Dublin’s Trinity College & the Book of Kells

You’ve heard the name, but what is the Book of Kells?

Crafted in the eighth century by medieval monks, the Book of Kells is one of the most amazing examples of a medieval art form: the illuminated manuscript.

Written during the Dark Ages (which lasted from roughly the 5th to the 10th centuries), illuminated manuscripts stand out as a beacon of light, examples of the beautiful artwork created by medieval artisans. The Book of Kells is a stunningly beautiful religious text comprising the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

Each page is adorned with wonderfully intricate designs, transforming the words into a beautiful depiction of animals, Biblical figures, and geometric designs. Incredibly, each page is made out of gold leaf and rich colours, which have maintained their radiance for over 1,200 years.

Visitors to the library may be surprised to find many of its shelves empty. The Old Library Redevelopment Project, which is devoted to ensuring that the library is entirely fireproof and the books are properly maintained, is currently in the process of removing every book from the library to address any conservation needs and digitally scan each page to be published online, ensuring that anybody across the world can study the collection.

For a fixed period of time, the Book of Kells may be relocated to a different venue on campus (the historic Printing House) to allow the college to complete the renovation process. However, visitors will still be able to visit it.

In the meantime, the university has installed the Book of Kells Experience, which offers visitors a mixed-reality look at the Library’s treasures and the history of the Library and the Book.

With over a thousand years of history, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Book of Kells has picked up a few scandals. Many visitors might not know that the Book of Kells was once stolen. According to medieval chronicles, the Book (which, at that time, had a gold and gem-incrusted cover to let everyone know just how important it was) went missing and was only discovered around two months later “under a sod”—albeit, without its golden cover.

Other stories swirl around the Book and Library. Supposedly, students were allowed to check it out as a library book until the seventeenth century, until it was deemed too risky, given that they would sometimes keep it past its due date.

In the 1800s, one restoration went wrong, with the supposed expert cutting the pages to make the book look more uniform, leading to a few of the famous illustrations being cropped. Speaking of scandalous alterations, the Book of Kells (or at least, a modern flyleaf in the book) was signed by the touring Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1849, making it

Today, the Book is under much more intense security. It is kept in a reinforced glass case that monitors light and moisture levels. Only the Head Curator is allowed to be in the building when a new page is chosen for display every six weeks.

Marginalia – History’s Doodles

These stories outline just how human history can be, rather than just a collection of dates and facts. On other medieval manuscripts, these human touches are seen in the form of ‘marginalia’—notes and drawings left in the margins of medieval manuscripts.

Monks, who worked long, difficult hours (and, although they didn’t know it, often with pigments made with poisons like arsenic) sometimes left their complaints, bemoaning their hours, their pay, or their materials (writing could only be done in daylight, so one scribe wrote ““Thank God, it will soon be dark.”).

While the Book of Kells does not have many cases of marginalia, it does have plenty of examples of fun (and strange) drawings, so visitors will have plenty of opportunities to marvel at the fact that medieval scribes truly did not know what many animals looked like!