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The Book of Kells contains the four gospels in a Latin translation. There are 340 folios (678 pages) in colour decorated with miniatures, initials and symbols. It is likely that each gospel was intended to be headed by a page with a full-size miniature of the evangelist symbol, an evangelist portrait and a decorative rendering of the initial of the first word of the text.
The decoration of the manuscript is so rich that important passages in many parts of the Gospels are marked with full-page ornament. On folio 124r the text of St. Matthew is transformed into a carpet-like design with little fair-headed men crowded into the edges.
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