Bible Manuscripts – Book Review

British Library Book Examines 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture

Jun 7, 2009

Bible Manuscripts looks at Christian Bibles from 2nd Century Egyptian and Greek fragments to the Psalter of Henry VIII, the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Codex Sinaiticus.

Bible Manuscripts 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture, written by Scott McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle (London: British Library 2007), is concerned solely with Christian bibles.

The luxuriously illustrated publication features more than 140 examples from the 2nd to the 16th Centuries, ranging from Byzantine bibles to Anglo-Saxon texts. The authors have included examples of over-sized one-volume manuscripts created for use in monasteries and churches as well as pocket-sized bibles carried by friars and monks.

Some of the bibles were created by professional craftsmen for the personal use of lay worshippers while others were produced by members of religious orders, for devotional use by those communities.

That these items have retained their vivid colours is remarkable and in this publication they appear as fresh and colourful as if they were painted yesterday.

The British Library's Manuscripts

The British Library has an unsurpassed collection of sacred manuscripts from the world's major religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and many more. In this publication expert curators Scott McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle guide the reader through a selection of rare and beautiful medieval and earlier manuscripts drawn from the Library's own impressive holdings.

No other text in the western world has been so highly regarded, or so fervently studied. Scribes and artists laboured for hours over handwritten, individually painted, volumes. Handwritten bibles were commissioned and coveted by wealthy patrons. Surviving manuscripts include some of the world's most beautiful illuminated bibles featuring the finest calligraphy and illustrations.

McKendrick and Doyle discuss, in language accessible to both experienced scholars and general readers, how the Bible was preserved and passed down during the past two thousand years. Each image is accompanied by a brief commentary setting the bible in context in the history of Bibles. The subject matter of the illustrations is described and each biblical text is identified as is the language in which it is written. Readers are also told where the item originated and its approximate date. Also included is a note of the size of each manuscript. If an image is reproduced at actual size that fact is also recorded.

The authors demonstrate that whatever their origins, style or purpose, bible manuscripts tell not only the story of the Bible as a sacred text, but also show the development of the book before the advent of the printing press.

Although the text is basically the same now as it was during the 1500 years of handwritten texts, the format has changed considerably. Scott and McKendrick remind us that Bibles today are produced in a compact format, for the widest possible audience, at affordable prices.

Scott McKendrick, Head of Western Manuscripts at the British Library, is author of several publications on medieval and earlier manuscripts including, In a Monastery Library (London: British Library, 2006) and Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003). McKendrick is co-author, with Thomas Kren, of Illuminating the Renaissance (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003).

Kathleen Doyle gained her doctorate on 12th-century Cistercian manuscripts and the use of images in monastic art. As Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Library's Western Manuscripts Department, Dr Doyle has also contributed to many British Library publications including the exhibition catalogue, Sacred: Books of the Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (London: British Library, 2007).

Bible Manuscripts 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture, published by the British Library, is available in hardback and priced at £20.00, ISBN: 978 0 7123 4922 2.

The copyright of the article Bible Manuscripts – Book Review in Visual Art Books is owned by Frances Spiegel. Permission to republish Bible Manuscripts – Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.