The Book of Kells and its influence on the State of Arizona Research Paper

The Book of Kells and its influence on the State of Arizona - Research Paper Example It contains full pages of extraneous decoration for the canon tables; symbols and text of the evangelists Matthew (the Man), Mark (the Lion), Luke (the Calf) and John (the Eagle); the opening words of the Gospels; the Virgin and Child; a portrait of Christ, and complex narrative scenes such as the earliest to survive in gospel manuscripts which corresponds the arrest of Christ and his temptation by the Devil. The word Christ has been abbreviated with letters Chi Rho in medieval manuscripts and Chi Rho page is the most famous page in medieval art which introduces Matthew’s account of the nascence. However, the book is not a full copy of the Vulgate and contains a number of variations from the Vulgate and also some uncorrected errors. It is assumed that around 30 folios of the text had been lost in the medieval and early modern periods and some pages are deteriorated.3 According to experts, the handwriting differs throughout the text therefore the artwork seemed to have produced by at least three different artists.4 Today the manuscript contains 340 folios with 330 by 250mm dimensions, and scriptures are written with a range of pigments including yellow, red, green, purple and black. The manuscript is believed to have created by Celtic monks in year 800, but the date and origin of the book has been a controversial issue. The widely accepted belief is that the text creation might have started at Iona from where it was brought to Abbey of Kells, when Vikings invaded the island of Iona, where the artwork might have been continued to be undertaken. The text was revered at Kells as a souvenir of Saint Columba throughout the medieval periods. The Book of Kells is the considered to be one of the finest manuscripts and described as â€Å"the chief treasure of the Western world†. The Annals of Ulster record stealth of the book in year 1006 and that it discovered again after many years, stripped off its ornate gold. Around 1653, the Book of Kells was sent to Dublin, Ireland for safety concerns and after few years it was brought to Trinity College, Dublin where it has been on display in library over there. The text has been bound in four volumes, since 1953, of which two volumes can commonly be seen in library, one opened to display a major decorated page, and the other to show two pages of script.5 A quote of Sir Edward Sullivan demonstrates the concept of how mind-bending the artwork of The Book of Kells: "The finest draftsmen of the entire world have tried to recreate the Chi-Rho page, and have failed." Anyone in today's modern world could not recreate it as it takes an ineffable artist working in the Middle Ages to create something.6 However, in 1951, the first facsimile of the Book of Kells was produced by a Swiss publisher, Urs Graf Verlag Bern, in black-and-white photographs and color reproductions as well. Second facsimile in full color was produced in 1974 by photographers Thames and Hudson in Dublin, and included all the full-p age detailed illustrations and also an ornamentation representative section in the manuscript. In the 1980s, Faksimile-Verlag Luzern produced with permission from Trinity College,