The Book of Kells (Latin: Codex Cenannensis; Irish: Leabhar Cheanannais; Library of Trinity College Dublin, MS A. I. [58], sometimes called the Book of Columba) is a decorated manuscript and Celtic Gospel book written in Latin. It includes the four Gospels from the New Testament, along with other texts and tables. It was made in a Columban monastery in Scotland and may have received help from other Columban monasteries in Scotland and Ireland. It is believed to have been created around 800 AD. The Gospels are mostly based on the Vulgate, a well-known version of the Bible, but also include some parts from older Bible texts called the Vetus Latina. It is considered a top example of Western calligraphy and the best example of Insular art. The manuscript is named after the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, where it lived for many years.
The artwork and decorations in the Book of Kells are more detailed and elaborate than those in other similar books. The designs mix traditional Christian images with the complex, swirling patterns typical of Insular art. Pages include pictures of people, animals, mythical creatures, Celtic knots, and colorful patterns. Many small details have meanings connected to Christianity, which highlight the main images.
Today, the manuscript has 340 leaves or folios, which make 680 pages in total. Since 1953, it has been divided into four volumes, each measuring 330 by 250 mm (13 by 9.8 inches). The leaves are made of high-quality calf vellum, a type of animal skin. The pages are covered with very detailed decorations, including ten full-page illustrations and text pages filled with decorated letters and small pictures. The script used for writing appears to be the work of at least three different scribes. The letters are written in iron gall ink, and the colors come from a wide range of materials, some of which were brought from faraway places.
The manuscript is displayed at Trinity College Library in Dublin. Visitors can see two pages at a time, and the pages are changed every 12 weeks. An online version of the entire manuscript is also available for viewing.
History
The Book of Kells is one of the most famous and beautifully made books in a group of manuscripts created in the Insular style. These manuscripts were made between the late 6th century and early 9th century in monasteries in Britain, Ireland, and some monasteries on the European mainland with Hiberno-Scottish or Anglo-Saxon influences. Examples of these manuscripts include the Cathach of St. Columba, the Ambrosiana Orosius, a fragmentary Gospel in the Durham Dean and Chapter Library (all from the early 7th century), and the Book of Durrow (from the second half of the 7th century). Other manuscripts from the early 8th century include the Durham Gospels, the Echternach Gospels, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Lichfield Gospels. The St. Gall Gospel Book is from the late 8th century, and the Book of Armagh is from the early 9th century.
Scholars group these manuscripts together because they share similar art styles, writing, and traditions. The detailed designs in the Book of Kells suggest it was made later than most of these books, possibly in the late 8th or early 9th century. The Book of Kells follows many artistic traditions found in earlier manuscripts. For example, the decorated letters on the first pages of the Gospels in the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells both have intricate knotwork patterns inside large, decorated letters.
The Abbey of Kells, located in County Meath, Ireland, was founded or refounded from Iona Abbey. Construction of the abbey began in 807 and was completed in 814. The date and place where the Book of Kells was made have been debated by scholars. Some once believed it was created during the time of St. Columba, but this idea is no longer accepted. Evidence suggests it was made around 800, long after St. Columba died in 597. The 9th-century dating matches Viking attacks on Lindisfarne and Iona, which started around 793–794. These attacks forced monks to flee to Ireland and Scotland. Some scholars think the book was made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St. Columba’s death. Others believe it was created to mark the moving of St. Columba’s remains into a shrine, which likely happened by the 750s.
There are four main theories about where and when the Book of Kells was made. One theory suggests the book was started at Iona and finished in Kells. Another says it was made entirely at Iona. A third theory claims it was made entirely in Kells. A fourth theory proposes it was made in a Pictish monastery like Dunkeld, but there is no evidence to support this. Most scholars agree the first theory is the most likely. Regardless of where it was made, the book was created by monks connected to Iona.
The creation of the Book of Kells was influenced by the preservation of the Latin language after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of monastic life, where monks copied texts. A man named Cassiodorus promoted these practices in the 6th century by founding a monastery called Vivarium and writing a book called Institutiones, which recommended religious and secular texts for study. Vivarium had a scriptorium, a place where books were copied. Later, during the Carolingian period, monks began using vellum, a stronger material than papyrus, to copy texts. These traditions spread across Europe and reached Britain and Ireland.
Kells Abbey was attacked by Vikings in the early 9th century, but how the Book of Kells survived is unknown. The first historical mention of the book appears in a 1007 entry in the Annals of Ulster, which describes it being stolen from Kells. The book was later found under a sod, but its golden cover was missing. The Annals refer to the book as "the great Gospel of Columkille," suggesting it was believed to have been made on Iona.
By the 12th century, the Book of Kells was in Kells, as land charters from the Abbey of Kells were copied onto its pages. The Abbey of Kells was dissolved during 12th-century church reforms, and its church became a parish church where the book remained.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales wrote about seeing a Gospel Book in Kildare that some believe was the Book of Kells. He described its intricate designs and craftsmanship, comparing it to the work of an angel. However, it is unclear if he saw the Book of Kells or another book.
The Book of Kells stayed in Kells until 1654, when it was sent to Dublin for safety during the English Civil War. In 1661, Henry Jones, a bishop, gave the book to Trinity College in Dublin, where it has remained, except for temporary displays. The book became famous worldwide in the 19th century, partly because of its connection to St. Columba.
Description
The Book of Kells includes the four Gospels from the Christian scriptures written in black, red, purple, and yellow ink using a script called insular majuscule. Before the Gospels, the book has prefaces, summaries, and lists of Gospel passages. Today, the book has 340 vellum leaves, or folios, making 680 pages. Most folios are numbered on the bottom left side of the front page. One folio, number 36, was counted twice by mistake. Because of this, the book’s pages are numbered like this: folio 1r — 36v, 36r — 36v (the double-counted folio), and 37r — 339v. Most folios are part of larger sheets called bifolia, which are folded in half to make two folios. These bifolia are nested inside each other and sewn together to form groups called quires. Sometimes, a folio is a single sheet inserted into a quire. The existing folios are grouped into 38 quires. Each quire has between four and twelve folios (two to six bifolia), and the folios are often, but not always, bound in groups of ten. Some folios are single sheets, especially the decorated pages. Lines for writing were drawn on the folios after the bifolia were folded. Prick marks and guidelines are still visible on some pages. The vellum is high quality, but the thickness of the folios varies, with some being nearly as thick as leather and others so thin they are almost see-through. Up to twelve people may have worked on the book, including four scribes and three painters.
The book’s current size is 330 by 250 mm. Originally, the folios were not all the same size, but they were cut to the current size during a rebinding in the 19th century. The text area is about 250 by 170 mm. Each text page has 16 to 18 lines of writing. The manuscript is in excellent condition for its age, though some artwork has been damaged by rubbing. The book was likely created in a major scriptorium over several years, but it was never finished, as some planned decorations are only outlines. It is believed the original manuscript had about 370 folios, based on missing text and illustrations. About 30 folios were likely lost when the book was stolen in the early 11th century. In 1621, James Ussher, an Anglican clergyman, counted 344 folios. Today, four or five more folios are missing after folios 177, 239, and 330. The missing bifolium 335-36 was found and restored in 1741.
The existing book includes introductory material, the full texts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the Gospel of John up to John 17:13. Other introductory material includes two incomplete lists of Hebrew names from the Gospels, Breves causae (Gospel summaries), Argumenta (short biographies of the Evangelists), and Eusebian canon tables. It is likely that the original manuscript also included the letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus I, explaining his translation of the Bible, and possibly the letter of Eusebius to Carpianus, explaining the use of canon tables. Only the Lindisfarne Gospels contain this letter.
Two fragments of the Hebrew name lists remain: one on the first surviving folio and one on folio 26, which is now placed at the end of the introductory material for John. The first fragment includes the end of the list for Matthew, which would require two more folios to complete. The second fragment on folio 26 includes about a fourth of the list for Luke, which would need three more folios. The structure of the quire containing folio 26 suggests it is unlikely three folios are missing between folios 26 and 27, so folio 26 is probably not in its original location. No traces of the lists for Mark and John remain.
The first fragment is followed by the Eusebian canon tables, which were created to help readers find where events in the life of Christ appear in each Gospel. These tables were included in many medieval copies of the Vulgate. However, the tables in the Book of Kells are unusable. First, the scribe condensed the tables, making them confusing. Second, the chapter numbers needed to locate the sections were never added to the margins of the text. The reason for this omission is unclear, but the scribe may have planned to add the numbers later or intentionally left them out to preserve the appearance of the pages.
The Breves causae and Argumenta are part of a tradition from before the Vulgate. The Breves causae are summaries of the Old Latin translations of the Gospels, divided into numbered chapters. These numbers are not used on the text pages of the Gospels. It is unlikely these numbers would have been used even if the manuscript had been completed, as they corresponded to old Latin translations and would have been hard to match with the Vulgate. The Argumenta are collections of stories about the Evangelists. The Breves causae and Argumenta are arranged in an unusual order: first, the Breves and Argumenta for Matthew, then for Mark, followed by the Argumenta for Luke and John, and finally their Breves causae. This order is similar to the Book of Durrow, though in that manuscript, the misplaced sections appear at the end. In other insular manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, each Gospel has its own introductory material placed right before its text. Scholar T. K. Abbott noted that the scribes of the Book of Kells likely used the Book of Durrow or a shared model as a guide.
The Book of Kells contains the text of the four Gospels based on the Vulgate. However, it does not include a perfect copy of the Vulgate. There are many differences, where Old Latin translations are used instead of Jerome’s text. While such variations are common in other insular Gospels, there is no clear pattern of differences among them. Evidence suggests that scribes often relied on memory rather than copying from a specific exemplar.
The manuscript is mostly written in insular majuscule, with some minuscule letters (usually e or s). The text is usually written in one long line across the page. Françoise Henry identified at least three scribes in the manuscript, whom she named Hand A, Hand B, and Hand C. Hand A wrote on folios 1 through 19v, folios 276 through 289, and folios 307 through the end of the manuscript. Hand A typically wrote 18 or 19 lines per page using brown gall ink common in the West. Hand B wrote on folios 19r through 26 and folios 124 through 128. Hand B’s writing style differs slightly from Hand A.
Purpose
The book was created for religious use rather than for teaching. A large, beautifully decorated Gospel book like this would have been kept on the church's high altar and only taken down during Mass to read the Gospel. The person reading likely recited the text from memory instead of reading it aloud. It is important that the Chronicles of Ulster mention the book was stolen from the sacristy, where items used during Mass were stored, not from the library. The book's design shows it was made to look impressive rather than to be practical. There are many errors in the text that were not fixed. Some lines were written in empty spaces above them. Chapter headings needed to use the canon tables were not added to the page margins. Overall, the appearance of the page was kept intact, with beauty valued more than usefulness.
Reproductions
In the 19th century, artist Helen Campbell D'Olier created some of the first accurate copies of pages and elements from the Book of Kells. She used vellum and recreated the colors found in the original manuscript. Photographs of her drawings were included in Sullivan's study of the Book of Kells, which was first published in 1913.
In 1951, the Swiss publisher Urs Graf Verlag Bern produced the first exact copy of the Book of Kells. Most pages were printed in black-and-white photographs, but the edition also included forty-eight color images of all the full-page decorations. In 1974, Thames and Hudson, under a license from Trinity College Dublin, created a partial exact copy. This version included a detailed study by Françoise Henry, all the full-page illustrations, and a selection of decorated text pages. The reproductions were in full color, with photography by John Kennedy of Green Studio in Dublin.
In 1979, the Swiss publisher Faksimile-Verlag Luzern asked for permission to create a full-color exact copy of the Book of Kells. Permission was first refused because officials at Trinity College worried the original book might be damaged. By 1986, Faksimile-Verlag developed a method using gentle suction to flatten pages for photography without touching them. This allowed them to produce a new exact copy. After each page was photographed, a single-page copy was made to compare colors with the original and make adjustments if needed. The completed work was published in 1990 as a two-volume set, including the full exact copy and scholarly commentary. One copy is kept by the Anglican Church in Kells, near the original monastery.
The Celtworld heritage center, which opened in Tramore, County Waterford in 1992, included a replica of the Book of Kells. It cost about £18,000 to make. In 1994, Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin, created an introductory booklet with 110 color images of the Book of Kells. His 2012 book included more than 80 pages from the manuscript, printed full-size and in full color.
In 2006, Trinity College created a digital version of the manuscript and sold it on DVD-ROM. Users could flip through pages, view two pages at once, or zoom in on single pages. Commentary tracks provided information about specific pages and the book's history. Users could also search for decorated elements like animals, letters, and angels. The DVD cost about €30 but is no longer available. The Faksimile-Verlag images are now online through Trinity College's Digital Collections portal.
Significance
Christopher de Hamel writes that the Ireland where the Book of Kells was created was not an uncivilized or undeveloped place but an advanced society capable of reading Latin, even though it was never ruled by the Romans. This society had knowledge of texts and artistic designs similar to those found in the Coptic and Greek churches, such as carpet pages and Canon tables. While the Book of Kells is uniquely Irish, it also reflects Mediterranean influences, as some of the pigments used, like orpiment—a yellow color made from arsenic sulfide—were imported from Italy, where this material is found in volcanoes. There were clearly trade and communication routes that we do not fully understand.
In 2011, UNESCO included the Book of Kells in its Memory of the World International Register, recognizing it as an important historical document worldwide.
In popular culture
The 2009 animated film The Secret of Kells is a made-up story about an old monk named Aidan and his young helper, Brendan, who try to create the Book of Kells while facing Viking attacks. The movie was directed by Tomm Moore and was considered for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2009.