The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality, and the Scribe

By Michelle P. Brown

Book Overview

The eighth-century Latin Gospelbook known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, with its tenth-century gloss (the earliest surviving translation of the Gospels into the English language), is one of the great landmarks of human cultural achievement. Like all such icons, or important archaeological sites, it repays revisiting. Successive generations approach them with new questions and new technologies, bringing to light fresh evidence or finding different ways of 'reading' what we thought we knew already. This study seeks to do just that, taking advantage of new photography and technical analysis as well as assessing previous work in the light of more recent studies and archaeological finds. This book sets the Lindisfarne Gospels within its socio-historical context, during one of the world's formative periods of transition - from the Graeco-Roman world to that of the early Middle Ages. The melting-pot of the multi-ethnic British Isles, with its international Christian context stretching from Frisia to the near-East, is reflected in the pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, as part of an attempt to achieve a cultural synthesis in which all peoples could find a place - a visual reflection of the international Oecumen. In Northumbria the rallying point for this new identity was the figure of St Cuthbert, his cult and the role of the church of Lindisfarne (originally a Celtic mission to the Anglo-Saxons) playing a vital role in the faith, power and politics of the region. The questions of where and when the Lindisfarne Gospels were made are addressed, but just as importantly the 'why' is explored, in the context of new research concerning the technical innovation of its maker, his spiritual motivation and the needs of the society in which he worked.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802088252
• ISBN13: 9780802088253
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 3.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.9" x 1.7" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

A Real Treasure

There is more than enough of interest for both scholar and intellectual tourist. Brown's sleuthing and exposition shed light on the Lindisfarne Gospels, sacred manuscripts in general, Insular art, and the place of important books through the ages. This is a read to be savored.

Great scholarship, decent reproductions of major pages

An excellent, in-depth scholarly study of a beautiful work of art. If you are interested in details about the paint, the layout, the artists, and the monastic world it was made in, then this is the book you want. The 32 color plates reproduce the major pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as examples from other Insular manuscripts. The CD that comes with this book contains a key to manuscript sigla, and a table showing the textual arrangement of the Lindisfarne Gospels, with selective collation. The CD does not contain any further plates of the manuscript, unless they are hidden where I cannot access them.

A thought-provoking and informatively extensive study

The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality & The Scribe by Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultural history expert Michelle P. Brown (Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at The British Library), examines this important and influential eighth-century book in the light of both theological analysis and revelations of the latest archaeological finds. Marvelous color plates as well as black-and-white photographs wonderfully enhance the exhaustive, college-level text, which is a master piece of scholarship studying the genesis of the Lindisfarne Gospels, and how this classic was originally physically prepared, written, and bound, as well as the significance of its art, the nuances of its scripted text, and more. A thought-provoking and informatively extensive study, The Lindisfarne Gospels is also available in a soft-cover format.