The opening of St Mathew's Gospel in the Lindisfarne Gospels

This beautifully decorated copy of the four Gospels was made by a single artist-scribe (perhaps Bishop Eadfrith of Lindisfarne), probably working in the monastery of Lindisfarne around AD 715-720. A masterpiece of Insular culture (of the islands of Britain and Ireland), it skilfully blends artistic, calligraphic and textual components drawn from Celtic, Germanic and Mediterranean cultures. In the …