![]() ![]() There’s no evidence from this short Latin text that it was used by an actual pilgrim. Then follows some notes on the relics and indulgences of Rome, and some historical notes on Saladin and the history of Jerusalem. In fact, it contains a few notes on the distances from Rome to Naples, from Venice to the Holy Land, from Jaffa (‘Portiaff’) to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to the River Jordan, and from Jerusalem to ‘Monte Synay’, Mt Sinai, and the tomb of St Katherine there. 43v-44r) is headed ‘Itinerarium terre sancta’. Moreover, Latin MS 228 contains two texts that relate to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, one in Latin and one in Middle English. The binding is also important because it represents the moment at which someone put the book’s current contents together: that is, the moment of the book’s binding can reveal what was valued at that particular moment in time. It would have been highly portable, and the back of the binding even has a flap in which to store loose leaves or other items. It has a beautiful binding, dating from c. Latin MS 228 looks, on first sight, like it could be a pilgrim’s manuscript. In the case of some manuscript miscellanies, their development seems to be organic, taking place over many years, and with many different owners adding – and deleting – contents, according to changes ideas of what was useful or desirable. It is neither always apparent that a miscellany has an organising principle, nor is it often clear when the manuscript was organised. Latin MS 228 is a miscellany, and represents a very common kind of medieval manuscript, in which ‘useful information’ – legal documents, recipes, poetry, medical writing, and many other types of text – were gathered together. A good case in point is a book I recently inspected in the beautiful John Rylands Library, Manchester from its record in the Index of Middle English Prose, I had thought that this manuscript (now Latin MS 228) might be a Jerusalem-bound pilgrim’s manuscript. One theory is that the effort involved in separating the book from its cover also removed pages at the beginning and end.Blog-post author Professor Anthony Bale, Birkbeck, University of London bibliographic remnants of medieval pilgrimage are often haphazardly or imprecisely catalogued one can rarely rely on caalogues and handlists, without inspecting a book itself, to understand what the medieval source is. The book was stolen from the church at Kells, and only recovered two months later, missing its bejewelled and golden binding. While there are missing pages, this could be due to a theft of the book as early as the 11th century, which is recorded in the Annals of Ulster. It is incredibly complete for a text that is so old. These accompany the Latin text: the complete gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke part of John and indexes, summaries and commentary. The painted images are intricate, with tiny details and embellishments from Celtic knots to peacocks and lions, in a variety of bright pigments. The book measures 13x10 inches (33x25 cm), and of the hundred of pages each one is decorated in some way, whether with a large and lavish illustration or through adornment of the text itself. It was done by three anonymous scribes, who are identified in the present day only as Hand A, Hand B, and Hand C. The Book of Kells is written on vellum pages, historically a type of material made from prepared animal skin (for vellum it was usually calfskin) and used for many of the finer high-quality medieval manuscripts. Bishop Henry Jones (1605–1682), an alumnus and vice chancellor of Trinity College, donated it to the college’s library in 1661. In the 1650s, during the invasion of Oliver Cromwell, it was sent to Dublin for safekeeping. It remained at Kells for the next eight centuries – hence how it came to be known as the Book of Kells. The prevailing theory is that the Book of Kells travelled with them, and was also possibly finished there. ![]() At some point in the decades after, the survivors decided to leave the island and relocated to Ireland and a monastery at Kells. Where is the Book of Kells?įrom 795 onwards, Vikings began to strike Iona, and in the year 806 a single Viking raid killed 68 monks. Written in Latin, it contains the four Gospels of the New Testament and would have been crafted by the Celtic monks in the Columban monastery on Iona, circa 800. One of the greatest treasures of its kind, the Book of Kells is an illuminated religious manuscript from the medieval period. ![]()
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