“Irish and Hiberno-Saxon Art”: The Earlier Durham Gospels

In this day’s class, we covered many manuscripts, including two known as the Durham Gospels.  For the sake of convenience, I called Durham Cathedral Library, MS A.II. 10 the Earlier Durham Gospels.  

Considered the earliest Hiberno-Saxon (ie., made at an Irish monastic foundation in England) illuminated manuscript, the Earlier Durham Gospels preserves two pages with decorated initials, which introduce interlace and polychromy. 

Folio 3v shows three superimposed Ds.  The Ds frame the explicit for Matthew, the incipit for Mark, and the Pater Noster.  Each D contains a different interlace pattern. This page provides a good exercise for the students in description: how does one describe each type of interlace to distinguish it from the other two?