Above: Book of Kells

Taimhlidhe and Tamhlorgain are the oldest writing appliances on record. They were birch tablets and staves, often coated with wax, on which the inscription was impressed with a graph or style. These were in use in Pagan times and subsequently. Bards were entitled to use the tamhlorga for protection against dogs.1 The tamhlorga was sometimes called a slisneach. The people of Connacht are said to have regarded slisneacha as swords when seen in the possession of Patrick and his followers as they approached, and so thought to murder them. These again were superseded by parchment, pen and ink : the parchment was made from the skins of goats, sheep, c’alves ; the pens from the quills of geese, crows and swans. Thus came books and illumination, and for the protection of the books came satchels, covers, shrines, some of the latter very beautiful. A book-satchel is mentioned among a number of presents given by St. Patrick to Fiach bishop of Sletty ; and Colm Cille, according to the Leabhar Breac, blessed one hundred polaires noble, one coloured. In the Tripartite Life,2 the polaire is defined as a tablet. " An alphabet is written for him " is quite a frequent statement in the Life of the Apostle, particularly on occasions of ordination or consecration.
Illumination developed rapidly after the coming of the faith. St. Doig of Inniskeen, who flourished in the sixth century, was " a most skilful writer of books," and St. Ultan is referred to in the next century as " a most accomplished writer and illuminator of books." Penmanship was brought to extraordinary perfection in the monasteries. Even the ink was unique, some of the illumination preserving its original freshness after the lapse of centuries. The great glory of Irish illuminated manuscripts is the " Book of Kells," a vellum copy of the Four Gospels, in Latin. When stolen out of the sacristy at Kells, in Meath, in 1006, the Annals referred to it as the great Gospel of Colm Cille, " the principal relic of the western world on account of its cover."    Though the penmanship appears to have been regarded as of no exceptional excellence by comparison with other native manuscripts of the period, Margaret Stokes extolled it thus :
" It is no exaggeration to say that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger the magnifying power brought to bear upon it, the more is its perfection seen. No single false interlacement or uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a trembling hand or a wandering thought can be detected. This is the very passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the Irish scribe work to glorify his book."
"It is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels which exists in the world," declares Professor Westwood of Oxford. And, referring to the designs, he adds : " How men could have eyes and tools to work them out, I am sure I, with all the  skill  and   knowledge  in   such kind of work which I have been exercising for the last fifty years, cannot conceive. I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe, where such books as this occur, but there is no such book in any of them . . . there is nothing like it in all the books that were written for Charlemagne and his successors,"