"The Book of Kells, the chief treasure of Trinity College, Dublin, is so-called from having been long preserved at the Monastery of Kells, founded by Columba himself. Stolen from thence, it eventually passed into Archbishop Ussher's hands, and, with other parts of his library, to Dublin. The volume contains the Four Gospels in Latin, ornamented with extraordinary freedom, elaboration, and beauty. Written apparently in the seventh century, it exhibits, both in form and colour, all the signs of the full development and maturity of the Irish style, and must of necessity have been preceded by several generations of artistic workers, who founded and improved this particular school of art. The following words of Professor Westwood, who first drew attention to the peculiar excellences of this volume, will justify tile terms made use of above: 'This copy of the Gospels, traditionally asserted to have belonged to Columba, is unquestionably the most elaborately executed MS. of early art now in existence, far excelling, in the gigantic size of the letters in the frontispieces of the Gospel, the excessive minuteness of the ornamental details, the number of its decorations, the fineness of the writing, and the endless variety of initial capital letters with which every page is ornamented, the famous Gospels of Lindisfarne in the Cottonian Library. But this MS. is still more valuable on account of the various pictorial representations of different scenes in the life of our Saviour, delineated in a style totally unlike that of every other school.' " CHAPTER VII. EARLY MEDIAEVAL INK. CONTROVERSIES AMONG HEBREW SCHOLARS RELATING TO RITUALISTIC INKS--THE CLASS OF INKS EMPLOYED BY THE FRENCH AND GERMAN JEWS--CONVENTION OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM JEWISH CENTERS--SUBMISSION OF THEIR DIFFERENCES TO MAIMONIDES--HE DEFINES TALMUDIC INK--SIXTH CENTURY REFERENCE TO "GALL" INK--ASSERTION OF HOTZ-OSTERWALD THAT EXCLUSIVE OF THE INDIAN INK, THE WRITING PIGMENTS OF ANTIQUITY HAVE NEVER BEEN INVESTIGATED--HIS BELIEF THAT YEAST FORMED A PORTION OF THEM--SOME OTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THIS SUBJECT--ANCIENT FORMULAS ABOUT THE LEES OF WINE IN INK-MAKING--COMMENTS ON INK-MAKING BY PLINY--ANCIENT FORMULA OF POMEGRANATE INK-- SECRETA BY THE MONK THEOPHILUS--WHAT THE, THORN TREE HE REFERS TO REALLY IS--IDENTITY OF THE MYROBOLAM INK OF THE MOST REMOTE ANTIQUITY WITH THE POMEGRANATE INK OF THE MIDDLE AGES-- THE USES OF THE ACACIA TREE.