![]() ![]() The ancient masterpiece is a stunning example of Hiberno-Saxon style, thought to have been composed on the Scottish island of Iona in 806, then transferred to the monastery of Kells in County Meath after a Viking raid (a story told in the marvelous animated film The Secret of Kells). “You simply can’t travel to the capital of Ireland,” writes Book Riot’s Erika Harlitz-Kern, “without the Book of Kells being mentioned. “One of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures” comments , “it is set apart from other manuscripts of the same period by the quality of its artwork and the sheer number of illustrations that run throughout the 680 pages of the book.” The work not only attracts scholars, but almost a million visitors to Dublin every year. This what we find in studying Leviticus.Blessed are the eyes which see divine spirit through the letter'sveil.If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book of Kells. The letter appears as flesh but the spiritual sense withinis known as divinity. There it is covered by the veil of flesh, here of theletter. So when the Word was shown to men throughthe lawgiver and the prophets, it was not shown them without suitablevesture. Forthe word came into the world by Mary, clad in flesh and seeingwas not understanding all saw flesh knowledge of the divinitywas given to a chosen few. "I published three books from the sayingsof the holy Fathers concerning the letter and the spirit. To the following text written by Claudiusof Turin describing the monastic experience of meditating on theGospels: For my part the oftenerI see the book, and the more carefully I study it, the more Iam lost in ever fresh amazement, and I see more and more wondersin the book." ![]() You will make out intricacies, so delicateand subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and links,with colors so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all thiswas the work of an angel, and not of a man. Look more keenly at it, and you will penetrateto the very shrine of art. Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but youmight not notice it. Look at them superficially withthe ordinary casual glance, and you would think it an erasure,and not tracery. Here you maysee the face of majesty, divinely drawn, here the mystic symbolsof 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. Jerome, where for almost every page there aredifferent designs, distinguished by varied colors. "This book contains the harmony of the four Evangelistsaccording to St. Compare for example the following famousdescription of an Hiberno Saxon Gospel manuscript, perhaps theBook of Kells itself, written by the 12th century monk, Geraldof Canterbury (Topographia Hiberniae (1185)): Our experience of contemplating this pagecan be compared to the monastic experience of contemplating onthe nature of Christ. This text captures how the Book of Kellsand this page would be experienced by a monk using this book inthe liturgy. ![]() ![]() 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So that this page is literally "theword made flesh," echoing the beginning of the book of John: Remember that the text of the manuscript is writtenon parchment or animal skin. The reason for this prominence can beconnected to the importance of the doctrine of the "Incarnation,"which literally means "into flesh." The first 17 versesof the book of of Matthew recounts the earthly ancestry of Christback to Abraham, while verse 18 marks the point of the Incarnationof Christ in the book of Matthew, the first of the Gospels inthe manuscript. Like other Hiberno-Saxon gospel books,notably the Lindisfarne Gospels, this text is given prominence.It almost serves as a second incipit for the Book of Matthew whichbegins with the Latin incipit: "Liber generationis Iesu Christi."or in the Douay Rheims translation: "The book of the generationof Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Now the generation of Christ was in this wise.When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. The text reads: "XPI autemgeneratio." The text of this verse in the Douay Rheimstranslation reads: This page marks the incipit or beginningof the 18 verse of Matthew I. ![]()
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