BEAUTIFUL BOOK MAKING 
enthusiast but it sums up the qualities of this great 
illuminated manuscript volume so well as to deserve 
quotation: 
“Its weird and commanding beauty; its subdued 
and goldless colouring; the baffling intricacy of its 
fearless designs; the clean, unwavering sweep of 
rounded spiral; the creeping undulations of serpen- 
tine forms, that writhe in artistic profusion through- 
out the mazes of its decorations; the strong and 
legible minuscule of its text; the quaintness of its 
striking portraiture; the unwearied reverence and 
patient labour that brought it into being; all of 
which combined go to make up the Book of Kells, 
have raised this ancient Irish volume to a position of 
abiding pre-eminence amongst the illuminated manu- 
scripts of the world.” 
In their book illuminations the Irish used neither 
gold nor silver but obtained all their effects with 
colored inks. Over on the continent the custom of 
using both gold and silver in book decoration was 
quite common. Somehow the Irish felt that it was 
not the value of the materials but the human artistry 
that made their work on the books priceless. There 
1s but one unfortunate element in these Irish book 
decorations. The illuminators did not sign their 
names as the metal workers who made their beauti- 
ful pieces almost invariably did. Somehow the 
makers of beautiful editions of the Scriptures seemed 
to think, that perhaps the merit of their work, in 
the worthy expression as far as it was possible to 
them of the word of God, might be lost, if they 
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