The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is a decorated book written in Latin. It was likely made around 715 to 720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, which is located off the coast of Northumberland. Today, the book is kept in the British Library in London. The manuscript is considered one of the most outstanding examples of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, a style that blends Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic designs.
The Lindisfarne Gospels are believed to have been created by a monk named Eadfrith. He became the Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 and died in 721. Scholars suggest the work was made around 715, and it is thought to have been made in honor of St. Cuthbert. Some parts of the manuscript are incomplete, which suggests Eadfrith may have still been working on it when he died. It is also possible that he created the Gospels before 698 to celebrate the moving of St. Cuthbert’s relics that year. This event is also linked to the creation of the St. Cuthbert Gospel, which is also in the British Library. The Lindisfarne Gospels are decorated in the insular style and were originally covered with a special leather binding decorated with jewels and metals made by Billfrith the Anchorite in the 8th century. The jeweled cover was lost during Viking attacks on Lindisfarne, and a new cover was made in 1852. The text is written in insular script, and the manuscript is the most complete and well-documented example of its kind from that time.
An Old English version of the Gospels was created in the 10th century. This version includes a line-by-line translation of the Latin Vulgate text, added between the lines by Aldred, who was the Provost of Chester-le-Street. This is the oldest surviving translation of the Gospels into English. The Gospels may have been taken from Durham Cathedral during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which was ordered by Henry VIII. In the early 17th century, Sir Robert Cotton acquired the manuscript from Robert Bowyer, who was Clerk of the Parliaments. Cotton’s collection later became part of the British Museum in the 18th century and was moved to the British Library in London when the library was separated from the museum.
History
Lindisfarne, also called "Holy Island," is an island near the northern coast of England, in the area known as Northumberland (Chilvers 2004). Around the year 635 AD, an Irish missionary named Aidan started a monastery on Lindisfarne. This monastery was built on a small piece of land near the island. King Oswald of Northumbria sent Aidan from a place called Iona to teach and baptize the Anglo-Saxons, who were not yet followers of Christianity. This happened after the Northumbrian royal family converted to Christianity in 627 AD. By the time Aidan died in 651 AD, Christianity was becoming more common in the region.
The Lindisfarne Gospel Book is connected to the religious group that honored St. Cuthbert. Cuthbert was a monk who lived a simple life in Lindisfarne before he died in 687 AD. The Gospel Book was created to prepare for moving Cuthbert’s remains to a special shrine in 698 AD. Lindisfarne is believed to be the place where the Lindisfarne Gospels were first made. Around 705 AD, a monk from Lindisfarne wrote the Life of St. Cuthbert. His bishop, Eadfrith, quickly asked Bede, a famous scholar of the time, to help spread the story of Cuthbert in a new way.
In the 10th century, about 250 years after the book was made, a priest named Aldred from a monastery in Chester-le-Street added an Old English translation between the lines of the Latin text. In a note at the end of the book, Aldred listed the names of the four people who worked on the Lindisfarne Gospels: Eadfrith, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, was said to have written the manuscript; Ethelwald, the Bishop of the Lindisfarne islanders, was said to have bound it; Billfrith, an anchorite, was said to have decorated it; and Aldred himself is credited with adding the Old English translation.
Some scholars believe Eadfrith and Ethelwald did not create the manuscript themselves but asked someone else to do the work. However, Janet Backhouse argues that Aldred’s statement should be trusted because it reflects a long-standing tradition. Eadfrith and Ethelwald were both bishops at the Lindisfarne monastery where the manuscript was made. Alan Thacker notes that the Lindisfarne Gospels are "undoubtedly the work of a single hand," and Eadfrith is still considered "the scribe and painter of the Lindisfarne Gospels."
Commission
The Lindisfarne Gospels is a Christian book that includes the four stories about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. This manuscript was used in special religious events to share and celebrate the Christian faith and the message of God. Because the body of Saint Cuthbert was buried there, Lindisfarne became a popular place for pilgrimages in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Lindisfarne Gospels helped honor Saint Cuthbert. The gospels used artistic methods similar to those used in making fine metalwork to impress people in Northumbria, many of whom could not read or understand the Latin text.
According to a note by Aldred, the Lindisfarne Gospels were created to honor God and Saint Cuthbert, a bishop of the Lindisfarne monastery who became "Northern England's most popular Saint." Scholars believe the manuscript was written between the year Saint Cuthbert died in 687 and the year Eadfrith died in 721. Much is known about Saint Cuthbert because two accounts of his life were written soon after his death: one by an unnamed monk from Lindisfarne and the other by Bede, a well-known monk, historian, and theologian.
Saint Cuthbert joined the monastery of Melrose, which is now in lowland Scotland but was then part of Northumbria, in the late 7th century. After becoming a priest, he traveled across Northumbria and quickly gained a reputation for being holy and possessing miraculous abilities. In 664, the Synod of Whitby happened, where the Hiberno-Celtic church and the Roman church argued about how to calculate the date of Easter. King Oswiu of Northumbria decided in favor of the Roman church, but many monks from Lindisfarne returned to Iona and Ireland, leaving only a small group of monks who followed the Roman church at Lindisfarne. Because religious practices in Lindisfarne were becoming less strict, Saint Cuthbert was sent there to improve the religious community. In Lindisfarne, Saint Cuthbert lived alone, eventually moving to Inner Farne Island, where he built a small home. He agreed to become a bishop at the request of King Ecgfrith in 684, but after about two years, he returned to his home on Farne because he felt death was near. Saint Cuthbert died on March 20, 687, and was buried in Lindisfarne. As a respected saint, his tomb brought many pilgrims to Lindisfarne.
Techniques
The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript was created in a scriptorium, which is a special room in the Lindisfarne monastery where monks wrote manuscripts. It took about 10 years to make. The pages are made of vellum, a type of paper made from animal skin. Evidence from the manuscript shows that the vellum was made using around 150 calf skins. The book has 516 pages. The text is written in a thick, dark brown ink that is often almost black. This ink contains tiny pieces of carbon from soot or lamp black. The pens used to write the manuscript may have been made from quills or reeds. There is also evidence that some marks, visible under special light, were made with a tool similar to a modern pencil. Later in the 8th century, expensive jewelry was added to the book’s cover, but this jewelry is no longer present. Eadfrith made 90 of his own colors using only six local minerals and plant materials.
Many different pigments were used in the manuscript. These colors come from animal, plant, and mineral sources. Gold appears only in a few small areas. Some colors were obtained from nearby places, while others were brought from the Mediterranean. The blue color was once thought to be from Afghanistan, but scientists used a tool called Raman microscopy in the 2000s and found it to be indigo. The main material used to mix the colors was egg white, and fish glue may have been used in a few places. Backhouse noted that "Eadfrith applied all his colors with great skill and care, but we do not know exactly what tools he used."
Professor Brown explained that Eadfrith knew about lapis lazuli, a blue stone from the Himalayas, but he could not obtain it. Instead, he made his own substitute.
The pages were grouped into sets of eight. After the sheets were folded, the page with the highest number was marked by making small holes with a sharp tool. Holes were then made through each set of eight pages. Each page was then ruled with a sharp, dry point to prepare for writing.
The Lindisfarne Gospels are beautifully designed. Backhouse pointed out that vellum was too expensive for practice, so early sketches may have been made on wax tablets. These tablets were made from hollowed wood or bone covered with wax. They were a low-cost way to create drafts. Once a sketch was copied onto the manuscript, the wax could be melted and reused for new designs.
History
Because of Viking attacks, the group of monks living on Lindisfarne left the island around 875. They took with them the body of Saint Cuthbert, religious items, and books, including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the St Cuthbert Gospel. It is believed the monks moved to the Priory at Chester-le-Street in Durham about seven years later. They remained there until 995, during which time Aldred completed his interlinear translation of the text. In 1539, King Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which caused the manuscript to be separated from the priory. In the early 1600s, the Gospels were owned by Sir Robert Cotton (1571–1631). In 1753, they were added to the British Museum’s collection.
The Lindisfarne Gospels are in very good condition, with the text fully intact and undamaged. However, the original cover of the manuscript was destroyed. In March 1852, Bishop Edward Maltby commissioned a new binding. The company Smith, Nicholson and Co., known for making silver items, created the binding with the goal of recreating motifs found in Eadfrith’s work.
Formal and stylistic elements of the manuscript
In The Illuminated Manuscript, Backhouse writes 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 term for manuscripts made in the British Isles between 500 and 900 AD.
As part of Anglo-Saxon art, the manuscript shows a love of riddles and surprises, seen in the patterns and interwoven designs on its carefully planned pages. Many of the patterns used in the Lindisfarne Gospels were created before the Christian era. The artwork includes strong influences from Celtic, Germanic, and Irish styles. The spiral shapes and "knot work" in the designs are inspired by Celtic art.
A key style in the manuscript is the zoomorphic style, borrowed from Germanic art, shown through the use of interlaced animal and bird patterns throughout the book. The birds in the manuscript may have been based on Eadfrith’s own observations of wildlife on Lindisfarne. The geometric shapes in the designs also reflect Germanic influence and appear throughout the manuscript.
The carpet pages (pages with only decoration) show Eadfrith’s use of geometric patterns. Another feature is the tiny red lead dots used to create backgrounds, outlines, and patterns, but these dots do not appear on the carpet pages. These red dots were also used in early Irish manuscripts, showing their influence on the Lindisfarne Gospels. Thacker notes that Eadfrith learned from and was influenced by other artistic styles, showing he had "eclectic taste." Although the manuscript includes many non-Christian artistic elements, these patterns were used to express religious ideas.
Eadfrith was a highly skilled calligrapher who used insular majuscule script in the manuscript.
The Lindisfarne Gospels are not an example of "isolated genius… in an otherwise dark age": other Gospel books from the same time and place share similar qualities. The Lindisfarne monastery created not only the Lindisfarne Gospels but also the Durham Gospels and Echternach Gospels. These books are credited to "the 'Durham-Echternach Calligrapher,' thought to be the oldest member of the Lindisfarne Scriptorium." The Echternach Gospels may have been made during the creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels, while the Durham Gospels were made later but in a more traditional style. The Lichfield Gospels (Lichfield Cathedral, Chapter Library) use a style similar to the Lindisfarne Gospels, and some believe the artist was trying to copy Eadfrith’s work. Surviving pages from the Lichfield Gospels include a cross-carpet page and animal and bird interlace, but the designs are less refined and appear heavier than Eadfrith’s.
The design of the Lindisfarne Gospels is also similar to the Tara Brooch (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin), which shows animal interlace, curving patterns, and borders with bird designs. However, the origin of the brooch is unknown. The Durham Gospels (Durham Cathedral Library) are believed to have been made slightly earlier than the Lindisfarne Gospels, but their bird designs are less natural than those in the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Book of Durrow (Trinity College, Dublin) is considered an earlier insular manuscript, as its style is simpler and less developed than that of the Lindisfarne Gospels. The Book of Kells (Trinity College, Dublin, MS A. I.6 (58)) uses decorative patterns similar to other insular art from the same period, but it is thought to have been made much later than the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Iconography
The Lindisfarne Gospels is a manuscript that includes the Gospels of the four Evangelists: Mark, John, Luke, and Matthew. The manuscript begins with a carpet page shaped like a cross and a major initial page that introduces the letter of St. Jerome and Pope Damasus I. There are sixteen pages with arcaded canon tables, which show similar stories from each of the four Evangelists. Before each Gospel, there is a portrait of the corresponding Evangelist, a carpet page, and a decorated initial page. An additional major initial page shows the Christmas story from Matthew’s Gospel.
Bede explains that each Evangelist is represented by a symbol: Matthew is shown as a man, representing the human side of Christ; Mark is a lion, symbolizing Christ’s victory in the Resurrection; Luke is a calf, symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice on the cross; and John is an eagle, symbolizing Christ’s return. These four symbols are called the Tetramorphs. In the manuscript, each Evangelist is shown with their symbol in their portrait. In these portraits, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are depicted writing, while John looks directly at the reader, holding his scroll. The Evangelists also represent both the divine and human nature of Christ. Mark and John are shown as young men, symbolizing Christ’s divine side, while Matthew and Luke are shown as older men with beards, representing Christ’s human side.
The Lindisfarne Gospels is highly decorated, showing that it was used not only for religious ceremonies but also to represent the Word of God during missionary work. Backhouse notes that the clergy understood how a book like this could impress other groups of people. The opening lines of the Gospels (called incipits) are decorated with Roman, Greek, and Germanic letters, along with images of birds and animals, showing the beauty of God’s creation. One page alone has 10,600 red dots. Many different colors, including red lead and gold, are used throughout the manuscript.
Each carpet page has a unique image of a cross (called a cross-carpet page), highlighting the importance of Christianity and the unity among churches. The decorated pages include designs similar to those found on metalwork and jewelry, along with images of birds and animals.
Campaign to relocate
A campaign is being supported to move the gospels to the North East of England. People who support this effort include the Bishop of Durham, Simon Donald, the creator of Viz, and the Northumbrian Association. The British Library strongly disagrees with this plan. Some possible places being considered are Durham Cathedral, Lindisfarne itself, or museums in Newcastle upon Tyne or Sunderland. In 1971, Professor Suzanne Kaufman from Rockford, Illinois, gave an exact copy of the Gospels to the clergy on the Island.
Exhibitions in the north of England
From September to December 3, 2022, the manuscript was shown at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. From July to September 2013, the Lindisfarne Gospels were on display at Palace Green Library in Durham. Almost 100,000 people visited the exhibition. The exhibition also featured items from the Staffordshire Hoard, the Yates Thompson 26 Life of Cuthbert, and a gold Taplow belt buckle. Also on display was the closely related St Cuthbert Gospel, which the British Library purchased in 2012. It returned to Durham from March 1 to December 31, 2014, for a bookbinding exhibition at the library. Alongside the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition, a festival with over 500 events, exhibitions, and performances took place in the North East and Cumbria.