Trinity College

Did you know that Trinity College has another name? It does. Trinity College is also known by University of Dublin. Since there is only one campus, the names Trinity College and University of Dublin are interchangeable.

Trinity College was established in 1692 and was modelled after Oxford and Cambridge, but only has one college whereas Oxford has 38 constituent colleges and Cambridge has 31. Trinity College is the oldest school in Ireland and was set up in part to consolidate the Tudor rule over Ireland. According to Wikipedia: Trinity College “was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history. 

Although Catholics and Dissenters had been permitted to enter as early as the end of the XVIII century (1793), certain restrictions on their membership of the college remained until 1873 (professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants). From 1956 to 1970, the Catholic Church in Ireland forbade its adherents from attending Trinity College without permission from their archbishop. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in January 1904.” There are different ratings for Trinity College according who is doing the rating and, for the year 2015, was rated between 78 and 170 best in the world. It is rated as the best in Ireland.

You can read more about Trinity College and its history on Wikipedia.

Trinity College library is well known and is a legal depository library for Ireland and the United Kingdom, and contains over 4.5 million volumes, significant number of manuscripts, maps, and music. One of its most famous holdings is the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin which contains the four gospels as well as various prefatory texts and tables. It is believed that the book was created approximately 800 AD at a Columban monastery in Ireland or that a number of Columban institutions across Britain and Ireland contributed to it. It is the most complex illuminated manuscript of its time. The illustrations are composed of human, animal, and celtic knots with a good variety of colour.

Today, the manuscript is composed of 340 folios in 4 volumes. The leaves are made with calf vellum and is worth making the trip to see. The name of the book comes from the Abbey of Kells which was its home for centuries.

If you make it to Dublin, you really should go to Trinity College and see the Book of Kells for yourself. There is a cost. The price ranges between €9 and €28, depending on your circumstances. Be ready to wait in line to get into the library. As a matter of fact, I would not be surprised that there is a long line every day, all day. The line does move fairly quickly. The first part of the display gives some history about the making of the Book, with static presentations on how the ink was made, how the vellum was prepared, and what life was like when this book was being created. After going through the displays, you then go upstairs to the room where the Book of Kells is kept. It is in a locked display cabinet where no one can touch it but you can see the superior workmanship that went into it. Before seeing it, my brother believed that we would be seeing a copy, and would not believe me when I told him that we would be seeing the original book. I don’t know what the security is like for this book, but I don’t think that I would like to be the person who trips the wire, so to speak. If you are planning to take some pictures with your camera, think again. Cameras cannot be used while viewing the displays and the Book.

When you are finished looking at the Book, your way out will take you through the Old Library Hall. And, yes, it looks the same as in the pictures. When I am surrounded by that many books, I have absolutely no idea where to start.

I did discover that there have been reproductions done on the Book of Kells. There were digital photographs taken that were put on CD and sold through the College gift shop. These are no longer available. However, those digital photographs can now be seen online at:

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#folder_id=14&pidtopage=MS58_007v&entry_point=1

Enjoy!

Day Seventeen – Field Trip, April 2016

This morning, we left our hotel a little later than usual. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30 am and I think that we were very close to our timing. We had only two stops before arriving at our hotel, but we were on the bus for quite a while.

During the first leg of our trip, the bus driver put on “Ryan’s Daughter” for our entertainment. I think that quite a few of us got some zzz during that time and we finished the first half of the movie by the time we arrived at our first destination.

We visited the sixth century monastic settlement that had seven churches and a visitor’s center. We walked through their display and then watched the audio-visual presentation. Afterwards, we had a guided tour through some of the grounds. Most of the grounds are now a cemetery. I may be wrong, but I think that I can safely say that there are thousands of people buried there. Our first stop was in front of some headstones for some of the Farrell clan. I was quite excited to see them. My brother also saw them and I now have a picture of him beside one of them.

Once we were back on the bus, the driver put on the rest of the movie for us to enjoy. The movie was almost finished when we arrived at our second destination and we wanted to finish before going in. It was taking too long, so we watched the last of it while we were waiting for some members of the group to return to the bus.

We had arrived at Trinity College and had a date with the Book of Kells. I enjoyed the exhibition put together that discussed various aspect of the Book. Then, we went into another room where the Book of Kells is kept. It was something to see.

The exit was through the Long Room upstairs. I was astounded with the sight that I never thought that I would be having. All those books, all those bookshelves, in one space.

I may not be able to do a post tomorrow. If I don’t, I will be posting the next day.