Cultural Interplay in the Eighth Century
The Trier Gospels and the Makings of a Scriptorium at Echternach

This is the first detailed study of the Trier Gospels manuscript and its implications for early book production.

Nancy Netzer (Author)

9780521090513, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 November 2008

328 pages, 177 b/w illus. 1 table
24.4 x 17 x 1.7 cm, 0.53 kg

A detailed study of the Trier Gospels, an important early medieval manuscript. Through an investigation of its production, Professor Netzer reveals the cross-cultural influences among the Insular, Continental and Mediterranean worlds in the eighth century, demonstrating in particular the complicated process of cultural interplay that took place in the scriptorium at Echternach. She traces the history of the production of the manuscript through a detailed analysis of its components: the individual texts, construction and arrangement of gatherings, scripts, ornamental initials, canon tables and illustrations. She sheds light on the manuscript's sources, on the different backgrounds of the two scribe-artists involved in its production, on the influences which determined the size and layout of the codex, the role of the pictures within the book, and the place of this manuscript in the development of Insular and Continental book production. This study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of early medieval book production and the influence of missionaries from the British Isles on early Continental culture.

List of plates
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Evidence for a scriptorium at Echternach in the eighth century
2. Text
3. Construction of the codex
4. Script
5. Decorated initials
6. Canon tables
7. Incipit page with archangels
8. Portraits of the evangelists
9. Four-symbols page
10. Tetramorph
11. Conclusions
Appendices A-R
Plates
List of works cited by abbreviated titles
Manuscript index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Palaeography [history of writing CFL]