As Bioletti puts it: "It's not as slick as Kells, but there is an exquisite line work and not much embellishment. In terms of illustration, Moss notes that they have a more spare, modern aesthetic. Whereas the impeccable majuscule text of Kells has a formal, print-like quality, Mulling and Dimma have a more handwritten feeling. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF KELLS PLUSMulling features portraits of the four evangelists, plus illuminated initial caps. Dimma and Mulling are immediately pre-Kells. They also have a more personal character. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF KELLS PORTABLEMulling and Dimma, by comparison, are small, highly portable and designed for personal use. From the beginning, it was intended as an object of prestigious display. There are, for example, an estimated 159 calve-skins invested in its vellum leaves. Monumental in scale and staggering in the quantity and quality of its illuminations, it is an extraordinary achievement, understandably described in 1007 as "the most precious object of the Western World". Of course, rare and important as they are, none of these manuscripts is going to displace the Book of Kells from its throne. Painted cross/monogram of Christ’s nam from ‘Codex Usserianus Primus’, early 6th century "It is," Moss emphasises, "the earliest gospel book that we have, so for scholars it's extremely useful." Understandably, of the four it was in the poorest condition. Annotations in early Irish place it in Ireland quite far back – "To see the actual handwriting on the page brings you right back in time," Moss remarks – but its exact whereabouts are unknown until it found its way to Trinity in the 17th century. One of the very earliest surviving Irish manuscripts, the fragmentary Codex Usserianus Primus could date back as far at the fifth century and was probably produced somewhere on mainland Europe. There are other examples, including the Book of Armagh. Opportunistic re-attribution was not unique to Dimma, Moss notes. The motivation, Moss suggests, was to nudge it closer to divinity by attributing it to Dimma who was said to be the personal scribe of St Crónán of Roscrea.Ī miraculous context was added with the story of how, when Dimma was asked to produce the gospels in a day, the sun shone without respite for 40 days and nights and he was miraculously enabled to complete his impossible task. At some point in the 11th or 12th century, in three of its four mentions, the name of the original scribe – Danchairde – was scratched out and Dimma was substituted. Shrine made to hold the ‘Book of Dimma’ in the 12th centuryĪll is not as it seems with the Book of Dimma. For the O'Carroll and Kavanagh families, possession of the books reinforced not just their social status but their territorial claims as well. More, Moss points out, the books' symbolism extended into the political arena. Both it and the Book of Dimma, another eight-century manuscript of the four Gospels, owe their survival to the fact that they were regarded as relics and carefully preserved in metalwork shrines.
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