Codex Amiatinus and its “Sister” Bibles: Scripture, Liturgy, and Art in the Milieu of the Venerable Bede

Celia Chazelle teaches at The College of New Jersey. She is author of The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era (Cambridge, 2001) and has edited and co-edited multiple volumes on medieval topics, including Why the Middle Ages Matter (New York, 2011). She was elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 2019.

• ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Color PlatesList of FiguresList of Maps and TablesList of AbbreviationsMaps1 Wearmouth–Jarrow and the Context of the Codex AmiatinusPart 1. The Wearmouth–Jarrow Bibles1 Wearmouth, Jarrow, and Ceolfrith’s Last Journey 2 The Codex Amiatinus3 Other Wearmouth–Jarrow Biblical Manuscripts4 Full Bibles Made for Wearmouth–Jarrow5 The Codex Amiatinus as Bible Witness 6 Aims and Approach in this Book7 A Case of Mistaken Identity8 Art Historians and AmiatinusPart 2. Bibles and Their Contexts1 The Narrative Evidence2 Wearmouth–Jarrow and its Environs3 The Easter Controversy4 Wilfrid, Theodore, Biscop, and Ceolfrith5 The Archcantor John, Liturgy, and Monotheletism6 Wearmouth–Jarrow, Kings, and Bishops7 The Years 710–c.7168 Wearmouth–Jarrow and its Bibles2 Bede, Monasticism, and ScripturePart 1. The Monastic Life and Scripture’s Moral Teachings1 Introduction2 Hermits and Coenobites3 Preaching and Teaching 4 Approaches to Scripture5 Biblical History6 Exploring Scripture’s Figurative Senses 7 Moralizing Exegesis8 ContextsPart 2. Misinterpreting Scripture 1 Correcting the Errant2 Eschatology, Easter Reckoning, and Free Will and Grace3 Easter Reckoning4 Grace, Free Will, and the Possibility of Innocence5 Perspectives3 The Wearmouth–Jarrow Full Bible ManuscriptsPart 1. The Manuscripts1 Introduction2 The Codex Amiatinus Biblical Manuscript3 Amiatinus’ Biblical Prefaces4 Amiatinus’ Capitula5 The Biblical Recension 6 Writing and Text Layout in Amiatinus7 Heterogeneity8 Biblical Text Subdivisions and Their Articulation9 Liturgical Texts10 The Biblical Manuscript and Its Exemplars11 The Canon Tables12 The British Library FoliosPart 2. Assessing the Manuscript Evidence1 Amiatinus, the British Library Folios, and Possible Production Sites2 Chronology of Production 3 The Implications of the Bankes Leaf4 The Possible Priority of the Codex Amiatinus 5 Dating Amiatinus’ Biblical Manuscript6 Dating the British Library Folios7 The Possible Scope of Wearmouth–Jarrow Bible Production 8 A Bible for York?9 Pandectes4 Bibles and Reading at Wearmouth-JarrowPart 1. Architecture, Art, and Liturgy at Wearmouth–Jarrow1 Introduction2 Settings of Worship 3 Artistic Elements4 Extra-Liturgical Reading and Meditation5 Rome and Christology6 The Liturgy7 Scriptural Manuscripts at Wearmouth and Jarrow8 Scripture in Rome’s LiturgyPart 2. Amiatinus, Liturgy, and the Sister Bibles1 Jarrow’s Foundation and Biscop’s Death 2 Bibles for Reading3 Amiatinus and Grandior4 Writing a Sister Bible5 Dynamic Processes of Production6 Oriented Reading: The Roles of the Capitula 7 Amiatinus’ Sister Bibles at Wearmouth and Jarrow8 A Gift to Rome5 The Preliminary Gathering and Painting of the Glorified Christ1 Introduction2 Grandior and the Christian Topography3 Amiatinus’ Preliminary Gathering by June4 Folios 1/I Verso–4/V Recto: The Dedication and Ezra Portrait5 Folio 3/IV: The Purple Leaf6 Folios 2/II Verso–7/III Recto: The Wilderness Tabernacle7 Folios 5/VI Recto, 8/VIII Recto, and 6/VII Recto: The Three Biblical Diagrams8 Folio 6/VII Verso: The Pentateuch Cross9 Folio 796 Verso: The Glorified Christ (Maiestas Christi)10 The Preliminary Gathering, the Glorified Christ, Grandior, and Rome6 A Gift for St. Peter1 Introduction2 Sacred Space, Sacred Unity3 The Prophet Ezra4 The Wilderness Tabernacle5 The Pentateuch Cross6 The Glorified Christ7 Amiatinus and the Wider World7 Connecting Past to Present1 Introduction2 The Wearmouth–Jarrow Bible-Making Enterprise3 The Gift Bible4 The Manuscripts after5.   Afterword: Commemorating the Gift to Rome TodayAppendix: Codicological Summary of the Codex Amiatinus Biblical Select BibliographyPlates and Figures following pageIndex

"Celia Chazelle is to be warmly congratulated for offering what can justly be described as the first comprehensive account of this monument of early medieval book production, putting knowledge about Codex Amiatinus, Wearmouth-Jarrow and its biblical culture on a new footing. Potential users--and there ought to be many--should be aware that, notwithstanding the many helpful subdivisions into which the text is organised, this is not a work that can easily be skimmed or sampled. On the contrary, a proper understanding of any individual point presupposes reading the book in its entirety". Richard Gameson, in The Medieval Review, August 2020. "Les publications de Celia Chazelle sur le Christ crucifié ou bien la théologie de la liturgie (en particulier del’eucharistie) sont bien connues des médiévistes et appartiennent sans aucun doute à la catégorie des lectures indispensables. Le livre publié parl’a. en 2019 sur un «monument» majeur de la théologie, de la liturgie et del’histoire del’art duh aut Moyen Âge fera lui aussi date et s’imposera rapidement comme un«classique» indispensable au près des médiévistes de tout bord. [...] .L’ouvrage dont il est question ici est un véritable modèle du genre, où toutes les hypothèses proposées par l’a., sur la base d’arguments très solides et parfaitement démontrés,emportent l’adhésion sans réserve aucune. [...] Ce livre n’est en aucun cas une monographie sur le célèbre codex Amiatinus aujourd’hui conservé à Florence (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, ms. Amiatino 1) réalisé au VIIe-VIIIe s. au monastère anglais de Wearmouth-Jarrrow. Se situant bien au-de là d’une monographie «classique» consacrée à un manuscrit qui se contenterait de passer successivement en revue la codicologie, le texte et les enluminures, C. Chazelle prend appui sur ce manuscrit clé et ce qu’elle appelle avec élégance ses bibles « sœurs » pour offrir au lecteur un panorama d’une rare acuité sur la théologie, la liturgie et la pensée chrétienne dans le monde anglo-saxon dans le haut Moyen Âge. [...] Le livre de C.Chazelle est à tous égards une grande réussite où les hypothèses et arguments, servis par une remarquable érudition,emportent l’adhésion". Éric Palazzo, in Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, 2020. "In the first comprehensive monograph on the Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatino 1), Celia Chazelle has richly contextualized and proposed a new chronology for the series of “full Bibles” produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow in the early decades of the eighth century. The author considers not only the Codex Amiatinus, the best-known and only complete surviving Wearmouth-Jarrow Bible, but also the British Library Folios, the surviving remnants of at least two large-scale “sister” Bibles produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow, and five additional “smaller format part-Bibles” from the same context. [...] Chazelle’s volume will most assuredly become essential reading on the Codex Amiatinus".Carol Neuman de Vegvar, in Speculum, 96 (3), July 2021. "What makes Celia’s Chazelle’s book, The Codex Amiatinus and Its “Sister” Bibles: Scripture, Liturgy, and Art in the Milieu of the Venerable Bede, stand out from the many others on Amiatinus—including a slew of works that celebrated 1,300th anniversary of Coelfrith’s departurewith it for Rome—is that she has tried to address its significance in the round. She uses it as a gateway into the biblical world of Bede, and then within that world she asks why these Northumbrian monks made such a massive investment in making three of these enormous bibles— [...] this is a study worthy of its object and will be welcomed by historians of the Bible as much as by Anglo-Saxonists and art historians. The work is enhanced by the sixty-five images in color and black-and-white illustrating what is being discussed in the book, and by a very useful summary of what is to be found on each of the 1030 folios of the manuscript (471–81). All in all, we are brought into the “life” of the codex." Thomas O’Loughlin, in Journal of British Studies Vol. 60:4, 2021."This book clearly aims to stimulate a lot more work on the Codex Amiatinus. The Codex has seen something of a flourishing of scholarship on it since the turn of the century, but Celia Chazelle's volume manages to both summate and challenge that literature in a way sure to guarantee that this star of early English manuscripts will not be out of the limelight soon."Conor O’Brien in Early Medieval Europe, Volume 29, Issue 3, August 2021, 428-430