Benedictional of St Æthelwold
The Benedictional of St Æthelwold (London,
The manuscript is decorated on an extremely lavish scale, and is generally accepted as the masterpiece of late
A wide range of colours, many overpainted to achieve a different effect, and much gold and silver are used. The style of the miniatures is characterized by brilliant colour and exuberant acanthus ornament.[2] Influences from
History
The manuscript was made sometime between 963 and 984, probably during the 970s. Folios 4r and 5v contain a Latin inscription which describes how the manuscript came to be made.
A bishop, the great Æthelwold, whom the Lord had made patron of Winchester, ordered a certain monk subject to him to write the present book . . . He commanded also to be made in this book many frames well adorned and filled with various figures decorated with many beautiful colours and with gold. This book the Boanerges aforesaid caused to be indited for himself . . . Let all who look upon this book pray always that after the term of the flesh I may abide in heaven Û Godeman the scribe, as a suppliant, earnestly asks this
Æthelwold I was Bishop of Winchester from 29 November 963 until his death on 1 August 984, so the manuscript was produced between those dates. The benediction for the Feast of
The scribe, Godeman, was a monk at the
It is assumed that the Benedictional remained at Winchester after Æthelwold's death. However, the binding was reinforced with a 15th-century list of relics at
Text
The
Illustrations
The miniature on f. 102v for the
Notes
References
- British Library (ed.), "Catalogue entry 'The Benedictional of St Æthelwold'", Manuscripts catalogue - full description, Search for: 49598. Very full entry, with bibliography and commentary, archived from the original on 14 February 2012
- ISBN 0-7141-0532-5
- Wilson, David M.; Anglo-Saxon: Art From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press), 1984.
- ISBN 978-0-300-06493-3.
Further reading
- Deshman, R., The Benedictional of Æthelwold, Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 9, Princeton, 1995.
- Temple, E., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, 1976, no. 23 and ills. 85, 86, 88, 90, 91
- Warner, G. F. and H. A. Wilson, The Benedictional of St Æthelwold, Roxburghe Club, Oxford, 1910 – facsimile
External links
- Summary of the Iconography Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, notes by W.O. Hassall for Microform Academic Publishers