![]() The word manuscript means “hand write.” These manuscripts encompass a wide variety of topics from religion, court life and history to literature, medicine, food and crafts. A subset of it was illustrated manuscripts, which were produced in ancient Egypt, China, Japan, the Mideast and America and later in Europe. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday.For thousands of years before the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, painting filled the role of illustration in cultures worldwide. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. There won't be many modern visitors who will be convinced of that but take a look at the images yourself and you will be transported into a magical world of awe-inspiring skill. Recent research has shown that books were used in religious processions, enhancing the notion that they were almost objects of worship themselves or at least had talismanic properties for a medieval populace. The large pages and illustrations could be seen from further back in the church to make an impact on a congregation that for the most part couldn't read or write. So why did the monks go to so much trouble to create these amazing pages? It's as if the book itself flaunted the spiritual qualities of the text to those who saw it. The Secret of Kells, an animated feature about a young boy’s passion for the manuscript was nominated for an Oscar. One of the experts on the manuscript Bernard Meehan writes "For many in Ireland it symbolises the power of learning, the impact of Christianity on the life of the country, and the spirit of artistic imagination.” That's true for the tens of thousands of visitors who pay homage to the manuscript each year and it’s even captured the imagination of filmmakers. The 11th Century Annals of Ulster describe the Book of Kells as “ primh-mind iarthair domain”, “the most precious object of the Western world”. There monks created the lovely Lindisfarne Gospel but the Irish would claim the Book of Kells is the finest of its kind. Monks from the original monastery founded by St Columba also set up other monastic communities including one on the great rock of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, established by the Ionan monk Aidan in 635. The Book of Kells isn’t the only illuminated manuscript in the so-called insular style. This is a description thought by many to be of the Book of Kells by the 12th Century writer Gerald of Wales: Practically all of the 680 pages are decorated in some way or another. On some pages every corner is filled with the most detailed and beautiful Celtic designs. Written on vellum, it is estimated that the skins of 185 calves were needed for the project. The scale and ambition of The Book of Kells is incredible. ![]() A few years later it reached Trinity College where it remains today. ![]() According to the Annals of Ulster it was found “two months and twenty days” later “under a sod.” After fighting in the Cromwellian period, the church at Kells lay in ruins, and in 1653 the book was sent to Dublin by the governor of Kells for safekeeping. But medieval sources do record that an illuminated manuscript was stolen from the stone church of Kells in 1006 which is likely to have been the Book of Kells. The most likely theory is that the monks took the manuscript with them.Īmazingly since they were written, the majority of the pages have been passed down through the generations with just 60 pages missing. In 806, following a raid that left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a newly-founded monastery at Kells in County Meath in Ireland to keep them safe. The monastery, like many early Christian communities, came under the threat of Viking raids. But it wasn't just forces of nature with which the monks had to contend. ![]()
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