Gouache, shell gold and pencil on translucent calfskin vellum and watercolour paper. The vellum is stretched over a wooden board, with the watercolour paper behind it. Drawing and writing on the paper shows through the translucent vellum.

There are some holes in the vellum, which I selected so that some of the drawn celtic animals can "peep" through the holes from behind the vellum! (Actually ancient manuscripts often used vellum with holes- even the Book of Kells where one page was even patched by stitching on a new square of vellum over a hole and writing over that!)

 

The work features 2 layers of flourishes- one on the paper that shows through the translucent vellum, and a second layer on the calfskin itself. The script here is my "celtic hybrid"- a mix of celtic styles with italic.

 

Text

An early Irish "marginal poem"- that is, a poem casually written by a scribe in the margin of a manuscript, unrelated to the main text and seemingly just as a fun "doodle" and a break from the long chore of writing.

This poem is ascribed to the Irish Saint Colum Cille- the founder of many great Monasteries in the 6th century, including those at Durrow, Kells and Iona. It begins with a complaint that his "hand is weary with writing", but soon reveals his passion for scribal duties: "a steady stream of wisdom springs from my well-tanned, fine shaped hand: it pours its draught onto the page:- ink from the grey skinned holly".

Some additional text is written in pencil handwriting in the right hand margin. It is the opening words of St John's gospel in Latin, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him." This reverses the concept of marginal poetry, in that what was originally a marginal poem is now the main text, while a Gospel text is a mere reference in the margin.