33-770: The Lichfield Gospels (also known as the St Chad Gospels , the Book of Chad , the Llandeilo Gospels , the St Teilo Gospels and variations of these) is an 8th-century Insular Gospel Book housed in Lichfield Cathedral . There are 236 surviving pages, eight of which are illuminated. Another four contain framed text. The pages measure 30.8 cm by 23.5 cm. The manuscript is also important because it includes, as marginalia , some of
66-525: A Chi Rho monogram page, and a page with the four symbols of the evangelists . Unfortunately, Matthew's incipit page is severely worn, appearing to have functioned as the manuscript's front cover for a number of years. Matthew's gospel includes four framed pages: the Genealogy of Christ (3 pages) and Matthew's last page. There are eight marginal inscriptions written in Latin and Old Welsh, which are some of
99-454: A date after the end of the 10th century (at Lichfield) would add little to what is already known – although a dating either way does little to rule out its having been produced in Ireland or Northumbria for a Welsh or Mercian ecclesiastic centre. Furthermore, it is very difficult to discern whether the same hand wrote the text, the gospels and dry-point glosses unless the letters show signs of
132-414: A later development in style. Dry-point glosses are etched into the vellum rather than produced by a smooth flow of a quill over a writing surface. G. Charles-Edwards and H. McKee believe they have identified such features, elements of the letters in the glosses that appear to be a late-9th-century invention, in response to Carolingian minuscule . Therefore, it is likely that these glosses were additions after
165-570: A unique example of early Welsh prose recording the details of the resolution of a land dispute. These two inscriptions have been dated to the mid-9th century. The marginalia were edited by John Gwenogvryn Evans with John Rhys in their 1893 edition of the Book of Llandaff . Gifford Thomas-Edwards and Helen McKee have also identified nine dry-point glosses – glosses that are scratched into parchment without ink and so are only visible from an angle and hard to decipher. The first and final groups of three are decipherable as Anglo-Saxon personal names and it
198-697: Is also true of other scripts written in Ireland and England). Letters following a large initial at the start of a paragraph or section often gradually diminish in size as they are written across a line or a page, until the normal size is reached, which is called a "diminuendo" effect, and is a distinctive Insular innovation, which later influenced Continental illumination style. Letters with ascenders ( b , d , h , l , etc.) are written with triangular or wedge-shaped tops. The bows of letters such as b , d , p , and q are very wide. The script uses many ligatures and has many unique scribal abbreviations , along with many borrowings from Tironian notes . Insular script
231-792: Is credited with saving the remaining volume. The book was put on public display in 1982. The bishops of Lichfield still swear allegiance to the Crown on the Lichfield Gospels. Other Insular illuminated manuscripts of possible Welsh origin include the Ricemarch Psalter and the Hereford Gospels . The extant manuscript contains the Gospels of Matthew and Mark , and the early part of the Gospel of Luke . The Latin text
264-554: Is likely that the others are as well. In order, they appear in the glosses as follows: It is possible that there are other glosses on this text, and on other Insular gospel books, that are yet to be identified. The names themselves might be significant if they can be dated, as the provenance of the manuscript is uncertain. An 8th-century date would show that the gospel book was in Anglo-Saxon territory before arriving in Wales, whereas
297-538: Is now at Trinity College Dublin as MS 50. The Psalter was presented between 1064 and 1082 by a scribe named Ithael to his brother Rhygyfarch (Ricemarch in the Old Welsh orthography of the eleventh century), who was a resident of the school at St. David's . Their father, Sulien (Latinized as Sulgenus), who would eventually become the Bishop of St. David's in 1072, had previously lived in Ireland for 13 years for
330-619: Is thus called semi-uncial. The regularity of script suggests a single scribe; however, some evidence suggests that possibly four scribes copied the manuscript. The script forms strong links between the Lichfield manuscript and Northumbrian, Iona , and Irish manuscripts. The manuscript has two evangelist portraits (St Mark and St Luke); a carpet page , which so closely resembles the working technique of Eadfrith that it should be attributed to him; incipit pages for Matthew ( Lib of Liber ), Mark ( Ini of Initium ), and Luke ( Q of Quoniam );
363-581: Is used to refer to a diverse family of scripts used for different functions. At the top of the hierarchy was the Insular half-uncial (or "Insular majuscule "), used for important documents and sacred text. The full uncial , in a version called "English uncial", was used in some English centres. Then "in descending order of formality and increased speed of writing" came "set minuscule ", "cursive minuscule" and "current minuscule". These were used for non-scriptural texts, letters, accounting records, notes, and all
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#1732765830813396-697: Is written in a single column and is based on the Vulgate . The manuscript has almost 2000 variances from the Vulgate, almost a third of which it shares with the Hereford Gospels . There are fewer variations in the text that agree with the MacRegol Gospels and the Book of Armagh ; 370 agree with the Book of Kells and 62 with the Lindisfarne Gospels . The script is predominantly Insular majuscule but has some uncial characteristics and
429-798: The Lindisfarne Gospels . Insular script was used not only for Latin religious books, but also for every other kind of book, including vernacular works. Examples include the Book of Kells , the Cathach of St. Columba , the Ambrosiana Orosius , the Durham Gospel Fragment , the Book of Durrow , the Durham Gospels , the Echternach Gospels , the Lindisfarne Gospels , the Lichfield Gospels ,
462-628: The St. Gall Gospel Book , and the Book of Armagh . Insular script was influential in the development of Carolingian minuscule in the scriptoria of the Carolingian empire. In Ireland, Insular script was superseded in c. 850 by Late Insular script; in England, it was followed by a form of Caroline minuscule . The Tironian et , ⟨⁊⟩ – equivalent of ampersand ⟨&⟩ –
495-475: The Staffordshire Hoard . But without definitive evidence, this debate is likely to continue. Based upon style, the actual making of the book may be placed between 698 and 800. Patterns of interlaced birds on the cross- carpet page (p. 216) strikingly resemble the ornament on a cross shaft from Aberlady , Lothian , a Northumbrian site of the mid-8th century: the author/artist of the book and
528-550: The drypoint writing in the Lichfield Gospels. One drypoint entry on p. 226 shows the contributions of women during the early medieval period: its listing of three Anglo-Saxon female names suggests that women worked in the scriptorium at Lichfield. Scholars view four places as possible sites for the making of the Lichfield Gospels: Ireland, Northumbria , Wales, and Lichfield . Paleographic and stylistic similarities link it to Northumbria and Iona :
561-636: The Gospels had been moved to Lichfield. Insular script Insular script is a medieval script system originating in Ireland that spread to England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity . Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they founded monasteries, such as Bobbio . The scripts were also used in monasteries, like Fulda , which were influenced by English missionaries. They are associated with Insular art , of which most surviving examples are illuminated manuscripts . It greatly influenced modern Gaelic type and handwriting. The term "Insular script"
594-409: The beginning lines of the manuscript pages are typical of other illuminated manuscripts of the time, with colorful Celtic interlace with animals. It is likely that Ithael wrote the text, while John provided the large initials and miniatures . The designs, while limited in variety, are highly regarded by scholars of illuminated manuscripts. Other Insular illuminated manuscripts from Wales may include
627-469: The earliest extant written Welsh. The first records in Latin the gift of the manuscript "to God on the altar of St Teilo " by a man named Gelhi, who had bought the manuscript for the price of his best horse from Cingal. In her treatment of the Book of Kells, Françoise Henry reported Lichfield's provenance in similar terms: "The Book of Lichfield was exchanged for a horse in the late eighth century and given to
660-404: The earliest known examples of written Old Welsh , dating to the early part of the 8th century. The art historian Peter Lord dates the book at 730, placing it chronologically before the Book of Kells but after the Lindisfarne Gospels . Marginal entries indicate that the manuscript was in the possession of the church of St Teilo in Wales at some point in the 9th century and eventually came into
693-519: The following sections: Letter of St. Jerome to Chromatius and Elidorus ; Breviarius Apostolorum; Martyrologium Hieronymianum, and Various Tables. It is one of two surviving manuscripts from the scriptorium at Llanbadarn Fawr in Wales , established by the father of the scribe and the first owner. The other is a manuscript of St. Augustine 's De Trinitate in Cambridge, by the same scribe. The psalter
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#1732765830813726-449: The font making all the relevant substitutions; the insular letters [proposed here] are for use only by specialists who require them for particular purposes. Ricemarch Psalter The Ricemarch Psalter is an 11th-century Welsh illuminated psalter , in a late Insular style, that has been described as "Hiberno-Danish", instead of the usual " Hiberno-Saxon ", as it reflects Viking influence. Its 159 pages are vellum , and include
759-487: The full alphabet correctly, a suitable display font should be chosen. To display the specialist characters, there are several fonts that may be used; three free ones that support these characters are Junicode , Montagel, and Quivira. Gentium and Charis SIL support the alphabetic letters (U+A77x and U+A78x). According to Michael Everson , in the 2006 Unicode proposal for these characters: To write text in an ordinary Gaelic font , only ASCII letters should be used,
792-541: The other types of written documents. The scripts developed in Ireland in the 7th century and were used as late as the 19th century, though its most flourishing period fell between 600 and 850. They were closely related to the uncial and half-uncial scripts, their immediate influences; the highest grade of Insular script is the majuscule Insular half-uncial, which is closely derived from Continental half-uncial script. Works written in Insular scripts commonly use large initial letters surrounded by red ink dots (although this
825-546: The painting techniques resemble those of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells . Some scholars interpret the Welsh marginalia as indicating that this great gospel book was likely written in Wales, perhaps at Llandeilo Fawr or other site in South Wales. However, in 1980, Wendy Stein made an extensive argument for Lichfield, viewing Wales as unlikely but Ireland and Northumbria as still possible. In 1996, by studying
858-550: The possession of Lichfield Cathedral during the 10th century. The manuscript was rebound in 1962 by Roger Powell ; it was then discovered that the pages had been trimmed during the rebinding of 1707, and the manuscript had been cut into single leaves in the rebinding of 1862. In 2010, Bill Endres, then at the University of Kentucky, led efforts to digitise the manuscript. In 2014, Endres returned to Lichfield Cathedral and used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to capture
891-480: The purpose of study; the decoration is heavily influenced by contemporary Irish styles. It is possible that Rhygyfarch penned a few sections of the manuscript himself, as the hand is not always consistent. He certain composed several verses himself, even if he did not scribe those sections of manuscript. Hugh Jackson Lawlor is of the opinion that the psalter was not written primarily by Rhygyfarch himself, as mentioned above, unlike other scholars. The large initials in
924-514: The sanctuary of S. Tellio at Llandaff where it remained until the tenth century, when it was transferred to the Cathedral of Lichfield." The "altar of St Teilo" has in the past been associated with the monastery at Llandaff but, as it has been determined that the third, fourth and sixth marginal inscriptions refer to lands within fifteen miles of Llandeilo Fawr , it is now thought that the book spent time there. The second such inscription contains
957-469: The sculptor of the cross-shaft ornament may have had a similar source for their designs. Although it is unknown how the book came to be in Lichfield, it was certainly there by the end of the 10th century. The opening folio contains a faded signature reading Wynsige presul , which probably refers to the Wynsige who was Bishop of Lichfield from about 963 to 972–5. Folio 4 contains a reference to Leofric, who
990-558: The type of paper, pigmentation, and style of text, researcher Pamela James concluded that the most likely place of origin for the manuscript was Lichfield itself. In 2003, the discovery of the Lichfield Angel , an Anglo-Saxon stone carving of an angel that had been buried in Lichfield Cathedral, provided further evidence for that conclusion. Sharp (2016) has drawn similarities to motifs in the Gospels with goldwork in
1023-497: Was bishop from 1020 to 1026. Wherever the book originated and however it came to Lichfield, it has been there since the 10th century. In 1646, during the English Civil War , Lichfield Cathedral was sacked and its library looted. The books and manuscripts were given to Frances, Duchess of Somerset , who returned them in 1672 or 1673. This is probably when the second volume of the Gospels was lost. Precentor William Higgins
Lichfield Gospels - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-613: Was in widespread use in the script (meaning agus 'and' in Irish, and ond 'and' in Old English ) and is occasionally continued in modern Gaelic typefaces derived from Insular script. Unicode treats representation of letters of the Latin alphabet written in insular script as a typeface choice that needs no separate coding. Only a few Insular letters have specific code-points because they are used by phonetic specialists. To render
1089-553: Was spread to England by the Hiberno-Scottish mission ; previously, uncial script had been brought to England by Augustine of Canterbury . The influences of both scripts produced the Insular script system. Within this system, the palaeographer Julian Brown identified five grades, with decreasing formality: Brown has also postulated two phases of development for this script, Phase II being mainly influenced by Roman uncial examples, developed at Wearmouth-Jarrow and typified by
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