The golden days of the early English church : from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede . ia at this time seems to me quiteincredible. The two monasteries over which Ceolfrid presidedwere very young. The books in their libraries, the ornamentsfor the churches, everything required for the ritual and serviceof the Church (so far as we know from the Life of BenedictBiscop), had been brought from Italy or Gaul, and the possibilityof such works as these three magnificent codices being turnedout of the scriptoria of the two convents at this time seems quiteincredible. Even Dr. Hort and Mr. W
The golden days of the early English church : from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede . ia at this time seems to me quiteincredible. The two monasteries over which Ceolfrid presidedwere very young. The books in their libraries, the ornamentsfor the churches, everything required for the ritual and serviceof the Church (so far as we know from the Life of BenedictBiscop), had been brought from Italy or Gaul, and the possibilityof such works as these three magnificent codices being turnedout of the scriptoria of the two convents at this time seems quiteincredible. Even Dr. Hort and Mr. White, who hold this view,postulate that Ceolfrid must have brought an Italian scribe withhim; but surely three enormous pandects like these, requiringparchments of very large size and quality, could never have beenproduced in Northumbria at this time by the hands of onescribe or of two scribes. They must have come from a practisedand well-known school of writers and scribes, and such a schoolcould only at this time have been found in South Italy. It must1 Plummer, Bede, ii. 360. 2 Ib. i. FIGURE OF ST. MATTHEW, CLEARLY COPIED FROM THKSIMILAR FIGURE IN THE CODEX AMIATIXUS ON THEPREVIOUS PAGE, FORMING THE FRONTISPIECE TO HISGOSPEL IN THE LlNDISFARNE MS. [Iol. III., facing/>. 328. APPENDIX V 329 be remembered that it is not only the size and quality of theparchment and the beauty of the writing in this MS. whichare so attractive, but the accuracy and excellence of the text. My readers will remember the plaintive language used byBede about the very indifferent provision for manuscript writingthat existed in the monasteries with which he had such closeties, and how he had himself to perform most of the drudgery ofcopying. Again, if it had been produced in Northumbria we shouldsurely have found some traces of Northumbrian art in it suchas we find in what I take to be its real Northumbrian daughter—namely, the Lindisfarne Gospels, a work of much more moderatesize, but teemin
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