Kells kept the Book of Kells whole for 850 years. Trinity's binder took a knife to it

Trinity's own catalogue says the Book's 340 pages were “severely trimmed” in its care. Four rebindings in Dublin, lost decoration, and pigment loss found after a trip to Canberra. Kells never cut a page.

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Kells · 20 October 2026

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Stone tower and nave of St Columba's Church, Kells, on the site of the monastery where the Book of Kells was kept; sepia tones
Photo: Nemoi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (St Columba's Church, Kells). Cropped and colour-toned by Made in Kells.

Trinity College Dublin's own catalogue record for the Book of Kells, shelfmark IE TCD MS 58, says it plainly. The manuscript "contains 340 folios, now measuring approximately 330 x 255 mm; they were severely trimmed, and their edges gilded, in the course of rebinding in the 19th century" (TCD Digital Collections).

That trimming did not happen in Kells. It happened in Dublin, in Trinity's care, more than 160 years after the Book left Meath.

About 850 years in Kells

The Book was made around 800. Trinity's record says it was "kept in Kells, County Meath until 1653, when it was sent to Dublin" (TCD). That's roughly 850 years in the town that gave it its name.

Those centuries weren't without danger, and we won't pretend otherwise. In 1007 the Annals of Ulster record that "The Great Gospel of Colum Cille was wickedly stolen by night from the western sacristy in the great stone church of Cenannas." It "was recovered after two months and twenty nights, its gold having been taken off it and with a sod over it" (Annals of Ulster, CELT, UCC). Trinity's own record notes that the first binding "was presumably removed when the book was stolen in 1007" (TCD), and leaves at the start and end are thought to have been lost around then.

The difference is this. A thief tore off a jewelled cover for its gold. No one in Kells took a blade to the painted pages. Kells came through Viking raids, a theft and centuries of upheaval, and handed the Book on as a book.

Four rebindings in Trinity's care

Bishop Henry Jones, vice-chancellor of the College, presented the Book to Trinity. The record dates his tenure as bishop of Meath to 1661–1682 (TCD), and the gift is usually dated to 1661. According to Trinity's record, the Book has been bound at least five times. Four of those bindings happened in Trinity's care: 1742, 1826, 1895 and 1953 (TCD).

The worst was the 1826 job. Trinity's own online course on the Book says the manuscript "was entrusted into the care of binder George Mullen Jnr", and that his intervention "has since been described as 'disastrous'" (Trinity College Dublin, Book of Kells course, FutureLearn). The course lists what he did:

  • He washed the manuscript, "causing the pages to shrink unevenly".
  • He pressed the pages flat, "causing considerable loss of colour".
  • He painted some margins with white oil paint, and filled and tinted flaws in the vellum.
  • "Worst of all, he trimmed the formerly uneven edges of the manuscript so that the edges could be gilded, removing parts of decoration of some of the pages in the process."

Trinity scholars said much the same at the time. A San José State University thesis cites notes by James H. Todd, the 19th-century Trinity scholar, held in Trinity's own manuscript room. In those notes, which date the binding to 1821, Todd records that the binder cut almost half an inch off the margins, damaging several illuminations and cutting away later entries about the book's history. The same thesis says Roger Powell's report from the 1950s also found the edges had been heavily cut, with some illumination lost (SJSU thesis, citing Todd's notes and Powell's report).

So pages painted around 800, and kept in Kells until 1653, lost up to half an inch of margin and parts of their decoration in a Dublin bindery, so that their edges could be gilded for tidiness.

The 1895 binding didn't last either. By the late 1920s several folios had come loose and were being kept apart from the volume (Wikipedia, citing Henry 1974). In 1953 Roger Powell rebound the Book in four volumes (TCD; TCD course). That is how it survives today. His careful work could protect what was left, but it couldn't put back what had been cut away.

Canberra, 2000

In 2000 Trinity flew the volume containing the Gospel of Mark to Canberra for an exhibition. The Guardian reported that the Book was damaged on the trip, damage Trinity's head librarian called "very minor" (The Guardian, April 2000). The Irish Times reported that "the book was found to have lost some pigmentation", though it was "not clear whether this occurred in transit or had happened before it left Trinity" (Irish Times). Either way, it happened in Trinity's care.

That same year, Kells Urban District Council asked to borrow the Book for its new heritage centre. Trinity said no, citing "security and environmental concerns". The Irish Times summed it up: "It's been to Canberra, but it's never going to Meath" (Irish Times). A university spokesman said the Canberra damage was "a reminder of its fragility" (Irish Times). In 2011 Trinity told Kells that since 2000 its Board has declined loan requests "on the grounds of security, environmental and preservation concerns" (RTÉ News, 2011).

The record

  • In Kells (c.800–1653): about 850 years. Its jewelled cover was stolen in 1007 and some leaves were probably lost. No page was trimmed.
  • In Trinity's care (1661–today): about 365 years and four rebindings. The pages were "severely trimmed" and gilded, decoration and marginal entries were cut away, the leaves were washed and shrank, colour was lost in pressing, and pigment loss was found after a trip to Australia.

Trinity calls the Book too fragile to travel 69 km to Kells. Much of that fragility built up in Trinity's own care. The town that kept the Book whole for 850 years is ready to keep it again: permanently, not on loan.

Sources checked 20 October 2026. Quotations are from the sources linked.

Sources