new university. It was modelled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but unlike these other ancient universities, only one college was ever established; as such, the designations "Trinity College" and "University of Dublin" are usually synonymous for practical purposes.
Trinity College is surrounded by central Dublin and is located on College Green, opposite the historic Irish Houses of Parliament. The college proper occupies 190,000 m2 (47 acres), with many of its buildings ranged around large quadrangles (known as 'squares') and two playing fields.
The Library of Trinity College is a legal deposit library for Ireland and the United Kingdom, containing over 6.2 million printed volumes and significant quantities of manuscripts, including the Book of Kells, the book we were here to see!
The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created in a Columban monastery in either Britain or Ireland and may have had contributions from various Columban institutions from both Britain and Ireland. It is believed to have been created c. 800 AD. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the Vetus Latina. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and represents the pinnacle of Insular illumination. It is also widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure.
The illustrations and ornamentation of the Book of Kells surpass that of other Insular Gospel books in extravagance and complexity. The decoration combines traditional Christian iconography with the ornate swirling motifs typical of Insular art. Figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts, together with Celtic knots and interlacing patterns in vibrant colours, enliven the manuscript's pages. Many of these minor decorative elements are imbued with Christian symbolism and so further emphasise the themes of the major illustrations.
The manuscript today comprises 340 folios and, since 1953, has been bound in four volumes. The leaves are on high-quality calf vellum, and the unprecedentedly elaborate ornamentation that covers them includes ten full-page illustrations and text pages that are vibrant with decorated initials and interlinear miniatures and mark the furthest extension of the anti-classical and energetic qualities of the artwork. The script of the text itself appears to be the work of at least three different scribes. The lettering is in iron gall ink, and the colours used were derived from a wide range of substances, many of which were imports from distant lands.
The manuscript takes its name from the Abbey of Kells, which was its home for centuries, before being sent to Dublin for safe keeping. Today, it is on permanent display at Trinity College Library. The Library usually displays two of the current four volumes at a time, one showing a major illustration and the other showing typical text pages, and the entire manuscript can be viewed on the Library's Digital Collections Repository. Of course, with our track record in Dublin, an alarm had gone off within the exhibition the week prior, and as a result the book had been removed to the library's vault for evaluation and conditioning reports. Instead on display was a very fine replica. We were still able to see the exhibition and the long reading room in the library which were just as impressive.
After finishing up in the library, we wandered out of Trinity College, and into the city. We walked down the main street of Dublin and then back to the car through the Temple Bar District. Here we found the typical Irish pubs with beautiful hanging baskets of flowers outside their doors.
Once we got back to the car and had a snack, we piled in and drove out of the city to do some factory outlet shopping! We spent the afternoon there, stopping at Tescos twice on the way home to get dinner and then some more things we forgot!
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| The Book of Kells Exhibition |
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| The Long Room in the Library |
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| Trinity College |
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| Temple Bar |
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