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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The Book of Kells










The Book of Kells was completed in about 800 AD.

The vellum (calfskin) manuscript contains transcriptions of the four Gospels, lavishly illustrated and ornamented. It is the most elaborate manuscript of its kind to survive from the early Middle Ages.

The scribes and artists who created the Book were Columban monks who lived in a monastery on the remote island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. The monastery was founded late in the sixth century by an Irish monk, St Columba.

The Book of Kells contains 680 pages (or 340 folios). Just two of the pages are without ornament, while about thirty folios, including some major decorated pages, have been lost.

The Book is in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin where it is permanently on display.

References:

The Book of Kells
http://www.bookofkells.ie

Paul DuBois
http://www.snake.net/people/paul

Austin College Acquires a Facsimile of Ireland's Book of Kells
by Jerry B. Lincecum
http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/english/jlincecum/jbl.bk.kells.page.html

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