In the dead of night in 1007 AD, thieves infiltrated a freezing stone church in Ireland, raiding its western sacristy to execute a major heist. They stole a massive, impossibly heavy manuscript described by the Annals of Ulster as the "chief relic of the Western world." Ripping away its gold and jewel-encrusted casing, the thieves left the front and back pages permanently lost to history, burying the rest of the manuscript beneath a sod in the dirt. Amazingly, the text survived the damp earth because the thieves were only interested in the cash value of the precious metals. This artifact is the Book of Kells, a ninth-century illuminated Latin gospel book that stands as the undisputed pinnacle of Insular illumination.

Currently resting in the library of Trinity College Dublin, the manuscript consists of 340 delicate calf vellum leav ...