Book of Kells
Home Up Book of Kells Long Room An Uaithne

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Kyrie - by Anuna   

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copy of kell2bmp.GIF (368278 bytes)The Book of Kells is a large/format manuscript codex of the Latin text of the gospels. 

It is the most lavishly decorated of a series of gospel manuscripts produced between the seventh and ninth centuries, when Irish art and culture flourished at home and in centers of Irish missionary activity overseas.

It contains the four gospels, preceded by prefaces, summaries, and canon tables or concordances of gospel passages. It is written on vellum and contains a Latin text of the Gospels
in insular majuscule script accompanied by magnificent and intricate whole pages of decoration with smaller painted decorations appearing throughout the text. The manuscript was given to Trinity College in the 17th century and since 1953 has been bound in four volumes. It has been on display in the Old Library since the 19th century. Two volumes can normally be seen, one opened to display a major decorated page, and one to show two pages of script..

Click on the buttons to the left for more pages in the book, you can also click on the images shown here to download a high res. version of it.