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KEATING, GEOFFREY

SeeForus Feasa ar Éirinn

KELLS, BOOK OF
The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58)
contains the four Gospels in a Latin text based on the
Vulgate text that St. Jerome completed in 384 A.D.,
intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin
translation. The Gospels are prefaced by etymologies,
mainly of Hebrew names (only one page survives);
canon tables, or concordances of gospel passages com-
mon to two or more of the evangelists, compiled in
the fourth century by Eusebius of Cesarea; summaries
of the gospel narratives (Breves causae); and prefaces
characterizing the evangelists (Argumenta). The first

gospel text (Matthew) begins on folio 29r. The Book

is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and

expert version of the script known as insular majus-

cule. It contains 340 folios, numbered 1–339. The

number 36 was used twice, while 335 and 336 were

bound and numbered in reverse order when they were

foliated by J. H. Todd, Trinity College Librarian from

1852–1869. The folios now measure approximately

330 by 255 mm, but they were severely trimmed, and

their edges gilded, in the course of rebinding in the

nineteenth century. Originally a single volume, the

Book of Kells has been bound for conservation reasons

in four volumes since 1953.

The manuscript’s celebrity derives largely from the

impact of its lavish decoration. There are full pages of

decoration for the canon tables (folios 1v–6r); symbols

of the evangelists Matthew (the Man), Mark (the Lion),

Luke (the Calf), and John (the Eagle) (folios 1r, 27v,

129v, 187v, 290v); the opening words of the Gospels:

Liber generationis(Mt. 1.1) on folio 29r; Initium euan-

gelii iesu christi(Mk. 1.1) on 130r; Quoniam(Lk. 1.1)

on 188r; and In principio erat uerbum {et} uerbum

(Jn. 1.1) on 292r; the Virgin and Child surrounded by

angels (7v); a portrait of Christ (32v); complex narra-

tive scenes, the earliest to survive in gospel manu-

scripts, representing the arrest of Christ (114r) and his

temptation by the Devil (202v); a “carpet” page, made

up wholly of decoration, depicting a double-armed

cross with eight roundels embedded in a frame (33r).

The Chi Rho page (34r), introducing Matthew's

account of the nativity, is the single most famous page

in medieval art. Other passages are emphasized through

decoration on folios 8r (the opening of the Brevescau-

saeof Matthew); 13r (the beginning of the Breves

causaeof Mark); 12r, 15v, 16v, and 18r (the opening

words of the Argumenta of the four Gospels); 19v (the

wordsZACHA[riae] at the opening of the Breves cau-

saeof Luke; 114v (the opening of Mt. 26.31, Tunc dicit

Folio 34r from the Book of Kells. The Board of Trinity College
Dublin.