and thank you for all the references, merudanda. I especially enjoyed the insight into the Book's artwork you quoted below! I love all the Celtic knots and found some very similar configurations in a few pieces of art I did, long before I knew about the Book of Kells. I was excited to see this treasure has been digitized.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, merudanda <no_reply@...> wrote: > > thank you for this morning gift! [:x] FWIW some line of explanation and > links to explore > > Book of Kells ~ Part 1- 7 Documentary > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRGQPJIO5CM > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRGQPJIO5CM> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9kg1B-M3mA > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9kg1B-M3mA> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVH5Jl_FG0 > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVH5Jl_FG0> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp6mtZ14GRQ > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp6mtZ14GRQ> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcanY9cWNpE > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcanY9cWNpE> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z256ycoFW4U > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z256ycoFW4U> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z256ycoFW4U > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z256ycoFW4U> > The Book of Kells contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the > Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with > readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The Gospel texts are > prefaced by other texts, including "canon tables", or concordances of > Gospel passages common to two or more of the evangelists; summaries of > the gospel narratives (Breves causae); and prefaces characterizing the > evangelists (Argumenta). The book is written on vellum (prepared > calfskin) in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular > majuscule". It contains 340 folios, now measuring approximately 330 x > 255 mm; they were severely trimmed, and their edges gilded, in the > course of rebinding in the 19th century. > As pages of the text and drawings are shared with viewers on camera, > the narrator explains why so many experts believe The Book of Kells is > an incredibly rare and valuable work of Irish art.Look more keenly at it > and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out > intricacies, so delicate and so subtle, so full of knots and links, with > colors so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this were the > work of an angel, and not of a man .Native Celtic artists in the 700s > and 800s A.D. took the great gospel symbols of the Eastern Church--the > four cherubim, lion, calf, eagle and man--and in the cooler air of > Europe's northwest transformed them. > The Celtic shapes and symbols used by the artists have been adopted into > many aspects of today's art. > "Here you may see the face of majesty, divinely drawn, here the mystic > symbols of the Evangelists, each with wings, now six, now four, now two; > here the eagle, there the calf, here the man and there the lion, and > other forms almost infinite. Look at them superficially with the > ordinary glance, and you would think it is an erasure, and not tracery. > " > The manuscript has mystified and motivated writers from W.B. Yeats to > James Joyce and Umberto Eco, and its intricate Celtic knot work > continues to influence artists and craftsmen and inspire spiritual as > well as visionary one today. > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > from around 800 AD. The artwork is worth a look: > > > > > > http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=MS58_003v > > >
