The Lindisfarne Gospels

Three Volumes Luzern: Published by Faksimile Verlag, 2002. Numbered Limited Edition. One of 290 Replica ‘Jewelled’ Bindings. This is copy 125. Full velvet and metal binding, a faithful replica of the Victorian (1853) binding. With metalwork holding the ‘jewelled’ binding of (glass) replica garnets, amethysts, chrysophase, citrines, a central emerald and turquoise and ruby around it. With the title in genuine hand sewn silver thread to the spine. A fine copy.
The inhabitants of the border country of England and Scotland were converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries, who taught them to read and write, what a book was, and how it might be embellished. St. Aidan, an Irishman, was sent from Iona in 635 A.D. and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne, just off the Northumbrian coast and connected to the mainland by sands at low water. Sixty years after its founding the wonderful Gospel-book was created. The Book of Lindisfarne is a manuscript written on white calf-skin and illuminated by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne from 698 to 721 A.D. in accordance with the Celtic traditions bequeathed by the Irish founders of the community, who withdrew from Lindisfarne, after the Synod of Whitby, to Mayo of the Saxons. The codex contains the text of the four Gospels, each preceded by prefaces and a list of feasts on which a lesson from that Gospel should be read. It is in the Vulgate text, with an Old English paraphrase, written in Irish character. The book as a whole is elaborately illuminated, following the decorative formula of the Book of Durrow, but in a more developed and profuse style. Miraculously the Gospel book has come down to us. Owing to continuous Danish raids, the Lindisfarne community, tired of wandering about, decided to go to Ireland and settle there. They embarked with their precious relics at the mouth of the River Derwent, but were turned back by a great storm, in the course of which the Gospels were washed overboard. Whether by divine intervention or not they were found next day undamaged on the estuarine sands, three miles from the shore.
This Fine Art Facsimile is a faithful recreation of the original manuscript Cotton MS Nero D iv preserved in the British Library, London. This Edition is published in a unique limited edition 290 copies, bound in replicas of the current original Victorian binding.
The digital prepress work necessary for the reproduction, printing and reproduction of the gold was carried out by the facsimile department of Print & Art, Graz. The replicas of the original Victorian binding of 1852 were produced under the guidance of the restoration expert André Glauser, Fräschels. The bookbinding artwork was done by the workshops of Burkhardt bookbinders in Mönch- altorf, Zurich. Complete with 2 additional cloth bound volumes. The first in English, a commentary by Michelle P. Brown from the British Library bound in cloth with a blue leather label. The second in German and English also by Brown. Also included is a VHS video on the Gospels by the British Library.

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