Book of Durrow
The Book of Durrow (Book of Durrow, Latin Codex Durmachensis, Irish Leabhar Dharú ) is the oldest Irish- Saxon copy of the Biblical Gospels. This richly illustrated work is in the period 650-700 AD dated AD and was probably made in a founded by Columban of Iona in the 6th century monastery at Durrow ( County Offaly, Ireland), where it is located since at least 916 proven, or on the island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland. In 1661 it was common with the Book of Kells, in addition to which it is regarded as a masterpiece of the insular manuscript illumination, passed to the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The Book of Durrow is nearly completely preserved, and includes 248 pages. The codex is written in Irish majuscule and consists of Vulgate texts. The main colors are bright red, yellow, green and brownish black. The style of the book decoration is simple and unobtrusive.
The first page of the book has features that have been discovered in many other manuscripts, which originated on the island. An essential feature of the carpet pages, a medieval form of illustrated manuscripts, which usually forms the beginning of gospel books. They are known since the 7th century. On the carpet pages, the symbols of the four evangelists are depicted. The spiral ornament of the pages and the arrangement of the four icons you rarely find in later gospel books of the British Isles.
The book of Matthew contains a page on which the symbol of Matthew ( winged man) is presented; on one of the other of the three illustrated pages are initials with an ornament. Each of the four Gospels contains three illustrated pages ( jewelry pages): A page with the respective symbol of the evangelist, one with illustrated initials and a carpet page. The books of Mark, Luke and John contain three illustrated pages, the representations of their symbols, but unlike in other Gospels (Mark - Adler, Lukas - Veal, John - Lion) a carpet side and the initials.
On the last page of the Book of Durrow to recognize a interlocking intertwined pattern. The initials are spread throughout the text. Many of the themes have their origin in manuscripts in the British Isles or of Irish monks on the European mainland ( Abbey Bobbio / Italy) were written.
Besides the four Gospels, the Book of Durrow includes a letter of St. Jerome ( " Novum Opus " ), a glossary of Hebrew names for the Gospel of Matthew, canon tables of Eusebius, chapter headings and summaries of the Gospels. At the end of the book an important document via a land sale in the 11th century was attached.
The Book of Durrow was, unlike, for example in older manuscripts of the island, a greater Germanic influence suspended; with Coptic and Italian iconographic testimonies the work has been compared. The lack of plant and animal motifs in the initial decoration, and the abstract and illustrated exemplary symbols suggested to many scholars to believe that the Book of Durrow was written before the documents drawn up by 700 Book of Lindisfarne.