Church Record Sunday - Book of Kells for St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland has announced that digital images from the entire Book of Kells are now available to view online as part of the general celebration of St. Patrick's Day at Trinity. According to the site, "these new digital images offer the most accurate high resolution images to date, providing an experience second only to viewing the book in person".

From Wikipedia,  "the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier."

I've been lucky enough to see the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College twice and it's well worth it if you get the chance. The exhibit explains the history of the manuscript and how it was made. The book is in four volumes and two pages are displayed under glass each day. One is a page of text and the other a drawing page like the one pictured here. The pages on display are rotated on a regular basis. The detail in the drawings is incredible and the pigments that were used give the pages a 3D quality.

Top photo was cropped from my photo of the signpost for the exhibit at Trinity College in 2009. Image of the Madonna and Child is from Wikimedia Commons.