The magnificent illuminated manuscript known as the…

The magnificent illuminated manuscript known as the Book of Kells, begun on the island of Iona, is developed at the Abbey of Kells in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, which is to be its home for much of the medieval period.

Written in an insular script, the Book of Kells features full-page initials and intricate, elaborate designs.

The manuscript's date and place of production have been the subject of considerable debate.

Traditionally, the book was thought to have been created in the time of Columba, possibly even as the work of his own hands.

This tradition has long been discredited on paleographic and stylistic grounds: most evidence points to a composition date of around 800, long after St. Columba's death in 597.

The proposed dating in the ninth century coincides with Viking raids on Iona, which began in 794 and eventually dispersed the monks and their holy relics into Ireland and Scotland.

There is another tradition, with some traction among Irish scholars, that suggests the manuscript was created for the two hundredth anniversary of the saint's death.

The manuscript will never be finished.

There are at least five competing theories about the manuscript's place of origin and time of completion.

First, the book, or perhaps just the text, may have been created at Iona, then brought to Kells, where the illuminations were perhaps added, and never finished.

Second, the book may have been produced entirely at Iona.

Third, the manuscript may have been produced entirely in the scriptorium at Kells.

Fourth, it may have been produced in the north of England, perhaps at Lindisfarne, then brought to Iona and from there to Kells.

Finally, it may have been the product of an unknown monastery in Pictish Scotland, though there is no actual evidence for this theory, especially considering the absence of any surviving manuscript from Pictland.

Although the question of the exact location of the book's production will probably never be answered conclusively, the first theory, that it was begun at Iona and continued at Kells, is currently widely accepted.

Regardless of which theory is true, it is certain that the Book of Kells was produced by Columban monks closely associated with the community at Iona.