Book of Durrow

The Book of Durrow
Codex Durmachensis
TCD MS 57

The Book of Durrow is one of the oldest Irish manuscripts, written around the year 650 AD at the School of Durrow near the town of Tullamore. It is the Latin translation of the four gospels. The book is most noteworthy for being full of "Irish" illumnations, the Celtic style which is typifyied by a sort of extreme stylization of man and animals, and use of elaborate knots and spirals--a heavily geometric style.

It is currently housed at Trinity College, Dublin, along with The Book of Kells, it's more famous cousin.

I have seen somewhere that the manuscript is attributed to Saint Columba, who was known to be an expert scribe, which actually got him involved in the first copyright case. But that's for another node.

A digital version can be seen here:
http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~arth323/html/durrow.html