THE BOOK OF KELLS

THE BOOK OF KELLS is both the best known manuscript in the rich col¬lections of the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where it is visited by hun¬dreds of thousands of visitors every year, and Ireland's greatest cultural treasure. Written on vellum (specially prepared calfskin) and sumptuously decorated and illustrated, the manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin, with introductory material in both Latin and Old Irish. It represents the pinnacle of Celtic Christian art which flourished between the seventh and tenth centuries AD.
The Book of Kells was created by monks of the community founded in 565 by St Colm Cille (St Columba) on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. It dates from about 810, with scholarly opinion divided as to whether it was produced on Iona itself or at the daughter community of Kells, Co. Meath in Ireland, from which it takes its name. The balance of opinion favours Iona but what is certain is that the manuscript spent much of its history at Kells before it was presented to Trinity College Dublin by Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath (in whose diocese Kells lay) in the 1650s.
The sumptuousness of the decoration of the Book of Kells shows that it was cre¬ated for ceremonial use and as an aid to devotion. The manuscript is a great work both of art and of faith and bears witness to the richness of the Celtic Christian culture of Ireland, which did much to keep alive both learning and faith in Dark Age Europe.

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