Book of Kells turns a new page
A digital exhibition featuring clever graphics and dazzling projections is bringing the intricate ancient work to life
WHEN Columban monks sat down around the year 800 to illuminate the four gospels of the New Testament on calf vellum, they could not have imagined they were creating one of the most famous books in the world, one that would draw over a million visitors a year to view its intricate images and calligraphy, two pages at a time.
Their work, believed to have been created in monasteries in Ireland and in Iona in the Hebrides in Scotland, eventually found its home in the monastery in Kells, Co Meath. There, it survived being stolen, discovered a few months later under a sod, without its ornate gold and bejewelled cover.
By then widely known as The Book Of Kells, it remained there until 1654, when it was sent to Dublin for safekeeping from Oliver Cromwell’s invading army, and it was gifted to Trinity College in 1661.
Since the 19th century, it has been on display in the Old Library, one of the most beautiful in the world. The Long Room on the first floor, added after the original construction with an impressive barrel-vaulted timber ceiling, is widely believed to have been the inspiration for the Jedi archives in the Star Wars films.
The book was for decades on display in the Long Room, but latterly has been moved to a small chamber on the ground floor, where it is kept in a glass case under carefully controlled humidity levels to preserve it.
Now, the Long Room itself needs preservation, notably fireproofing to protect it from a fate similar of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. A two-year programme of works will begin next year, and the Book of Kells will move to the Print House — a Palladian building designed by Richard Cassels, also the architect of Leinster House — on the Trinity campus.
To date, over 200,000 books have been removed from the Long Room, and carefully dusted and cleaned over the course of 18 months, as well as being electronically tagged to keep track of them all. Now, only four bays in the library have any books left on the shelves at all.
To compensate for the temporary closure of the Long Room, Trinity College has opened a brilliant new exhibition space, the Book Of Kells Experience, in a massive red cube in one of the college squares. A special five-year planning permission from Dublin City Council was needed for the structure, though given its likely popularity, it would be foolish to thus limit its lifespan.
When you enter the exhibition, you are in a small mock-up of the library, where copies of eight of the busts in the Long Room — Rosalind Franklin, Lady Gregory, Ada Lovelace, Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Socrates and Mary Wollstonecraft — appear to talk to you, and each other, thanks to clever projections on the plaster.
Opposite, there is a stack of archive boxes, each of which has a QR code, so you can use your phone to discover what they contain, everything from collections of caricatures, to the marriage certificate of James III and Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska, the parents of Bonnie Prince Charlie, to William Shakespeare’s First Folio from 1623.
Moving on, a digital copy of the Book Of Kells sees the ink drain from the pages and move playfully to the walls leading to the cinema. There, an eight-minute 360degree film — warning, grab a spot on the benches, because it’s a bit dizzying — tells the story of the book, but the best is yet to come.
In another exhibition space, dazzling projections recreate the Long Room, which will be a huge bonus for visitors unable to see the real thing from next year. There’s an oddly Harry Potter feel to it, as books fly up to fill the empty shelves, plants grow over the walls, and scenes of everyday life in Trinity College play out.
Gemma Sexton, head of the Trinity Visitor Experience, is justifiably proud of the Book of Kells Experience, which has been designed by Event, the British company also responsible for the Epic Museum in Dublin’s Docklands, which has been voted best attraction in the world several times.
The biggest surprise of all, though, for someone like me who hasn’t seen the Book Of Kells since childhood, is the huge gift shop, which has more merchandise than you ever could imagine, never mind the monks who toiled with ink to produce one of the greatest works of cultural patrimony in history.
■ THE Book Of Kells Experience is open seven days a week from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Admission is from €21.50 for adults, €12 for children, see visittrinity.ie
‘There’s an oddly Harry Potter feel to it as books f ly up’