 This is now applied to decorating new types of objects mostly copied from the Mediterranean world, above all the codex or book.The finest period of the style was brought to an end by the disruption to monastic centres and aristocratic life of the Viking raids which began in the late 8th century.These are presumed to have interrupted work on the Book of Kells, and no later Gospel books are as heavily or finely illuminated as the masterpieces of the 8th century.