The Gospel truth about the Book of Kells

THE BOOK OF KELLS is one of the glories of the early Celtic Church. It's a substantial work of art, one that has made the name of a small County Meath town famous throughout the world.
Here's the lowdown:
 

So, whereabouts in Kells was the book written — presumably the local library?
—— Er, not so fast. It may not have been written there at all, but on the island of Iona off the Scottish coast, around 800AD. Or at least partly written there, adding to other parts written in Ireland.

So it’s not 100 percent Irish?
—— Well, just hang on a sec. Although not in Ireland, culturally Iona was strongly Irish: in fact, some scholars believe that the book may have been created for the 200th anniversary of the death of St. Colmcille (aka Columba) the founder of the monastic community on the island. He was a Donegal man.

OK, that's all that’s very fine I’m sure, but why would a guide book to Kells have any content from Iona?
—— OK, let’s get one thing straight: it’s not a guide book at all. It’s the first four Gospels of the New Testament in Latin, portrayed with exquisite artistry. It’s been described – and not just by the people of Kells — as “the world’s most beautiful book”.

But do we know for definite who wrote and decorated it?
——Most authorities now seem to favour four scribes as having produced most of the work, but we don’t know their names.

Were they from County Meath, do you think?
—— No idea. But at the close of the 8th century the tranquil life on Iona came to an abrupt halt by the arrival of the Vikings. Time was up; the monks scarpered, setting up shop well inland on the Irish mainland, in Kells.

So the book found a new home?
——Presumably so. At any rate the book was kept in Kells from the beginning of the 11th century until it was sent to Dublin in the early 1650s for safe keeping. It’s now housed in Trinity College, Dublin.

Presumably the people of Kells are happy enough with that arrangement?
——Well, happy probably wouldn’t exactly be the word we’d use.

So they’d like it back?
——Well from time to time. The local council points out that the book went to Hay-on-Wye in 2013,  to Australia in 2000 and prior to that had been to the USA; so a 35-mile jaunt up country from Dublin seems a relatively modest undertaking.
 On the other hand there are those who point out that the Book of Kells was stolen in 1006 from the library of Kells monastery. When it was eventually recovered some months later it was found to have sixty pages missing, which have never been recovered.

Crikey. That must be clocking up some library fine.
Indeed.

So a journey to Kells wouldn’t actually help if I want to see the book?
—— A perfect copy is located in Kells Tourist Office, beside some literature about the local swimming pool last, time I was there. But your best bet is to head for Trinity College, and look for the signs for the Long Room in the Old Library where the Book of Kells is kept.

And how much is the book worth?
——Priceless. It’s among the dozen most valuable books in the world. Few emblems of medieval European civilisation have caught international imagination to the same degree. It’s evidence of an advanced monastic culture in Ireland at a time when much of the neighbouring island was highly barbarous.

Yeah, but, in hard cash, like, must be worth a few bob?
——Well, that’s a typical journalists’ question, if you don’t mind me saying. One is tempted to quote Oscar Wilde’s line about “knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing”. But what I can tell you, if pressed, is that when the book went Australia in 2000 it was insured for £50million with a £1million security bill. It even had its own ‘black box'’ on the aircraft taking it Downunder, complete with homing beacon. In the worst imaginable scenario, the Gospels would have been expected to survive a crash, sending traceable bleeps from the deep. It’s a far cry from its very first journey across the Irish Sea from Iona more than a thousand years ago; no ‘black box’ then — more likely it was hurled into a brown sack by the fleeing monks.

The Vikings wouldn't have appreciated a nice book, then . . .
——Definitely not. When they sacked Lindisfarne monastery they ripped up part of the Lindisfarne Gospels and used the pages as jewellery. Biblical bling.

So, do you have any good way of summing up the whole thing about the book of Kells?
——As it seems quite fitting that Ireland's greatest artistic treasure is a book, probably best to turn to its greatest writer. James Joyce wrote: "In all the places I have been to, Rome, Zurich, Trieste, I have taken it about with me, and have pored over its workmanship for hours. It is the most purely Irish thing we have, and some of the big initial letters which swing right across a page have the essential quality of a chapter of Ulysses. Indeed, you can compare much of my work to the intricate illuminations."

Do you want fries with that?

In 2015 the Book of Kells became a registered global trademark. The move was designed to raise funds for Trinity College to continue its work in preserving its ancient texts, including the Book of Kells. But the choice of the letters BK caused some initial problems with US fast food giant Burger King who were anxious not to have their trademark infringed.
Burger King, which is regularly shortened to BK, initially objected, but eventually came to the conclusion that any confusion between their standard products — hamburgers, fries, chicken, milkshakes — were unlikely to be confused with a mediaeval manuscript written by Irish monks back in the 9th century.