Book Arts Tuesday-Lindisfarne Gospels

A fascinating microscopic look at the lettering and illumination in the Lindisfarne Gospels from the British Library.

Here's a sample:

Tiny drops of red/orange colour produced from toasted lead are found throughout the Lindisfarne Gospels creating outlines, patterns and backgrounds for many of the folios. This type of decoration often appears in early Irish manuscripts. In Figure 1 a section of the initial page of the Gospel of St Luke on folio 139r was analysed with image processing software to determine the number of dots. 1,939 dots were found in just this one example area. It is no wonder that the manuscript’s production was costly both in time and materials!

And some history of the Lindisfarne Gospels also from the British Library.

Thanks to Diane McDougall-Desautelle of Thistleworks Design Calligraphy Studio for the alert to this on the Masscribes facebook page.