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The Lichfield Gospels (recently, more often referred to as the St Chad Gospels — but also known as the Book of Chad, the Gospels of St. Chad, St Teilo Gospels, the Llandeilo Gospels, and variations on these) is an eighth century Insular gospel Book housed in Lichfield Cathedral. There are 236 surviving folios, eight of which are illuminated. Another four contain framed text. The pages themselves measure 30.8 cm by 23.5 cm. The manuscript is also important because it includes, as marginalia, some of the earliest known examples of written Old Welsh, dating to the early part of the 8th century.〔Encyclopaedia Wales; University of Wales Press; main editor: John Davies; page 577〕 Peter Lord dates the book at 730, placing it chronologically before the Book of Kells but after the Lindisfarne Gospels.〔Medieval Vision: The Visual Culture of Wales. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2003, pg. 25.〕 The manuscript was rebound in 1962 by Roger Powell, at which time it was discovered that in the rebinding of 1862 the manuscript had been cut into single leaves and that the pages had been trimmed during the rebinding of 1707. The manuscript was digitized in 2010. In 2014, Dr. Bill Endres (University of Oklahoma) returned to Lichfield Cathedral and used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to capture the drypoint glosses in the Lichfield Gospels. One gloss recovers contributions of women during the early medieval period: its listing of three Anglo-Saxon female names suggests that women worked in the scriptorium at Lichfield. ==Provenance== Scholars view four places as possible sites for the making of the Lichfield Gospels: Ireland, Northumbria, Wales, and Lichfield. Paleographic and stylistic similarities link it to Northumbria and Iona: the painting techniques resemble those of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Some scholars view this great gospel book as likely written in Wales due to the Welsh marginalia, perhaps Llandeilo Fawr〔Encyclopaedia Wales; University of Wales Press; main editor: John Davies; page 577〕 or other site in South Wales.〔see Peter Lord, pg. 26; and Dafydd Jenkins and Morfydd E. Owen, "The Welsh Marginalia in the Lichfield Gospels, Part I," Cambridge Medieval Studies, 5 (Summer 1983), 37-66.〕〔Encyclopaedia Wales; University of Wales Press; main editor: John Davies; page 577〕 However, in 1980, Wendy Stein made an extensive argument for Lichfield, viewing Wales as unlikely but Ireland and Northumbria as still possible.〔Stein, Wendy Alpern. The Lichfield Gospels. University of California, Berkeley, 1980.〕 In 2003, the discovery of the Lichfield Angel provided further evidence for a claim of Lichfield. But without definitive evidence, this debate is likely to continue. Based upon style, the actual making of the book may be placed between 698 and 800. Patterns of interlaced birds on the cross-carpet page (p. 216) strikingly resemble the ornament on a cross shaft from Aberlady, Lothian, a Northumbrian site of the mid 8th century: the author/artist of the book and the sculptor of the cross-shaft ornament may have had a similar source for their designs. Although it is unknown how the book came to be in Lichfield, it was certainly there by the end of the 10th century. The opening folio contains a faded signature reading ''Wynsige presul'', which probably refers to the Wynsige who was Bishop of Lichfield from ''circa'' 963 to 972-5. Folio four contains a reference to Leofric who was bishop from 1020 to 1026. Wherever this great gospel book originated and however it came to Lichfield, it has been there since the tenth century. In 1646, during the English Civil War, Lichfield Cathedral was sacked and its library looted. The books and manuscripts were given to Frances, Duchess of Somerset, who returned them in 1672 or 1673. This is probably when the second volume of the Gospels was lost. Precentor William Higgins is credited with saving the remaining volume.〔Auden, J.E. (1907):(''Ecclesiastical History of Shropshire during the Civil War, Commonwealth and Restoration'', p.259 ) in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 3rd series, vol. VII, 1907, p.249-310, accessed 17 November 2013 at Internet Archive.〕 They were put on public display in 1982. The bishops of Lichfield still swear allegiance to the crown on the Lichfield Gospels. Other Insular illuminated manuscripts of possible Welsh origin include the Ricemarch Psalter and the Hereford Gospels. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lichfield Gospels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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