Book dossier

The Book of Kells

by Sir Edward Sullivan

The Book of Kells is one of those documents which have fascinated generations of artists in every branch of artistic activity. Any modern artist or craftsman may study this book with the greatest pleasure and profit. Yet he may be quite unable to say just what it is about the Book of Kells which is the secret of its compelling interest. The Celtic and Early Medieval manuscripts, with their special significance and the social conditions under which they were produced, seem very remote from the life of to-day, and the Book of Kells is, in addition, so different in its presentation from contemporary calligraphy or indeed from any other kind of lettering, that a point of contact is difficult to establish. - Foreword.