The Bible as Book: The Manuscript Tradition

Citation

Woodman, G. (1999), "The Bible as Book: The Manuscript Tradition", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 6, pp. 48-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.6.48.6

This collection of papers arose out of a conference held in May 1995 at Hampton Court, Herefordshire under the auspices of the Scriptorium: Centre for Christian Studies, which fulfils the double function of housing the Van Kampen Collection of rare Bibles and fostering research in the fields covered by the collection. The common theme is the Bible as a physical artefact before the invention of printing. The essays examine the production, decoration and binding of the Bible, how it was housed and presented, liturgically and otherwise. Coverage is of the entire period of manuscript production from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the eve of the invention of printing. The contributors are scholars from Britain and Ireland, Europe, Israel and North America.

The opening essay by Emanuel Tov provides detailed physical descriptions of the Dead Sea Scrolls from which inferences can be drawn about the working methods of the scribes who produced them. Many of the essays are similarly concerned with the technical aspects of manuscript book production. This is one of two contributions on Jewish themes. In the other Gabrielle Sed‐Rajna moves forward in time to consider illustrations in medieval Hebrew Bibles from France and Spain, looking at both the artistic influences and the didactic intentions of the illustrators. Three essays examine the Biblical tradition in early Christian Egypt. Stephen Emmel looks at the development of the codex as a vehicle for Christian literature and Thomas S. Pattie complements this essay with his description of the development of the great codices. The development of book collections is discussed by Bastiaan van Elderen in his chapter on early Christian libraries.

Moving West, the world of Ireland and Britain is the focus for another group of essays. Jennifer O′Reilly examines the decoration round the inscriptions of the name of Christ in perhaps the greatest Irish Bible manuscript, the Book of Kells. Fr Martin McNamara outlines recent research on the development and use of the Irish Psalter up to AD 1200 and suggests further lines of inquiry. Christopher Verey makes a strong case from textual evidence for Northumbrian, as well as Irish, influence on the Lindisfarne Gospels and other contemporary manuscripts. Richard Marsden′s survey of Anglo‐Saxon Bibles bridges the Anglo‐Saxon and early medieval worlds, introducing another theme of the collection, the development of the vernacular Bible.

A bridge between East and West is provided by Lucy‐Anne Hunt in her essay on cultural transmission, where she examines similarities between Western and Arab Christian manuscript decoration. Finding little evidence for contact between Coptic Egypt and the Celtic West, a field which has excited much romantic speculation, she concentrates instead on parallel development. Christopher de Hamel moves further into the medieval world with his outline of the structure and use of Books of Hours. Christina Von Nolsken brings us to the edge of the modern world and develops the theme of vernacular scriptures in her study of Lollard Bibles. Two later essays return to the subject of book production. Christopher Clarkson examines the visual evidence from manuscripts and frescoes for production techniques from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries. Moving further East, Sylvie L. Merian compares the bookmaking tradition of Armenia with those of Greece and Syria. As those familiar with his writing would expect, Andrew Louth provides a reflective theological conclusion in his exploration of the Byzantine, and subsequently of the Orthodox, attitude to scripture.

The Bible is not only the key religious but the key cultural text of our civilisation. These strands are reflected in this collection where there is much of interest to bibliographers and students of technology, to art historians and linguists as well as theologians and biblical scholars. Its own production, in binding, text and illustration, fully conforms to the high standards to be expected of a British Library publication.