This work is an invitation to dive into the secrets of the Book of Kells, a priceless treasure of the Trinity College in Dublin and one of the most famous medieval illuminated manuscripts in the world. Created in the ninth century - when Irish monasteries represented a cultural seedbed for Europe and monks devotedly copied and decorated the texts of the Gospels in sumptuous letters and designs - it has miraculously survived to our day going through a series of wars and fires for more than 1200 years, making it a venerable witness to early Christian art.

This book can build on the work done during the process of making its facsimile edition, resulting in an absolutely exceptional quality of reproduction and a rigorous scientific text by Bernard Meehan, former Curator of the Manuscripts at the Trinity College Library in Dublin, bringing out all the richness of the decorations and all the importance for the history of art and of medieval civilization.