The Book of Durrow, 7th C

The Book of Durrow, or the Codex Usserianus I is perhaps the oldest surviving Insular gospel, was written around 650–675 either at the Durrow Abbey, County Offaly, Ireland, or in Northumbria, England. Wherever it was written, however, it ended up at the Durrow Abbey, where a cumdach (a silver covering) was made to house the manuscript. An inscription added to the text stated: “the prayer and benediction of St. Columb Kille be upon Flann, the son of Malachi, King of Ireland, who caused this cover to be made.”

The manuscript apparently remained at Durrow until the abbey was dissolved in the mid-16th century. According to legend the next custodian of the manuscript placed it in his watering trough to cure his cattle of sickness. Later, sometime around 1662, Henry Jones, Bishop of Clogher and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, presented the book to the college library, where it remains to this day.

Folio 22, recto

By the time Christianity was introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, nomadic Germanic tribes, such as the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians had conquered much of Europe, including England. Ireland, however, was apparently not all that important to the marauding Germanic pagans and they were left alone to develop a unique version of monastic Christianity. So when St Columbia reintroduced Christianity back into England by establishing monasteries in Iona, Scotland in 563 and Northumbria in 635 these Germanic and Celtic artistic traditions merged – a cross-pollination of sorts – into what is now known as Insular or Hibero-Saxon art.

The Insular scribes and illuminators were heavily influenced by Hibero-Saxon crafts: The complex interlaced knotting, perhaps the most recognizable Insular form, was borrowed from Celtic metalwork, the iconography of animals was borrowed from Germanic zoomorphic designs and the images of the Jesus and the Evangelists from Pictish grave markers. Of course, of all these other sources are now largely forgotten and it is the manuscripts that define the art.

The Insular manuscript ended with the invasion of Ireland by the Normans in 1169–1170, which ushered in the Romanesque style. Many insular design elements, however, continued to be adapted and used as decorative motifs. A millenium later Insular design, often under the misnomer Celtic design, continues to be popular

The Book of Durrow contains the complete compliment of Insular designs. Each gospel is laid out with a full-page miniature of the evangelist or his symbol:

Portrait of Mark. Folio 84, verso

Then a purely ornamental full-page geometric design – a carpet page, named after its resemblance to a Persian rug:

Carpet page. Folio 85, verso

Then an incipit page where the text begins with an elaborately decorated initial letter. These historiated initials became so large that they were integrated into the rest of the text by several lines of decreasing size – an effect known as diminuendo:

Incipit of Mark. Folio 86, recto

David Lance Goines on the Poster, 20 th C.

I love this one... Can you see the Book of Kells influence at this poster? Niiiiiiiice (here)

 

::from wikipedia res:: Just the text below for the BIO...

David Lance Goines (born May 29, 1945) is an American artist, calligrapher, typographer, printing entrepreneur, and author. He was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, the oldest of eight children. During the 1960s, Goines enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley as a Classics major. While a student in classical literature at the University of California, Berkeley he participated in the Free Speech Movement of late 1964, which led to his expulsion. Though soon re-admitted, he again left the University in 1965, this time to apprentice as a printer in Berkeley. In 1968 he founded Saint Hieronymus Press there. The major output of the press consists of Goines' limited edition poster and calendar art

 

Goines first printed this poster for his friend Tom Luddy and the Pacific Film Archive to advertise a showing of the film Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach in 1973. Long after the movie finished playing, Goines changed the text and the poster became a general publicity piece for the San Francisco-based California Bach Society. It is perhaps his most popular poster, going through no less than three printings.

Like many of his late-1960s Bay-area contemporaries, Goines was influenced by the German Jugendstil movement, especially Lucian Bernhard and Ludwig Hohlwein. Unlike most of the psychedelic designers, however, he pared his designs down to only the most relavent elements: a strong central image, limited use of color, and a straightforward message. Anything more he felt was no longer a poster.

Although Goines graphic style is most often described as Arts and Crafts, he draws on a wide range historical styles including Japanese ukio-e woodblocks, Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession and Art Deco. His Bach poster, for example, is influenced by Celtic stonework and the Book of Kells to characterize the composer as the "fifth evangelist." Link to my previous post about the Book of Kells here

 

What separates Goines from other designers, of course, is that he prints his own work. His posters are all 2-24 solid-color lithographs printed on the same press he learned his trade on in the 1960s. It goes with saying that 4-color reproductions in books or the images presented here hardly do the originals justice.

 

No. 167. Napa Valley Wine Auction, 1996

This poster is still available from the California Bach Society. For around 30 USD you not only get an actual Goines-printed poster but help support the Society.