The Book of Kells : An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin

This is quite possibly the most beautiful book I've ever read. It's certainly the only one I've read with a magnifying glass handy to make sure I didn't miss any of the details.

I have seen the Book of Kells personally, but nothing prepares you for the wealth of fascinating detail that Bernard Meehan reveals in his erudite discussion of the book. He goes into its history, structure, script, illustrations, symbolism, authorship, physical structure and a whole lot more. Meehan highlights fine aspects of the illustrations that the untrained eye would never see, they are so tiny. The artistry and calligraphy he describes are breath-taking and engender awe for what these scribes and artists were capable of more than 1200 years ago.

This was a difficult book to read at first. Then I got the hang of the abbreviations and citations and it became clearer. I am in awe of the Kells. The artistry, the colors, the intricacy, the mystery of the kells is enticing. You can look at them for hours and see something new every moment. The are the "work, not of men, but of angels."

A quick but academic read about the illuminated manuscripts copied by monks in ancient Ireland. Luckily it is heavily illustrated to avoid my head spinning from the frequent use of language specific to the trade of manuscript studies

The Book of Kells: possibly the pinnacle of medieval artistic achievement. This book provides a great introduction to the manuscript and its pictures are almost entirely in color.

Good general introduction to the book and its history. Shows a few of the less common folios and gives some detail close ups. 117 illustrations, 110 in color.

"Beautiful … by far the best modern short account of one of the great monuments of early Irish civilization … required reading for anyone interested in the subject."―The Irish Times The Book of Kells is a masterpiece of medieval art―a brilliantly decorated version of the four Gospels with full-page depictions of Christ, the Virgin and the Evangelists as well as a wealth of smaller decorative painting. The strange imagination displayed in the pages, the impeccable technique and the very fine state of preservation make The Book of Kells an object of endless fascination.This edition reproduces the most important of the fully decorated pages plus a series of enlargements showing the almost unbelievable minuteness of the detail; show more spiral and interlaced patterns, human and animal ornament―a combination of high seriousness and humor. The text is by Bernard Meehan, the Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College, Dublin. 110 color illustrations show less

Illumination art, 110 illustrations.