Probably the earliest representation of a pen in the holder, although of a very primitive pattern, occurs in a miniature in the Gospels of Mac Durnam, where St. John is seen writing with a pen in one hand and a knife, for sharpening it, in the other.  This picture is two centuries earlier than any other known representation of the use of the pen, the volume having been executed in the early part of the eighth century.

Two of the most famous Irish books are the Book of Kells, and the Durham Book.  The Book of Kells is now in Trinity College, Dublin.  It is also known as the Gospel of St. Columba.  St. Columba came, as the Chronicle of Ethelwerd states, in the year 565:  “five years afterwards Christ’s servant Columba came from Scotia (Ireland) to Britain, to preach the word of God to the Picts.”

[Illustration:  DETAIL FROM THE DURHAM BOOK]

The intricacy of the interlacing decoration is so minute that it is impossible to describe it.  Each line may be followed to its conclusion, with the aid of a strong magnifying glass, but cannot be clearly traced with the naked eye.  Westwood reports that, with a microscope, he counted in one square inch of the page, one hundred and fifty-eight interlacements of bands, each being of white, bordered on either side with a black line.  In this book there is no use of gold, and the treatment of the human form is most inadequate.  There is no idea of drawing except for decorative purposes; it is an art of the pen rather than of the brush—­it hardly comes into the same category as most of the books designated as illuminated manuscripts.  The so-called Durham Book, or the Gospels of St. Cuthbert, was executed at the Abbey of Lindisfarne, in 688, and is now in the British Museum.  There is a legend that in the ninth century pirates plundered the Abbey, and the few monks who survived decided to seek a situation less unsafe than that on the coast, so they gathered up their treasures, the body of the saint, their patron, Cuthbert, and the book, which had been buried with him, and set out for new lands.  They set sail for Ireland, but a storm arose, and their boat was swamped.  The body and the book were lost.  After reaching land, however, the fugitives discovered the box containing the book, lying high and dry upon the shore, having been cast up by the waves in a truly wonderful state of preservation.  Any one who knows the effect of dampness upon parchment, and how it cockles the material even on a damp day, will the more fully appreciate this miracle.

Giraldus Cambriensis went to Ireland as secretary to Prince John, in 1185, and thus describes the Gospels of Kildare, a book which was similar to the Book of Kells, and his description may apply equally to either volume.  “Of all the wonders of Kildare I have found nothing more wonderful than this marvellous book, written in the time of the Virgin St. Bridget, and, as they say, at the dictation of an angel.  Here you behold the magic face divinely drawn, and