CHI RHO: THE FRACTALIC LIFE OF THE BOOK OF KELLS

CHI RHO:

THE FRACTALIC LIFE OF THE BOOK OF KELLS

Gaze upon any page in the 9th century illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, and you will be mesmerized and amazed. 

One of the most remarkable of pages is the Chi Rho page, the page that has the letters Chi, Rho and Iota depicted in such a sublime and lyrical manner.

The letters form one of the earliest forms of a christogram, a superimposition of the first three letters—Chi, Rho and Iota (ΧΡI) - of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos). 

What is even more astonishing about the Chi Rho page, is that the letters are not only abstractions, but are at the same time representational. Their size and position, their serifs and flourishes, create a textual understanding of the story they tell. 

There is also a lovely recursion in the letters. The Chi, Rho and Iota are seen not only as separate letters, but withIn the Chi letter itself, the Rho and the Iota can be seen as well.

This self-generating recursion (repetition) is a fractal.

Here is where things become miraculous. Between the letters and the filling of the page is a boundless infinitude of smaller and smaller designs, eventually so small that the eye can no longer discern their form. In this way, they are fractals, like the infinitely morphing ends of snowflakes and clouds, lightning and crystals, blood vessels and neurons. 

Self-regenerating. Fractalic. 

Life.