What are the Book of Kells pages made of?

What are the Book of Kells pages made of?

calfskin vellum
The Book of Kells is 13 inches wide and 10 inches high. It consists of 340 folios made from calfskin vellum.

Who designed the Book of Kells?

Columban monks
Something that is known for sure is that the monks who created the Book of Kells were Columban monks, who were originally from Iona, but had relocated to Kells by the early 9th century, the same time that the Book of Kells was known to have first appeared.

What style is the Book of Kells?

Book of Kells

The Book of Kells
Provenance Columban monasteries in Ireland & Scotland
Manuscript(s) TCD MS 58
Genre Gospel Book
Length 340 folios, 680 pages

How valuable is the Book of Kells?

One of its chief treasures is missing—viz., the Book of Kells, written by Saint COLUMBKIL in 475—the oldest book in the world, and the most perfect specimen of Irish art, with the richest illuminations, and valued at £12,000 . . . ” It was recounted that the loss was discovered when the Provost of Trinity College had …

Is the Book of Kells vellum?

The actual Book of Kells comprises 340 pages (decorated front and back) and is bound in four volumes. The pages are very high quality calf vellum.

How many hands were involved in the creation of the Book of Kells?

The work was done by three separate anonymous scribes who are identified in the present day only as Hand A, Hand B, and Hand C. It was common for more than one scribe to work on a manuscript – even on a single page of a book – to proofread and correct another’s errors or to illuminate a text already copied.

What style of art are the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells?

In The Illuminated Manuscript, Backhouse states that “The Lindisfarne Gospels is one of the first and greatest masterpieces of medieval European book painting”. The Lindisfarne Gospels is described as Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art, a general term for manuscripts produced in the British Isles between 500 and 900 AD.

Is the Book of Kells Art?

The Book of Kells is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces in both Irish art and early Christian art. It is known as an illuminated manuscript, or in other words an elaborately decorated and illustrated bible made from vellum (calf skin) and painstakingly painted by hand.

How is the Book of Kells decorated?

Pages were hand sewn to one another and then the whole manuscript was given a protective cover of wood or leather. The covers were usually lavishly decorated with jewels, gold and silver. The actual Book of Kells comprises 340 pages (decorated front and back) and is bound in four volumes.

What does the cover of the Book of Kells look like?

The covers were usually lavishly decorated with jewels, gold and silver. The actual Book of Kells comprises 340 pages (decorated front and back) and is bound in four volumes. The pages are very high quality calf vellum.

How complex are the decorations of the Book of Kells?

Folio 34r, detail. The decorations of the Book of Kells can be stunningly complex, as seen in this small detail of the Chi Rho monogram page.

How many leaves are in the Book of Kells?

The Book of Kells contains the four Gospels of the Christian scriptures written in black, red, purple, and yellow ink in an insular majuscule script, preceded by prefaces, summaries, and concordances of Gospel passages. Today, it consists of 340 vellum leaves, or folios.

How are the folios numbered in the Book of Kells?

During the 19th century, former Trinity Librarian J.H. Todd numbered the book’s folios at recto, bottom left. On several of the blank pages among the preliminaries (folios 5v-7r and 27r) are found land charters pertaining to the Abbey of Kells; recording charters in important books was a common custom in the medieval period.

Where is the Book of Kells?

THE BOOK OF KELLS, Dublin, Ireland – the famous 9th century illuminated manuscript of the gospels written by monks. It is in the Trinity College Library that was built in 1712. It is one of eight buildings on the 40-acre site that collectively hold over 4 million books – one copy of every Irish or British book published since 1801.