Book Of Kells

One of the earliest illuminated manuscripts of Europe, a masterpiece of the ornate Hiberno-Saxon style. It was probably begun in the late 8th century at the Irish monastery on the Scottish island of Iona and that after a Viking raid the book was taken to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, where it may have been completed in the early 9th century. The monastery of Kells was founded by the monks of Iona when they fled the Vikings in 806. Its contents include gospels, prefaces, summaries, and concordances, as well as legal documents relating to the abbey. A facsimile of the manuscript was published in 1974.

One of the earliest illumin ated manuscripts of Europe, produced either at Kells (the Columban monastery founded by the monks of Iona when they fled from the Vikings in 806) or at Iona itself. Its appearance bears a strong resemblance to Irish manuscripts and metalwork of the early part of the 8th century, with vibrant complex designs of Celtic spirals and scrolls intermixed with Germanic interlace. The script is an Irish minuscule combining elements of Latin, and is written on vellum. The contents of the work include gospels, prefaces, summaries and concordances, with a large portion of 11th-century legal documents relating to the abbey of Kells. The decorative style of the Book of Kells owes something to the Book of Durrow and other earlier Irish manuscripts, but the tightly packed repetitious motifs are a new advance, as are the interlinear drawings. The dazzling colours and profuse ornament range across the carpet pages and large decorated monograms, while the many portrait pages display very stylized versions of Christ, the Evangelists and the Virgin and Child, all with elaborate hairstyles and stiffly folded garments. Much of the decorative inspiration for this work could have come from the metalwork produced at the beginning of the 8th century.