Our experience of contemplating this pagecan be compared to the monastic experience of contemplating onthe nature of Christ. This text captures how the Book of Kellsand this page would be experienced by a monk using this book inthe liturgy. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So that this page is literally 'theword made flesh,' echoing the beginning of the book of John: Remember that the text of the manuscript is writtenon parchment or animal skin. The reason for this prominence can beconnected to the importance of the doctrine of the 'Incarnation,'which literally means 'into flesh.' The first 17 versesof the book of of Matthew recounts the earthly ancestry of Christback to Abraham, while verse 18 marks the point of the Incarnationof Christ in the book of Matthew, the first of the Gospels inthe manuscript. Like other Hiberno-Saxon gospel books,notably the Lindisfarne Gospels, this text is given prominence.It almost serves as a second incipit for the Book of Matthew whichbegins with the Latin incipit: 'Liber generationis Iesu Christi.'or in the Douay Rheims translation: 'The book of the generationof Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.'

Now the generation of Christ was in this wise.When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. The text reads: 'XPI autemgeneratio.' The text of this verse in the Douay Rheimstranslation reads: We believe this is the only facsimile edition of the Book of Kells on permanent display in a public library in North America.This page marks the incipit or beginningof the 18 verse of Matthew I. The names of all donors are listed in the display case. Donations were also gathered for the display case which houses the Book of Kells. The Muskegon Irish-American Society and the Friends of Hackley Library undertook a fund-raising campaign to purchase this exact replica of the Book of Kells for the Hackley Public Library to celebrate the Library’s One Hundredth Anniversary. In 1990 Trinity College granted permission for a limited number of exact facsimile replicas of the book to be published at a price of $14,800 each. In 1661 the Book of Kells was transferred from Kells to the Trinity College Library in Dublin, where it has been safeguarded ever since. The colors and dyes which were used in the painting of the illuminations were brought to Ireland from as far away as Asia. The text often contains brightly colored birds, animals, faces and figures humorously entwined with the letters. All but four of the pages are richly illuminated with a flamboyant exuberance unique in manuscript art. The Book of Kells contains the four gospels inscribed in Latin in an intricate style known as insular majuscule script. This box was especially designed for the reproduction of the Book of Kells but the silverwork and design are very similar to some found with other manuscripts. The black box with silver trim is typical of a type of medieval storage box used to protect manuscripts. The book, as it has survived, has 680 pages. The book was hand-written and painted on pages of vellum, which is calf-skin that has been tanned to paper thinness. D., and scholars estimate that it took seventy-five years to complete. It derives its name from the Irish village of Kells, located northwest of Dublin, where the book was kept in the monastery for several hundred years. The Book of Kells is believe to have been created at a monastery off the coast of Scotland on an the island Iona. It is one of the most famous and valuable illuminated manuscripts to have survived to modern times.

The Book of Kells, of which our copy is a replica, was written more than 1,200 years ago by monks.

Book of kells pages