The famed Lindisfarne Gospels, written and exquisitely decorated in Northumbria around the beginning of the eighth century and still intact and glorious, is the subject of Michelle Brown's impressive book, designed to serve as both a commentary to the new full facsimile edition of the manuscript and as a separate monograph with enough color plates and color and black-and-white illustrations to serve as a detailed, stand-alone study that should prove generally adequate for readers who do not have access to the splendid but expensive facsimile.
Although Michelle Brown produces a prodigious amount of wide-ranging scholarship on Insular art and culture (twenty-two items appear under her name in the bibliography to this book alone), this study surpasses all the rest in scope and importance. Those of you--and you are many--who have experienced Brown's expertise and energy in her capacity as Curator of Manuscript Collections in The British Library or who have attended her lively lectures will recognize in this encompassing book the same intelligent, enthusiastic, non-dogmatic but richly informative authority. As a paleographer, specialist in Insular art, and cultural historian, Brown successfully addresses every aspect of this prized possession of the British Library, The Lindisfarne Gospels.
In the Acknowledgements on p. viii Brown explains that she has attempted to accomplish simultaneously three purposes: to write as a complement to the new facsimile a commentary that is technically detailed, to provide a full account of the manuscript's many items of interest for the scholarly community, and to describe the text and the research on it for the general reader. This threefold goal might seem impossible to accomplish, but Brown, accustomed to fulfilling the needs of the diverse clientele in the library and in her classrooms, brings it off admirably.
The Introduction sets the scene and provides some basic facts about this remarkable manuscript along with speculations that will be explored in later chapters. Preliminary to the study, she calls attention to the fact that the art work manifests Celtic, Pictish, and Germanic traditions, combined with Greco-Roman, Byzantine, northern Italian, and Frankish elements. She points out that the carefully lettered Latin text is a valuable early witness to Jerome's Vulgate version of the Gospels. Here she mentions that the word-by-word Old English gloss by the tenth-century priest Aldred is the earliest surviving translation of the Gospels into English. She notes that the Gospel book has long been fittingly associated with the patron saint of Northumbria, St. Cuthbert, whose life and virtues Bede heralded. Brown briefly traces the movement of the codex from Lindisfarne to Durham and finally to London. She suggests that the Gospels may have been written for Cuthbert's cult in rival response to the splendid book St. Wilfrid presented to his church at Ripon in the 670s, which served to foster that controversial bishop's cult.
Chapter One, on the genesis of the Lindisfarne Gospels, opens with a lovely description of the isle of Lindisfarne, followed by a synopsis of its early history as a monastic federation (parochial) of St. Columba's Iona. A good example of Brown's facility for explaining and summarizing complex issues with clarity is her discussion of the momentous seventh-century Easter controversy, resolved at the synod of Whitby, with repercussions for Lindisfarne (31-34). According to Bede, Cuthbert emerged as the leading figure of reconciliation between the disputants (31-35). The book composed in his honor emblematizes that reconciliation. Brown, however, questions whether the translation in 698 of Cuthbert's relics to the sanctuary floor of the Lindisfarne chapel was the actual occasion for the manufacture of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Although to answer definitively from this historical distance whether the Lindisfarne Gospels were in fact written on Lindisfarne and not at another Northumbrian center such as Wearmouth-Jarrow is difficult, Brown makes compelling arguments for the traditional ascription to Lindisfarne: the island had the technical and artistic resources for its creation and Bishop Eadfrith, whom Aldred identifies in the colophon as the writer-artist, could indeed, in addition to his ecclesiastical duties, have written and decorated the book as a devotional task over a number of years.
The second chapter presents "the biography of the book." Although some of the early accounts of the provenance of the book appear contradictory, Symeon of Durham's account of the transport of the book by the monks who left Lindisfarne in the face of Viking raids to seek a safe haven seems plausible. The ecclesiastical progress of the wandering monks with Cuthbert's relics through the broad parochial suggests to Brown the typology of Moses (Cuthbert) with the Israelites crossing the wilderness to the promised land (87-88). In 995 the monks settled at Durham, remaining until they had to flee the Norman invaders in 1069, finally returning under the new Norman regime of Bishop Walcher in 1070. Under Bishop William of Calais the monastery was refounded in 1083 as a Benedictine community, with Durham taking on Lindisfarne and Wearmouth-Jarrow as dependent priories.
In dealing with the provenance of the Lindisfarne Gospels Brown discusses the problem of Aldred's gloss and colophon. With some exceptions noted by Brown on p. 93, for various reasons readers have generally accepted Aldred's colophon as historically accurate, despite the fact that it was inserted 250 years after the book's original composition. Aldred's colophon specifies that Bishop Eadfrith wrote the text, Aethilwald bound it, Billfrith made its metalwork cover, and finally Aldred (like a latter-day fourth Evangelist), added the gloss. Brown, who later in the chapter reports more about those men, argues that Aldred may well have drawn upon an earlier source for the names of the trio. I am persuaded about the likelihood of the earlier source, but when Brown turns to an analysis of the colophon itself, I find it problematic. She does not furnish a reference to figure 45 (a) on page 91, 'the colophon group,' to accompany her transcription of the page on pp. 102-3, and the picture is so reduced that trying to make out the writing is very hard. The transcription does not indicate differences in the size of script; the text of Aldred's Latin inscription is twice the size of his Old English gloss (reminiscent of the relationship of script and gloss in the rest of the Gospel text). Moreover, Brown's transcription raises additional issues. At the end of the sixth to the last line on p. 102, after misserim(us), she inserts a question mark, stating in the note to the line, "The question mark (punctus interrogativus) has not been formerly noted." I think that is for good reason: a question mark makes no sense here, since there is no question; I do not believe there is a question mark. I have only the older facsimile to judge by, but to my eye the three dots are not a punctus interrogativus but rather a combination of the -us abbreviation with a point and a virgula, indicating a short pause. Then, at the end of the second to the last line Brown puts a period after dael, but the little point is only a part of the finishing stroke of the l and connected to it. The other three parallel daels have no punctuation after them, and this one doesn't either. Because she puts one in, she then misleadingly begins the next line with a capital eth (-D), even though the manuscript has the lower case eth. Troubling too is the fact that in the Latin epigram beginning "Litera me pandat," Brown omits entirely in her transcript the word "fida" in the original, though it appears in the translation as "faithful." Why she includes the translation of the first lines of the colophon from the commentary of Codex Lindisfarnensis, I cannot guess, since she herself admits Jane Roberts' version, given in note 59, "is closer to Aldred's own translation." However, the rest of the chapter, dealing with the later history of the manuscript, is carefully detailed and satisfying.
Chapter Three deals with the text itself. After chronologically listing the collations, transcriptions, glossaries, and printed editions of the Gospels (pp. 150-51), Brown discusses this text in relation to the history of the various versions and disseminations of the Gospels, with special attention to the contemporaneous Ceolfrith Bibles of Wearmouth-Jarrow; this is followed by a specific examination of the Lindisfarne Gospels as a witness to the Vulgate. She also discusses the layout and its liturgical implications. Chapter Four treats the codicology of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Besides the very satisfying overall treatment, some individual items of special interest stand out, such as the fact that the skins in the volume were so arranged that the spine ridge runs across the open volume, "in order to minimize the disruptive effect of cockling" (201). The artist-scribe was
extremely innovative technically, and artistically, and may have pioneered the use of leadpoint, the forerunner of the pencil, some three to four hundred years ahead of what was thought to be its introduction to Europe. Another radical innovation was the development of a transposed method of designing the decoration in flexible leadpoint on the reverse of the page to be painted, and of backlighting the sheet so that the design could be viewed from the side being painted. (225)
Since the present binding is from the nineteenth century, Brown must speculate what the earlier Cottonian binding and the original binding (probably metallic) by Billfrith must have looked like. This she does by a comparison with extant bindings from Irish and even Coptic book reliquaries. Brown then proceeds to present the technical innovations of the layout: this section could serve as a splendid introduction to the challenges an artist-scribe of the period faced and how he in this instance met them admirably, even amazingly. In the paleography section of this chapter the only real disagreement I have is with her interpretation of the C3 in the Greek of the Evangelist miniature inscriptions: she thinks it "an exclamation or invocation" (251) and on p. 364 she says the "the 'O' carries a stress mark, as if for oral recitation," but it is actually the Greek masculine demonstrative article "the," marked with a rough breathing (= "ho"). To confirm this, note that the rest of the inscription is not in the vocative but nominative case. This slip should not diminish the important facts and insights of the chapter, which ends with the major conclusion:
On the basis of the historical and stylistic evidences, as well as that of the provenance (with or without the statement concerning manufacture in Aldred's colophon) Lindisfarne remains the likeliest place to have fostered the fusion of such diverse influences at the time when it was building its reputation as a major pilgrimage centre and extending its influence throughout northern Britain." (266)
At 122 pages the chapter on the art of the Lindisfarne Gospels is the longest and the greatest. After a general section on the Gospels as the epitome of the Insular or Hiberno-Saxon style, Brown points out the wealth of decoration that is also indebted to Roman, Greek, and Germanic features. In the section on design, painting technique, and materials, Brown discusses the extended palette of Mediterranean derivation that characterizes these Gospels and examines the design processes related to specific details of the artwork. After pointing out how the use of decoration articulates the text, Brown concentrates on the glorious cross-carpet pages, citing numerous analogues from the long history of this design. Brown is charming in her descriptive details, such as, for instance, pointing out about the footstool in Mark miniature that "Fortunately its two little feet anchor it to the floor and prevent it from completely floating away" (366). This chapter establishes that "the Lindisfarne Gospels' decorative programme is essentially new, even if its designer consciously drew upon exemplars, styles and motifs intended to summon up and acknowledge a wide range of cultures" (370). The chapter concludes with an exposition of the Gospels' artifactual stylistic context, with its abstract and zoomorphic ornamentation.
The Conclusion, a dozen pages on the subject of the meaning and making of the Lindisfarne Gospels, summarizes the findings expressed in fuller detail in the foregoing chapters. After the extensive bibliography the reader discovers that there is yet more to come: two indices, one of manuscripts cited and the other a general index, and two appendices. The first appendix is an introduction to the Raman Microscopy project, which uses modern laboratory techniques to analyze materials involved in the manufacture and conservation of artifacts and has been employed to analyze the pigments used in the Lindisfarne Gospels. Katherine Brown provides a pigment analysis of several of the illuminated pages and concludes that "the somewhat restricted range of pigments used in the decoration of this manuscript have [sic] produced a range of colors, with different blues, greens and yellows selected for specific purposes suggesting a high level of sophistication in the design and execution. The variation in shade and hue produced from a very few initial pigments is both rare and subtle" (451). The second appendix is on a cd found in a sleeve inside the book's cover. The first nineteen pages provide a lengthy key to sigla of manuscripts of Gospel texts, translated from Bonifatius Fischer's magisterial Die lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, and the rest is a long columned listing of the textual arrangement of the Lindisfarne Gospels and a partial collation with other early gospel manuscripts, taken from Fischer.
I am pleased to report that for a book of this length and complexity there are few typographical errors (e.g., p. 37, "more Romanum" for "more Romano"; p. 74, "efigy" for "effigy"; p. 97, adventitious brackets around the note number 40; p. 117, "accomodate" for "accommodate"; p. 133, "Matthew's Gospel" should be "John's Gospel"). However, the occasional misnumbering of references to the figures proves a bothersome hindrance when trying to find the image to which the text refers.
On p. 6, second line from the bottom, fig. 36 should be fig. 3(a);on p. 57, fig. 29a-c does not pertain to Jarrow --perhaps fig. 30 was intended;on p. 238, line 2, pl. 105 should be fig. 105;on p. 286, fig. 30 should be fig. 31;on p. 298, fig. 83 ought to be fig. 82;on p. 364, fig. 30 should be fig. 31.
These minor flaws should not detract from the enormous merit of the book. It provides an education in itself of early medieval book production, breathtaking in its sweep, moderate and reasonable in its claims, and charming and humane in its presentation. Its rich array of illustrations and figures and informative text is very satisfying. However, it will serve an even better purpose when used alongside the new printed facsimile or the proposed full electronic facsimile in the future. My library has not yet obtained the new facsimile, so for this review I have resorted to the still useful older facsimile (1958-60), the Codex Lindisfarnensis. However, because the distributor of the new facsimile, Alecto Historical Editions, kindly sent me some specimen pages, I can report that the new facsimile is notably superior in closeness to the color and detail of the original. The tint for the vellum is closer to the manuscript, and the colors, particularly orange, purple, and green, are truer, less harsh, and more balanced. The Codex Lindisfarnensis facsimile did not reproduce all the images in color, especially the initials, so the new facsimile is certainly superior in that regard as well. The new facsimile has two commentary volumes, one a good general introduction of 130 pages, the second volume nearly identical with this book under review. For anyone interested in receiving further details about the new facsimile and accompanying texts, I suggest you contact Henrietta Pearson of Alecto: henrietta.pearson@thedomesdaybook.co.uk. However, it is important to add that, as is often the case, a new edition does not entirely supersede an earlier one: Julian Brown's commentary is still worth consulting, and Anglo-Saxon lexicographers and philologists will notice that the new facsimile does not have anything like the 176 folio pages in the older commentary dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon gloss of Aldred, with the complete Index Verborum Glossematicus by Alan S.C. Ross and E.G. Stanley. That will remain an important resource even after having been incorporated into the Toronto Old English Dictionary. None of that should lessen our appreciation for what Michelle Brown has done in this magnum opus. With her humane wisdom and careful eye for detail she has provided us with a stunning, stimulating, fresh, and immensely informative book about the Lindisfarne Gospels and its cultural matrix.