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The Book of Kells

Inscribed 2011

What is it

The Book of Kells, dating from around AD 800, contains a copy in Latin of the four Gospels of the life of Jesus Christ, along with ancillary texts. Its fame rests principally on the extent and artistry of its lavish decoration.

Why was it inscribed

The Book of Kells is widely regarded as Ireland’s greatest historical treasure, and is one of the most spectacular examples of medieval Christian art in the world.

Where is it

Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland

Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century and spread rapidly. Gospel books and psalters were produced in large numbers from this time. The Book of Kells is the greatest example of a decorated manuscript Gospel book from the 7th to the 9th centuries, the period known as the ‘Golden Age’ of Irish art.


A page from the Gospel of Matthew, showing the wealth of decoration used to enliven a page of text.

The Book of Kells is widely believed to date from around AD 800. The principal foundation of the great Irish missionary and scribe St Colum Cille (died 597) was on the small island of Iona, off the west coast of what is now Scotland. Following the sack of the island by Vikings in the year 806, and the killing of sixty-eight of the community, the building of a new and less vulnerable house was begun the next year at Kells in county Meath, about 60 km north-west of Dublin, and completed in 814. It was traditionally believed that the Book of Kells was the work of St Colum Cille himself, a tradition which persisted well into the 19th century. There has been considerable academic debate on whether it was executed in its entirety at Iona or at Kells, or whether it was begun at Iona and completed at Kells; and so whether it was produced before or after 806 or whether, indeed, it was written in Northumbria or even Pictland.

Its lavish and complex decoration differentiates the Book of Kells from other manuscripts of the period. This text is decorated and at the same time elucidated with images of great iconographic subtlety. Important words and phrases are emphasized and the text is enlivened by an endlessly inventive range of decorated initials and interlinear drawings. The greatly decorated pages, upon which the book’s celebrity mainly rests, comprise symbols and portraits of the evangelists, introducing the Gospels; portraits of Christ and the Virgin and Child; illustrations of the temptation and the arrest of Christ; and decorations based on initial letters and Christian symbols. No other Gospel manuscript of the period was planned or executed with such an elaborate decorative scheme. Little is known for certain about the circumstances of production of the Book of Kells and we do not know the names of its scribes or artists.

The Book of Kells is a large manuscript now containing 340 folios (680 pages), measuring in the region of 330 x 255 mm. Originally, the leaves probably numbered around 370: there have been losses to the beginning and end of the manuscript. Since 1956 it has been housed, for reasons of conservation, in four separately bound volumes, one for each of the Gospels. It is written on calfskin vellum, mostly using iron gall ink, with carbon black, purple, red and yellow inks used on a few pages. The script is best described as insular majuscule. Decoration has been applied in mineral and organic pigments, with the basic palette including red, blue, yellow, green, purple/pink and white, frequently layered or mixed.


A portrait of Christ from the Book of Kells. A cross is placed above Christ’s head and he is flanked by angels and by two peacocks standing behind two chalices.


A page from St Matthew’s Gospel in the Book of Kells: Tunc crucifixerant Xpi cum eo duos latrones (Then were crucified with him two thieves).

For many in Ireland, the Book of Kells is as a reminder both of the Christian faith and of high artistic achievement at an early historical date. In a sense, it has also transcended its primary function as a Christian artefact and has become a symbol of Irish culture worldwide.


An image of St John, shown holding the symbols of a scribe.


The Chi-Rho page, so named because the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek were chi and rho, at the start of Matthew’s account of the birth of Christ (Christi autem generatio).

Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day

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