Bee in my Bonnet

Today we joined our tour group for a tour of Trinity College which also happens to have a world famous and extraordinary library which in turn houses The Book of Kells.

The library looks like it is right out of Harry Potter. It is referred to as the Long Room.

You are looking at two stories of row upon row of ancient books. The room houses over 200,000 of the oldest books. It smells just like you would expect an old room of books to smell, musty and old, and wonderful.

The upper story has a secret doorway to get to the columns of books. See if you can spot it in this picture.

Notice how the column with alphabetical lettering has no letter ‘j’. No they didn’t forget to put it there. It’s because there is no letter ‘j’ in Latin.

The showcase of the library is The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript written in Latin and illustrated on vellum around 800AD by monks. The four books record the four gospels. The painstaking and amazing process of making the book is elaborately shown in presentation panels before entering the room housing the display case for The Book of Kells.

Did you figure out what this Poem is referencing? It refers to the process of making vellum which is then used as the ‘paper’ for writing and illustration.

For an actual look at the Book of Kells you can go online to Trinity College website. No pictures are allowed by the public of the actual books or pages.

We closed our last day in Dublin with a quick bite at a pub near Trinity College and Grafton Street with classic Fish and Chips. If you want ketchup for your chips (French fries) you’ll have to ask for a sachet. The ketchup, tartar sauce, vinegar, comes in little tubes called sachets. We would call them packets.