SELLS
615
EELLS
out a single false or irregular line. Some of the most
aceom[)lisheJ of modern draughtsmen have attempted
to copy its elaborate designs, but, such is the delicacy
of the execution, that they had to abandon the task
as hopeless. In a .space of one inch square were
counted no less than 158 interlacings of white ribbon
with a black border on either side. On the other
hand, the pictures of the personages delineated are
feeble and primitive and show but a limited knowl-
edge of the human figure and its relative proportions.
No words can describe the beauty and the e.xtreme
splendour of the richly coloured initial letters, which
are more profuse in the "Book of Kells" than in any
other manuscript. The only thing to which they can
bo comparetl is a bed of many coloured crocuses and
tulips or the very finest stained glass window, which
they equal in beauty of colouring and rival in delicacy
of ornament and drawing. The artist possessed a
wonderful knowledge of the proportion of colour and
the distribution of his material — sienna, purple, lilac,
red, pink, green, blue, yellow, the colours most often
used — and he managed" the shading and tinting of the
letters with consummate taste and skill. (On the pig-
ments employed by the illuminator, see Hartley in
"Proceed. Royal Dublin Society, Science", N. S., IV,
1S85, p. -185.) It is remarkable that there is no trace
of the use of silver or gold on the vellum. Sometimes
the colours are laid on in thick layers to give the ap-
pearance of enamel, and are here and there as bright
and soft and lustrous as when put on fresh more than
twelve hundred years ago. Even the best photogra-
phic and colour reproductions give but a faint idea of
the beauty of the original. Especially worthy of
notice is the series of illuminated miniatures, including
pictorial representations of the Evangelists and their
symbols, the Blessed Virgin and the Divine Child, the
temptation of Jesus, and Jesus seized by the Jews.
These pictures reach their culminating point in what
is, in some respects, the most marvellous example of
workmanship that the world has ever produced,
namely the full-page monogram XPI which occurs in
the text of the (iospel of St. Matthew. It is no won-
der that it was for a long time believed that the " Book
of Kells " could have been WTitten only by angels.
- BRrrN, An Enquiry into the Art of the illuminated Manu-
scripts of the Middle Ages (Stockholm. 1897); Westwood, Pal(tooraphin Sacra Pictoria (London. 1843); Idem, Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manu- scripts (London, 1868); Margaret Stokes. Early Christian Art in Ireland (London, s. d.) : * Middleton, Illuminated Manu- scripts in Classical and MedicBval Times (Cambridge. England, I.S92); *.\bbott, Celtic Ornaments from the Book of Kells (Dub- lin, 1S9.t); RoMlLLV Allen, Celtv: Art in Pagan and Christian Times (Ix>ndon. 1905); * Robinson, Celtic Illuminative Art in the Gospel Book of and Kells (Dublin, 1908).
Joseph Dunn.
Kells, School of. — Kells (in Gaelic Cenannus) was the cliief of the Irish Columban monasteries. It was founded most probably in 554, that is nine years before Columba founded lona, and during the saint's life was eclipsed by the greater fame of the insular monastery. Kells still contains several an- cient monuments which tradition closely connects with Columba's residence there. Of these the most interesting is "Columba's House", a tall high- pitched building, of which the ground floor formed an oratory, while the croft between the convex arch- ing of the oratory and the roof of the building was the chamber or "sleeping apartment of the saint. There are also two fine crosses dating probably from the ninth century, when Kells held the principatiis of all the Columban monasteries both in Erin and Alba — one stands in the market-place and the other in the churchyard. The latter is a finely sculptured cross, having on the plinth the inscription Pdlricii et Colutnhii [crux], which would seem to imply that it was intended to commemorate the memory of Patrick, who fouiuled the original church of Kells, and Col-
umba, who foundetl the monaster}'. There is also a
fine round tower, still ninety feet high, built doubt-
less during the Danish wars to protect the church
and monastery. The "Book of Kells", called also
the Great Gospel of Columcille, which legend attrib-
uted to the pen of ColumciUe himself, was preserved
in Kells down to Usher's time. It was stolen in
1006, when the gold was stripped off its cover, but
the book and case were afterwards found in a bog.
It was regarded as "the chief relic of the western
world", and Professor Westwood of Oxford declared
that "it is unquestionably the most elaborately exe-
cuted MS. of so early a date now in existence." It
is preserved at present in Trinity College, Dublin.
Kells and lona were always closely connected. Shortly after the burning of lona by the Danes in 802, its abbot fortunately got "a free grant of Kells without a battle" — for it had originally belonged to Columcille. Thereupon a "new religious city" — the old one being probably in ruins — was built in Kells; and the Abbot Cellach of lona transferred his resi- dence and insular primacy to Kells, which hencefor- ward became the acknowledged head of the Colum- ban houses. The abbot also carried with him the shrine of Columba, which, however, more than once crossed and re-crossed the sea throughout the ninth century. During this and the two following cen- turies Kells became a great school of learning and art, and continued to flourish in spite of the frequent ravages of the Danes. The celebrated Cathach, the battle-standard of the O'Donnells, was preserved in the monastery and enshrined there in a beautifully wrought casket. It contained a psaltery said to have lieen written by the hand of Columba himself. JIac Robartaigh, Comharb of Kells, had its marvel- lous cover made in his own house. His family be- longed to Tirhugh in County Donegal, and gave many alibots and sages and scholars at this period to the school of Kells. The most famous of them all was the renowned Marianus Scotus — in Irish Muredach Mac Robartaigh — a celebrated scribe and commentator on Scripture, to be carefully distin- guished from his namesake, Marianus Scotus, the chronicler. Leaving his beloved Kells he journej'ed all the way to Ratisbon, a pilgrim for Christ, and there founded for his countrymen in the land of the stranger the celebrated Monastery of St. James. He himself unwearyingly copied the Scriptures, and is de- scribed by .\ventinus in his "Annals of Bavaria" as "a distinguished poet and theologian, second to no man of his time". The poems are lost, but the commentaries sur\-ive though still unpublished.
They include a commentary on the Psalms, which was considered so valuable that it was not allowed outside the walls of the monastic library without a valuable deposit being left to secure its safe return. There is also extant in the Cotton collection an un- published codex containing the treatise of Marianus Scotus consisting of "Extracts from the Writings of Various Doctors on the Gospel". His most famous work, however, was a commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, with marginal and interlinear notes. It is still unpublished amongst the treasures of the Im- perial Library of Vienna, and is specially valuable iiccause it contains many entries in the pure Middle Gaelic of the eleventh century, written by a man who was at once an accomplished scribe and most excellent Irish scholar. This learned work shows that Marianus was acquainted with the writings of nearly all the Latin Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries. It was completed, he tells us himself, on Friday, the sixteenth day l)efore the Kalends of Jiine, 1079. The devoted scribe and commentator, who is commonly anil justly styled the Blessed Marianus Scotus, lived for ten years more, and after his tleath was universally regarded as a saint. He was, after .Adamnan, Abbot of Hy, justly esteemed
