'In honour of God and of Saint Cuthbert'
Made up of more than 250 leaves of high quality
vellum, (i.e. calf skin), the manuscript contains the texts of the
Four Gospels, in Latin, with appropriate introductory material,
including a set of Canon Tables.
Third Canon Table
Last Canon Table
A word by word translation into Old English,
(Anglo-Saxon), was added between the lines during the third quarter
of the 10th century by a priest named Aldred, afterwards Provost of
Chester-le-Street, giving us, in addition, the earliest surviving
version of the gospels in any form of the English language.
The rich decoration of the book is carried out
in a wide range of colours drawn from animal, vegetable and mineral
sources, some of which were imported over vast distances.
Anglo-Saxon writing implements.
Fifteen elaborate fully decorated pages are
supplemented by a series of lesser decorated initials and sixteen
pages of canon table arcades.
Each Gospel is distinguished by an image of
the appropriate evangelist, followed by a 'cross carpet' page of
pure decoration and a major initial page.
Evangelist St.Luke with
his symbol of a winged
calf carrying a book.
St. Luke's cross carpet page.
Major decorated initial
page at the beginning
of St. Luke's Gospel.
We are indebted to the late Janet Backhouse who supplied the text for
our Gospel Page and gave
permission to use the images in her book "The Lindisfarne Gospels"
published in association
with The British Library by Phaidon, Oxford - ISBN 0 7148 2148 9.
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