SOURCE: "Sacred Calligraphy: The Chi Rho Page in the Book of Kells," Traditio, Vol. XXXVI, 1980, pp. 139-59.

In the following essay, Lewis investigates possible meanings and allusions found in the metaphorical images of the Chi Rho page, and explores how this page relates to other illuminations in the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells was probably made at the monastery of Iona at the end of the eighth century. Sometime between 807 and 814, in the wake of a series of devastating raids on the island sanctuary, 'the giant Gospel of Columkille, chief relic of the Western world,' was taken to the new headquarters of the Columban community at Kells.¹ Intended as a large liturgical Gospel codex to be displayed on an altar, the Book of Kells was perhaps the last and most ambitious production undertaken by this great Hiberno-Saxon scriptorium. Its sumptuous ornamentation and magisterial format suggest...