A MONK OF LINDISFARNE ABBEY. The Life of Saint Cuthbert. Written anonymously about the year A.D. 700. [By a monk of Lindisfarne Abbey]. With forty-five full-page illuminations from the Lawson MS. End of Twelfth Century. Edited by W. Forbes-Leith.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION

Edinburgh: Printed [by Scott and Ferguson] for Private Circulation, 1888. Small folio. pp. xii, 43, 45 unnumbered pages, 45 unnumbered leaves of plates. Each plate has a leaf of explanatory text facing. Quarter vellum parchment on red cloth boards, title in gilt along spine; floral patterened endpapers. One of 105 copies only. Top edge gilt. From the library of Shane Leslie with his decorative bookplate on front pastedown. Inscribed and signed by Shane Leslie “Shane Leslie / privately printed - big paper / Glaslough.” Later bookplate on verso of front endpaper. A near fine copy.

Added title page reads: by a monk of Lindisfarne Abbey.
A handsome private-press production reproducing the celebrated twelfth-century Lawson Manuscript of the Life of Saint Cuthbert, one of the most important saints of the early Northumbrian Church. The text, attributed to a monk of Lindisfarne Abbey and written circa A.D. 700, provides a near-contemporary account of the saint whose cult flourished throughout Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages.
The splendid series of forty-five full-page illuminations makes this one of the most attractive nineteenth-century publications devoted to the artistic and spiritual heritage of Lindisfarne.
An especially desirable copy from the library of Sir Shane Leslie (1885-1971), author, diplomat, and cousin of Winston Churchill, whose deep interest in Irish history, Celtic Christianity, and the Catholic revival is reflected in his ownership inscription. Scarce, particularly in such well-preserved condition and with this distinguished provenance.

[CAT 164]