In discussing the use of symbols in an illuminated manuscript such as the Book of Kells, it must first be established that the purpose of these manuscripts was not to disseminate knowledge or to educate people as they went about their lives. The monks who were responsible for the creation of these amazing works believed that they were decorating the very word of God, in the words of scholar Bruce Jones ‘they were making the word of God manifest in the world’[1]. The manuscripts therefore become venerated objects, combining text and illustration in such a way that to separate the two would cause the page to lose its traditional meaning when seen by those who would immediately recognise the language of symbols, as used by the scribe.
The Book of Kells was begun around 800AD, although some experts date it up to one hundred years earlier. It was believed to have been started on the Isle of Iona, near Scotland. Then around the year 900, after a Viking raid on the monastery at Iona, it was moved to Kells. It is made of vellum (prepared calfskin) and of its 680 surviving individual pages, or 340 folios, only two are undecorated. The manuscript is made up of the four gospel accounts, each of which focuses on different aspects of Christ’s life and message. The folios also include concordances, cross referencing tables and short biographies of the evangelists as well as incomplete lists of Hebrew names contained in the Gospels and some Gospel summaries.
In a time where very few people were able to read and write, symbols became extremely important; each picture contained a story which the illustrator wished to impart to the viewer. Animals came to stand for certain things whilst plants and other organic shapes tied various meanings to themselves by virtue of their known or accepted properties. For example, a knot known as interlace (or Celtic knotwork as it is more commonly known) became associated with eternity due to the fact the beginning and end were...