Why is the Book of Kells important?
Anne-Marie Diffley
9 min read • 27 August 2024
The life of a monk, and the functioning of medieval monasteries, revolved around the production and reading of sacred texts. Many monks would have had their own small manuscript volume for personal use (called a ‘pocket Gospel’) while the great wealthy monasteries would have had larger format, beautifully-illustrated Gospels, such as the Book of Kells.
Many thousands of these manuscripts will have been in existence in the first millennium and a half of Christian history but only a tiny fraction of them survive. Some experts suggest that the manuscripts which remain today represent perhaps as little a ten percent of those originally produced.
A startling example from Ireland is the lost book of Kildare. In 1185 historian Gerald of Wales, visiting Ireland, described seeing in Kildare an illustrated manuscript as extraordinary as the Book of Kells and so beautiful that it seemed to be ‘the work, not of men, but of angels.’ No trace of this magnificent codex has survived the centuries.
Thus, the survival of the Book of Kells into modern times was very much against the odds. It could have disappeared at numerous points throughout its long history.
This blog delves into the pivotal chapters of the Book of Kells’ history, tracing its origins in Iona over 1,200 years ago to its present home in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin.
Content:
- 800CE Creation of the Book of Kells
- 806CE Journey from Iona to Kells
- The Book of Kells is stolen
- 1660s Journey to Trinity College Dublin
- Video: embark on a journey with the Book of Kells
800CE Creation of the Book of Kells
The island of Iona, in modern-day Scotland, was part of the Irish kingdom of Dal Riada and home to the monastery, founded by St Colum Cille (Columba), where it is thought that the Book of Kells was written around the year 800.
Vikings targeted monasteries to loot because they were likely to have portable valuables such as crucifixes or chalices of precious metals. As an island, Iona was vulnerable to these marauders. As one of the monastery’s principal treasures, the Book of Kells will have either been bound in, or stored in, a beautifully wrought binding or shrine. During any one of the Viking attacks, if the manuscript had been discovered, it would have been stolen or destroyed.
806CE Journey from Iona to Kells
After a particularly brutal attack in 806CE, during which nearly 70 monks were killed, the remaining monks set off in their boats from Iona to bring the important relics of Colum Cille to safety in Ireland. It is not known if the manuscript was among this consignment. It may have been transported to Ireland in 878 when the annals record that ‘the shrine and precious objects of Colum Cille’ were brought from Iona ‘to escape the ‘Norsemen’.
Whatever the date, it certainly made the trip across the sea, in an open boat. Other relics of St Colum Cille and St Patrick were lost overboard in just such a journey between Iona and Scotland in 1034CE. In trying to protect the Gospel, the monks could have condemned it to a watery end.
It is also entirely possible that the manuscript was among the relics of Colum Cille which were sent back to Iona having been in Ireland for years, thereby increasing the chances of it being lost at sea.
The Book of Kells is stolen
The Book of Kells could have disappeared after it got to Ireland. It is believed to have been in the town of Kells from the 9th century where it would have been very carefully minded as a sacred text and also as a relic of St Colum Cille.
In fact, the manuscript was long referred to as the Great Gospel Book of Colum Cille. However, the abbey at Kells was not immune from the Vikings and was attacked several times; it is unknown how the manuscript came through unscathed.
Then its luck ran out – almost. The medieval Annals of Ulster record that it was stolen in the 11th century, 1007CE to be precise, describing it as ‘the most precious object in the western world’. It would not have been stolen for its own significance but on account of the gold shrine it may have been in or the jeweled binding that may have had.
It was found after over two months under a ‘sod’. The pages which are missing from the beginning and the end possibly went missing at this time. We can imagine them being carelessly destroyed as the binding was ripped off, before the remainder of the enormous manuscript was hastily hidden in the ground. It might never have been found.
1660s Journey to Trinity College Dublin
The Book of Kells was protected both by the monks in Kells, and later through the veneration of the local Christian community by whom it was considered miraculous, for seven centuries. But it became vulnerable to loss or damage during the mid-17th century wars in Ireland. This period was the most violent in the history of Ireland, a time when up to one third of the population was destroyed by the English.
The town of Kells suffered particularly badly. The abbey church had been dissolved in the 12th century and had become a parish church in which the Book of Kells was still stored. This church was destroyed in the 1641 Rebellion and in the 1650s Oliver Cromwell quartered soldiers in the building. A decade spent in a destroyed church in a war zone could so easily have marked the end of the road for this great treasure.
It is likely that the governor of the town, The Earl of Cavan, sent the Book of Kells to Dublin Castle for safekeeping, probably in 1653. Sometime in the 1660s the Anglican Bishop of Clogher, Henry Jones, sent it to Trinity College Dublin where it has remained ever since.
Visitors today can view the Book of Kells in its home at Trinity’s Old Library, by securing a ticket to the immersive Book of Kells Experience.
