The writers and decorators of these missals or illuminated books were chiefly the brothers or monks of the several religious orders. Some of the earliest and best decorated books are those belonging to the Irish Celtic art of the seventh and eighth centuries. The remarkable designs of illuminated initials and capitals, and the intricate geometric patterns, spirals, and involved interlacings of many varieties, all executed with astonishing skill, were not excelled or equalled by the scribes and designers of similar work in England or on the Continent. Foremost in importance among the many remaining monuments of Irish art in book decoration is the celebrated “Book of Kells,” now preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. It was formerly supposed to have been brought to the Columban Monastery of Kells, or Kenlis, the ancient Cennanas, by St. Columba, the founder of that Christian house, whose death is said to have taken place in the year 597; but this is likely to be only tradition, for it would appear, according to some later authorities, that the character of the lettering and the style of the ornamentation fixes the date of its execution about the end of the seventh century. Although the native Irish phase of Celtic art possesses many characteristics of its own, it is a development in some degree of the more Eastern Romanesque ornament, and symbolic Byzantine, or even the more primitive Greek. It is also mixed with a few geometric forms and symbols that had existed in Ireland before the introduction of Christianity in the fifth century. In the “Book of Kells,” for instance, there are several illustrations which show in some parts a Greek influence, and in one page the Greek monogram of Christ appears. The initial letters in square or rectilineal capitals usually occupy large portions of the illuminated page, and are often embedded in rectangular panels with borders, the latter being filled with elaborate interlacings and spirals, &c. (Fig. 310). The smaller text used by the Irish scribes was founded on the round or uncial Roman variety of lettering, but in the Irish variety there is a distinct improvement on the Roman in its beautiful and restrained quality of artistic simplicity, combined with its perfect legibility. In some Irish manuscripts an angular cursive or running hand was also used. An illustration given at Fig. 311 of the frontispiece from the “Epistle of Jerome,” in the Irish missal known as the “Book of Durrow,” is a fine example of Celtic ornamentation. This and the previous illustration are from Miss M. Stokes’ handbook on “Early Christian Art in Ireland.” [Illustration: Fig 310.—Portion of Illuminated Monogram; Book of Kells. (S.)]