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Title
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Three Volumes
Faithful Replica of the Victorian Binding of the Gospels
With 2 Accompanying Volumes
[Facsimile Numbered Limited Edition – Jewelled Binding]
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Author
Eadfrith
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Year of Publication
2002
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Publisher
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For
full description see below - after all photographs
Description:
Luzern: Faksimile Verlag, 2002, Facsimile, Numbered Limited Edition. One of 290 Jewelled Bindings, this one numbered 200.
Full jewelled velvet and metal binding, a faithful replica of the Victorian (1853) binding. With metalwork holding the jewelled binding of garnets, amethysts, chrysophase, citrines, a central emerald and turquoise and ruby around it. With the title in genuine hand sewn silver thread to the spine, the volume weighs over 10kg on its own.
Complete with 2 additional cloth bound volumes. The first in English, a commentary by Michelle P. Brown from the British Library bound in cloth with a blue leather label.
The second in German and English also by Brown. Also included is a VHS video on the Gospels by the British Library.
From the German material with the book – “Artisans and specialists from all over the world produced, in many complex work steps, the more than 100 individual elements of this volume, from which a restorer in Switzerland then created the true-to-the-original hand assembled replica of the magnificent Victorian binding. 37 stones, that match the original stones in colour and shape, adorn the cover. The velvet spine is decorated with raised embroidery, in which each silver thread is individually sewn on by hand - in a process that only is mastered by a few craftsmen.
The true-to-original replica of the magnificent Victorian binding.”
From the British Library – “The Lindisfarne Gospels has long been acclaimed as the most spectacular manuscript to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. It is a copy of the four Gospels, the biblical books recounting the life of Christ, along with the associated texts that typically form part of Gospel-books, such as chapter lists and letters written by St Jerome (d. 420).
The copying and decoration of the Lindisfarne Gospels represent a remarkable artistic achievement. The book includes five highly elaborate full-page carpet pages, so-called because of their resemblance to carpets from the eastern Mediterranean. Four of the carpet pages appear alongside ‘incipit’ pages that mark the beginning of each Gospel; the fifth precedes the book’s prefatory material. There are also full-page images of the four Evangelists and an illuminated Chi-Rho page, where the first letters of Christ’s name are abbreviated and written in Greek as XPI.
In the late-10th century, additions were made to the manuscript by a priest named Aldred (active c. 970), provost of the community at Chester-le-Street, about six miles north of Durham. He added an Old English gloss to the manuscript, the earliest rendering of the Gospels in the English language. He also added a colophon, or inscription, that provides valuable evidence of the manuscript’s production. In the blank column at the end of the book, Aldred wrote:
Eadfrith bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne
He, in the beginning, wrote this book for God and
St Cuthbert and generally for all the holy folk
who are on the island.
And Æthilwald bishop of the Lindisfarne-islanders,
bound and covered it without, as he well knew how to do.
And Billfrith the anchorite, he forged the
ornaments which are on the outside and
bedecked it with gold and with gems and
also with gilded silver-pure wealth. (Gameson, 2013, p. 93)
Eadfrith was a monk at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, who became bishop in c. 698 and remained incumbent until his death in c. 722. Most scholars accept the evidence of the colophon and conclude that Eadfrith was the artist of the book’s intricate illumination as well as its scribe. Others involved in the production of the book are mentioned by name (Æthilwald the binder and Billfrith, the creator of what was originally a ‘treasure’ case or binding of jewels and precious metals).”
Provenance: no signatures or bookplates.
Approximately 14 ½ inches tall. The Box is approximately 17 ¼ inches tall.
Condition Report
Externally
- Spine – very good condition.
- Joints – very good condition.
- Corners – very good condition.
- Boards – very good condition – metal gently and naturally tarnished.
- Page edges – very good condition.
- See above and photos.
Internally
- Hinges – very good condition – strong.
- Paste downs – very good condition – leather.
- End papers – very good condition – leather.
- Title – very good condition – facsimile.
- Pages – very good condition – facsimile.
- Binding – very good condition.
- See photos.
Publisher: see above.
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: Hardback
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Ruler in picture is 6 inches long.
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