The Travelling Bibles
This is the story of Ceolfrith (642–716), abbot of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria, and the three great Bibles that he commissioned. Of those monumental manuscripts, only one survived intact, Codex Amiatinus, now in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence. Fragments of another Ceolfrith Bible arrived at the British Library after many long journeys. We will try to follow in their footsteps.
We know that Ceolfrith commissioned three Bibles because this ambitious project was recorded in two related early 8th-century accounts. These accounts also reveal that two of the Bibles were meant to go to each of his twin monasteries: St Paul in Jarrow and St Peter in Monkwearmouth.
We are not exactly sure what happened to these manuscripts, but one of them might have been a manuscript known as the Great Bible, recorded in the possession of Worcester Cathedral by at least the 11th century. Possibly, the precious Bible had been a gift to Worcester from Offa (d. 796), king of the Mercians.
King Offa depicted in The Benefactors' Book of St Albans Abbey. Detail of British Library Cotton MS Nero D VII
If you want to know more about King Offa and his relationship with the Ceolfrith Bibles, you can read this previous blogpost about it.
We don’t know exactly how the manuscript left Worcester (or if it was definitely there at any point), but we believe that it spent some time in a monastery somewhere in the Midlands. There, around the 14th century, chapter numbers and notes were added in a red ink.
You can check out the red marks using the British Library viewer .
Detail of Add MS 45025
The Greenwell Leaf (MS 37777) shows red marks very similar to those of the Ceolfrith Bible (MS 45025).
Those red marks on the surviving folios also connect this fragment with another surviving fragment, known as the Greenwell Leaf (or MS 37777), suggesting they were likely part of the same original manuscript.
We’ll follow the travels of the Greenwell Leaf too, but you can also compare the red marks yourself, on the British Library viewer .
After many years some fragments of this Bible resurfaced in the 16th century, when they were used as wrappers for legal documents in the estate of the Willoughby family in Nottinghamshire. If you look at the digitised leaves on the on the British Library viewer , you can see information about the legal documents scribbled on them.
A detail of the new, more utilitarian, marks on the fragments of the Ceolfrith Bible.
The importance of the fragments was finally recognised when they appeared in the list of the manuscripts officially preserved by the then current Lord Middleton, in the 1911 inventory of his personal collections, at Wollaton Hall.
In 1937 the fragments were purchased from Lord Middleton for the British Museum by the Friends of the National Libraries. Since then, they have remained in the care of the British Museum and then the British Library (Add MS 45025).
Detail from Bede, Prose Life of Cuthbert (Yates Thompson MS 26). You can admire this manuscript on the BL viewer
Let's return to those red marks on the surviving leaves. These marks also connect the Middleton Leaves with another surviving fragment, known as the Greenwell Leaf (Add MS 37777).
When were the Middleton Leaves and the Greewell Leaf separated, and when did they meet again? We think from the red marks that they share, that they were both, at a point in time, in a monastery somewhere in the Midlands, where the additions were made. This also strongly suggests that all the fragments come from the same Bible, one of the original three that Ceolfrith commissioned.
Were the two groups of fragments also together on the Willoughby Estate? We really don't know. What we know is that the Greenwell Leaf turned up in the personal collection of Reverend William Greenwell (1820-1930), who was an archaeologist and librarian of Durham Cathedral Library. Greenwell said that he had bought the leaf from a bookshop in Newcastle, where he spotted the ancient parchment used as binding of an old register dated 1780.
A portrait of Rev. William Greenwell. Image copyright Durham Cathedral
You can read more about Greenwell and his fascinating legacy on his wiki page.
In 1909 Greenwell decided to present the leaf to the British Museum. The Greenwell Leaf is now part of the collection of the British Library, along with the other Ceolfrith Bible fragments.
The new leaf, known as the Bankes Fragment. Image copyright National Trust
But the story of the Ceolfrith Bibles goes on. In 1982 a new fragment, sometimes known as the Bankes Fragment (NT 3174715), was identified.
The new leaf was discovered at Kingston Lacy in 1982, used to wrap Tudor documents relating to the 1585 sale of lands in Dorset belonging to Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton. You can read more about its discovery on the National Trust website .
Sir Francis Willoughby (1547–1596). Portrait by George Gower (1573). Public Domain
The manuscript was bequeathed by Ralph Bankes (1902 – 1981) to the National Trust, together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and their entire contents in 1981.
The National Trust placed the Bankes leaf on long-term loan at the British Library (Loan MS 81), reuniting all known surviving leaves of this fragmentary Ceolfrith Bible.
But what about the third of the Bibles commissioned by Ceolfrith? The abbot hoped to bring it himself to the church of Saint Peter, in the city of Rome.
The first page of the manuscript was inscribed with his dedication: ‘from Ceolfrith, abbot from the far-off lands of the Angles to the shrine of St Peter in Rome’.
01 / 05
1
Jarrow: the travel begins
According to historical sources, Ceolfrith and his companions started their journey from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in the year 716, carrying the precious Bible he had commissioned for the Pope.
2
Sailing from the River Humber
It is believed that Ceolfrith and his followers boarded a boat for the Continent at the mouth of the River Humber on 4 July.
3
Arriving in the Land of the Gauls
Ceolfrith landed in the north of France and began travelling overland to Rome, but his health started deteriorating fast. He died in the town of Langres on 29 September 716.
4
The Eternal City
Sadly, Ceolfrith never managed to see the beautiful Bible he carried ‘from the land of the Angles’ arriving in Rome, but an early account of Ceolfrith’s life reports that his monks continued the journey and fulfilled their abbot’s dream of delivering the Bible to the Pope. The account also contains a copy of a letter from the Pope praising the wonderful gift.
If you want to learn more about the adventurous travels of Ceolfrith and his monks, you can read more about it in this blogpost written by the British Library's manuscripts experts.
5
Codex Amiatinus
But the story is not over yet. By the 9th century, the beautiful Bible that Ceolfrith had tried to bring to Rome had found its way into an Italian monastery, San Salvatore del Monte Amiata, in Tuscany. We don't know exactly how it got there, but Ceolfrith's dedication to the Pope was modified to make it look like a gift from another abbot, Peter of the Lombards, to the monastery of Monte Amiata.
You can easily spot Peter's modifications in a differently coloured ink on the dedication page.
The dedication of the Codex Amiatinus as it appears now, after Peter Lombard's modifications.
In the late 18th century, Codex Amiatinus was transferred to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence where it remains to this day. It was only in 1887 that a scholar was able to decipher Ceolfrith’s inscription and recognised Codex Amiatinus’ true identity as one of the great Bibles produced more than 1,500 miles away in Northumbria at the beginning of the 8th century under the supervision of Abbot Ceolfrith.
The Codex Amiatinus is an extraordinary survival, and, along with the other Ceolfrith Bible fragments, a remarkable legacy of Northumbrian monastic culture. The history of these manuscripts is intricately linked to the places where they were made, taken and preserved.
You can trace back their steps virtually, using our digital maps and resources, or you can visit in person those beautiful sites, surrounded by the aura of centuries of history.
