Don’t Hide a Body in a Bog

The Long Room at Trinity College

Unbelievable as it may seem, it was raining this morning! Undaunted, we zipped up the raincoats and joined the bazillion other visitors jostling their way down the slick pavements to Trinity College – or more accurately, the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin. http://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/   The campus is compact, but with several attractive buildings and a lovely campanile (although its base is shrouded in scaffolding – in apparent compliance with European laws regarding photograph-ability of historic structures). Our objective here was the Old Library which houses the Book of Kells. The exhibition is very well done, with video overviews of the medieval bookmaking process, sample pigment sources, and greatly enlarged images from the Book of Kells.

It is an impossible task to attempt to describe the manuscript pages we were privileged to see. 1200 years later the colors gleam richly against the soft luster of the vellum. The intricacy of the decorative elements and the whimsical charm of the designs amaze more today perhaps than they did at the time of their creation.

You exit the gallery containing the folios to a staircase leading to the Long Room. This aptly named space is 65 meters and two floors of wood-paneled bibliophile heaven. It houses over 200,000 volumes (a minute fraction of the library’s actual holdings), a 15^th century traditional Irish harp, and a collection of almost 50 marble busts.

We emerged from these exalted literary precincts into a perfect summer day with a pure, cloudless blue sky! Our walk to The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology http://www.museum.ie/en/intro/archaeology-and-ethnography-museum.aspx was enlivened by getting to watch the College's cricket team practice.

This is Oldcroghan Man who had a terrible
day about 2000 years ago.

The Archaeology collection of the National Museum of Ireland is housed in a building that is almost as amazing as the collection is holds. The entrance is a domed rotunda and the entire first floor is gorgeous mosaics of a variety of decorative motifs. Before tackling all that history, we went to the museum café for coffee and a snack. The scones and cream puffs were marvelously restorative and delicious. We started out in an exhibit about the various bodies found in Europe’s peat bogs. These people seem to have invariably met with violent ends. The exhibit detailed how these bodies are excavated and how they are preserved to prevent decay. There was also extensive information about what has been learned about life long ago from these bodies. Video displays showed every step of the process of from excavation and study to preservation.

Another interesting collection in this museum are the hoards of treasure. Literally, huge stores of objects stashed in caves or buried by individuals unknown. There were several containing all manner of gold; earrings, collars, brooches, and ingots. Others consisted of silver objects or even iron. A number contained amber beads ranging in size from tiny to golf ball. Whatever the primary material, the craftsmanship was always incredible.

In the Treasury (as if the whole place isn’t a treasury) is a collection of objects that are unbelievably even more breathtaking than what we had already seen. There were elaborate brooches, crosiers, and a large assortment of jewelry, all of stunning beauty. Everything was made of gold, silver, or in many cases both. Perhaps the most amazing item in the Treasury was the Tara Brooch. We have seen a large number of brooches the last 2 days, but this one is truly special.

On the second floor, there is a wing dedicated to artifacts found in Dublin. These span the city’s history, but are mostly to be Viking and medieval in origin. The display plaque tells not only what the object is, but where it was unearthed. Most of them seemed to have come from under the streets we have been walking on since we arrived. There were boards and pieces from several types of games. There were beads, coins, sewing needles, satchels, shoes, carved antlers, and countless other items in truly mind bending quantities.

Next stop was the Chester Beatty Library, http://www.cbl.ie/ although we were beginning to suspect we had exhausted our daily allotment of treasure appreciation.  We immediately got over this, as the works in his collection are superb. The first exhibit we viewed, Arts of the Book, had everything from Egyptian Books of the Dead to Chinese jade books to Mughal illuminated manuscripts. The Western masterpieces include the Biblical Papyri, 2nd – 4th century copies of the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of St Paul, the Book of Revelation and several early Old Testament fragments and gorgeous examples of illuminated manuscripts.

Light through stained glass shines on the wall
of the north transept at St. Patrick's 

The other permanent exhibit, Sacred Traditions, was dedicated to religious texts and ritual artifacts from several world religions. The exhibit did a nice job of explaining the foundations of each faith and the meanings of the objects presented and their sacred functions. Here too were lavishly detailed and beautiful books. Looking at these diverse texts, one is overwhelmed by the dedication of the people who produced them. Gazing upon a page, every square inch of which is covered with intricate calligraphy, gold leaf, and lustrous paintings, and then considering that the book is 18 inches long, 12 inches wide, 8 inches thick, and then realizing that every single page in the book looks like that, well, it’s amazing.

We closed out a day of splendors with an evensong at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The service and the music were every bit as wonderful as yesterday's. We were early enough that we got to sit in the pews near the front. They had little doors at the ends to keep people out, or you in a suppose. Back in the day those would have been reserved for the VIPs.