The Wonders of Early Medieval Christian

Home , Abbey of Kells, Manuscript culture, St Cuthbert Gospel

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Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 55 2020 Albrecht Classen The University of Arizona

00 The Book of Kells - The Wonders of Early Medieval 00 Christian Manuscript Illuminations Within a Pagan 45 World

For a long time now, we have been misled by the general notion that the fall of the 2020 Roman Empire at the end of the fifth century brought about a devastating decline of culture and civilization. The Germanic peoples were allegedly barbaric, and what they created upon the ruins of their predecessors could have been nothing but primitive and little sophisticated. Research has, of course, confirmed already in a variety of approa- ches and many specialized studies that the situation on the ground was very different,1 but it seems rather difficult to deconstruct this mythical notion even today, as much as it needs to be corrected and extensively qualified. Recently, Deborah Deliyannis, Hendrik Dey, and Paolo Squatriti have published a volume treating an intriguing selection of fifty objects that could represent the early Middle Ages, each one of them proving by itself that the arts and technology to produce those objects continued to be extraordinarily sophisticated and impressive, and this well beyond the Roman period and well before the rise of the Gothic era.2 Those objects include ceremonial regalia, mosaic pavements, medallions, coins, stirrups, buildings, fibula, tunics, oil lamps, ships, and castles. The quality and aesthetic appeal of all of them is stunning, but they make up, of course, only a selection and do not reveal the more common conditions of the ordinary people. Nevertheless, how would we identify any culture, including our own, and how would we try to showcase, for instance, the culture of the United States today to other people across the world? We would certainly select the most impressive objects, artworks, technologies, and architectural creations. There is always the good and the bad, and unless we focus on the history of mentality, the history of everyday life, and the history of material objects per se, the preference for the supreme products seems to be a natural decision. Future generations will focus, quite as to be expected, on the masterpieces produced during our time and will judge us on the basis of our accomplishments.3 This theoretical model forces us to consider the situation of the Middle Ages in its relationship to the present and to question what that past world might mean for us today, why we would study medieval culture, and what conclusions we could draw from a more intimate engagement with that past society and its ideas. The purpose here thus will be to go almost as far back as possible in the history of the European Middle Ages and probe what that culture in Ireland, of all places, so far removed from the heartland of the Continent, could teach us regarding our cultural-historical categories, our ca-

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© 2020 Albrecht Classen https://doi.org/10.3726/med.2019.01.02 56 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 tegories and rubrics regarding the development of civilization at large, and the proper respect also for older societies and their artistic and technological accomplishments. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, things generally changed considerably, but we would not be justified suddenly to talk about the ‘dark ages,’ without really understanding what we might mean with that term. Did ‘dark’ imply the disap- pearance of Roman culture and civilization, which did not happen? Did ‘dark’ mean that artisans, artists, architects, scientists, medical doctors, musicians, craftspeople, and many others were no longer around, which was not true at all? Did ‘dark’ mean that society turned back to barbaric customs, with massive slaughter, genocide, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate killing, with no authorities in place to prevent all that or to combat the break-out of global violence? Of course, some violence certainly occurred, as did various wars, plundering, looting, whether we think of the Vikings or the attacks by the Muslim Arabs from the Iberian Peninsula against the Frankish kingdom and elsewhere, whether we consider the war campaigns by the Avars and later the Magyars coming from the Carpathian Basin and aiming against western Europe, or the wars waged by the Byzantine armies against the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and other migrant peoples. The various Germanic peoples were not less military and violent, but we observe all over Europe both the continuity of Roman traditions and the development of new cultural elements. In other words, new national entities emerged and created political and military order, such as the Arabic kingdoms, the Merovingian and then the Carolingian kingdoms, while the Byzantines overcame the Ostrogoths and managed to recapture their authority in northern and southern Italy. In short, the early Middle Ages were a long period of heavy disruptions, profound changes, shifting political alliances, and a significant transformation of the economic and political structures, as many historians have already pointed out to us. The extent to which individual power entities rose and declined rather rapidly might have motivated previous scholars to talk about the ‘dark ages.’ Much depends on the notion of external threats, for instance. Historians may have overemphasized the military campaigns by the Huns, the Saracens, the Vikings, and other peoples during the early Middle Ages, but future centuries, including our own, also witnessed many attacks from the outside, such as the terrorist attack against the World Trade Tower in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Would we hence call the twenty-first century a period determined by darkness?4 Nevertheless, and this gives us pause to reflect, both as scholars and as a generally interested person, the impact of the Catholic Church since late antiquity was an amazing source of stability and continuity, and this has continued until today. Benedict of Nursia established the first monastery under his authority in Subiaco, Italy, in 529, an institution which from then on spread across Europe, later across the world. The Bene- dictine rules regulating the life in a monastery are best captured by the central motto, “ora et labora,” pray and labor. The monks were supposed to dedicate their lives to the service for God (mass, the liturgy, praying, meditating, studying, etc.), and to physical activities to maintain their lives. In essence, a monastery was supposed to be autar- kic, hence independent from external sources. At the same time, monasteries quickly emerged as major centers of learning and cultural activities. Here we find the earliest scriptoria and thus also libraries, filled with many precious manuscripts containing Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 57 excerpts from the Bible, liturgical texts, prayers, and then also philosophical treati- ses, scientific observations, encyclopedic studies, hymns, and many other texts. Book production, as we might call it already then, was centered on medieval manuscripts. Monasticism quickly disseminated across Italy and then expanded to other parts of Europe. The situation in Ireland was, compared to the Continent, rather different because that island lacked the typical urban centers, had never been conquered by the Romans and maintained its strong Gaelic pagan traditions. By the fifth century, Benedictine missionaries arrived in Ireland, especially Patrick, who had been kidnap- ped from Britain by Irish pirates in his youth, but had then managed six years later to return home. He found his way to Christianity through his own studies and visionary experiences, and he subsequently traveled to Ireland again as the first missionary there. Many aspects of his life and that of his Christian fellows during the fifth century are matters of debate, which do not concern us here. We only need to keep in mind that Christianity began to spread all over the island, although the ancient pagan religion, dominated by druids, continued to exert its influence.5 Early medieval Irish art is dazzling, whether produced by representatives of the old, indigenous religion, or by representatives of the Christian Church, and our discussion will bring to light one of the most amazing phenomena in the history of books. The so-called ‘dark ages,’ both on the Continent and in Ireland, were the cradle of some of the most stunning bibliophile artworks ever produced. Just when most people think that the pinnacle of culture and the arts have been lost and replaced by primitivism and barbarity, whatever those terms might mean in their specific contexts, we are witnesses of some of the most sophisticated and powerful artworks and calligraphy in medieval manuscripts.6 One of those objects that I will discuss here is the famous Book of Kells, produced in the early eighth century and containing the four books of the Gospel, today held by the Trinity College Library in Dublin. The Book of Kells has gained such a reputation today that it is not only a prime object of study by art historians, but it is also appreciated as a national treasure, con- tributing in its own way to the formation of Irish identity today, and this after twelve hundred years after its creation.7 There is astounding beauty, profound learning, brilliant artistry, and extraordinary craftsmanship to be found in this ninth-century manuscript. Whatever the general situation in early medieval Ireland might have been like, considering the many incursions by the Vikings, the conflicts between the au- tochthonous religion and culture on the one hand and the new Christian Church on the other, the Book of Kells undoubtedly demonstrates that we have to be very careful with any modern judgments and evaluations of earlier times. Despite numerous differences between the Christian Church in Ireland and its sister on the Continent, the Emerald Island quickly proved to be a bedrock of early medieval Christian art.8 The world of the book has not yet come to an end, if it ever will, but the medieval manuscript and the powers of digital technology have joined hands to make this medieval treasure world easily available to modern viewers.9 While the ordinary book markets are changing, often to the detriment of book publishers, the truly important role of the book as a deep carrier of information, knowledge, experience, and as a me- dium of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual pleasures has not disappeared. The most dramatic and illustrative example today proves to be the facsimile of a medieval ma- 58 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 nuscript, a most precious book item that has gained in appeal over the years and now belongs to the highly prized items any library, private or public, can possess, apart, of course, from the original document. Not by accident, one of the book series published by the famous university publishing house in Graz, Austria, is entitled “Glanzlichter der Buchkunst” (Brilliant Stars of the Art of Books).10 Although the post-Roman world witnessed a considerable decline in cultural sophistication, already the eighth century can be identified as a glorious Renaissance, as best expressed in the manuscripts, many of which were illustrated. Jacques Dala- run and his colleagues thus dared to call their volume Le Moyen Âge en lumière, the glowing Middle Ages, presenting a vast range of relevant examples kept in medieval libraries,11 all of them bridging the gap between the physical and the spiritual. The text of the Book of Kells relies on the Vulgate, that is the Bible as it had been compiled by the Church Father Jerome in the late fourth century (completed in 384 C.E.). Pope Damasus I had commissioned him to revise the Vetus Latina, and the result was a text anthology that was to have a lasting influence until the early sixteenth century when Martin Luther finally translated the New Testament in 1522 based on the original Greek text. The Book of Kells also contains some traces of the pre-Vulgate biblical texts, but in essence it represents the New Testament as virtually all medieval Europeans knew it, either through reading the various precious copies, or through oral sources. In addition to the biblical text, the scribes included some kind of etymologies mainly of Hebrew names to penetrate more deeply into the allegorical meaning of the Bible. Then there are canon tables, that is, concordances of gospel passages as they had been compo- sed in the fourth century by Eusebius of Caeserea, then summaries of each gospel, so-called Breves causae, and prefaces dealing with each one of the four Evangelists (Argumenta). Moreover, the manuscript also contains copies of some charters in Irish concerning land transactions concerning the monastery of Kells. Unfortunately, the manuscript that has come down to us is incomplete, with gaps both at the beginning and at the end. The closing chapters of the St. John’s Gospel are missing, and there are also some gaps in the other Gospels.12 As we will see below, this is not simply a book with various important texts relevant for a Christian community. Instead, this is a kind of early medieval Gesamtkunstwerk, with each page exorbitantly illustrated, leaving virtually no empty space for the eye to rest. The central themes of the various images pertain to symbols and portraits of the evangelists, portraits of Christ and the Virgin and Child, and illustrations of the temptations and the arrest of Christ.13 The Book of Kells consists of 340 folio, made of calf vellum, which means that a very large number of young animals had to be butchered for this purpose (ca. 170). At least three scribes were involved in creating this masterpiece of early medieval Irish book production. They relied on the Insular majuscule script and used iron gall ink, while the ten full-page illuminations and many marginal drawings and frames were made out of many materials, altogether creating a brilliance of colors. This famous manuscript was created at the abbey of Kells, ca. 40 miles north of Dublin, founded in the early ninth century (the buildings were erected in 807, the abbey itself was con- secrated in 814). It belongs to a fairly large corpus of related illuminated manuscripts Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 59 produced in the early Middle Ages, the Cathach of St. Columba, the Ambrosiana Oro sius, the fragmentary Gospel in the Durham Dean and Chapter Library (all from the early seventh century), and the Book of Durrow (from the second half of the seventh century). The Durham Gospels, the Echternach Gospels, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Lichfield Gospels date from the eighth century. Subsequent manuscript masterpieces were the St. Gall Gospel Book from the late eighth century and the Book of Armagh (dated to 807–809) to the early ninth century.14 The abbey of Kells was repeatedly the object of Viking attacks, who plundered the monastery, yet without getting their hands on this famous book of gospels. However, in 1006 someone stole the Book, but it was retrieved several months later, with the cover missing, and also some illustrations. Books, that is medieval manuscripts, represented major treasures, not only for bibliophiles, but for art lovers, clerics, scholars, musicians, and highly-ranked individuals. We might misinterpret this manuscript as a bibliophile item only, but in reality, here we come across a major representative of an entire culture, early medieval Ireland. It might seem curious for modern audiences to witness one book alone being one of the most valuable treasures in a monastery, hence in the entire region, and so in the entire country. The pagan culture still prevalent for a long time did not produce such works, although the Celtic world has left us numerous impressive architectural remnants and other artworks.15 The thieves probably targeted the gold inlay and the gems on the cover, and once those had been removed, the manuscript itself no longer had quite the same value for them. We presume that the manuscript was buried in the ground, since it was a religious text and thus enjoyed a high level of aura, even among the thieves, but the monks learned fast enough, two months and twenty nights later, according to the Annals of Ulster, of its whereabouts and could recover it, preventing further damage to occur. The first ten pages and the last twelve pages of the original Gospel book are missing Nevertheless, even then, the Book of Kells continued to be regarded with the greatest respect, and this deservedly so considering the extraordinarily high level of artistic quality. There are ca. 150 square feet of spectacular colored illustrations, whether they were all produced in one scriptorium or in two, whether first on the Scottish island of Iona or later in Kells, as scholars such as Bernard Meehan have speculated.16 Every manuscript has its own history, and that has been the case with the Book of Kells as well. Wars during the Cromwellian period effected also parts of Ireland, such as the church at Kells that soon lay in ruins. Consequently, in 1653 the book was sent to Dublin by the governor of Kells for safekeeping. A few years later it reached Trinity College where it has remained until today. The library displays and projects every day one new page of this manuscript for public viewing. The twelfth-century Cambro-Norman archdeacon of Brecon and historian, Gerald of Wales (ca. 1146-ca. 1323), seems to have known the Book of Kells, as he commented as follows, giving highest respect to the wonder of medieval manuscript production: This book contains the harmony of the Four Evangelists according to Jerome, where for almost every page there are different designs, distinguished by varied colours. Here you may see the face of majesty, divinely drawn, here the mystic symbols of the Evangelists, each with wings, now six, now four, now two; here the eagle, there the calf, here the man and there the lion, and other forms almost infinite. Look at them superficially with the 60 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019

ordinary glance, and you would think it is an erasure, and not tracery. Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not notice it. Look more keenly at it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out intricacies, so delicate and so subtle, so full of knots and links, with colours so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this were the work of an angel, and not of a man.17 The author/s of the Annals of Ulster comment that this book, if they really had our manuscript in mind, “was the most precious object in the western world.”18 There are many reasons why the Book of Kells was produced at that specific time and location. One of them, however, deserves to be highlighted because this manuscript shines so glamorously through its rich illumination program. At the time of its production, the Book served, like many other objects in the church, to appeal to the pagan public, to demonstrate the absolute superiority of Christianity, to present the glory of God already here on earth, and, above all, to have available an auratic object. The Book of Kells, considering its content, was probably used only on the altar during mass, but even though that location was far away from the public space for the people, in the central nave, for instance, or outside of the church, the glory of the illuminations shone forth and underscored the supreme beauty and power of God. Even if this manuscript was handled mostly only by the priests or abbots, the aura of this collection of gospel texts was undeniable, especially because of its exclusivity, not accessible by the ordinary people. Scholars have made many efforts to establish correlations between the motifs used in the Book of Kells and contemporary Irish pagan culture, and have also drawn in many archetypal themes that can be observed in other countries, as far away as Persia, but we cannot be certain about any of those claims. It is much more likely, following Meehan’s observations, that the artists working on this manuscript were well informed about similar manuscripts, carvings, or sculptures in early medieval Ireland and skill- fully wove those visual elements into the new program realized in the Book of Kells.19 Considering the wealth of research on this monumental early medieval manuscript, I cannot claim to offer completely new insights that might change our art-historical approach to this bibliophile treasure, concerning the role of the various scribes and artists, the origin of the text itself, the material conditions of the manuscript, and its history. Nevertheless, I hope that the subsequent reflections will allow us to gain a better understanding of the extraordinary artistic skills commanded by the scribes and illuminators, all collaborating perfectly, so it seems, to create this amazing manuscript. This will then allow us to gain a better understanding of what the ‘early Middle Ages’ might have meant and whether the notion of the ‘dark ages’ would even be justified. Naturally, much research has already shed very detailed light on the Book of Kells, so the purpose cannot be to discover truly new features or meanings in this illustrated manuscript. Much more important now will be to examine the cultural context, the artistic strategies, the correlation between text and images, and the impact which this famous book was supposed to have and certainly did. What does the Book of Kells have to tell us today about cultural developments even in the earliest stages? The religious elements are the most dominant, and everything here serves to high- light the spiritual meaning of the four Gospels. There are many folios dedicated to present allegorical images of the four Evangelists, such as fol. 27v, who are, however, not Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 61 simply projected all by themselves; instead, the artist made intriguing efforts to situate the four symbols in a complex rectangular shape with countless geometric designs. The eye is constantly distracted and taken into a labyrinth of meanings that cannot be easily deciphered, if at all, because of the deliberate absence of texts or specific clues. We are invited to meander throughout the frames and follow the various threads, lines, squares, circles, and other shapes. The inner cross is surrounded by an outer cross, which signals the multiple levels of frames of the display, and hence of the levels of messages contained in this page. Certainly, the artist/s did not imitate Arabic concepts, replacing all images by geometric forms. On the contrary, we observe an intricate pattern of concrete images of figures or heads that are situated within a larger rectangle dominated by a multitude of colored lines, often in a zigzag, which again enclose spaces where new messages can be detected (such as folio 7v, with Christ’s temptation). But even then when the images disappear almost completely, giving way to a series of typographically elaborated lines of text, the exterior and the interior of the manuscript illustration vibrate and in- teract with each other in an almost baffling manner (fol. 8r, beginning of the Breves causae of Matthew). The scribes demonstrated their extraordinary skill in using different types of script and virtually transformed the writing into an image that begs for interpretation, and yet also seems to shroud it in secrecy and mystery. Not every band on that page is filled with text; instead, even here, we recognize, rather dumbfounded, enigmatic lines, curves, circles, some almost in the shape of a pretzel, representing the interlocking and interfacing concepts and ideas contained in this book, maybe projecting the apophatic relationship between the human faithful and the Godhead. At closer examination we discover a person sitting on the left side, pointing toward a word, while gazing at us. In the top frame, the artist included a face staring at the viewer, while a bent arm protrudes from the web next to the face and extends the hand toward the face. It would be difficult to decipher concretely and specifically what the intention here might have been, but we are certainly forced to pause and wonder about the communicative look directed at the spectator. As many art historians focusing on medieval manuscripts have already observed, the world of the medieval manuscript with its countless marginal drawings proves to be a source of endless fascination and discussion. The detail of fol. 19v, part of the Breves causae of Luke, for instance, signals most intriguingly the synchretic approach to the effort to bring to bear the Christian teaching. We are still within a Christian framework, with all the splendor of the colors and shapes as in all other drawings, but we also notice many details that do not quite fit into the general framework. On top of a swirling 3-sha- ped figure, there sits a bestial creature stretching to the left, which a similarly monstrous animal hovers below. Both are separated by a highly colored and also well-structured banner filled with geometrical figures. The entire design ends into a swirl filled with endless loops, and all beautifully colored. In other segments, we might discover hands, faces, body parts, if our fantasy is rich enough. Most dominant, however, proves to be the prevalent interest in interlacing countless lines and shapes, building compartments, and intersecting spaces. We cannot help it but to assume that the artists were free in li- ving out their own fantasy in the filling out of the empty spaces, the margins, where they enjoyed more liberty and could obviously also draw from other cultural sources, especi- 62 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 ally Celtic art.20 Meehan only emphasizes the pragmatic aspects of those marginal drawings: “decoration punctuated the text and aided legibility, at the same time repeating the thematic preoccupations of the fully decorated pages. . . . They continued the text. They illustrated it. They had a liturgical use. They also had an evangelical purpose.”21 We can certainly agree with the idea that the splendid manuscript, like many of its parallel creations, was to appeal to the laity, but the value of the Book of Kells was too high to be passed around. And the small details in the margins made it impossible at any rate to recognize them from the distance. The overall splendor of the manuscript, which the priest probably lifted up during mass and displayed to the parish, is beyond question, but this does not yet answer the peculiar intrigue and secrecy of the decoration program.22 Most stunningly, the artists strongly drew from a world of geometry, as if they had learned their skill from their Arabic colleagues, who were not allowed to draw any concrete images and had thus developed a strictly geometric pattern relying on floral or vegetal designs in a repetitive style known as the arabesque. Figurative elements are basically absent because the Qu’ran forbids any depiction of God, which would only be idolatrous.23 This is, of course, not quite the case in the Book of Kells, and yet we recognize a strong emphasis on the abstract, mostly determined by geometry, such as in folio 292r, dedicated to the beginning of St. John’s gospel. Meehan maintains, however, that “the wonders of the manuscript are those of technique and variety rather than theme, which in essence is singular.”24 Here leaving aside the specific visual elements that do not require extensive interpretation, the marginal frames constantly challenge us and refuse an easy analysis. Considering the high cost of parchment and the enormous expenses to have artists illuminate a manuscript, we can completely exclude the possibility that the purpose for the patron of the Book of Kells was nothing but to have an exotically looking New Tes- tament in hand. We cannot peak into the minds of the medieval artists, but they have left us with those tremendous illuminations that prove to be highly meticulous, very colorful, filled with details, and intriguingly inviting for the viewer to follow some paths through the manuscript page, with no clear entrance of exit in sight. Squares and rectangles, tube-like shapes, crosses, bands, flowery designs, and constantly swirling and interlocking lines dominate the page (fol. 292r). Michelle P. Brown draws our attention to the possibility of detecting direct lines of influence from the East where Muslims relied heavily on their prayer carpets which displayed nothing but abstract forms. Such carpet pages can be found in many of the early medieval manuscripts, such as in the Lichfield Gospels (mid-eighth century) or the Lindisfarne Gospels (early eighth century), and also in the Book of Kells.25 Contemporaneously, the abbot of the Fulda Benedictine monastery, Hrabanus Maurus (780–856), created these astounding pictograms in his De laudibus sanctae crucis, in which either crosses or Christ are superimposed on squares filled with letters, which forces the reader to decode a highly complex religious message by means of mathe- matical calculations.26 We also could include here, for comparison’s sake, the famous manuscripts containing the gospels in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Li- brary, MS 197B, probably created in Canterbury by the end of the eighth or early ninth century, where the opening of St. John’s Gospels, fol. 2, is characterized by similar borders, strips, geometric shapes, circles, lines, and forms.27 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 63

There is never any doubt that here we are dealing with the four Gospels, so every thing of this extraordinary manuscript served Christian teachings. Nevertheless, if we look, for instance, at the beginning of Luke 24, presenting four angels within a rectangle, below which is some text, we are faced not only with the same dilemma of interpretation, but we are also confronted with a further detail that challenges us considerably. While the band making up the rectangle is filled with abstract designs, on the top right corner a monstrous head opens its mouth, which is interspersed with several swirling circles. It might be a dragon, a devilish creature, or some other dange- rous being against which the four archangels have to protect people. The figure, how ever, does not look really threatening. The artist/s made considerable efforts to present this head which seems to attract much more attention than the angels. The band forming the rectangle is significantly interrupted at that very point, as if the earth, represented by the entire page, is opening up to indeterminate territory and giving way to unknown forces. The monster is shown with a rich display of scales both on its back and on the top of its head, but it does not seem to be a fish. The gaping-open mouth does not reveal any teeth, so we are left wondering what kind of monster that might be. A parallel can be identified in a French Sacramentary from St.-Amand, ca. 860, today kept in The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, MS G.57, fol. 4v. Here we see the same kind of frame, with a central band forming the Initial ‘I’, upon which is written the letter ‘E.’ A curious monster stretches its head and neck toward the top right, but this time with the mouth closed. Two crane-like figures extend out of the top bar, protruding from roundish bands, looking back into the square.28 The folio dedicated to the scene with Christ’s arrest (fol. 114r) only slightly deviates from this pattern and has an arch on top consisting of two monstrous heads butting against each other right above Christ’s head. In the section for St. Matthew’s Gospel (fol. 124r) a roaring griffin protrudes from a swirling T-like shape. The rectangular frame was, as we can confirm through many examples, a favorite design, with a number of variants, sometimes showing the figure of one of the Evangelists in the center Book( of Kells, fol. 28v, Matthew), and sometimes showing the symbols of all four Evangelists (fol. 290v). In the case of the portrait of St. John (fol. 291v), we even observe a unique feature, with Christ’s own body appearing at all four sides outside of the marginal crosses like a cameo, at least represented by the head, the two hands, and the two feet, something which was later replicated by the artists of the famous thirteenth-century Ebstorf world map.29 St. John is depicted sitting on a seat, holding a quill in the right hand, a manuscript in the left; his head is surrounded by several circles with purely geometric designs. The four large crosses on each side of the painting are filled with endless interlooping lines, whereas the four corners are occupied by zigzagged half squares with indefinite nonfigurative drawings. Not enough, however, at the four corners, the artist added even further drawings with lines and knots, extending into the outer cosmos, so it seems, where God’s body rests. As is the case many times throughout the Middle Ages, both in the margins and within the text pages, little creatures, often fanciful in their design, appear chasing each other, holding the host in their mouth (fol. 48r), for instance, which mirror the world of medieval bestiaries.30 The artists’ great fascination with vines comes through on many different folios and is a steady component in much of medieval manuscript 64 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 illustrations. In the Book of Kells, however, the painters went one step further, so it seems, and freely experimented with a wide range of fanciful designs, often combined with some monstrous creatures biting each other, with griffin-like creatures closing off the margin, and with many loops and bands, such as in St. Luke’s Gospel (fol. 250v). Numerous times large-sized letters have heads filling the empty space, such as in letters such as ‘h,’ ‘m,’ or ‘b,’ such as on fol. 309r. On other folios, we are delighted with a variety of other graphic designs filling the initials (fol. 183r), which all kinds of reptiles and fowl embellish empty spaces, even between the lines (fol. 309r). We could go into further details, but suffice it here to draw some conclusions and to connect those with our initial arguments regarding the notion of the so-called ‘dark ages.’ There are a number of facts that need to be highlighted first of all. The Book of Kells was one of many similar Gospels books produced in the eighth and ninth centuries for monasteries and bishops in Ireland, England, and on the Continent. All of them strove for the highest possible artistic accomplishment. Each of these manuscripts represents, as we can affirm until today, a cultural triumph without parallels and demonstrates that the technique and artistic skill to produce such artworks were of the highest possible caliber even at that early age. As was always the case with medieval manuscripts, the Book of Kells was produced in a highly sophisticated scriptorium, or workshop. An entire team of experts contributed to the creation of this bibliophile item, including tanners, rubricators, artists, scribes, correctors, bookbinders, et al. Much of the content was predetermined, of course since this was intended to be a manuscript containing the four Gospels, above all. But the artistic dimension left much freedom, and this is the area where we can identify an impressive degree of syncretism, especially with respect to the numerous monstrous creatures, the geometric designs, the floral and vegetal elements, and the abstract drawings. Much of the symbolism can be deciphered with little effort because this manuscript contained the four Gospels. But there is a whole world of fantastic and imaginary features that escape our critical grasp and insist on being ineffable, if not apophatic. Irrespective of what the specific elements might consist of, one component proves to be dominant, the interlooping bands and lines, the dazzling bands and knots, either on the margins or within letters, inside of the main image or on the outside. The artists certainly wanted to indicate the totality of all being interconnected in one way or the other, whether in concrete figurative or in abstract non-figurative terms. The outstanding mastery of the artists and scribes who collaborated very closely with each other would not need any confirmation today. Here, in the Book of Kells, we encounter the supreme quality of early medieval Irish art. As the opening page of the St. Luke’s Gospel (fol. 188r) illustrates, for instance, we as viewers, even today, are automatically drawn into this maze of spirituality, events, figures, actions, narratives, and images. There is nothing that would remind us of a ‘dark age’ here, and this and many other manuscripts from the same time period underscore unmistakably how erroneous that term portraying the early Middle Ages in such negative lights could be. Of course, even the Book of Kells was repeatedly in danger of becoming a victim of Viking attacks, and it was stolen and damaged at one point. Violence and brutality, lack of culture, insensitivity and ignorance have always been major forces determining human history and culture. Considering the rather reduced Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 65 level of state power and authority following the fall of the Western Roman empire, one could certainly agree that the early Middle Ages were a time of severe decline. However, much depends on the perspective of the beholder. While famine and war certainly raged in some parts, peace and education were fully in place in other parts. The Book of Kells does not indicate that the early ninth century in Ireland was necessarily a period of security and justice, quite on the contrary, but it powerfully demonstrates that the arts continued to flower at least within the framework of the Catholic Church. The parallels with the surrounding Celtic arts are striking, especially the interlooping bands everywhere, such as in the hanging bowls, brooches, ornamental discs, harnesses, swords, belt buckles, etc.31 After all, the artists came from local traditions and worked their way into the Christian culture, using the repertoire available to them from their own schooling and combined them with the images that were imported from the Continent and elsewhere. We can break off here and conclude that the Book of Kells, like many of its contemporary bibliophile treasures, was not only a major manuscript for the Christian Church, but also a document of the extraordinarily high level of artistic sophistication possible still in the early eighth century, or already at that time. While war and devastation might have raged outside of the monastery walls, the monks inside demonstrated that they as illuminators, scribes, correctors, and others in the scriptorium were fully capable of pursuing most elegant book art both in terms of calligraphy and of visual decorations. Nothing could be further true than to call that world the ‘dark ages,’ at least in light of the Book of Kells and its various brothers and sisters. We are still far away from fully comprehending all the symbolism hidden in the marginal drawings, in the frames, in the initials, and at other places on the manuscript page. But following George Henderson, our ignorance does not say anything about the true meaning of those illuminations.32 Of course, it almost borders on the miraculous that this and many other manuscripts of that type have survived the tribulations throughout time, but they continue to speak to us today a very clear language, confirming that the early Christian world was still trying very hard by means of syncretism and hence a significant level of openness and inclusivity to convince the representatives of the pagan religions to accept the new teachings. We also find ourselves on firm ground claiming that the early Middle Ages cannot simply be identified as ‘dark ages.’ The artistry and spiritual sophistication of the Book of Kells or the Book of Armag demonstrate a degree of cultural refinery that leaves us virtually speechless today.33 We are really forced to change our paradigms regarding the historical periodization, as the early medieval art does not reveal any signs of decline, loss, or lack of abilities. On the contrary, those early medieval illustrated manuscripts represent some of the best quality ever produced in the pre-modern world. There is very little mimesis, but much, if not overpowering suggestive interpretation, hidden meaning, decoded semiotics, and spiritual challenges. The interlacing bands and lines, the floral design, the geometric patterns, the intricate communication between the center and the frame, beyond which another world (God) appears, at least as indicated, all those elements force the user, reader, or viewer to engage critically, meditatively, and spiritually with the Book of Kells. Many scholars such as Jonathan J. G. Alexander have already tried their hand at deciphering the mysterious messages contained in this famous manuscripts, but the result has mostly been to conclude that 66 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 there are too many enigmas.34 I venture to add my own perspective here, identifying it as a semiotic secret or challenge requiring extensive in-depth reading and analysis, which, if done correctly, will be possible only by means of divine intervention, so to speak. There is no final answer, there are no concrete algorithms that might lay bare the secrets of the Book of Kells, and we cannot plainly use the traditional tools of art history and theological and paleographical research. The mystery itself proves to be the ultimate purpose because divine nature, as expressed in the biblical texts and the breathtaking illuminations, will always remain ineffable and apophatic.

Albrecht Classen Dept. of German Studies 301 LSB University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 [email protected]

Endnotes

1 See, for instance, Interpreting Late Antiquity: Essays on the Postclassical World, ed. G. W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar. Cambridge, MA, and London: The Belknap press of Harvard University Press, 2001; Karol Modzelewski, Das barbarische Europa: Zur sozialen Ordnung von Germanen und Slawen im frühen Mittelalter, trans. from the Polish by Heidemarie Petersen. Klio in Polen, 13 (orig. 2004) Osnabrück: fibre Vlerag, 2011; Walter Goffart, Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Cf. also The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. Oliver Nicholson. 2 Vols. Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 2018. 2 Deborah Deliyannis, Hendrik Dey, and Paolo Squatriti, Fifty Early Medieval Things: Ma terials of Culture in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2019). See my review in Mediaevistik 32, forthcoming. 3 Albrecht Classen, “The Human Quest for Happiness and Meaning: Old and New Perspec- tives: Religious, Philosophical, and Literary Reflections from the Past as a Platform for Our Future St. Augustine, Boethius, and Gautier de Coincy,” Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts 5.2 (2018): 179–206 (http://www.athensjournals.gr/humanities/2018-5-2-3-Classen.pdf); id., “The Past as the Key for the Future: Reflections on an Ancient Question. What Does (Me- dieval) Literature Mean Today in the Twenty-First Century?,” to appear in Athens Journal of Philology. 4 The Representation of External Threats: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World. His- tory of Warfare, 123. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019. The publisher’s website offers this insightful summary of the book: “Focussing on the different ways in which such threats were socially constructed, the articles offer a variety of perspectives and interdisciplinary methods to understand the development and representations of external threats, concen- trating on the effect of ‘threat communication’ for societies and political actors.” Indeed, there is much construction at play. https://brill.com/abstract/title/38076?format=HC (last accessed on March 1, 2019). See also the contributions to Stasis in the Medieval West?: Questioning Change and Continuity, ed. Michael D.J. Bintley, Martin Locker, Victoria Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 67

Symons, and Mary Wellesley. The New Middle Ages. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 5 See, for instance, Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003; Martin Brown and Colm O Clabaigh, The Irish Benedictines: A History. Blackrock, Co., Dublin: Mercier Press, 2005; Roy Flet- cher, Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland’s Patron Saint. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. 6 An Insular Odyssey: Manuscript Culture in Early Christian Ireland and Beyond, ed. Ra- chel Moss, Felicity O’Mahony, and Jane Maxwell. Portland, OR: Four Courts Press, 2017. See now the contributions to An der Wiege Europas. Irische Buchkultur des Frühmit telalters. Sommerausstellung 13. März bis 4. November 2018, ed. Cornel Dora and Fran- ziska Schnoor. Basel: Schwabe Verlag 2018. 7 Françoise Henry, The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity Col lege, Dublin, with a Study of the Manuscript. London: Thames and Hudson, 1974. 8 Lee Boltin, Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.: From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977. James Snyder, Medieval Art: Painting. Sculptu re. Architecture: 4th-14th Century. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989), 182–90; Peter Harbison, The Golden Age of Irish Art: The Medieval Achievement, 600–1200. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999. 9 https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=MS58_003v (last accessed on March 1, 2019). The content of the Book of Kells is briefly summarized as follows: “Folio 1r: Hebrew names and Evangelist symbols IE TCD MS 58 fol.1r-27r Preliminaries; 27v- 129r Matthew; 129v-187v Mark; 188r-290r Luke; 292r-339v John.” See also the in-depth study of this manuscript by the contributors to The Book of Kells: MS 58, Trinity College Library Dublin: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1990. For a biblio- graphy, see Clavis Litterarum Hibernensium: Medieval Irish Books and Texts (c. 400-c. 1600) 60.2 (2018): 221‒22. 10 Das Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgund: Codex Vindobonensis 1857 der Österreic hischen Nationalbibliothek. Commentary by Franz Unterkircher. Glanzlichter der Buch- kunst, 3. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1993). 11 Das leuchtende Mittelalter, ed. Jacques Dalarun. Trans. from the French by Birgit Lamerz- Beckschäfer (orig. 2002). 3rd ed. Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 2011. 12 G. O. Simms, The Book of Kells: A Short Description. Third ed. Dublin: The Dublin Uni- versity Press, Trinity College, 1970 (orig. 1949); Gearóid Mac Niocaill, “The Irish ‘Char- ters’,” The Book of Kells: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox (see note 9), 153–65. 13 Bernhard Meehan, The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College Dublin. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994; now also in 2009, 9. 14 See, for instance, Bernard Meehan, The Book of Durrow: A Medieval Masterpiece at Tri nity College Dublin. Boulder, CO: R. Rinehart; Dublin: Town House, 1996; Claire Breay and Bernard Meehan, The St Cuthbert Gospel: Studies on the Insular Manuscript of the Gospel of John (BL, Additional MS 89000). London: The British Library, 2015. 15 Ireland and Insular Art AD 500–1200, ed. Michael Ryan. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1987; The Age of Migrating Ideas: Early Medieval Art in Northern Britain and Ireland, ed. R. Michael Spearman and John Higgitt. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland; Stroud, Gloucestershire, and Dover, NH: A. Sutton: 1993. 16 Bernhard Meehan, The Book of Kells (see note 13), 90–92; Bernard Meehan, The Book of Kells: Official Guide/ London: Thames & Hudson, 2018. 17 Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland. Trans. with an Intro. by John J. O’Meara. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1951, 1982, 84. Se also Gerald of Wales, The Jour 68 Mediaevistik 32 . 2019

ney Through Wales and The Description of Wales, trans. with an intro. by Lewis Thorpe (London: Penguin, 1978), but there is no reference to the Book of Kells. As to his biography, see Brynley F. Roberts, Gerald of Wales. Writers of Wales. S.l: University of Wales Press, 1982; Michael A. Faletra, Wales and the Medieval Colonial Imagination: The Matters of Britain in the Twelfth Century. The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014; see also Michelle P. Brown, “Gerald of Wales and the ‘Topography of Ireland’: Aut- horial Agendas in Word and Image,” Journal of Irish Studies 20 (2005): 52–63. 18 Meehan, The Book of Kells (see note 13), 14 19 Meehan, The Book of Kells (see note 13), 18–19. He refers to a bowl of the Ardagh Chalice, the circular mount at Togherstown, Country Westmeath, an Irish shrine, and a variety of metal works in Ireland. 20 This was already argued by Stanford F. Robinson, Celtic Illuminative Art in the Gospel Books of Durrow, Lindisfarne, and Kells. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1908; see now Venceslas Kruta, Celtic Art. London: Phaidon, 2015. Cf. also Lloyd Robert Laing and Jen- nifer Laing, Celtic Britain and Ireland: Art and Society. London: Herbert Press, 1995. 21 Meehan, The Book of Kells (see note 13), 29. 22 Carol Ann Farr, The Book of Kells: Its Function and Audience. London: British Library; Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1997. 23 Edward H. Madden, “Some Characteristics of Islamic Art,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 33.4 (1975): 423–30; Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, “The Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field,” The Art Bulletin 85.1 (2003): 152–84; Anna Contadini, Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East Series, 90. Sec. ed. (orig. 2007). Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010. Literature on this topic is legion, of course. 24 Meehan, The Book of Kells (see note 13), 30. 25 Michelle P. Brown, Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels. London: The British Library, 2003, 24–25. 26 Sita Steckel, “Von Buchstaben und Geist,” Karolingische Klöster: Wissenstransfer und kulturelle Innovation, ed. Julia Becker, Tino Licht, and Stefan Weinfurter. Materiale Text- kulturen, 4. Berlin, Munich, and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2015, 89–129. For digital images of the manuscript, today kept in the Bibliothèque national de France, Paris, see https://designobserver.com/feature/rabanus-maurus-poems-of-the-cross/38575, or https:// gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8490076p/f15.image.r=.langEN (both last accessed on March 2, 2019). 27 For a discussion and reproduction, see The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manu scripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, ed. Bronwyn Stocks and Nigel Mor- gan. Victoria, Australia: Macmillan Art Publishing, 2008, 24–25. For the digitized ver- sion, see https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/qw038wz9710 (last accessed on March 1, 2019). 28 Sherry C. M. Lindquist and Asa Simon Mittman, Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders. New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018, 70. 29 Die Ebstorfer Weltkarte. Kommentierte Neuausgabe in zwei Bänden, ed. Hartmut Kugler together with Sonja Glauch and Antje Willing. Digitale Bildbearbeitung: Thomas Zapf. Vol. 1: Atlas. Vol. 2: Untersuchungen und Kommentar. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2007. For a collection of images and reproductions online, see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Category:Ebstorf_world_map?uselang=de (last accessed on March 2, 2019). 30 See, for instance, Romilly Allen, Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland Before the Thirteenth Century. The Rhind Lectures in Archeology. London: Whiting & Co., 1887. Pauline Aiken, “The Animal History of Albertus Magnus and Thomas of Can- timpré,” Speculum 22 (April, 1947): 205–25; Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Mediaevistik 32 . 2019 69

Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. For an extensive database with manuscript images, discussions, a bibliogra- phy, etc., see http://bestiary.ca/index.html (last accessed on March 4, 2019). 31 Felix Müller, Art of the Celts: 700 BC to AD 700. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009, 156– 64; Ruth and Vincent Megaw, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells, rev. and expanded ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989, 243–55. They go so far as to claim the “fusion of Celtic, Germanic, and Mediterranean elements first seen in the Book of Durrow reached almost perfect flowering in the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of St Chad (the Lichfield Gospels) and the Book of Kells” (254). See also Lloyd and Jennifer Laing,Art of the Celts. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992, 138–76. G. O. Simms, The Book of Kells (see note 12), 6–7, comments: “The hap-hazard nature of the decoration, the spontaneity and even the turbulence of writhing serpents and wrestling animals, the humorous incong- ruities, are all characteristic of Celtic work. Yet, at the same time the precision and the accuracy of detailed design, when examined under a magnifying glass, are astounding.” Why he assumes that there might have also been Oriental, especially Egyptian, influence, remains a bit obscure. 32 George Henderson, From Durrow to Kells: The Insular Gospel-Books 650–800. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987; see also Julia Farley, Celts: Art and Identity, ed. Julia Farley and Fraser Hunter. London: British Museum Press, 2015. 33 Michael Slavin, The Ancient Books of Ireland. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005. 34 Jonathan J. G. Alexander, “The Illumination,” The Book of Kells: Commentary, ed. Peter Fox (see note 9), 265–89. He states, 265: “The Illumination of the Book of Kells . . . still remains enigmatic.” He subsequently makes a curiously contradictory statement, claiming that it seems impossible that Gerald of Wales had seen the Book of Kells, but then he admits that the famous quote by this bishop strongly suggests “that what he saw, even if it was not the Book of Kells, was a book of similar date and workmanship” (265).