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Lindisfarne Gospels




The Lindisfarne Gospels is an Illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospels of Matthew , Mark , Luke and John . The manuscript was produced on Lindisfarne in Northumbria in the late 7th Century or early 8th Century , and is generally regarded as the finest example of the kingdom's unique style of religious art, a style that combined Anglo-Saxon and Celtic themes, what is now called Hiberno-Saxon Art .

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 . The Gospels are richly illustrated in the insular style, and were originally encased in a fine leather binding covered with jewels and metals made by Billfrith the Anchorite in the 8th Century . During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne, however, this cover was lost, and a replacement made in 1852 . The text is written in Insular Script .

In the , Provost of Chester-le-Street . This is the first translation of the Gospels into the English Language .

The Gospels were 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 from there to the British Library in London .

A campaign exists to have the gospels brought back to Durham Cathedral in the North East of England, a move vigorously opposed by the British Library. A modern facsimile copy of the Gospels is now housed in the Cathedral Treasury at Durham, which can be seen by visitors.


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REFERENCES


  • Calkins, Robert G. ''Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages''. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.

  • De Hamel, Christopher. ''A History of Illuminated Manuscripts''. Boston: David R. Godine, 1986.




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