|
The Lindisfarne Gospels, which has survived virtually intact, contains 258 folios with four evangelist portraits, five carpet pages and numerous pages with decorative initials. The miniaturist was Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne (died 721). The Latin text has been translated into Anglo-Saxon in additions written between the lines.
Around the end of the seventh century the artistic activity of the Irish monks shifted from Scotland to England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded in Northumbria.Its unique manuscript, the Book of Lindisfarne (Lindisfarne Gospels) was produced around 700 and inspired artists in German scriptoria to adopt its use of sophisticated pictorial patterns.
The picture shows folio 29r with Chi-Rho initials. One of the oldest Christograms (a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol) is the Chi-Rho. It consists of the superimposed Greek letters chi and rho, which are the first two letters of Christ in Greek.
| 