Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 715): Masterpiece of Insular Art

The Lindisfarne Gospels are an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels made at the monastery of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumbria, around 715-720. Attributed to Bishop Eadfrith, they are the finest surviving example of Insular art, the style that blended Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Mediterranean traditions in Britain and Ireland. A later Old English gloss also makes them the oldest surviving English translation of the Gospels.

Background: Lindisfarne and St Cuthbert

Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the Northumbrian coast. King Oswald invited the Irish monk Aidan from Iona to found a monastery there in 635, and it became the main centre of Christianity in the kingdom of Northumbria. After the Synod of Whitby in 664 the community adopted Roman practices while keeping strong Irish links.

The most famous member of the community was St Cuthbert, a monk and bishop who died in 687. In 698 his body was raised from its grave and found to be undecayed, which made Lindisfarne an important pilgrimage site. The Gospels were made in honour of God and St Cuthbert, and they became the treasured book of his shrine.

Who made it

The book itself does not name its maker, but a note added in the mid-10th century at its end does. Written by Aldred, a priest of the community, the note says that Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne, wrote the book; that his successor Æthelwald bound it; and that the hermit Billfrith adorned the cover with gold, gems and silver. Aldred then describes how he added the English gloss.

Eadfrith was bishop from 698 to 721. Most scholars accept that he planned, wrote and painted the manuscript, apparently almost entirely by himself, a project that must have taken several years alongside his duties. Some details remain unfinished, which fits the idea that he died before completing it. Michelle Brown’s study of the book proposed a date of about 715-720, though earlier dates around 698 still have supporters.

The manuscript

The Gospels contain 259 leaves of vellum, pages about 34 by 25 centimetres. The parchment came from well over a hundred calves. The text is written in a clear Insular majuscule script, and it is close to the high-quality Italian text of the Vulgate also known at Wearmouth-Jarrow, the monastery that produced the Codex Amiatinus.

The decoration is extraordinary in scale and precision. Each Gospel opens with a portrait of its evangelist with his symbol, a carpet page of interlace ornament built around a cross, and a decorated opening page in which huge initials fill much of the space. The book also contains canon tables, which are tables of parallel passages between the Gospels, set within decorated arches, and a famous Chi-Rho page at Matthew 1:18.

The artist combined many traditions. Spirals and trumpet patterns come from Celtic metalwork, the knotted animal interlace from Anglo-Saxon jewellery like that found at Sutton Hoo, and the evangelist portraits from Mediterranean models. The portrait of Matthew is closely related to the Ezra image in the Codex Amiatinus, suggesting a shared Italian source.

Eadfrith used a wide range of pigments, many of them apparently produced locally from minerals, plants and other materials. Examination of the pages shows that he planned his designs with grids, compasses and a hard point, using preparatory markings on the backs of the leaves.

The Old English gloss

In the 950s or 960s Aldred, then at Chester-le-Street, added a translation of the Latin text in Old English between the lines. Written in the Northumbrian dialect, it gives an English word or phrase above each Latin word. It is the oldest surviving version of the Gospels in any form of the English language. For historians of the language it is also an important record of late Northumbrian Old English, a dialect otherwise poorly documented.

Aldred’s colophon, the note recording the book’s history, is therefore both a historical source and a linguistic one. It is our only direct evidence for the names of Eadfrith, Æthelwald and Billfrith as the book’s creators.

Later history

After the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793, the community remained on the island for some decades. In 875, under renewed Viking threat, the monks left, carrying St Cuthbert’s coffin and their treasures, including the Gospels. They wandered for several years before settling at Chester-le-Street in 883 and moving to Durham in 995.

A popular story recorded by the Durham chronicler Symeon in the 12th century tells how the book fell overboard during an attempted crossing to Ireland and was later found unharmed on the shore. This is a pious legend for which there is no reliable evidence.

The book remained at Durham until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s, when its jewelled cover was probably stripped. It later entered the library of the antiquary Sir Robert Cotton, which passed to the nation and became part of the British Museum in 1753. Its present binding was made in 1852. It is now kept by the British Library, which was separated from the British Museum in 1973, and is regularly shown in its Treasures Gallery.

Legacy and debate over its home

Since the 19th century the Lindisfarne Gospels have been treated as a national treasure and a symbol of the north-east of England. Facsimiles can be seen in the region, including on Holy Island. The manuscript’s patterns have been reproduced on everything from stained glass to modern jewellery.

The book’s location has long been debated. Campaigners in the region have argued that it should be kept permanently in the North East, close to where it was made and where it spent most of its history. The British Library has preferred to keep it in London for conservation and access, while lending it for major exhibitions: at Durham in 2013, which drew around 100,000 visitors, and at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle in 2022.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the book was made by many monks over decades. The usual view is that one person, Eadfrith, did almost all the work, with the gloss added much later.
• Myth: it survived being lost at sea. The tale of the book falling overboard comes from a 12th-century source and is best treated as legend.
• Fact: the cover is not original. The jewelled binding described by Aldred was lost, probably in the 16th century; the present silver cover dates from 1852.
• Fact: the English text is later. The Gospels were written in Latin; the English gloss was added some 250 years after the book was made.

Timeline

• 635: Aidan founds the monastery of Lindisfarne.
• 687: Death of St Cuthbert.
• 698: Cuthbert’s remains are raised and enshrined; Eadfrith becomes bishop.
• c. 715-720: The Gospels are written and decorated, probably by Eadfrith.
• 721: Eadfrith dies; Æthelwald succeeds him and binds the book.
• 875: The community leaves Lindisfarne with the book.
• c. 950-970: Aldred adds the Old English gloss and colophon.
• 1753: The Cotton library, including the Gospels, joins the new British Museum.

Why it matters

The Lindisfarne Gospels show the artistic and intellectual height of early Christian Northumbria, decades before the Viking raid on Lindisfarne shook the region. Together with the later Book of Kells, they define Insular art, and Aldred’s gloss marks a milestone in the history of the English language.