The night before this morning ended a little later than the last. We stayed up later to watch the animated movie The Secret of Kells, in preparation for our venture today. The movie depicts a the story behind the writing of the Book of Kells, which we would be touring on our visit to the College today. So this late night left myself feeling a tad sluggish this morning, but recovered nicely after a hearty Irish breakfast.
We made our way to the Trinity College and upon starting our tour were greeted by our soon-to-graduate tour guide, Marcus. Trinity College, or as it is formally known: College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was established in 1592 based off of prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, and was created with the purpose of bringing similar prestige to the surrounding state and that the graduating students would be of service as well. It was established at a time when Dublin was a walled city and it was, at the time, on the outside. So it was merely Dublin adjacent. However as the city grew, as did its limits, and eventually the College became immersed within it.
The tour that Marcus gave was excellent. As it so happened (by chance of Judy), our tour guide happened to be a key holder for the on campus chapel, so we had the opportunity of being some of very few tourists to see the chapel. Though the architecture was simpler than most ancient churches, the wood work was fantastic, as complex and ornate as I could expect. We exited and continued to explore the campus. In the adjacent hall, a twin of the chapel, final exams were taking place for the students. We were given the history of all of the buildings, each of which had been standing longer than my own country had been around, and after a witty and well detailed explanation of all of the campus basics, our tour came to an end and Marcus was forced to retreat back to his post at the entrance. We were shown to the queue formed at one of the building, which turned out to be the housing place of the Book of Kells and the Long Room.
The Book of Kells is a manuscript depicting the four gospels of the New Testament. These books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are printed in colorful and beautiful ink on calfskin pages. The text is painstakingly precise, and the illustrations included even more so. Marcus had commented that the monks spent so much time to make the depictions so complex and intricate, taking up so little space yet containing more detail than thought possible, for the purpose that those they would show it to would think that no human could create these and that they must have truly been divine work. The book itself was split up into four manuals, each on display in a dark room, covered, with no flash photography allowed as to maximally preserve the pages from further damage. What I thought was a little curious and funny was that the monks themselves, though putting an immense amount of concentration into their work, still made occasional typos. Since whiteout wasn't a thing back then, and wouldn't do much on calfskin paper anyway, the monks cleverly left little marks and notations in their text indicating that something needed to be corrected or if a page needed to be omitted entirely. Occasionally they simply doodled an illustration over the typo and continued on inscribing. Funny how many mistakes were turned into complex drawings that helped to give the book its appearance.
After viewing the book itself, we continued up to the Long Room. This was part of the Old Library, spanning 65 meters in length, and filled with over 200,000 of Dublin's oldest and rarest books. The books were categorized by their size, largest on bottom - smallest on top, and seemed to stretch on for forever. The entire room smelled of book mold, which was a rather pleasant contrast to the sterile Book of Kells holding room. The bookshelf aisles were lined with busts of famous literary minds, some philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. There was also extensive history information strewn throughout about Brian Boru, the past emperor of Ireland. We appreciated all of the literature and the years of history lining the walls for a good half and hour before making our way down to the gift shop, each purchasing our wares and then departing. At this point we split up for the afternoon to explore Dublin on our own time.
My group split off to go visit one of the churches that we had seen briefly while on the Hop-on hop-off bus the day prior. We made our way to the Christ Church Cathedral, we walked while we waited for a few that chose to take the bus. As we were waiting we admired the architecture as well as the singing that came from behind a door that we were sitting by. As the rest of us arrived we paid our admission and were greeted by the sound of the American Choir that were singing near the rear of the church. The acoustics of the church were no mistake, perfectly bringing out the ability of the performers and carrying their voices throughout the entirety of the building. We all sat and listened to their songs, about 4/5 before they finished up and left. Then we explored around, admiring the incredible craftsmanship put into every corner. In the crypt of the building were some remaining pieces of treasure of the church including large golden plates given to them by the Protestants. It is still daunting that a place that well maintained is still decently older than the country that I think as old.
After the church, we headed back to the hotel, and Marie and I branched off to get some coffee at a local cafe. We opted to go to a nearby Insomnia, a dominant coffee chain here in Ireland, to partake in the normal caffeine fix for Dubliners. She got an espresso con panna and I just got a mocha. We got a spot by the window and proceeded to people-watch and discuss life for the next two hours. We were eventually kicked out when they needed to close and headed back in time to head to the play.
The play, An Ideal Husband, was a work of Oscar Wilde's, an author of note and a native of Dublin. The premise of the play was blackmail kerfuffle between a uprising political figure paragon and a slimy former schoolmate of the wife. The play was excellently executed, with plenty of Wilde's humor and political satire, and beautiful wardrobes and set pieces. What surprised me was that the transitions from scene to scene, moving around of the set pieces, were actually choreographed and the stagehands were dressed to the part, adding an entirely new mini act to the play; a subtlety that is rarely seen (at least by myself) in stage work in America.
We made our way to the Trinity College and upon starting our tour were greeted by our soon-to-graduate tour guide, Marcus. Trinity College, or as it is formally known: College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was established in 1592 based off of prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, and was created with the purpose of bringing similar prestige to the surrounding state and that the graduating students would be of service as well. It was established at a time when Dublin was a walled city and it was, at the time, on the outside. So it was merely Dublin adjacent. However as the city grew, as did its limits, and eventually the College became immersed within it.
The tour that Marcus gave was excellent. As it so happened (by chance of Judy), our tour guide happened to be a key holder for the on campus chapel, so we had the opportunity of being some of very few tourists to see the chapel. Though the architecture was simpler than most ancient churches, the wood work was fantastic, as complex and ornate as I could expect. We exited and continued to explore the campus. In the adjacent hall, a twin of the chapel, final exams were taking place for the students. We were given the history of all of the buildings, each of which had been standing longer than my own country had been around, and after a witty and well detailed explanation of all of the campus basics, our tour came to an end and Marcus was forced to retreat back to his post at the entrance. We were shown to the queue formed at one of the building, which turned out to be the housing place of the Book of Kells and the Long Room.
The Book of Kells is a manuscript depicting the four gospels of the New Testament. These books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are printed in colorful and beautiful ink on calfskin pages. The text is painstakingly precise, and the illustrations included even more so. Marcus had commented that the monks spent so much time to make the depictions so complex and intricate, taking up so little space yet containing more detail than thought possible, for the purpose that those they would show it to would think that no human could create these and that they must have truly been divine work. The book itself was split up into four manuals, each on display in a dark room, covered, with no flash photography allowed as to maximally preserve the pages from further damage. What I thought was a little curious and funny was that the monks themselves, though putting an immense amount of concentration into their work, still made occasional typos. Since whiteout wasn't a thing back then, and wouldn't do much on calfskin paper anyway, the monks cleverly left little marks and notations in their text indicating that something needed to be corrected or if a page needed to be omitted entirely. Occasionally they simply doodled an illustration over the typo and continued on inscribing. Funny how many mistakes were turned into complex drawings that helped to give the book its appearance.
After viewing the book itself, we continued up to the Long Room. This was part of the Old Library, spanning 65 meters in length, and filled with over 200,000 of Dublin's oldest and rarest books. The books were categorized by their size, largest on bottom - smallest on top, and seemed to stretch on for forever. The entire room smelled of book mold, which was a rather pleasant contrast to the sterile Book of Kells holding room. The bookshelf aisles were lined with busts of famous literary minds, some philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. There was also extensive history information strewn throughout about Brian Boru, the past emperor of Ireland. We appreciated all of the literature and the years of history lining the walls for a good half and hour before making our way down to the gift shop, each purchasing our wares and then departing. At this point we split up for the afternoon to explore Dublin on our own time.
My group split off to go visit one of the churches that we had seen briefly while on the Hop-on hop-off bus the day prior. We made our way to the Christ Church Cathedral, we walked while we waited for a few that chose to take the bus. As we were waiting we admired the architecture as well as the singing that came from behind a door that we were sitting by. As the rest of us arrived we paid our admission and were greeted by the sound of the American Choir that were singing near the rear of the church. The acoustics of the church were no mistake, perfectly bringing out the ability of the performers and carrying their voices throughout the entirety of the building. We all sat and listened to their songs, about 4/5 before they finished up and left. Then we explored around, admiring the incredible craftsmanship put into every corner. In the crypt of the building were some remaining pieces of treasure of the church including large golden plates given to them by the Protestants. It is still daunting that a place that well maintained is still decently older than the country that I think as old.
After the church, we headed back to the hotel, and Marie and I branched off to get some coffee at a local cafe. We opted to go to a nearby Insomnia, a dominant coffee chain here in Ireland, to partake in the normal caffeine fix for Dubliners. She got an espresso con panna and I just got a mocha. We got a spot by the window and proceeded to people-watch and discuss life for the next two hours. We were eventually kicked out when they needed to close and headed back in time to head to the play.
The play, An Ideal Husband, was a work of Oscar Wilde's, an author of note and a native of Dublin. The premise of the play was blackmail kerfuffle between a uprising political figure paragon and a slimy former schoolmate of the wife. The play was excellently executed, with plenty of Wilde's humor and political satire, and beautiful wardrobes and set pieces. What surprised me was that the transitions from scene to scene, moving around of the set pieces, were actually choreographed and the stagehands were dressed to the part, adding an entirely new mini act to the play; a subtlety that is rarely seen (at least by myself) in stage work in America.
In all, a very eventful day with plenty of awe at the beauty of Ireland and its history. Tomorrow will likely keep the same level of learning and beauty, and