 Trinity College Dublin |
Mix green from verdigris; blue from precious lapis lazuli, transported from the Orient; yellow from orpiment, a sulphide of lead; collect and crush cochineal beetles to make a rich red...
This is not the recipe for some magic potion prepared at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is how the monastic scribes of medieval Ireland concocted the pigments they used so painstakingly to illuminate the calfskin folios of the Book of Kells.
The Book of Kells, now considered one of the greatest treasures of Western civilisation, takes pride of place at Trinity College, Ireland’s first university.
No twenty-first century Harry Potter would endure the austerity to which these Celtic scholars submitted so willingly. Europe – that is to say, the known world - was a dark, fearsome place, a patchwork of kingdoms menaced by heathen barbarians. Ireland’s people huddled in fortified settlements around its coast and waterways.
Founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I of England, the College is one of the oldest universities in the British Isles. Since Tudor times Irish scholars have convened at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, a fitting repository for this exquisite manuscript.
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