The Book of Kells (sometimes called the Book of Columba) may have been created to mark the 200th anniversary of the saint’s death. It is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament.
It is a masterpiece of Celtic art, with its complex decoration of human figures, animals and mythical beasts, intricate knotwork and interlaced patterns. Its ochres and pigments came from the Mediterranean, and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan; the colours were bound by egg whites and decorated the folios of calf vellum.
The work may have been completely or partially created by scribes at Iona. Iona had amassed one of the greatest libraries in Western Europe but was largely abandoned by c AD 800 after a series of Viking raids. The Iona monks sailed west, taking the book to Kells, in County Meath in Ireland, for safekeeping. It became a treasure of the new Columban monastery founded in Kells in AD 807.
Today the Book of Kells is on permanent display in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
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