Lindisfarne Gospels

thumb|upright=1.2|Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit from the [[Gospel of Matthew.]]

The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book in the Latin language produced probably around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the British Library in London. The manuscript is considered one of the finest works in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, combining Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements.

The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 and died in 721. Current scholarship indicates a date around 715, and it is believed they were produced in honour of St. Cuthbert. However, some parts of the manuscript were left unfinished so it is likely that Eadfrith was still working on it when he died. which is also thought to have been the occasion for which the St Cuthbert Gospel (also in the British Library) was produced. The Gospels are richly illustrated in the insular style and were originally encased in a fine leather treasure binding covered with jewels and metals made by Billfrith the Anchorite in the 8th century. During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne this jewelled cover was lost and a replacement was made in 1852. The text is written in insular script, and is the best documented and most complete insular manuscript of the period.

An Old English translation of the Gospels was made in the 10th century: a word-for-word gloss of the Latin Vulgate text, inserted between the lines by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language. The Gospels may have been taken from Durham Cathedral during the Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by Henry VIII and were acquired in the early 17th century by Sir Robert Cotton from Robert Bowyer, Clerk of the Parliaments. Cotton's library came to the British Museum in the 18th century and went to the British Library in London when this was separated from the British Museum.

History

thumb|[[Evangelist portrait of Mark]]

Lindisfarne, also known as "Holy Island", is located off the coast of Northumberland in northern England (Chilvers 2004). In around 635 AD, the Irish missionary Aidan founded the Lindisfarne monastery on "a small outcrop of the land" on Lindisfarne. King Oswald of Northumbria sent Aidan from Iona to preach to and baptise the pagan Anglo-Saxons, following the conversion to Christianity of the Northumbrian monarchy in 627. By the time of Aidan's death in 651, the Christian faith was becoming well-established in the area. The Lindisfarne gospel book is associated with the Cult of St. Cuthbert. Cuthbert was an ascetic member of a monastic community in Lindisfarne, before his death in 687. The book was made as part of the preparations to translate Cuthbert's relics to a shrine in 698. Lindisfarne has a reputation as the probable place of genesis according to the Lindisfarne Gospels. Around 705 an anonymous monk of Lindisfarne wrote the Life of St Cuthbert. His bishop, Eadfrith, swiftly commissioned the most famous scholar of the age, Bede, to help shape the cult to a new purpose.

In the 10th century, about 250 years after the production of the book, Aldred, a priest of the monastery at Chester-le-Street, added an Old English translation between the lines of the Latin text. In his colophon he recorded the names of the four men who produced the Lindisfarne Gospels:

Some scholars have argued that Eadfrith and Ethelwald did not produce the manuscript but commissioned someone else to do so. However, Janet Backhouse argues for the validity of the statement by pointing out that "there is no reason to doubt [Aldred's] statement" because he was "recording a well-established tradition".

Commission

The Lindisfarne Gospels is a Christian manuscript, containing the four gospels recounting the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The manuscript was used for ceremonial purposes to promote and celebrate the Christian religion and the word of God. Scholars think that the manuscript was written sometime between Cuthbert's death in 687 and Eadfrith's death in 721. There is a significant amount of information known about Cuthbert thanks to two accounts of his life that were written shortly after his death, the first by an anonymous monk from Lindisfarne, and the second by Bede, a famous monk, historian, and theologian. The Synod of Whitby in 664 pitted the Hiberno-Celtic church against the Roman church regarding the calculation of the date of Easter. The dispute was adjudged by King Oswiu of Northumbria in favour of the Roman church, but many of the leading monks at Lindisfarne then returned to Iona and Ireland, leaving only a residue of monks affiliated to the Roman church at Lindisfarne. Due to increasingly slack religious practice in Lindisfarne, Cuthbert was sent to Lindisfarne to reform the religious community. In Lindisfarne Cuthbert began to adopt a solitary lifestyle, eventually moving to Inner Farne Island, where he built a hermitage.

Techniques

thumb|"[[Chi-Rho|Chi Rho" monogram at the start of the Gospel of Matthew]]

The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript was produced in a scriptorium in the monastery of Lindisfarne. It took approximately 10 years to create. Its pages are vellum, and evidence from the manuscript reveals that the vellum was made using roughly 150 calf skins. The book is 516 pages long. The text is written "in a dense, dark brown ink, often almost black, which contains particles of carbon from soot or lamp black". The pens used for the manuscript could have been cut from either quills or reeds, and there is also evidence to suggest that the trace marks (seen under oblique light) were made by an early equivalent of a modern pencil. Lavish jewellery, now lost, was added to the binding of the manuscript later in the 8th century. Eadfrith manufactured 90 of his own colours with "only six local minerals and vegetable extracts". Gold is used in only a couple of small details. The medium used to bind the colours was primarily egg white, with fish glue perhaps used in a few places. These would have been an inexpensive medium for a first draft; once a sketch had been transferred to the manuscript, the wax could be remelted and a new design or outline inscribed. After Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the manuscript was separated from the priory.

Condition

The Lindisfarne Gospels are in remarkable condition and the text is complete and undamaged. However, the original binding of the manuscript was destroyed. In March 1852 a new binding was commissioned by bishop Edward Maltby; Smith, Nicholson and Co. (silversmiths) made the binding with the intention of recreating motifs in Eadfrith's work.

Formal and stylistic elements of the manuscript

thumb|[[Gospel of Luke]]

In The Illuminated Manuscript, Backhouse states that "The Lindisfarne Gospels is one of the first and greatest masterpieces of medieval European book painting". The Lindisfarne Gospels is described as Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art, a general term for manuscripts produced in the British Isles between 500 and 900 AD. There is a strong presence of Celtic, Germanic, and Irish art styles. The spiral style and "knot work" evident in the formation of the designed pages are influenced by Celtic art. The red dots appear in early Irish manuscripts, revealing their influence in the design of the Lindisfarne Gospels. While there are many non-Christian artistic influences in the manuscript, the patterns were used to produce religious motifs and ideas.

Eadfrith was a highly trained calligrapher and he used insular majuscule script in the manuscript. there were other Gospel books produced in the same time period and geographic area that have similar qualities to the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Lindisfarne monastery not only produced the Lindisfarne gospels, but also the Durham Gospels and Echternach Gospels. These gospel books were credited to "the 'Durnham-Echternach Calligrapher', thought to be the oldest member of the Lindisfarne Scriptorium". The Echternach gospels might have been made during the creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Durham Gospels came after, but in an old-fashioned style. The Lichfield Gospels (Lichfield Cathedral, Chapter Library) employ a very similar style to the Lindisfarne Gospels, and it is even speculated that the artist was attempting to emulate Eadfrith's work. The Book of Durrow (Trinity College, Dublin) is also thought of as an earlier insular manuscript, as the style of the manuscript is simpler and less developed than that of the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Book of Kells (Trinity College, Dublin, MS A. I.6 (58)) employs decorative patterns that are similar to other insular art pieces of the period, but is thought to have been produced much later than the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Iconography

thumb|[[Matthew the Evangelist]]

The Lindisfarne Gospels is a manuscript that contains the Gospels of the four Evangelists Mark, John, Luke, and Matthew. The Lindisfarne Gospels begins with a carpet page in the form of a cross and a major initial page, introducing the letter of St. Jerome and Pope Damasus I. A portrait of the appropriate Evangelist, a carpet page and a decorated initial page precedes each Gospel. There is an additional major initial of the Christmas narrative of Matthew. A collective term for the symbols of the four Evangelists is the Tetramorphs. Each of the four Evangelists is accompanied by his respective symbol in his miniature portrait in the manuscript. In these portraits, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are shown writing, while John looks straight ahead at the reader holding his scroll. Backhouse points out that the clergy was not unaware of the profound impression a book such as the Lindisfarne Gospels made on other congregations. Different kinds of pigment are used throughout the manuscript. Several possible locations have been mooted, including Durham Cathedral, Lindisfarne itself or one of the museums in Newcastle upon Tyne or Sunderland.

Exhibitions in the north of England

Between September and 3 December 2022 the manuscript was exhibited in the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.

From July to September 2013 the Lindisfarne Gospels were displayed in Palace Green Library, Durham. Nearly 100,000 visitors saw the exhibition. The manuscript exhibition also included items from the Staffordshire Hoard, the Yates Thompson 26 Life of Cuthbert, and the gold Taplow belt buckle. Also included was the closely related St Cuthbert Gospel, which was bought by the British Library in 2012. This returned to Durham in 2014 (1 March to 31 December) for an exhibition of bookbindings at the library. Alongside the Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition was a festival of more than 500 events, exhibitions and performances across the North East and Cumbria.

Notes

References

Backhouse, Janet. "Lindisfarne Gospels." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Accessed 10 March 2012.
Backhouse, Janet. The Illuminated Manuscript. Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1979.
Backhouse, Janet. The Lindisfarne Gospels. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1981.
BBC Tyne. "The Lindisfarne Gospels." BBC Online, 2012. Accessed 10 March 2012.
Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Chilvers, Ian. ed. "Lindisfarne Gospels" The Oxford Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Accessed 9 March 2012.
De Hamel, Christopher. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. Boston: David R. Godine, 1986.
Thacker, Alan. Eadfrith (d. 721?). "Oxford Dictionary of Natural Biography", 2004.
Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600. Köln, TASCHEN, 2005.
Whitfield, Niamh. "The “Tara” brooch: an Irish emblem of status in its European context", In: Hourihane, Colm (ed), From Ireland Coming: Irish art from the early Christian to the late Gothic period and its European context. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 2001.
"Lindisfarne Gospels." The British Library, The British Library, 16 Jan. 2015.
Brown, Michelle P., The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality & the Scribe. London: The British Library, 2003.
Consiglio, Flavia Di. "Lindisfarne Gospels: Why Is This Book so Special?" BBC News, BBC, 20 Mar. 2013.

External links

Full scan of the gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels, a free online seminar from the British Library
More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts
"The Lindisfarne Gospels", BBC Radio 4 discussion with Michelle Brown, Richard Gameson & Clare Lees (In Our Time, Feb. 20, 2003)