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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.
The carpet pages of the Book of Lindisfarne are among the greatest treasures of insular book-painting. The picture shows one of the five carpet pages (folio 26v), which faces the text of the beginning of St Matthew's gospel. Its dominating motif forms a cross extending over the entire height and width of the miniature and referring to the death of the Salvator.
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