The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is an early Medieval illustrated manuscript of the four Gospels from the New Testament. Created around 800AD, the Book of Kells is considered to be the finest example of insular art and a masterpiece of Western calligraphy.
View the images in high resolution: www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/...
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[@d.obrien2892]

Medieval Irish monks were one of, if not the, best artisans of the era.

[@jimmyjazz5746]

+Brian Boruma Of the west maybe, theres no comparison with byzantines

[@d.obrien2892]

+Jimmy Jazz That's probably true, but, the Byzantines had an empire to fund them.

[@jimmyjazz5746]

well most of the time its all about the benjamins baby! In this particular case its all about everything. I mean technology, tradition,culture, population,education... I dont want to undermine the celts, but come on, greco-roman culture reins supreme in every field compared with Celts and i wont even put Germanic culture into comparison its embarassing

[@d.obrien2892]

+Jimmy Jazz I agree. There is a reason everyone from the Celts to the Muslims tried to emulate the Greco Roman tradition.

[@d.obrien2892]

***** I would agree except that I would say 'culturally revolutionary'. There was plenty of great culture between those times, but, nothing quite as revolutionary.

[@charlotteweever4936]

The book is kept at my university in Dublin (trinity college) and I get free access to it whenever I want with my student card. It's even more amazing in real life! :)

[@papistbaby8438]

woah, you were allowed to touch it and flip the pages and all of that??

[@christophekeating21]

@@papistbaby8438 No, the book is kept under glass, only curators can touch it and turn the pages, etc.

[@nicetightsize8jeans]

I was fortunate to actually see this in person and it was wonderful

[@ISOwren]

I love the art on the book of Kells. So detailed for what they had to work with. Evan with my modern tools it's hard to replicate.

[@thewayfarer8849]

I like that you're versatile enough to make arguably the best historical KZbin channel, one of the best political/philosophical channels, and also make the odd gaming video (y)

[@Unidentifying]

Simply mindblowing artwork

[@ourlordpapajohn4370]

My history has several pictures of plates from the Book of Kells in her classroom. Always wondered what they were.

[@awesomegamer31]

lol sargon Ancient Recitations is turning into "history stuff sargon wants to share with people" cool stuff you wanted to share with people though

[@fatedkoga7482]

Great, thanks for making me spend an hour reading Wikipedia articles on Christian art, Catholicism, Catholic military orders, the reformation, Prussia, and Polish Kings.

[@Cymbelin]

Wonderful!

[@heyitsthejster1]

You should do norse mythology and readings from the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda as well as the Neibelungenlied. Love this!

[@ThaNinjaChipmunk]

You must go where I cannot...

[@MrNintendoN00b]

Secret of Kells reference?

[@imisleek]

wow! didnt know sargon had a second channel. Awesome job mate

[@bigshoe9130]

Correct me if I am wrong. But I thought the book was make on Iona in Scotland. A few islands up from mine.

[@pleasenoname]

I saw it in person Sargon. Have an intrinsic timeless connection to it. Many of the animal forms mixed into the ornate capital letters reminded me of Mayan writing. It made me wonder if there had been contact way back then.

[@BellumCarroll]

Strange, i just watched 'The secret of Kells' a few hours ago and now this in the new subs :)

[@sadwingsraging3044]

The bottom of Plate VI on the right looks like the page may have had prior script on it. I wonder if these pages have been forensically scrutinized to see if the vellum was scrapped clean for the work that is on them now?

[@537monster]

Hey Sargon, I'm sure you've heard of this already, but recently some archeologists have discovered more than 400 ancient roman tablets. One of them containing likely the first reference to the city of London, or "Londino" as they apparently called it. I don't know much about them, so I can't say if they are saying anything beyond a list of city names or something like that, so they might not have enough information to actually read on this channel. Either way, it's interesting.

[@Scott.Vantas]

You should definetly check out the animated Movie!

[@dancereternally86]

Anyone know the name of this music specifically? I really like it, wouldn't mind finding more of it.

[@doritojohnson3211]

i just found this chanel, and relized it was sargon. Sweet!

[@TheZestyCar]

What is the background music?

[@howlingherbhouse7808]

Sargon you should cover Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron. it's really good.

[@paultreitel2661]

What language is the writing? The characters seems like stylized English, but the words and the name of Plate XI suggest something like Ecclesiastical Latin.

[@pleasenoname]

+Paul Treitel I believe it is latin. The irish also wrote in Gaelic at that time too though.

[@seenkyle5591]

does this have anything to do with the secrets of kells? the animated movie

[@seenkyle5591]

k thought as much the art and name were the same so i figured it was

[@ragamuffin7570]

I always thought medieval art looked a bit too cluttered with detail, though the details themselves are beautiful.

[@hikarikimikokiyoko6592]

Their style is kind wierd at first contact, but you soon learn you soon learn to like it.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Try going for a few months without TV, a cell phone, or any other entertainment provided by the modern world then grab a high resolution image of these pages and see how long your eyes and mind dwell on picking out all the little details. The people back then couldn't get bored and just switch the channel, flip to the next post, or even pick the next book off the shelf to read. Things like this was literally all they had to entertain themselves for YEARS so the more details the better.

[@tomeboaventura9054]

Way cooler than Comic Sans.

[@ian-op5fv]

the abstract borders and designs, are beautiful, but why were depictions of real objects, locations and living things drawn poorly? is it that the paintings that we can see today have lasted because they were made in a medium that didn't lend itself to realism? or was this the universal standard of the time?

[@Albukhshi]

This was typical of the British Isles--especially celtic areas where abstract art was the main focus. The images of people are still not on the level of the Byzantine, chinese, or mayan schools though. Way better than the continental stuff. Islamic art of the time is the closest im quality--they too preferred abstract art.

[@ian-op5fv]

+Albukhshi the art of those countries during the medieval period was a bit better, but still very 2 dimensional.

[@Albukhshi]

I'm not surprised: they are drawings after-all, I don't expect them to have more than two dimensions :P actually, some Byzantine and Chinese art then could be very life-like for the time. Especially the Chinese: www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-figures.php (the first two or three rows of paintings are from roughly the time period). here's a Byzantine example (it's a century or so after the Kell manuscript, but the art style was already returning in the 9th century, as the Byzantines were back on the offensive): upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Relieftafel_40_M%C3%A4rtyrer_von_Sebaste_Bodemuseum.jpg Granted, most Byzantine artwork in those days wasn't this good, but they cared more for religious and political themes anyways. (the same issue existed in Ireland and England, as well as the Islamic world: they were more into religious and abstract art)

[@mr.killer5230]

I have this poster

[@yungmalaria]

On plate two we now know why she was a virgin...

[@bobmilaplace3816]

Huh I always thought the Book of Kells was mostly Byzantine with Irish additions.

[@unifieddynasty]

book of keks

[@ze_chooch]

The compound letters are psychedelic.

[@gonzaloayalaibarre]

More like the book of keks amirite?

[@formerutuber]

better show the voynich manuscript

[@avok23]

When I was 15 I moved to Ireland. My first Art project was to re-create this book. I have a slight hatred for it

[@pleasenoname]

+Rhine Horn jeez such a difficult assignment.

[@lmc4964]

did you ever hand it in or are you still working on it?lol

[@ryPish]

Not a fan of your "recitation" on this one. At all. If you're planning to do more in this style maybe come up with a name for the series or a tag to add in the title of the video, so I know what to avoid.

[@ifonlyicouldstop]

anyone else notice all the dreadlocks..just sayin'.

[@MagusMarquillin]

+ifonlyicouldstop So we've been appropriating their culture for 1200 years - ^*#% that's even worse! Our only hope is to blame the Irish - what - no, no Irish in my blood.

[@ifonlyicouldstop]

Magus Marquillin I'm 100% irish....so, so much guilt. I guess I'll just have to drink it away.

[@forlatagate]

iconoclasm is a terrible thing,europeans with dreadlocks lol,you would have to be very limited to think your looking at european men,ICONOCLASM,

[@GreveElof]

Please do "The antichrist" :)

[@MegaFarinato]

i draw waaaay better.

[@odonnchada9994]

The Milesian Gael Inherited Éireann From The Tuatha De Dannan. Celtic Christian Monks Preserved Most Of Our Ancient History, Myths, And Legends. The Holy Spirit Defeated Our Druids Magic. ☘️🌀🪄✨✨

[@howlingherbhouse7808]

Sargon you should cover Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron. it's really good.