Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Saint Petersburg)
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a manuscript of the work of the same name by Beda Venerabilis . It was probably created between 731 and 746 in Jarrow Monastery and is the oldest surviving European manuscript with an illuminated initial .
It consists of 162 pages in the format 270 mm × 190 mm. At the beginning of the second chapter, the head of a saint is depicted in the first letter. It is unclear which person was meant, " Augustine " (of Canterbury) was added later, Gregory the Great or someone else would be more likely , the tonsure makes a representation of Christ seem unlikely.
The manuscript is now in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg under the signature Latin Q. v. I. 18 .
literature
- Meyer Schapiro, The Decoration of the Leningrad Manuscript of Bede , in Selected Papers , Vol. 3: Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art , 1980, Chatto & Windus, London, ISBN 0-7011-2514-4