Pic: Ireland History.org |
The opinion is held widely but, it would seem, erroneously, that the copy of the Four Gospels seen in St. Brigid’s Convent Kildare, by Giraldus Cambrensis in 1185 was no other than the Book of Kells. This marvellous volume is often referred to as the Gospel-book of Kildare and, if other than the Book of Kells, has disappeared for ever.
Of it Giraldus said :
It contains the Four Gospels according to St. Jerome, and almost every page is illustrated by drawings illuminated with a variety of brilliant colours. In one page we see the countenance of the Divine Majesty supernaturally pictured, in another the mystic forms of the Evangelists, with either six, four or two wings : here is depicted the eagle, there the calf; here the face of a man, there of a lion, with other figures in almost endless variety. . .
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If you apply yourself to a close examination and are able to penetrate the secrets of the art displayed in these pictures, you will find them so delicate and exquisite, so finely drawn, and the work of interlacing so elaborate, while the colours with which they are illuminated are so blended, and still so fresh, that you will be ready to assert all this is the work of angelic not of human skill. The more often and closely I scrutinise them, the more I am surprised, always finding them new, and discovering fresh causes for increased admiration.
This book, Giraldus says further, was reputed to have been written in the time of the virgin, St. Brigid. Others attribute the "Book of Kells" in its original form to Colm Cille.
Excellent though the penwork of the Book of Kells unquestionably is, it is held by some to be surpassed by portions of the Book of Armagh, completed in 807 by Ferdomnach the scribe, who died in 845. Of this work Professor Westwood, who examined it with a magnifying glass says : "I have counted in a small space, scarcely three quarters of an inch in length by half an inch in width, in the Book of Armagh no less than one hundred and fifty-eight interlacements of a slender ribbon pattern formed of white lines edged with black ones." Other beautifully ornamented and illuminated manuscripts are the Book of Durrow and the Garland of Howth preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, the Stowe Missal in the Royal Irish Academy, and the Gospels of Mac Riaghail, written by a scribe of Biorra in the beginning of the ninth century, and preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
The Oldest Writing Appliances on Record
Pic: Ireland History.org |
Taimhlidhe and Tamhlorgain are the oldest writing appliances on record. They were birch tablets and staves, often coated with wax, on which the inscription was impressed with a graph or style. These were in use in Pagan times and subsequently. Bards were entitled to use the tamhlorga for protection against dogs.
The tamhlorga was sometimes called a slisneach. The people of Connacht are said to have regarded slisneacha as swords when seen in the possession of Patrick and his followers as they approached, and so thought to murder them. These again were superseded by parchment, pen and ink : the parchment was made from the skins of goats, sheep, c’alves ; the pens from the quills of geese, crows and swans.
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Thus came books and illumination, and for the protection of the books came satchels, covers, shrines, some of the latter very beautiful. A book-satchel is mentioned among a number of presents given by St. Patrick to Fiach bishop of Sletty ; and Colm Cille, according to the Leabhar Breac, blessed one hundred polaires noble, one coloured. In the Tripartite Life,2 the polaire is defined as a tablet. " An alphabet is written for him " is quite a frequent statement in the Life of the Apostle, particularly on occasions of ordination or consecration.
Illumination developed rapidly after the coming of the faith. St. Doig of Inniskeen, who flourished in the sixth century, was " a most skilful writer of books," and St. Ultan is referred to in the next century as " a most accomplished writer and illuminator of books." Penmanship was brought to extraordinary perfection in the monasteries. Even the ink was unique, some of the illumination preserving its original freshness after the lapse of centuries. The great glory of Irish illuminated manuscripts is the " Book of Kells," a vellum copy of the Four Gospels, in Latin. When stolen out of the sacristy at Kells, in Meath, in 1006, the Annals referred to it as the great Gospel of Colm Cille, " the principal relic of the western world on account of its cover." Though the penmanship appears to have been regarded as of no exceptional excellence by comparison with other native manuscripts of the period, Margaret Stokes extolled it thus :
It is no exaggeration to say that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger the magnifying power brought to bear upon it, the more is its perfection seen. No single false interlacement or uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a trembling hand or a wandering thought can be detected. This is the very passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the Irish scribe work to glorify his book.
It is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels which exists in the world," declares Professor Westwood of Oxford. And, referring to the designs, he adds : " How men could have eyes and tools to work them out, I am sure I, with all the skill and knowledge in such kind of work which I have been exercising for the last fifty years, cannot conceive. I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe, where such books as this occur, but there is no such book in any of them . . . there is nothing like it in all the books that were written for Charlemagne and his successors.
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