Ireland & Northumbria, 7th–9th c.
Insular & Celtic
The Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels — the summit of Insular art, where interlace, spiral, and animal ornament coil so densely around the Gospel text that scholars have spent lifetimes tracing a single page. Made by monastic hands on Iona, at Kells, and on Lindisfarne's tidal island, for the glory of the word.
The Chi Rho Monogram
Folio 34r — the most celebrated page in Western calligraphy.
The Virgin and Child
Folio 7v — the earliest surviving Madonna in a Western manuscript.
The Four Evangelist Symbols
Folio 27v — man, lion, calf, and eagle, prefacing Matthew.
The Eight-Circle Cross
Folio 33r — the only carpet page of its kind in the manuscript.
The Temptation of Christ
Folio 202v — Satan, the Temple, and a crowd of witnesses.
The Matthew Cross-Carpet Page
Folio 26v — a Latin cross afloat in a field of interlace.
Incipit to Matthew
Folio 27r — "Liber generationis Jesu Christi," illuminated into ornament.