The Book of Kells

In honor of St. Patrick's day tommorow I thought we would take a quick look at the Book of Kells.

This beautiful book is also an extremely historical (can something be extremely historical?  Maybe I started the Guinness a little early) account of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)   From what
scholars and the like can tell it was probably created in the early 9th century (holy oldness batman!)

It is very intricatly illustrated and scholars say the monks who wrote/illustrated it were not worried so much about accuracy as they were with the asthtetics of the book.  It is named after the Abby of Kells in which it resided for most of the mediaeval period before it was plundered by Vikings.  No one really knows how the book survived, but it did lose it's bejewled cover somewhere along the way.  The book stayed at the Abby of Kells until 1654 when it was sent to Dublin for safe keeping and then to Trinity College where it is still on display to this day (and on my list of things to go see in the very near future I hope!!!!)

The book has been rebound into four volumes with two being on display at any given time.  One displaying an illustration and one displaying a text page which is also pretty elabrotly illustrated.  I love the how this shows the importance of art, beauty and the written word, even in days where it took years to produce.  I cannot wait to someday see this work of art and literature for myself.

Would you make a trip to Ireland just to see this book?  What other amazing historical documents would you like to see?  How cool is it that there have been super bookworms all throughout history!?!