Christianity & Literature

While the Book of Kells is among the best known and most frequently studied manuscripts from medieval Ireland, there are still aspects of the text which merit additional study. In this volume, Donncha MacGabhann proposes to examine the Book of Kells “in all its grandeur and glory and all its flaws and failings” (13) by focusing on the making of the manuscript itself and the markers of scribal agency which help define the text. MacGabhann’s thesis is that rather than being the product of a scribal workshop the entirety of the manuscript can be attributed to a two-man team, the Master-Artist and the Scribe-Artist, and was completed over the course of two distinct campaigns of production. In his analysis, many of the errors and technical issues in the text stem not from a disjointed construction of the manuscript with individual scribes working on various quires at the same time, but rather represents the Scribe-Artist attempting to complete the work after a hiatus of several years when age and declining faculties hinder his abilities. In light of other studies of insular manuscripts, this hypothesis not only makes sense but also serves to address some of the more problematic aspects of the Book of Kells in a way that is both rational and humane. This thesis is then supported by careful technical analysis of the 680 surviving pages of the manuscript across seven chapters and nearly seventy pages of appendices which delve deeper into the more technical and abstract aspects of the study. The book is richly illustrated with representative samples from both the manuscript itself and diagrams of some of the technical elements discussed.

The first chapter, “Script,” focuses on specific aspects of the script used throughout the manuscript. This includes habits demonstrated by the scribes in the use of superscripts and subscripts and the similarities between the various letter forms used throughout the text. The use of very specific stroke styles in the letters, recurring shapes and embellishments, and the habitual appearance of what some scholars have termed “errors” indicates to MacGabhann that a single scribal hand was responsible for the text as it stands. While other scholars such as Brown (1972) and Meyer (1950) [End Page 563] have proposed similar findings (MacGabhann acknowledges both in this chapter), it does stand in contrast to general consensus about the construction of the manuscript. A particular strength of this chapter is the author’s ability to incorporate visuals from the manuscript to give the average reader additional context for the discussion. The emphasis on paleography and sometimes esoteric elements of manuscript study in the chapter is softened by the ability to see the elements as they appear in situ in the manuscript itself which makes the discussion somewhat more accessible.

Chapter 2, “Illumination,” focuses on MacGabhann’s hypothesis that the entire project of the Book of Kells was laid out at the beginning by the Master-Artist who was likely training the Scribe-Artist to be his successor. Here, the author carefully unpacks the differences in style, ornamentation, and technical skill he sees between the two. The most impressive artistry in the Book of Kells, including the famous Chi-Rho page and the Eight-Circle Cross carpet page (f33r and f34r in the manuscript), is, in MacGabhann’s view, the work of a single Master-Artist. He demonstrates this through the use of fine detail, zoomorphic interlaces, and repeated motifs which are then used to demonstrate the contrasts between similar work on other pages of the manuscript and the somewhat less refined fills and line work he attributes to the Scribe-Artist. The analysis goes beyond the set pieces of illumination scattered throughout the manuscript to discuss the use of decorative script, including prominent filled initials and display lettering, much of which he attributes to the Scribe-Artist. While this chapter is more textually dense, the illustrations are sufficient to demonstrate critical points for...