Book of Kells

This is the Chi-Rho page, where the Gospel of Matthew reaches Christ's birth and the scribe lets the Greek monogram of Christ's name, the letters Chi, Rho and Iota, swell until it fills the entire sheet. Every inch teems with spirals, knots and hidden life: cats and mice, an otter with a fish, a moth. Made around 800 by monks of the Columban world of Ireland and Iona, it is the summit of Insular illumination, the interlaced manuscript art of the early medieval British Isles.