The Lindisfarne Gospels is one of Britain’s greatest manuscript treasures and a landmark of the formation of its early identity. Made on Holy Island in Northumbria during the early 8th century, it brings together Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Continental and Near Eastern influences in a rich esperanto of art in which different traditions were celebrated and reconciled. It contains one of the best copies of St Jerome’s 4th-century Latin translation (the Vulgate), written in the Holy Land, and also the oldest surviving translation of the Gospels into the English language, added between its lines around 950, after the Vikings had settled the North and the heirs of Alfred the Great sought to regain it.

This year marks the 1300th anniversary of the death of its maker, Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne from 698-722. To mark it there will be a special exhibition at Wycliffe College, with two talks on 12 May by Professor Michelle Brown who is a leading expert on the manuscript and who for many years cared for and studied it as the Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. The first talk will explore the manuscript, its materials and workmanship and the second will set this remarkable book in its wider historical context and discuss its meaning and significance. On the afternoon of the 12th and the morning of 13th May, Professor Brown will lead a show and tell of the facsimile of the manuscript.