Celtic Illuminative Art. By the Rev. Stanford Robinson. (Hodges, Finis,
and Co., Dublin. 42s.)—The manuscripts of
Durrow, Lindisfarne, and Kells are here described and repro- duced. There is a strong likeness of style between the three works, which are all specimens of that strange Celtic decoration derived from the Byzantine style. This style culminates in the Book of Kells, which, like the other two, is a manuscript of the Gospels. The interlaced Romanesque work hero becomes involved to a surprising degree. Indeed, some of these marvellously ingenious patterns might be described as the frenzied interlacing of lines. Sometimes bold, sometimes delicate, these patterns are never at rest, but flow from mere lines into human forms, or to
snakes and fishes, and back again, but everywhere the dominating lines writhe and entangle and disentangle under the absolute
control of the designer. Another feature of this manuscript is the exquisite beauty of the writing of the text. Clear, definite, and calm, it forms the strongest contrast to the eternal restlessness of the ornamentation.
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