“Irish and Hiberno-Saxon Art”: The Echternach Gospels

The remaining manuscripts in this class on Irish and Hiberno-Saxon art lead us away from Irish monastic foundations in northern England to areas that employ, either in entirety or in part, the Hiberno-Saxon style. 

The Northumbrian missionary monk Willibrord founded the monastery of Echternach at the end of the seventh century, and the Echternach Gospels (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat. 9389) date to the late 7th, early 8th century.  The Echternach Gospels begin the migration of insular forms and ideas either as a manuscript taken from Northumbria to Echternach or as a manuscript created at this Northumbrian foundation on the continent (yet another theory for its origin exists, but it has not gained any traction, and until it does, I do not consider it necessary to include it in an upper-level survey).

Like the Book of Durrow, the Echternach Gospels display full-page representations of the symbols of the Evangelists.  Like the Lindisfarne Gospels, IMAGO HOMINIS/LEONIS/VITULI/AQUILE labels each symbol, and each symbol prefaces its Gospel.  For the Gospel of Matthew, however, the symbol faces the XPI AUTEM of Matthew 1.18, and the LIBER GENERATIONIS of Matthew 1.1 appears on the following recto.  If anyone can explain this curious dis-ordering of the text, please comment.

One may discuss the various explanations for why Matthew’s man has a frame filled in with interlace, while the other Symbols have empty frames.  Each symbol also compares well with its counterpart in the Book of Durrow. 

Mandragore presents all the illuminated folios.  Search for “Latin 9389″ under Cote.  These images, however, do not provide enough detail for the close examination of each symbol.  Marcel Durliat’s Des barbares a‘ l’an mil publishes large, clear images of Matthew’s Man and Mark’s Lion.