The Book of Kells is a Latin copy of the four Gospels, made around 800 in a Columban monastery in Ireland or Scotland, and now kept at Trinity College Dublin. Its leaves are fine calf vellum decorated with ten full-page illustrations and text pages full of initials and miniatures. The art combines Christian images with Celtic knots, interlacing patterns, animals and mythical beasts, and much of the decoration carries Christian symbolism that reinforces the Gospel themes. Several scribes wrote the text in iron gall ink, and the colours came from a wide range of substances, some imported from distant lands. The book took its name from the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, where it was kept for centuries. Today it is displayed with two pages visible at a time, turned every six to eight weeks to protect it.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.