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Brendan, a young boy, lives an uneventful life in a remote monastery until one day a famous illuminator shows up. Together with the help of Aisling, a forest spirit, they complete the most celebrated national treasure of Ireland, The Book of Kells.

Et hymno dicto exierunt in Montem Oliveti - when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives. The “Arrest of Christ,” being one of the most important moments in the Gospels, is naturally a subject of artistic rendition. The arrangement…

It was probably the Four Evangelists on fol. 27v that the twelfth-century chronicler Giraldus Cambrnsis was describing when he wrote of a book that “is the work of angelic, and not human” hands. The Four Evangelists are represented by their unique…

Featuring the first three letters of Jesus in Greek, as well as a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, the χρι, or the Chi-Rho-iota (fol. 34r) is probably the most famous illumination in The Book of Kells. Other than the lavish design of these three…

The Book of Kells, despite its astonishingly beautiful illuminations, hardly appeared in any medieval account. Aside for few medieval annals and their even fewer words, the excerpt from Giraldus Cambrensis’ (1146-1223) Topographia Hibernica was…