Book+of+Kells

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**//__The Book of Kells __//** One of the most lavishly decorated books ever made, the Book of Kells truly cannot be remade in all its splendor. A true masterpiece made out of 680 individual pages of calfskin, or vellum. The Book of Kells is based on the four Gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John)(New Advent line1) and has so much ornamentation that it has been called by some scholars the most beautiful book ever made. =Brief Summary of the Book of Kells =

This illuminated manuscript had been made in mostly the same fashion as just about all of them had been back in those days. There is also a few ways that make it very much different from all the others. The place where the Book of Kells had most likely been put together is in an eighth century monastery on the Isle of Iona, Scotland(New Advent line2). Scholars studying the book have found at least four different styles of handwriting. So that means the Book of Kells has to be the work of at least four different illuminators working together on the masterpiece. One of the main things that sets the Book of Kells apart from most of the other illuminated manuscripts would be the fact that it had been made with at least ten different colors. Some of them so rare and expensive they had to be imported to the continent. One of the strangest yet amazing things about the it is that there isn't a trace of gold or silver in the book.

=History of the Book of Kells =

Despite all the extraordinary things in this book and all the time spent working on it, it has had a long and arduous history.At the time the monks were putting together the Book of Kells there had been Viking raids going on around Scotland. So during the ninth century the Book of Kells had been moved to Kells, Ireland in hope that there it would be much safer. That it would not be found by the horrible Viking raiders. This plan of moving the precious book kept it out of harm’s way for quite some time. That time spanned a duration of around 200 years. As with most things though, it just did not last. During the eleventh century the Book of Kells was stolen. The thief, whoever they may have been, that took the precious book ripped off the cover and threw the rest of the book into a ditch. It is believed the cover had been inlaid with gold and precious jewels so that’s why it was taken and the rest of the book left behind. To this day the cover of the book still has never been found. Finally recovered, the Book of Kells remained in Kells until Cromwell’s Chief of Intelligence at the time, Henry Jones, gave the precious book to the Trinity College in Dublin for safekeeping. Although the book has been recovered it happened too late to save it completely. The damage had already been done. The book suffered water damage and has wormholes in it from its time spent in the ditch outside of Kells.

=Whats so special about this book?=

Some people might wonder whats so good about a book. Especially after that book has been stuck in a ditch for a few hundred years. The thing that sets the Book of Kells apart from the rest of the competition is the stunningly beautiful artwork inside it. It's so detailed that everyone who has made an attempt to copy the pictures inside the precious book has given the task up as hopeless. Some scholars say that it could not have been made by mortal hand. That might be because some of the pictures in the book are so detailed that the assistance of a very powerful magnifying glass is needed to see all the details. On the Chi-Rho page 158 interlacements were counted in a quarter square inch. The miniscule white interlacements even had small black borders separating each individual one. Even more so, out of the 680 individual pages in the book only two pages lacked artistic ornamentation. That means that the other 678 pages in the book have been decorated and colored. The colors used the most in the book included some pretty uncommon ones for the time. Those colors included sienna, purple, lilac, red, pink, green, and yellow. This breathtaking piece of art probably took many years of hard work and quite a few cramped hands to complete. Thats another reason that makes it so great.

=Closing Note =

Some scholars that have studied this book and other illuminated manuscripts say that the Book of Kells is the most beautiful book ever made. Some of them even say that it could have only been made by angels because the artwork in the book is so precise and intricate. Then there have others that say it could have possibly been a blueprint for other medieval bestiaries. Some of these including the unicorn and the ant-lion. With so much color, and so much detail, it only comes to prove that the Book of Kells truly has to be a one-of-a-kind book.

**//__As Giraldus Cambrensis said of the 1200-year-old Book of Kells: "You might believe it was the [|work] of an angel." __//**

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