The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is a beautiful book to look at, some say one of the most beautiful works in the world. The book was written by at least three different scribes sometime around 800 A.D.
My favorite miniature is the full page illustration of the Virgin Mary holding a young Jesus. In regards to alignment, the scribe placed Mary in the center of the page and chose to make her larger than the other characters on the page. The contrast of colors on this page make the objects easy to identify as they too are telling a story. The glory around Mary’s head is yellow, representing high regard.
In the pages that contain mainly text, the scribes again made it as visually pleasing as possible. The placement of only seventeen lines on a page, as well as space between each line makes it easy to read, not cramped and complicated. When a sentence ended, many times the scribe did not begin the next sentence-they instead drew a picture of an animal and began the next sentence on the next line. There are many animals throughout the text and it is said that no two animals are alike. The first letter of the first word on the page was decorated and it was a larger text, but it repeats the same font. Throughout the book the text was written in different colors, colors that were said to come from lands far away. The main colors that were repeated through the Book of Kells are lilac, yellow, red, pink, green, and purple.
As in the Western cultures, symbols and drawings make up most of the story telling, this seems to be the case here. The illustrations are lavish and have deep meaning by using symbols to tell stories.
The book is a joy to look through, with illustrations and decorations not solely on major pages but dispersed throughout the text. Historians believe that the purpose of the book was more for aesthetic reasons than for actual reading of the text due to numerous errors in the text. This book was probably put on the altar and only taken off to read the Gospel during Mass.

Sullivan, E. (1920). The book of kells. Retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bok/bok04.htm