Ancient Manuscripts - EDLD 5366

The first thing I noticed about all of the books I looked at were the elaborate drawings which are found on almost every page. The vivid colors and intricate designs are amazing to look at. I can not imagine the time that it took to draw these. The principles of design in these books are seen in the proximity of the illustrations to the words which probably means that these drawings had specific meanings. In the Book of Kells I noticed that there was a repetition of colors throughout many of the illustrations. The plates at the beginning of the book use the same colors in each design. There was also repetition on the pages that had text in that the first letter of every line was an elaborate letter and they were all similar on the page. The alignment of the pages depends on what type of page it is. On the graphic pages, the alignments are different. Some are centered, some are left or right justified. The contrast seen in this book is not like what I think of as contrast normally. The contrast is found especially in the colors on the plates that are illustrating letters and compound letters.