{"product_id":"the-book-of-kells-selected-plates-in-full-color-9780486243450","title":"The Book of Kells: Selected Plates in Full Color","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Here you may see the face of majesty  divinely drawn  here the mystic symbols of the Evangelists. . . . You will make out intricacies  so delicate and subtle  so exact and compact  so full of knots and links  with colours so fresh and vivid  that you might say that all this was the work of an angel  and not of a man.\"  Giraldus Cambrensis  Topographia Hiberniae  ca. 1185.Gerald of Wales wrote his ecstatic description of what is most probably the Book of Kells 800 years ago  some 300 years after the work appeared. It remains the best description; he felt and conveyed the Books power  the mystery that made it even then unique among early medieval manuscripts. While clearly subject to international influence (Celtic  British  Norman; possibly Italian  Byzantine  and Coptic)  the Book of Kells painters and scribes illumined their work with a purely idiosyncratic beauty. The Book of Kells is more an icon than a typical evangelistary; indeed  the Saint Jerome text of the gospels is frequently corrupt or carelessly rendered  so intent were the artists on their ornament and iconography. One may still see the glorious ornament on display at Trinity College  Dublin; a more accessible version is this  newly reproduced from a rare facsimile edition. Thirty-two full-page  full-color plates have been selected and painstakingly printed to retain the ineffable handpainted impression of the original leaves. All the full-page decorations  portraits  and illustrations are included  as well as a representative sampling of the textual leaves  in their graceful Insular (half-uncial) calligraphy  interspersed and initialed with an imaginative  fanciful  and even humorous bestiary of lions  lambs  eagles  otters  cats  dragons  birds  fish  and snakes; strange men are seen in the cross-armed Osiris position  entwined in lions tails  snakes  vines  and peacock feathers. The interlacing and spiraling follow the Insular tradition; in botanical ornament the Book stands apart from that school. The illustrations include vital specimens of Western art: the first image of the Virgin and Child in a Western manuscript  and numerous early representations of the Apocalyptic visionary symbols of the Evangelists; symbols that lost their eeriness in later  diluted form  but that in the Book of Kells  according to one scholar  \"retain their wild  unearthly quality. They are perhaps the most striking element in the decoration of the Book.\" Perusers of this Book  casual and serious students of art  religion  or Western culture  will echo Giraldus  who wrote: \"For my part  the oftener I see the book  and the more carefully I study it  the more I am lost in ever fresh amazement  and I see more and more wonders in the book.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45789476061237,"sku":"ByrdShop_0486243451","price":24.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780486243450_daabace0-95a7-4cd5-933b-9b2c7f309295.jpg?v=1784692682","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-book-of-kells-selected-plates-in-full-color-9780486243450","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}