Other questions, such as the number of artists and scribes who contributed to the manuscript and how often and by whom it was viewed, also remain without definitive answers. Date and origin remain, however, unresolved important questions, with the absence of conclusive argument frustrating detailed contextual studies. Efforts to determine the date of origin have receded from the contentious debates of the 20th century, as to a lesser extent have the arguments over its place of origin, with recognition of the general cultural unity of Ireland and the British Isles in the early Middle Ages and the fading of modern prejudices. Modern scholarship is mainly art-historical, with concentration on “word and image” and other interpretative studies. It contains all types of Insular manuscript art: “beast” canon tables, four-symbols pages, full-page initials, an evangelist portrait, full-page pictures, one “cross-carpet” page, and thousands of decorated minor initials. One of Ireland’s most precious treasures, its visual art and historical aura are part of the modern Irish national self-image. Today, as Manuscript 58, it remains at Trinity. The manuscript was removed from Kells during the religious and political turmoil of the 17th century and eventually sent to Dublin, where it was given to Trinity College Library. Some scholars attribute all or part of it to Kells, founded in the early 9th century after Viking attacks on Iona. Documents relating to lands of the Columban monastery at Kells were written on blank sides of several of these prefatory folios in the 11th and 12th centuries, providing evidence of its later medieval location. It opens with accessory texts introducing the whole gospel book and prefatory texts proper to each gospel. Written in bold Insular style scripts, it has a mixed Vulgate and Old Latin text typical of gospels associated with early medieval Ireland, but with some notable unique variants. Columba on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Generally accepted to have been made in the late 8th or early 9th century, it is usually attributed to the monastery founded in 563 by the Irish holy man St. One of the most renowned medieval manuscripts, its exact date and place of origin are unknown. Islamic manuscripts, especially Qu'rans, often have pages entirely devoted to complex geometrical decoration, but the term is not usually used of them.The Book of Kells is a large format manuscript of the gospels, famed for the beauty and ingenuity of its decoration. There are notable carpet pages in the Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Durrow, and other manuscripts.Ĭarpet pages are also found in some medieval Hebrew manuscripts, typically opening the major sections of the book. The earliest surviving example is from the early 7th century Bobbio Orosius, and relates more closely to Late Antique decoration. The Hebrew Codex Cairensis, from 9th century Galilee, also contains a similar type of page, but stylistically very different. Roman floor mosaics seen in post-Roman Britain, are also cited as a possible source. The tooled leather book binding of the St Cuthbert Gospel represents a simple carpet page in another medium, and the few surviving treasure bindings - metalwork book covers or book shrines - from the same period, such as that on the Lindau Gospels, are also close parallels. Oriental carpets, or other textiles, may themselves have been influences. Some art historians find their origin in similar Coptic decorative book pages, and they also clearly borrow from contemporary metalwork decoration. They are normally symmetrical, or very nearly so, about both a horizontal and vertical axis, though for example the page at right is only symmetrical about a vertical axis. They are distinct from pages devoted to highly decorated historiated initials, though the style of decoration may be very similar.Ĭarpet pages are wholly devoted to ornamentation with brilliant colors, active lines, and complex patterns of interlace. The designation "carpet page" is used to describe those pages in Christian, Islamic, or Jewish illuminated manuscripts that contain little or no text and which are filled entirely with decorative motifs. They are pages of mainly geometrical ornamentation, which may include repeated animal forms, typically placed at the beginning of each of the four Gospels in Gospel Books. The Eight Circled Cross is a folio 'Carpet Page' within the Book of Kells, which is on display at Trinity College, Dublin, the oldest University in Ireland, built in 1592.Ĭarpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular illuminated manuscripts.
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