Paul Meyvaert - The Date of Bede's 'In Ezram' and His Image of Ezra in The Codex Amiatinus

The Date of Bede's In Ezram
and His Image of Ezra in
theCodexAmiatinus
By Paul Meyvaert
St. Augustine, in a passage of hisDe Genesi ad litteramcited by theVenerable

was reallya chastise
Bede, had paused towonder iftillingtheground,farming,
sincehe had
of
Adam's
transgression,
because
on
mankind
ment imposedbyGod
thatthe
animi
agricolari")
knownmen so enamoredof farming("tantauoluptate
it.'
While
Bede
from
them
doing
would have been to deprive
real chastisement
thissayingofAugustinemay have
admitstono uoluptasagricolandi,encountering
writ
passion, a uoluptas scribendi:
promptedhim to recognizehis own ingrained
must have been in his genes!2On finishingthe thirdbook of his
ing, I think,
on Samuel,he planned to takea shortrespite"perquietemmeditandi
commentary
uel scribendiuoluptate," and so gather strengthto starton book 4-merely
broughthim relaxation.'His
changingthetopichewas writingabout, therefore,
him incapable fora while of
peace ofmind was shattered,however,rendering
writingon any subject,when on 2 June716, his abbot suddenly("subitus") an
Northumbriato spendhis finaldays inRome.4The
nounced thathewas leaving
for their helpful comments on a
and John Contreni
I sincerely thank my friends Robert Markus
earlier version of the present article. Other friends, George Brown, Yitzhak Hen, are likewise
thanked for helpful remarks on a more recent version.
much
1
118A
ed. C. W. Jones, CCSL
Bede, In Genesim,
2 In
that ends his Ecclesiastical
the autobiography
1967), p. 51, lines 1601-2.

History he wrote that it had always been his
aut discere aut docere aut scribere dulce habui"
(Bede,
or write: "semper
delight to learn, or teach,
Historia
ecclesiastica
5.24, ed. and trans. Bertram
p. 566).
3 See Bede's
(Turnhout,
Colgrave
and R. A. B. Mynors
[Oxford,
1969],
119 [Turnhout, 1962],

(ed. D. Hurst, CCSL
re
completo uolumine putabam me aliquamdiu
sic demum ad inchoationem quarti manum esse
uel scribendi uoluptate
parata per quietem meditandi
missurum. Verum haec eadem mihi quies, si tarnen quies dicenda est inopinata mentis anxietas, pro
rerum mutatione
lixior multo quam decreueram noua circumstantium
prouenit maxime discessu ab
curae obseruantiam
subitus Romam adire atque
batis mei reuerendissimi qui post longam monasterialis
p. 212,
introduction
lines 1-22):
"Tertio
to book
4 of In Samuhelem
in beatum
Samuhelem
. . . [ibi] extremum senex halitum reddere disponendo

non parua commissorum
sibi ?nimos et eo
. . .Redeunte
maiore quo improuisa conturbatione
temporum statu tranquilliore redit et
stupefecit.
mihi otium pariter ac delectatio mirabilia
scripturae sacrae tota animae sollertis intentione scrutandi."
has implications for how we view his dedication page in
decision
Ceolfrith's unexpected
("subitus")
see below, pp. 1126-27.
the Codex Amiatinus:
4
A good life of Bede still remains a desideratum. The best way to get a sense of the events of this
in translation: the anonymous
particular period is to reread the two primary sources, both available
Saints and Heroes
(New York, 1967), chaps. 19
Life of Ceolfrith, in Clinton Albertson, Anglo-Saxon
opera hist?rica, 2 vols, in 1 [Ox
40, pp. 257-71
(Latin in Charles Plummer, ed., Venerabilis Baedae
in The Age of Bede, ed. D. H. Farmer
and Bede's Lives of the Abbots,
ford, 1896], 1:394-404);
On the pos
(Latin in Plummer, 1:380-87).
(Harmondsworth,
Eng., 1983), chaps. 16-23, pp. 202-8
relationship between
sibly complicated
Abbot Ceolfrid (Jarrow, Eng., 1995).
Speculum
80
the two sources
just mentioned
see IanWood,
The Most
Holy
1087
(2005)
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1088
Bede's In Ezram and theCodex Amiatinus
community'spleas beggingCeolfrithnot to leave themwere of no avail, and two

days laterhe departedwith a comitatusnumberingclose to eighty,and carrying
numerousgifts,amongwhich was a magnificentpandect or Bible-known to
biblical scholars,art historians,and othersas theCodex Amiatinus5-which he
intendedtopresentto St.Peter's inRome. Itwas not thedepartureof thepandect
withwhose production,as we shall see,he had been involvedbut of his beloved
abbot thatbroughton Bede's emotionalcrisis.But thenstill inhis early forties,
fullof energy,itseemsthatBede's crisishad endedwell beforenewsofCeolfrith's
deathatLangreson 25 SeptemberreachedJarrow.6
Startingbook 4, hewas clearly
overjoyedto findhimselfonce again able towrite: "The returnofmore peaceful
tome, as well as thedelight(delectatio)
timeshas also restoredsome tranquillity
with all thepowers ofmy questing
of scrutinizing
thewonders ofHoly Scripture
we would bewithout
mind."7When we considerhow historicallyimpoverished
hismany works, we can be gratefulthatBede constantlyindulgedhis urge to
write,his uoluptas scribendi.
whenworks seldomcarriedtheir"publication"
Coming froman age, however,
werewrittenor allowed togo intocirculation,8
date, showingus inwhat year they
thebulk of Bede's productionpresentsus with an initialchallenge.9Sometimes
real detective
work isneeded beforewe can situatea work in itsproperchrono
logical slot,and lackingthisslotwe may fail to develop a fulland accuratehis
A teameffortbyBedan scholarsmightbe a desirablefirststep
toricalperspective.
to help establisha good chronologyof Bede's works, but here I am concerned
onlywith datingone particularwork, his commentaryon theBook of Ezra (In
Ezram). Since thiscommentary
betraysa realconcernforthespiritual
well-being
of thechurchinNorthumbria,fixingthecorrectdatewill help toestablishatwhat
periodsof his lifeBede entertainedthisconcern,but datingthework proves tobe
of special importanceforunderstandingone particularpage of thegiftpandect
Ceolfrithtookwith him toRome. This page containsan imagewell known to art
historians;it ispresentedinmost surveycourseson early-medieval
artand can be
found reproduced in numerouspublications,10and likewiseon some Internet
5
Amiatino
1. For a full and meticulous
Laurenziana,
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea
description of
see the recent Bibbie miniate della Biblioteca Medicea
di Firenze,
this famous manuscript
Laurenziana
e Archivi 12 (Florence, 2003), pp. 3-58.
ed. Laura Alidori et al., Biblioteche
(The description of the
and Simone Nencioni, with comments on the illuminations byMelania
by Lucia Castaldi
manuscript,
below at n. 55,
Ceccanti, was completed, however, before the work on the initial quire, mentioned
was undertaken.)
6
There is no hint that Ceolfrith had already died in the passage quoted above in n. 3.
7
For the Latin, see above, n. 3.
8
Notions
Latin 12 (2002),
of Publication,"
See Paul Meyvaert,
"Medieval
Journal of Medieval
78-89.
9
In his autobiography
5.24) Bede lists over thirtyworks, constituting some
(Historia ecclesiastica
seventy "books."
10
in 2000, fol. 4r (Vr);
See especially the CD-ROM
of the Codex Amiatinus,
published by SISMEL
Late Antique
also these publications
giving the image in color, with the verses over it:Kurt Weitzmann,
and Early Christian Book Illumination
(New York, 1977), plate 48; John Williams,
ed., Imaging the
Bible (University Park, Pa., 1999), color plate X; and Enciclopedia
dell'arte m?di?vale,
Early Medieval
1 (Rome, 1991), p. 506.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus
1089
in theliterature
as Ezra,who isshown
sites.1"Itportraysa seatedfigure,identified
writing ina book (Fig. 1).
Itwas a stimulating
articleby ScottDeGregorio in a recentissueof Speculum
thatpromptedme to takeamuch closer look at thedatewe must assigntoBede's
In Ezram. To beginwith he has obligedme to review,revise,and correctsome
earlierstatementsImade about thiscommentary.I quote thepassagewhere he
takesme to taskon severalmatters:
First, the date of thework. Until recently thiswas a nonissue, since in book 3 there is
mention of another Bedan work, theDe temporum ratione, completed in 725. Reason
ably enough,M. L. W. Laistner and D. Hurst both accordingly proposed a terminusa
quo of 725. However, Paul Meyvaert has recentlyquestioned thisdating, arguing that
book 3, which not only cites theDe temporum ratione but also deals strictlywith Ne
hemiah, is a later addition that alone postdates 725, with thework on Ezra in books 1
and 2 commencingmuch earlier,perhaps as early as 715. In support of thesecontentions
Meyvaert advances the following arguments: that Bede, in the preface to his Genesis
commentary, indicates his desire to comment on Ezra, and in terms suggesting he did
not as yet have theNehemiah material inmind; that In Ezram includes no referenceto
De tabernaculo at thepoint where Bede specificallyalludes to the tabernacle in book 2;
and thatBede nowhere refersto Ezra as pontifex, except,Meyvaert argues, for a single
use of theword "pontificali" inbook 2,which he takes as evidence of an earlier redaction
prior to the post-725 version that includes book 3 on Nehemiah. But such arguments
may be doubted. Bede, as we have seen, does refertoEzra as pontifex in thecommentary,
so the argument about successive revisions based on the supposed absence of the term
ismanifestlymistaken.12
me thatprogressinsolvingproblemsoften
Many decades of researchhave taught
followsfromvalid criticismsthatpush one to returnand do one's initialhome
work a bitmore thoroughly.
DeGregorio is rightin sayingthatuntilrecentlythe
because of Bede's phrase inbook 3 ("De qua
In
was
a
nonissue
date of Ezram
totaprophetaesententiaplenissimeproutpotuidissererein temporumlibrocura
between
ui"), a phraseeveryoneacceptedas groundsforplacing thecommentary
725 (thedate ofDe temporumratione[DTR]) and 731 (thedate of theHistoria
ecclesiastica,which liststhecommentaryamongBede's works).'3 I shared this
common opinion, as can be seen frommy articleof 1995 on Bede's capitula
lectionum
where Iwrote, "We know thatBede's commentaryon Esdraswas a
11
For example,
in Google
Images: http://www.florin.ms/cassiod.jpg.
12
and the Reform of theNorthumbrian
Scott DeGregorio,
"Bede's In Ezram etNeemiam
Church,"
"
Speculum 79 (2004), 1-25, at p. 21. See likewise his comments in 'Nostrorum socordiamtemporum':
11 (2002), 115.
The Reforming
Europe
Early Medieval
Impulse of Bede's Later Exegesis,"
13
Plummer, Baedae
opera hist?rica, l:cl: "This must be after 725 as it refers to the De Temporum
... Itwas
Ratione.
already projected when Bede was writing the In Genesim"; M. L. W Laistner, A
Hand-List
Bede
1943), p. 39; Peter Hunter Blair, The World of Bede
(Ithaca, N.Y.,
Manuscripts
of
119A (Turnhout, 1969), p. v;

118A, p. viii; D. Hurst, CCSL
1970), p. 199; Jones, CCSL
(London,
George Hardin Brown, Bede the Venerable, Twayne's English Author Series 443 (Boston, 1987), p. 55;
in Anglo-Saxon
Studies in
The Text of the Old Testament
Richard Marsden,
England, Cambridge
15 (Cambridge, Eng., 1995), p. 121, n. 63 (citing Hurst).
Anglo-Saxon
England
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
?
%.DIC M . ;S
ISMAs DLN >t?mI
HOS1Ilt %i.%L"I LNtVNI5

Hoc mr-\&.\wt
*orvs
'*
Fig. 1. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1, fol. 2r,

formerlynumbered 4r and Vr.
(Su concessione delMinistero per iBeni e leAttivitACulturali.
t vietata ogni ulteriore riproduzione con qualsiasi mezzo.)
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1091
latework, datingfrombetween725 and 731."14 Itwas my desireto reconcilethis

withwhat I believedwas soundevidenceof an attempttocommenton Ezra at an
earlierdate-evidence restingon what Bede says toAcca in theprefaceof his
commentary
on Genesis-that had ledme, a bithastily,to theorizethatbooks 1
and 2 of theEzra commentaryrepresentedtheearlierversion,while book 3, on
DeGregorio had shown that,contrary
Nehemiah,was partof a revisedversion.15
my supposed
towhat Ihad stated,Bede continuestocallEzra pontifexthroughout
"revisedversion"-evidence again, I fear,of sloppyhomework!Likewise had I
paid closer attentionto the listof capitulaBede placed at thehead of his com
mentary,I would have seen that it offeredno ground forassumingBede had
commentedon an earlierversionofEzra thatomittedthesectiononNehemiah.
on Ezra isall of a piece and shouldbe accepted
Inotherwords,Bede's commentary
integrally
as it stands,with no attemptto split it intochronologicallydifferent
within theBedan corpus?
layers.Butwhere does it fitchronologically
to thatpivotal statementinbook 3: "Concerning
We must beginby returning
thiswhole propheticstatementI have discoursedas fullyas Iwas able in thebook
on theshortdiscussionofDaniel's "seventy
on time."516
It follows immediately
("plenissime
")
prophetic
weeks." By tellinguswe will findamuch fullertreatment
us to comparewhat he says inboth
of thissame topic inDTR, Bede is inviting
how
works-something, I discovered,no one had yetattempted.So letus see first
in
Ezra
of
weeks"
the
short
section
his
com
the
"seventy
prophetic
Bede handles
mentary:
Incipiunt ergo hae hebdomades a uicesimo anno Artarxersis quando aedificandi Hieru
salem licentiam dedit, quo temporeut Iulius Africanus scribit regniPersarum centum et
quindecim anni fueranteuoluti et totidem anni usque ad Alexandrum magnum quando
autem
Hierusalemcentesimus
octo
remanserant,
captiuitatis
Dariumocciditimperfecti
gesimus et quintus erat annus, et perueniunt usque ad tempora dominicae passionis per
quam hostiis et sacrificiislegalibus finisimpositus est.Habent uero singulae hebdomades
per septenos annos quadringentos et nonaginta secundum lunae cursum uidelicet ita
dumtaxat ut anni singuli nouo et insolitomore non amplius quam duodecim menses
lunares habeant. Vnde consulte angelus septuaginta hebdomades non adnumeratas sed
abbreuiatas super populum eius dicit qui sunt anni solares quadringenti septuaginta
quinque.17
[These "weeks" thereforebegin at the twentiethyear of Artaxerses, when he gave per
mission forJerusalem to be (re)built-at which time,according to JuliusAfricanus, one
hundred fifteenyears of Persian rule had already elapsed, with an equal number still
remaining until the timewhen Alexander theGreat killed Darius. This was the one
14
Paul Meyvaert,
Revue b?n?dictine
lectionum for the Old and New Testaments,"
Capitula
at p. 364. See likewise Paul Meyvaert,
and the Codex
"Bede, Cassiodorus,
at p. 881: "Although Bede's commentary on Ezra was
71 (1996), 827-83,
Amiatinus,"
Speculum
..."
written several years after the image was painted
"
15
on the
'In the Footsteps of the Fathers': The Date of Bede's Thirty Questions
Paul Meyvaert,
105
(1995),
"Bede's
348-80,
in The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought

of Kings to Nothelm,"
E. Klingshirn and Mark Vessey (Ann Arbor, Mich.,
ed.William
and Culture inHonor
ofR. A. Markus,
1999), pp. 280-86.
16
CCSL
lines 155-56.
119A, pp. 342-43,
17
CCSL
119A, p. 342, lines 141-55.
Book
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1092
hundred and eighty-fifth

year after the capture of Jerusalem, and they (the "weeks")
reach up to the timeof theLord's Passion, which put an end to thevictims and sacrifices
of the (Old) Law. The individual weeks multiplied by seven amount to four hundred
and ninety according to themoon's path, each year being made up of twelve lunar
months. So itwas advisedly that the angel referred to seventynot as "numbered" but
as "abbreviated" covering his people, which is the equivalent of four hundred and
seventy-five
solaryears].
In theprefaceof In Ezram Bede toldAcca thatJerome'scommentarieson the

Prophetshad been a help to him since in themitwas shownhow theeventsof
in termsofChrist and the
the timeof Ezra andNehemiah could be interpreted
Church.18
Although in theabove passage he refersonly to JuliusAfricanus,the
work he actuallyhad inhandwhilewritingwas Jerome'scommentary
onDaniel,
which has a longquotation fromAfricanusfromwhich Bede made verbal bor
rowings(shown in italicsabove).
When we turntoBede's treatment
of the "seventypropheticweeks" inDTR,
we findourselvesimmediately
on a verydifferent
and farmore advanced levelof
scholarship.The Greekword hebdomada (week)means seven,Bede tellsus, and
aftersearchingthrough
Holy Scriptureforuses of "seven" in connectionwith
time,he concluded there
were, all told,eightkindsof "weeks."He dealtwith the
firstsix inchapter8 ofDTR-which beginswith thesevendays of creationand
endswith thefiftieth
year (7 x 7 + 1) ofJubilee-and with theeighth
week, the
inchapter10. The longchapter9
one thatneverreturnssince itends ineternity,
(113 linesinCCSL) is takenup entirely
with theseventhkindofweek ("septima
specieshebdomadis"), namely,"the seventypropheticweeks" fromtheBook of
Daniel.When Gabriel appeared to theprophet,he foretoldthatfromthe"present"
moment untilChrist thePrince ("usque ad Christumducem") seventyweeks
would elapse (Dan. 9.24-25). We need not concernourselveswith all thedetails
ofBede's longexposition-of whichwe findno echo at all in thecommentary
on
Ezra-but
simply with how he handles what
lies between
the point of departure,
thetwentieth
yearofKingArtaxerses,and thepointof arrival,theyearofChrist's
Passion.He makes itclear thatEusebius,not JuliusAfricanus,is theauthorityhe
is following:
Christdied in theseventeenth
or eighteenth
yearofTiberiusCaesar,19
and the intervening
period,between theutteranceof theprophecyand itsfulfill
ment, comprised116 yearsof Persian rule,300 yearsofMacedonian dominion,
and 59 yearsofRoman rule.JuliusAfricanusisbroughtinonlyat theend and in
a way thatshowsBede isdistancinghimselffromhim and sidingwith Eusebius:
Calculate thereforeseventy "weeks" from this timeuntil Christ thePrince, that is, 490
years of twelve lunarmonths, which make 475 solar years.Now thePersians ruled 116
18
CCSL
"In quo nimirum opere m?ximo nobis adiumento fuit praefatus

119A, p. 237, lines 17-21:
in explanatione
ecclesiae magister Hieronimus
facta
qui eadem quae Ezras et Neemias
prophetarum
scribunt ipsi sub figura Christi et ecclesiae fienda praedixerant."
This remains largely unexplored
on the prophets and finding the places that
territory, that is,working
through Jerome's commentaries
suggest links to Bede's commentary. Very few are noted by David Hurst in his edition: see pp. 413 and
415.
19
DTR
66 (ed. Theodor Mommsen,
123B [Turnhout, 1977], p. 496, lines 1007-8):
repr. in CCSL
sua
"Anno XVIII
dominus
redemit."
imperii Tyberii,
passione mundum
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1093
years from the aforementioned twentiethyear of King Artaxerses until the death of
Darius. After that theMacedonians ruled 300 years until the downfall of Cleopatra.
Then theRomans held themonarchy 59 years until the seventeenth year of Tiberius
It should be noted thatUulius] Africanus thinks that the sequence ofweeks,
Caesar....
which we, followingEusebius' chronicle, have brought down to the seventeenthor eigh
year inwhich we believe the Lord suffered-is
teenth year of Tiberius Caesar-the
complete in the fifteenthyear of that emperor. Beginning where we do, he [Africanus]
thinks thatby the 15th year of the said emperor-the year inwhich he thinksthatChrist
suffered-there had been 115 years of Persian rule, 300 ofMacedonian rule, and 60 of
Roman. The careful reader should choose [theversion] he thinkspreferable.20
This last sentenceechoes a commentof Jerome'sin thecommentaryon Daniel

right.21
willingnessto showwhom Bede thinksgot thefigures
but betraysa greater
(13 lines)in theEzra com
Comparedwith chapter9 ofDTR, thebrieftreatment
giveseveryappearanceof some
withAfricanuscited as sole authority,
mentary,
DTR isnow awork
Nothing suggests
thingthatis stillmuch inembryonicform.
Other points are alsoworth noting:In Ezram
of thepast, quite thecontrary.
borrowingfromJerome-cites theVetus Latina formofDan. 9.25 ("Ab exitu
while inDTR 9, as ishis
Hierusalem" ),22
sermonisut respondeaturet aedificetur
custom in laterworks,Bede cites theVulgate version("Scito ergo . .. et animad
Hierusalem"). Facedwith thissolid
uerte:ab exitu sermonisut iterumaedificetur
interpretation.
evidencewe must give thepivotal phrase cited above a different
SeveralyearsaftercompletingInEzram Bede composedhisDTR, atwhich point
on Ezra directingthereaderto the
he added a marginal note inhis commentary
With further
copiesof InEzram
inchapter9 of thework on time.
fullertreatment
isnot the
thismarginalnote becameabsorbed intothemain text.DTR, therefore,
20 I
of Time, Translated Texts
quote here from the translation of Faith Wallis, Bede: The Reckoning
See CCSL
lines 37-45, and pp. 309
29 (Liverpool, 1999), pp. 37-39.
forHistorians
123B, pp. 306-7,
-lxx* computa, hoc est
"Ab hoc tempore usque ad Christum ducem hebd?madas
10, lines 105-13:
annos duodenorum mensium
lunarium quadringentos
nonaginta, qui sunt anni solares quadringenti
anno regis Artarxerxis usque ad mortem Darii regnauerunt
Siquidem Persae a praefato uicesimo
annis trecentis. Inde Romani usque ad
-cxvi-. Exhinc Macedones
usque ad interitum Cleopatrae
tenuerunt annis -lviiii-. . . . Sciendum sane
septimum decimum Tiberii caesaris annum monarchiam
lxxv.
annis
cursum, quern nos in septimum decimum uel octauum decimum Ti

quod Africanus hebdomadarum
ab eodem
berii caesaris annum quo dominum passum credimus iuxta Chronica Eusebii perduximus,
quo nos incipiens exordio quinto d?cimo eiusdem imperatoris anno quo eum passum credit putat esse
-lx-. Sed diligens
-ccc-, Romanorum
-cxv, Macedonum
completum, ponens annos regni Persarum
lector quod magis sequendum putauerit eligat."
21
"Scio de hac quaestione
ab
75A (Turnhout, 1964), p. 865, lines 138-43:
Ed. F. Glorie, CCSL
eruditissimis uiris uarie disputatum et unumquemque
pro captu ingenii sui dixisse quod senserat; quia
est de magistrorum
iudicare sententiis et alterum praeferri alteri, dicam
ecclesiae
igitur periculosum
cuius expositionem
senserit, lectoris arbitrio derelinquens
sequi debeat." To Bede
quid unusquisque
this may have seemed like a challenge, since on matters of chronology he was quite willing to make
up his own mind and decide who was right. The world chronicle that forms part of chapter 66 of
DTR
was
over many years and later integrated

certainly originally a separate entity compiled
to
this point. The entry for the
on time. A detailed analysis would
demonstrate
help
123B, p. 486, n. 170), with its reference to Africanus and the 115 years of Persian
(see CCSL
almost
into the work
year 3529
rule, borrowed
from Jerome's chronicle and his commentary on Daniel,

of chapter 9 of DTR.
composition
22
As can be verified by consulting the Brepols Vetus Latina Database
almost certainly predates

for Dan.
9.25.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
the
1094
terminus a quo but rather the terminus ante quem for dating the commentary on
wide open.
Ezra, and theproblemof theactual date of thiscommentaryremains
There is anotherwork thatpushes us towardan earlierdate.As noted above,
Bede toldAcca thathe had spentsome timereadingJerome'scommentarieson
When studyinghis capitula lectionum,the "chapterheadings" he
theProphets.
preparedforsomany biblicalbooks, I drew attentionto an itemfoundin theM
text,but not theC text,of theHistoria ecclesiastica:"In Isaiam,Danihelem,XII
prophetas et partemHieremiae distinctionescapitulorumex tractatubeatiHi
eronimiexcerptas" (Drawingon Jerome'streatisesI preparedchapterheadings
This suggests
forIsaias,Daniel, theTwelve Prophets,and parts of Jeremiah).23
an earlywork that
that theseparticularcapitula-which I thoughtrepresented
Bede did not considerdeservedmention in thefinalversionof theHistoria eccle
siastica-can probablybe assignedto thetimewhen Bedewas readingJeromeon
on Ezra. As I pointedout inmy
theProphetsinconnectionwith his commentary
article,thesechapterheadingsbased on Jeromehave, nevertheless,survivedin
Douai MS 5 and in thefamousValenciennesBible.24
statements
thatthedate 725 assigned toDTR reflects
It isworth remembering
whereBede gives
made in threequite latechapters(49, 52, and 54) of thetreatise,
the"presentyear" as 725.25It seemsverylikelythathe had alreadybeenworking
on this treatisefor some time,possibly a year or more, beforereachingthose
narrow thedates fortheEzra commen
chapters.Ifwe want, however,to further
we must turnelsewhere.The key textis thededicatorylettertoAcca ofBede's
tary,
commentaryon Genesis. Toward theend of this letterhemakes the following
whose main componentsshouldbe noticed:
statement,
[1] Perduxique opus usque dum eiectusAdam de paradiso uoluptatis exilium uitae tem
poralis intrauit [Gen. 3.24]. [2] Aliqua etiam de sequentibus sacrae historiae, si Deus
uoluerit auxilio uestrae intercessioniscomitante, scripturus, [3] dum primo librum sancti
Esrae prophetae ac sacerdotis, in quo Christi et ecclesiae sacramenta sub figura,solutae
longae captiuitatis, restaurati templi, reaedificatae ciuitatis, reductorum inHierosoli
mam uasorum quae abducta, rescriptae legisDei quae incensa fuerat,castigati ab uxo
ribus alienigenis populi, et uno corde atque anima inDei seruitiumconuersi, ut propheta
simul et historicus conscripsit, parum perscrutatus fuero, et aliqua ex his quae comme
moraui sacramentis apertiora studiosis,Deo fauente, reddidero.26
[(1) I have brought thiswork to thepoint where Adam is banished from theparadise of
delights and enters into the exile of temporal life (Gen. 3.24), and (2) I intend,with
God's help and your encouragement, to take up again (scripturus) the thread of this
sacred history (ofGenesis). (3) But Iwould first(dum primo) like to discourse somewhat
23
I referred to the sixty-seven
"Bede's Capitula
lectionum," p. 348. On pp. 364-65
Meyvaert,
be loath to deny their Bedan
stating that I would
capitula for Ezra found in the Bible of Grenoble,
no clear links with Bede. A reexamination
of these
authorship, although at the time I could establish
are connected with Bede.

particular capitula leaves me more seriously in doubt that they
24
See Meyvaert,
"Bede's Capitula
lectionum," pp. 361-62.
25
CCSL
p. 441, lines 3-4:
123B, p. 435, line 4: "in praesenti uerbi gratia -dccxxv";
"utputa in
-dccxxv."
indictione dccxxv"; p. 443, line 6: "sume annos domini
praesenti octaua
26
de Bedae Venerabais,
CCSL
118A, p. 2, lines 33-45. H. Gehle, Disputatio
historico-theologica
vita et scriptis (Leiden, 1838), p. 103, considered Bede's extended comment
presbiteri Anglo-Saxonis,
to Acca an indication that when he wrote the Genesis preface he had already begun to work on Ezra.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1095
on thebook of theholy prophet and priest Ezra-a book he wrote both as prophet and
as historian-in which the sacraments of Christ and theChurch are treated under the
figuresof the ending of a long captivity, the restorationof theTemple, the rebuilding of
theCity, the bringing to Jerusalem of the sacred vessels that had been carried off, the
rewritingofGod's law thathad been burned, the chastisement of the people for taking
foreignwives, and theirconversion, with a single heart and soul toGod's service.My
desire is to explain the sacraments I have just brieflymentioned in a fullerway for the
benefit
of studiousreaders.]
Bede shows, therefore,

thatat a quite earlystageof his careerhe had familiarized
himselfconsiderably
with thecontentsofEzra. Itshouldbe noted thatintheabove
passage he says two things:he is interrupting
work on Genesis at chapter3.24 in
orderfirst("dumprimo") to takeup Ezra; butonceEzra isfinished,
hemay return
and continue
with theGenesis story("aliqua de sequentibus. .. scripturus").
Since
he did continuewith Genesis,down to verse10 of chapter21, itseemsthatBede
himselfis showinguswhere theEzra commentary
must be lodged,namely,in the
intervalbetweenthetwo stagesof thework on Genesis. Stage 1, endingwith the
expulsionofAdam fromParadise,consistedof two "booklets" ("duobus in libellis
with his preface toAcca.27 In stage 2 Bede combined these
distinxi") together
libelliintoa singlebook,which became book 1 of the four-book
Genesis com
mentarywe have today.But althoughBede addedmore material duringstage2,
he did not bother to rewritehis initialprefacetoAcca. A discrepancy,therefore,
remainsbetweenwhat thisprefacetellsus and thefullcontentsof thefour-book
commentary,
which, as Bede himselfstates inhis autobiographicallist,reached
"ad natiuitatemIsaac et eiectionemIsmahelis"(Gen. 21.10).28
Can we assigndates to stages1 and 2 of theGenesis commentary?
SinceAcca
becamebishop in709, stage 1 ofGenesis postdatesthatyear-its contents,how
ever,suggesta veryearlywork, so letus sayaround709-1 1.29Embedded instage
2 is an interesting
piece of chronological information30
thatCharles Plummer
noted inhis editionofBede's Historia ecclesiastica:
In the course of thework [commentingon Gen. 8.15-18] Bede says: "Si enim hodierna
die, uerbi gratia, per calendas Apriles esset luna septima decima." . .. In his chronolog
icalworks Bede takes his examples from the actual year inwhich he iswriting....
It is
thereforeprobable that he is doing the same here; ifso, thiscriterionwould fix it to the
27
Charles
Jones, in the introduction to his edition (CCSL 118A, pp. vii-viii), distinguished the two
libelli as la and lb and conjectured
that la might antedate Acca's
as bishop in 709 since
appointment
"the statements in la conform with Bede's didactic interests as seen in De Temporibus, De Natura
and the Ep?stola ad Pleguinam,

all composed before the year 708."
lb gives the impression of
something hastily cobbled together on the basis of Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram. Perhaps Bede
was anxious to send
something to Acca soon after he had become bishop. This would provide a quite
early date for Bede's stage 1 on Genesis; whatever date we give, stage 1 provides us with a terminus
Rerum,
a quo for Bede's

tackling Ezra.
28
ecclesiastica
and Mynors,
Bede, Historia
5.24, ed. and trans. Colgrave
p. 566.
29
See the comments above in n. 27.
30
See CCSL
"Si enim hodierna die, uerbi gratia, per kalendas
lines 1929-33:
118A, pp. 126-27,
earundem uicesima s?ptima esset
Aprilis esset luna s?ptima decima, sequente anno pridie kalendarum
luna uentura, discursis ex ordine diebus trecentis sexaginta quinqu?, quibus annus solis
expletur."
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1096
year 720.... The calculation of theyear from thecriteriawas made forme bymy friend
Mr. T. A. Archer, thehistorian of theCrusades.3"
Not beingan experton computus,Iwanted to feelsure thatArcher's reasoning

was sound,and so appealed tomy friendFaithWallis-whose excellentEnglish
translationof DTR never leavesmy side-to commenton Bede's statement.I
quote thereplyshekindlysentme:
Bede's text states that "If for example today on (n.b. not before but on) the kalends of
April, themoon is 17 days old, next year on the day before the kalends, itwill be 27
days old." The lunar year is 354 days long; thereforethe age of themoon next year on
the same date will be 11 days more than its age this year on that date: in this case 1
April in year 1 is luna 17, so 1April in year 2 should be luna 28. In 720, Easter fellon
31 March, luna 16; therefore 1April was luna 17. The following year was year 19 of
the cycle; the embolismic month was insertedon 5March, and thereforethe age of the
Moon on 31 March was indeed 27, and 1April was luna 28, i.e. 17 + 1. Easter in 721
fellon 20 April, luna 17, which fits.As far as I can tell, these criteriawill not be found
in any other yearwithin Bede's lifetime.Now whether thismeans thatBede was indeed
writing In Genesim in 720 is another matter. However, notice that 31 March in 720 is
Holy Saturday, and Bede makes much of thePaschal symbolism ofNoah's Ark.
dismiss720 as theyearwhen Bedewas involved

Inotherwords, one cannot lightly
on chapter8 ofGenesis.32His action-returningonce
with stage2, commenting
must be situated
again toGenesis-therefore impliesthattheEzra commentary
somewherebetweenc. 711 and 720. Accepting725 as thenecessaryterminusa
DeGregorio regardsBede's statementstoAcca as
quo fortheEzra commentary,
"an
which the"late"
no
more
than
apparentdeclarationof intention,"
expressing
fulfilled
at
that
Sincewe
shows
did
not
time.33
get
date of theEzra commentary
now know that thepivotal statementinbook 3 cannot be used as proof of the
we must allowBede's ownwords and actionsto retain
latenessof thecommentary,
hiswork
When he senthis two libellitoAcca, thus interrupting
theirfullforce.
on Genesis, his immediateand urgenttaskwas to tackleEzra. By laterresuming
work on Genesis,Bede demonstratesthistaskhad been accomplished:thecom
mentaryon Ezra was inexistence.
The commentaryon 1
The dates forIn Ezram can be narrowedyet further.
with
Samuel is securelylodged in715-17, becausewe know thatbook 3 (ending
when on Tuesday,2 June716,
chapter22 of 1 Sam.) had recentlybeen finished
Ceolfrithsuddenlyannounced, to thegreatdistressof his communities,thathe
intendedto leaveNorthumbriathatveryday to journeytoRome and end hisdays
there.34
The period 711 to 715 thussuggestsitselfas themost likelytimeforthe
31
Plummer, Baedae
opera hist?rica, l:cxlix.
32
In Genesim
Since Jones in the introduction to his edition of Bede's
(CCSL
118A, pp. vii-x)
date for In Ezram, and to positioning
commits himself firmly to a post-725
stage 2 of In Genesim
has
after this commentary, he is obliged to deny that the date 720 (found in stage 2 of In Genesim)
I find that the basic misdating
of In Ezram has only brought
any relevance for dating the work.
in chronological
confusion into the attempts to put Bede's works
sequence.
33
"Bede's In Ezram,"
p. 21: Bede "could, for instance, have become
DeGregorio,
other things."
34 See
from Bede cited above in n. 3.
the passage
preoccupied
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
with
1097
on Ezra-predating bothDe tabernaculo(c.721

compositionof thecommentary
25?) andDe templo(729-31) by severalyears.35
I had sometimes
wondered,when readinghis prefacetoAcca, what was hap
pening at thisparticularjunctureof Bede's life,urginghim to rathersuddenly
abandonGenesis in favorofEzra. Rereadingsome sectionsofRichardMarsden's
excellentstudyof thetextof theOld TestamentinAnglo-SaxonEngland, I found
hewas openingup an interesting
possibilityby suggestingthattheyears imme
diatelyprecedingCeolfrith'sdeparturecorrespondedto thetimewhen theCodex
Amiatinuswas beingpreparedas a giftdestinedforSt.Peter's inRome.36I decided
basically to see how
to undertakea carefulrereadingof theEzra commentary,
Bede carriedout theprogram,outlined inhisGenesis prefacetoAcca, of inter
pretingEzra in termsof "Christand the sacramentsof theChurch." One can
followhis procedureas verseafterverse is analyzed in theallegoricalmode. In
to as
book 2, however,on reachingverse6 of chapter7, where Ezra is referred
his
"scriba ... velox in legeMoysi," Bede proceeds to give a straightforward
not on thebiblical text
toricalexplanationof themeaning of thisphrase,relying
but on traditionsabout Ezra currentin England duringhis day ("communis
maiorum fama"):
Scriba autem uelox in legeMoysi appellatur Ezras eo quod legem quae erat consumpta
maiorumfamaestomnemsacrae
reficeret
non solumlegemsed etiamut communis
scripturae seriem quae pariter igniconsumpta estprout sibi uidebatur legentibussufficere
manyscriptural
booksconsidered
lostwhich,
rescripsit....[Bedegoeson tomention
tohaverewritten.]
Ferunt
quoque
utcommunis
maiorumfamaest,Ezrawas also reputed
Hebraei neque apud eos de hac re ulla dubitatio est quod idem Ezras leuiores litteras
earumquas eatenushabuerant
quibusuelocissime
tantam
excogitauerit
subnominibus
librorum copiam quae erat consumpta reficeret.Vnde non solum scriba uerum etiam
scribaueloxcognominatur.37
This isvintageBede, fascinatedbywhat human skillscan achieve,likedevisinga

formof shorthandto allowmore textto bewrittenina shortertime.Itwould be
surprisingif among thenumerousmanuscriptsBenedictBiscop and Ceolfrith
broughtback fromItalya fewdid not exhibitTironian notations,which Bede,
although probably unable
to read what
they said, would
have guessed to be some
formof shorthandscript.Iknowofno otherwriterexceptBedewho, encountering

theword "tornatilis"in theCanticle ofCanticles,would stop to expatiatefora
few lineson themarvels andmanual skill involvedin lathework("tornatura"),
35
For comments on the dates of these works see Laistner, Bede Manuscripts
(above, n. 13), pp. 70
and 75.
36
The Text of the Old Testament
and
"The Dating
(above, n. 13), esp. pp. 98-106,
Marsden,
of
the
Pandects."
Purpose
37
CCSL
119A, p. 307, line 791-p.
308, line 818: "Ezra is called rapid scribe in the law ofMoses
because he rewrote the Law that had been burned, and not only the Law, but, as the common report
of our elders has it, [he rewrote] the whole part of Scripture that had likewise been burned, to the
be beneficial to readers_The
Hebrews
also maintain,
and have no
that Ezra, using the names they had previously had, invented a more expe
ditious system of graphemes,
that enabled him most rapidly to rewrite the great store of books that
had been burned. Hence he is called not only scribe but rapid scribe."
extent he considered
doubt
about
would
this matter,
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1098
an art he had seenperformed

with his own eyes.38
The churchesatMonkwear
mouth and Jarrowstillhave balustershafts-those atMonkwearmouth exhibit
no fewerthansixteendifferent
typesof design-that were turnedout on a lathe
duringBede's lifetime.39
Immediately
beforetheabove passage aboutEzra's skillsas a "fast"writerBede
has a summarythat recalls theone in his Genesis preface to Acca40 and that
deservesto be quoted here:
Huc usque reditus de Babylone inHierusalem populi qui captiuatus fuerat reductio
uasorum quae abducta restauratio ac dedicatio templiquod incensum celebratio sollem
nitatum et decantatio canticorum domini quae in terra aliena non poterant sub ducibus
Zorobabelet losuedescribitur.
Quae cunctaunameandemque
cognitionem
humanaein
Christo saluationis continent cum uel hi qui cum peccato primae praeuaricationis in
mundum uenerant sacramentis fideipurificati saluantur uel hi qui peccando fidem ac
ceptam corruperant paenitendo resipiscunt et utrique per unum eundemque saluatorem
uerum regem ac sacerdotem quasi pascha felicissimum celebrantes de hoc mundo ad
patrem demorte transeuntad uitam. Verum quia templo incenso atque urbeHierosolima
subuersa scripturae quoque sanctae quae ibidem seruabantur simul fueranthostili clade
perustae et has miserante domino atque ad suum populum reuerso reparari oportebat
ut quia aedificia eruta restaurauerant haberent unde ipsi ammoniti restaurari intus in
suicreatoris
discerent.41
fideetdilectione
The italicizedphrases in theabove twopassages, so close to each other,could not

fail to bringbeforemy eyes the famous imageof Ezra in theCodex Amiatinus,
with thecouplet thatstands immediately
above thisimage (seeFig. 1):
together
Codicibus sacris hostili clade perustis
Esdra Deo fervenshoc reparauit opus.42
38
in Famulus Christi: Essays

in Commemoration
"Bede the Scholar,"
of the
(London, 1976), p. 47
of the Birth of the Venerable Bede, ed. Gerald Bonner
Centenary
and p. 64, n. 30.
39
Stone Sculpture in England,
See Rosemary Cramp, The British Academy Corpus of Anglo-Saxon
111 (Oxford, 1984), pp. 23-27,
and 1/2 (Oxford, 1984), plates 103-6
(nos. 551-75),
plates 112-14
and plates 119-21
(nos. 612-15),
(nos. 627-60).
40
See the text and translation above, pp. 1094-95.
41
CCSL
307, line 778: "So far it has been about what occurred under
119A, p. 306, line 760-p.
and Joshua: the return of a captive people from Babylon to Jerusalem, the return
the princes Zorobabel
See Paul Meyvaert,
Thirteenth
of the vases
of the Temple
that had been carried off, the restoration and dedication
that had been
burned, the celebration of solemnities and the chanting of the Lord's canticles, a thing forbidden in
the foreign land. All these happenings
refer to the human salvation that is found in Christ, when those
born into the world with the stain of original sin are saved through being purified by the sacraments
of faith, or those whose
faith has become damaged
through sinning become restored through penance,
and both through one and the same Savior, true king and priest, as itwere celebrating the happiest of
Easters, pass from this world to the Father and from death to life. Because
through the burning of the
Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem the Holy Scriptures that were kept there had been destroyed
by the hostile forces, they, through the Lord's mercy, needed to be restored to his people who after
returning and restoring the ruined buildings would possess that [Scripture] through which they could
be restored inwardly in the faith and love of their creator."
42
"The sacred books having been consumed
by fire through enemy aggression, Ezra, zealous for
The Text of the Old Testament, p. 120, n. 58). See also
(trans. Marsden,
God, restored this work"
p. 877. In addition to the verbal links pointed out above, the phrase
"Bede, Cassiodorus,"
Meyvaert,
"Esdra Deo
feruens" has a Bedan ring. Bede had a great fondness for ferueo in all its forms. The
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1099
When preparing
my Speculumarticleof 1996, a timewhen I stillacceptedBede's
In Ezram as a latework,writtenlongafterCeolfrithhad departedwith thepan
dect forRome, I had suggestedthatBede probablyauthoredthecouplet,which
his own vocabulary,and, likewise,I hadwonderedwhetherhis
seemed to reflect
powerfuleulogyof Ezra as figureofChrist in thecommentary
had played a part
inhelping to shape theAmiatinus image.43
But havingnow a solid basis forre
dating In Ezram to the crucial periodwhen Amiatinuswas being prepared, I
realize thatfarmore needs to be said. In thefirstplacewe shouldnote thatthe
close verbal parallelismthatexistsbetween theversesand thecommentaryim
which came first,the
mediately raisesan interesting
question:canwe determine
versesabove the imageor thepassage in thecommentary?I likesubmitting
this
typeof problem tomy friendPaul Dutton and receivedfromhim the following
answer:
After looking at thematerials you sentme
Amiatinus verses follow from the In Ezram
one of poetic economy: what he explains at
Iwould be tempted to think that theCodex

and not the reverse.The reason is the simple
length in the In Ezram, where thedestruction
referred
to includes
bothbuildings
andscripture,
isreduced
totheimmediate
andspecific
need of commenting on the illumination in theAmiatinus. The Amiatinus verse,more

over, is itself themore radical departure since while theVulgate emphasizes the resto
ration of thebuildings inEzra 9:9, the repair of thebooks seemsmerely implicit inEzra's
status as scribe. Can Bede get to the compactness of theAmiatinus verseswithout going
through the In Ezram explication first?I ratherdoubt it.As readers it is difficultforus
to do so: hence I think In Ezram first,
Amiatinus verse-label second as a product of the
went into the In Ezram.44
thinking that first
I findthisreasoningpersuasiveand see thatitadds yetanotherelementfordating

InEzram, namely,before716,whenAmiatinus,with theEzra couplet,left
North
umbria forRome. Redating In Ezram to theyearswhen thepandectwas being
preparedas a giftsuddenlybeginstomake much sense,and ithas radicallyaltered
with thisproject and likewiseprompted
my perceptionof Bede's involvement
somenew ideasabout thefirst
quire of theCodex Amiatinus.45
Letme firstsummarizethesituationas we know itfromthesources.Ceolfrith,
who accompaniedBenedictBiscop on thelatter'slastjourneytoRome in679/80,
gives eighty-four instances throughout his works, with six occurring in the commentary on
sancti immo omnes qui zelo dei feruent" (CCSL 119A, p. 344, lines 201
Ezra, including "doctores
of which occur as headings inAmiatinus?see
The Text
2). On the forms Esdra/Ezra?both
Marsden,
of the Old Testament, p. 120, n. 59.
43
p. 881.
Meyvaert,
44
Paul Edward Dutton, professor of history and humanities at Simon Fraser University, in an e-mail
to me of 11 April 2004.
45
to the first quire of Amiatinus,
based on redating Bede's In Ezram and
My present approach
CLCLT
the connection with the Codex Grandior, differs in some fundamental ways from the
reevaluating
I took inmy Speculum article of 1996. This makes
it difficult forme to pass comments on
positions
articles that have recently appeared,
like that of Celia Chazelle,
"Ceolfrid's Gift to St Peter: The First
and the Evidence of Its Roman Destination,"
Quire of the Codex Amiatinus
Early Medieval
Europe
12 (2003), 129-57, which frequently refers, either in agreement or disagreement,

to what I wrote in
1996. For this reason I prefer not to overload my notes with long explanatory comments. Iwill simply
letmy present new approach
stand as it is and see what comments it provokes
in future discussions.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1100
thereacquired a largesingle-volume
completeLatin Bible, called a pandect,with
antiqua translatio.Pandectsof theBiblewere rareat thisperiod,
thepre-Jerome
and one can doubt thatCeolfrithhad ever seenone before.Itgave him the idea,
on becomingabbot of thetwinmonasteriesofWearmouth and Jarrowin688/89,
of havingpandectsmade, one foreachmonastery,thatgatheredtogether
between
theirtwo coversall thebiblical textsrecognizedto be Jerome'stranslationsfrom
theHebrew (theHebraica ueritas),ourVulgate text.These Vulgate pandectsdid
not servea liturgical
purposebutwere located in thechurch"so thatitwould be
easy foranyonewho wished to read any chapterof eithertestamentto easilyfind
what hewanted."46
The largepandectwith theantiqua translatioCeolfrithhad acquiredwas in
factCassiodorus's Codex Grandior,althoughno one atWearmouth-Jarrow
could
become aware of thiswithoutpossessinga copy of theInstitutions.I laboredthis
point inmy 1996 Speculumarticlebut feeltheneed to reiterateithere,since it is
with theCodex Amia
fundamentaltomy argumentabout Bede's involvement
tinus. StudyingBede over thedecades I have remainedconstantlyon thealert
foranyhint thatBede knew theInstitutions,
but none has ever turnedup. I have
evenspenthourswithCassiodorus's treatiseinhand, specifically
huntingfortraces
of thisor thatin theCetedoc LibraryofChristianLatin TextsCD-ROM ofBede,
and each timehave had to concludewith CarlottaDionisotti that"itwas amean
inwhich hewould have
trickof fateto depriveBede ofCassiodorus' Institutions,
foundsomany of his interests
treated."48
Had Bede
warmly and sympathetically
hewould have blazonedmuch of theinformation
possessed theInstitutions,
they
hisworks.At a givenpoint inhiscareer
containedinsomany places throughout
beforeDe tabernaculo(c. 721-25?) and De templo(729-31) but afterThirty
46
from the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith quoted inMeyvaert,

See the passage
seems also to have been inspired by what he read in the Verba seniorum.
p. 836, n. 47. Ceolfrith
see Meyvaert,
to early Egyptian monasticism:
Pandects were not unknown
served as the model
for Ceolfrith's new pandects probably as
p. 836, n. 47. The Codex Grandior
(see below at n. 92) and possibly also as regards script. It is tantalizing not to have a
of the script that Cassiodorus
littera clariore
(in c. 14) can refer to as "in c?dice grandiore
no
it seems likewise that, as regards the books of the Old
full
With
other
Bible
available,
conscripta."
regards
size
specimen
Ceolfrith decided to keep the general order of the Grandior. To see this one needs only to
translatio division in c. 14. There are slight
compare the order of Amiatinus with that of the antiqua
variations among the sapiential books and the minor prophets, but the general order from Genesis to
Maccabees
remains the same.
47
See Meyvaert,
pp. 827-31.
48
"On Bede, Grammar, and Greek," Revue b?n?dictine 92 (1982), 129. Michael
Carlotta Dionisotti,
Testament,
M.
Gorman
in his recent article "The Codex
Studi medievali,
lettres grecques
Amiatinus: A Guide to the Legends and the Bibliography,"

from Pierre Courcelle's
Les
3rd ser., 44 (2003), 869-71,
reprints parallel passages
en occident de Macrobe
? Cassiodore
(Paris, 1948) with the comment that "Courcelle's
A careful reading of my 1996 Speculum

in recent decades."
argument seems to have been overlooked
believed he could detect
article would have brought him to p. 828 where I wrote, "Pierre Courcelle
comments on Genesis
in the Institutiones and Bede's preface to his
parallels between Cassiodorus's
own commentary on Genesis, but a close comparison

of these texts fails to reveal any verbal depen
are dealing with a simple case of overlap: Cassiodorus
lists the patristic works on Genesis
dency?we
at his disposal, and Bede does the same. Bede's commentary on Genesis, moreover, shows that he knew
and used
he lists in his preface, so there is no need

themselves, served as Bede's source."
the works
than the works
to assume
that Casssiodorus's
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
list, rather
1101
Questions on theBook ofKings (c.715)-Bede came tobelievethathismonastery

owned a codex thathad formerly
belonged toCassiodorus; thisoccurredwhen
he becamebetteracquaintedwithCassiodorus's commentson Psalms 86 and 97,
where he foundtheauthorassertingthathe had caused imagesof theTabernacle
andTemple tobe paintedand placed inhis "greaterpandect" ("pandectaenostrae
grandioris"),a descriptionthatcertainly
matched thelargepandectCeolfrithhad
broughtfromRome.Without theInstitutions,
however,Bede lackedtheevidence
needed to show thatthispandecthad not onlybeenowned by,but also produced
for,Cassiodorus,who likewiseplaced the threedivisionsof Scripture,according
to Jerome,
Augustine,and theantiqua translatio,in thiscodex.49
SinceCeolfrith'smain purpose inorderingnew pandects forhis twochurches
was tomake thewhole of Jerome's
Vulgate textavailable tohis communities,
one
can seeno reasonwhy hewould have orderedthefolioswith theabove itemsthat
stood in theGrandior-images of theTabernacle,Temple,and thethreedivisions
Thosewishing toconsultthese
of Scripture-to be copied intohisnew pandects.50
imagesknewwhere theold pandectwas kept,and, as we know fromhis Thirty
Questions on theBook ofKings toNothelm, and froma passage in thecommen
taryon Ezra, Bede spent timestudyingthe "picturaab antiquis formata" (the
imagemade long ago) of theTemple-an obvious allusion to theGrandior but
withCassiodorus.51
datingfromtheperiod beforehewas aware of itsconnection
When the orderwas given to prepare a thirdVulgate pandect, the situation
changed.From thehighqualityof thescriptinAmiatinus-compared with that
of theleavesthatsurvivefromtheearlierpandects-it has beenpossibleto suggest
thatfromtheoutsetCeolfrithhad inmind a rathersplendidvolumethathewould
eventuallyuse as a gift.52I thinkit is possible to suggestthatone of the sister
pandectsmay have servedas theexemplarforAmiatinus,and that,as hewent
along, the scribe triedto improveon thedivisionof thephrasesper cola and
The writing,fromthefirst
word of Jerome'sprefaceon fol.9r to the
commata.53
lastword of theApocalypse on fol. 1029v, even thoughdone, as David Wright
argues,innine separatesectionsby sevenscribes,
must have takena considerable
But onceCeolfrith'strueintention
of using thispandectas a presentation
time.S4
49
pp. 832-35.
Meyvaert,
50 In
(see p. 875) I assumed, erroneously I now think, that all the images from
"Bede, Cassiodorus"
the Codex Grandior had been transferred to the new pandects. See also Marsden,
The Text of the Old
Testament, p. 102, n. 124, and p. 105.
51
describes the several buildings that sur
Bede, In Ezram 2 (CCSL 119A, p. 333, lines 1804-11),
on all four sides, stating that their inner walls consisted of columns whereas
their
("interiores parietes iuxta terram in columnis factos exteriores solidos"). This
he knew not from Scripture but from having studied Cassiodorus's
image of the Temple in the Codex
rounded
the Temple
outer walls
were
solid
this same
information in his De templo, he specifically showed that he

image: see the section on the Temple image inMeyvaert,
pp. 853-60,
esp. at p. 855, with notes.
52
See especially the comments ofMarsden,
The Text of the Old Testament, pp. 100-103.
some soundings, but itwould
531 introduce this here only as a suggestion. I have made
require a
full list, presenting comparisons
in double columns, to provide the basis for sound conclusions.
54
17 (1961), 443: "The relationship
David H. Wright,
"Some Notes on English Uncial,"
Traditio
of texts to gatherings of vellum makes
it clear that the volume was written in nine separate sections,
Grandior. When
owed
he later gave
it to Cassiodorus's
presumably
to allow
several
scribes to work
simultaneously....
Various
scribal
idiosyncrasies,
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
espe
1102
giftwas known, thequestion of how to further

enhance itsappearancewould
naturallyhave arisen.Amiatinusshows there
was a decision to borrowelements
fromtheCodex Grandior forconstructing
an initialimpressivefirstquire.Only
recently,
however,has it emergedmore clearlythatsome debatemust have oc
curredabout thearrangementof the leaveswithin thisquire, resultingin last
minute changes,due veryprobably toBede's intervention.
To get a perspectiveon what occurredwe must turnto an importantrecent
articleby SabinaMagrini, of theLaurenziana.5When Amiatinuswas unbound
in 1999 to facilitatetheproductionof theCD-ROM containingimagesof all the
pages, theleavesof thefirst
quirewere takentoRome to be studiedby theexpert
at theIstituto
Centraleper laPatologia delLibro (I.C.P.L.).AsMagrini
technicians
reports,througha verycarefulstudyof all theoffsets,thatis,tracesthatone page
had lefton itsneighbor,itwas possible todeterminetheorder inwhich theleaves
of the firstquiremust have remainedformany centuries-and this is theorder
thatwas adopted in thepresentrebinding,
which I label as stage2 inFig. 2.56 I
stronglybelieve in thevalue of thiskind of solid scientific
evidenceand accept
stage2 as theorder the leaveswere inwhen Amiatinuswas takenfromNorth
umbriaforRome inJuneof 716. The presentfol.8v,with itsfivecirclesenclosing
textsabout thePentateuch,iswhere one would expect it to be, namely,rightat
theopeningof thePentateuch.Iwill returnlaterwith somecommentsabout stage
2, but here Iwould liketo concentrateon the initialplanningforthisfirst
quire,
namely,stage 1 (Fig.3).
The codexwas to openwith a quire consistingof threedouble folia (folios1
and 6, 2 and 5, and 3 and 4 beingconjugates),all containing
materialborrowed,
inoneway or another,fromtheCodex Grandior (Fig.4). The firstfoliowas left
blank foran eventualdedicationtext,and itsconjugaterecto(fol.6) assignedthe
divisionof ScriptureaccordingtoAugustine.The imageofEzra was planned for
therectoof fol.2, with thedivisionof Scriptureaccordingto Jerometo appear
on therectoof itsconjugate(fol.5). The centralbifolium
would have fol.3 painted
purpleon both sides,with theprefacefromtheCodex Grandior on itsrectoand
thecontentsofAmiatinuson itsverso,while itsconjugate,fol.4, would contain
theantiqua translatiodivisionof Scriptureon itsrecto.57
in the hierarchy of scripts, have led me to the conclusion
that two of the men each wrote two
so far as I can tell, appears active" in the
sections, leaving us with seven scribes, no one of whom,
other leaves that survive from the sister pandects.
"
55
in
'Per difetto del legatore . . .': Storia delle rilegature della Bibbia Amiatina
Sabina Magrini,
3
The article that follows on pp. 169-79,
"Non-destructive
Laurenziana,"
(2001), 137-67.
Quinio
daily
states the conclusion

and Raman,"
reached by the
an order for the sheets, even if it is impossible to
establish whether or not this sequence truly represents the original one, or simply that which the sheets
have assumed formost of the document's
lifetime" (p. 169).
56
toMagrini,
This corresponds
p. 165 (schema 3). The I.C.P.L. experts consider this as "la sequenza
nella quale le carte hanno trascorso la maggior parte del tempo," although as Magrini
notes, "anche
Analysis of the Bibbia Amiatina

by XRF, PIXE-a
to hypothesize
"it has been possible
technicians:
se non necessariamente
quella originaria"
(p. 160).
57
The I.C.P.L. technicians found no physical evidence
that fols. 3 (purple)

against the supposition
leaves: see Magrini,
"Storia delle rilegature," p. 162, n. 116, "Nulla
been conjugate
osta tuttavia, da un punto di vista strutturale, alla loro appartenenza
al medesimo
bifolio." Magrini,
moreover
(p. 162 and n. 114), rightly notes that one would normally expect a "noble" purple page to
and 4 had once
act as the opening
page of a work.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1103
This firstquirewas to be followedby a singlebifoliumwhose innersurfaces

One elementof theCodex
would contain theimageof theTabernacle (stage1 ).58
Grandior,namely,the imageof theTemple,was not includedin theplanning.In
my Speculumarticleof 1996, dealingwith thisimageaboutwhich Bede has left
us a quite detaileddescription,I suggestedsome reasonswhy itmighthave been
excludedfromtheCodex Amiatinus.59
Everything
presentintheTabernacle image
was vouched forbyHoly Scriptureand could therefore
be consideredreplete
with
allegoricaland spiritualmeaning.Cassiodorus's imageof theTemple,however,
drew lesson thebiblicaltextand theobjectsmentionedthere(lavers,altars,tables,
etc.) thanon information
comingfromoutsidesourcesabout thestructure
of three
buildingsthatsurroundedtheTemple on all sides.The spiritualcontentof this
image,therefore,
did not emergesufficiently
to deserveinclusionin thegiftpan
dect.60
The orderof thedivisionsofScripture,as first
planned forAmiatinus,followed
In
of
the
Grandior.
his
Institutions
Cassiodorus placed Jeromefirst
that
Codex
(c. 12), followedbyAugustine (c. 13) and theantiqua translatiodivision (c. 14).
In thislastchapter,however,hemakes itclear thattheCodex Grandior,inwhich
he had placed thedivisions,predated theInstitutions.1Since theGrandior con
tainedtheantiqua translatioversionof Scripture,itwould be naturalto suppose
thatthedivisionof Scripturecorrespondingto thisversionoccupied first
place in
thiscodex.When preparingmy articleof 1996, I failedto note therewas good
58A
passage
from Karen Corsano,

"The First Quire of the Codex Amiatinus
and the Institutiones
of Cassiodorus,"
Scriptorium 41 (1987), 3-34, at p. 11, deserves to be quoted here: "Cecil Roth, in
a study of possible Jewish antecedents of Christian Art finds that 'in the illuminated Jewish Bibles ...
to include a double page .. . showing the vessels of the sanctuary. . . .
itwas as it seems conventional
It would
were
such pictures inserted in the Book of Exodus....

[IJnstead they
invariably placed before the entire biblical text.' If Roth's arguments are
sources
and the Grandior both belonged to a tradition reaching back toHebrew
have been natural
invariably
to have
or almost
correct, the Amiatinus

and this bifolium may
Iwould only change the emphasis

be seen as a relatively typical frontispiece."
with his Grandior, who was aware of the tradition, while Amia
by asserting that itwas Cassiodorus,
tinus did nothing more than imitate what was found in the Grandior. Magrini,
"Storia delle rilegature,"
evidence that "questo bifolio non facesse neanche parte

from the available
p. 162, likewise concluded
in posizione a s? stante, forse appena prima dell'inizio dell'Antico
del primo fascicolo e fosse collocato
Testamento."
59
See also Wood,
The Most Holy Abbot Ceolfrid
pp. 853-60.
Meyvaert,
(above, n. 4), p. 30, n. 160; his reference to the image of the Tabernacle
supposedly found in Cassio
in
commentary on the Psalms is, I fear, the result of relying on the inadequate punctuation
in pictura Cassiodori
which
should read "quo modo
Senatoris
119A, p. 81, lines 1565-67,
(cuius ipse in expositione psalmorum meminit) expressum uidimus ..."
(parentheses added).
60
For comments on the interesting fact that the image of the Tabernacle
does not show evidence of
dorus's
CCSL
"Storia delle rilegature,"

having shared in the original sewing together of the leaves, see Magrini,
this indicate a last-minute insertion or, perhaps, show the image was removable
Could
pp. 159-60.
so that it could accompany
a reading of Exodus?
61
Senatoris Institutiones, ed. R. A. B. Mynors
Cassiodori
(Oxford, 1937), p. 40: "Tertia vero divisio
est inter alias in c?dice grandiore
in his recent trans
littera clariore conscripto."
James W. Halporn,
Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning and On the Soul, with an introduction
lation, Cassiodorus:
42 (Liverpool, 2003), p. 137, correctly translates this
byMark Vessey, Translated Texts forHistorians
passage as "This third division stands among the others in the larger volume written in a clearer script."
is, "inter alias" cannot be taken to indicate a specific location
it simply means
"stands along with the others."
That
in relation
to the other divisions;
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
Fig. 2. Stage 2: The Order of theOpening Folios

of theCodex Amiatinus in 716 (and Today).
recto blank
verso Ceolfrith's
dedication
J recto Ezrapontifex
verso blank
recto Jerome
division(roundel
withLamb)
verso blank
recto Augustine division (roundel with Dove)
verso blank
I recto Cassiodorus's
prologus(purple)
verso Amiatinus contents (purple)
{ recto blank
verso Tabernacle(leftside)
recto Tabernacle (right side)
verso blank
I
recto Antiqua translatio division (roundelwith Father)

verso
Pentateuch circles (text fromJerome'sLetter 53)
Fig. 3. Stage 1: The Order of theOpening Folios

of theCodex Amiatinus during thePlanning Stage.
recto
blank
verso blank
recto Ezra pontifex
verso blank
g recto Cassiodorus's
prologus(purple)
verso Amiatinus contents (purple)
recto Antiqua translatio division (roundelwith Father)
verso blank
recto
Jerome division (roundelwith Lamb)
verso blank
recto Augustine division (roundelwith Dove)
verso blank
I recto blank
verso Tabernacle (leftside)

recto Tabernacle (right side)
verso blank
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1105
Fig. 4. The Order of theOpening Folios
of theCodexGrandior.
recto blank
verso blank
cupboardofHoly Scripture)
recto Cassiodorus(withcelestial
verso blank
prologus(purple)
I recto Cassiodorus's
verso blank
division(cf.Fig.5)
recto Antiquatranslatio
verso blank
recto Jerome
division(cf.Fig.6)
verso blank
recto Augustine
division(cf.Fig.7)
verso blank
Irecto blank
Iverso Tabernacle(leftside)
Lrecto
Tabernacle (right side)
Iverso blank
I recto blank
verso Temple
withcourtyards
(leftside)
withcourtyards
(right
side)
recto Temple
verso blank
evidenceto supportsuch a view,namely,inplates2-4 ofKaren Corsano's Scrip
toriumarticleof 1987. These showed how thedivisionswere presentedin the
The importanceof thismanuscript
Bambergmanuscriptof the Institutions.62
emergesin itssubscriptioon fol. 67v: "Codex archetypusad cuius exemplaria
The
sunt reliquicorrigenda,"showingwe are in direct linewith theoriginal.63
StaatsbibliothekofBamberghas kindlyprovidedme with excellentdigitalcolor
photographs-reproducedhere inblack andwhite-of thedivisionson fols.15v
(Fig. 5, antiqua translatio),14v (Fig. 6, Jerome),and 15r (Fig. 7, Augustine).
Looking at thissequence, I clearlyget the impressionthatCassiodorus simply
asked his scribetocopy thedivisionsof Scripture-not thecaptionsplaced below
thedivisions-from theCodex Grandior onto thepages of his Institutions,
and
thisexplainswhy theantiqua translatiodivision (Fig. 5) is by far themost im
62
in my Speculum
See above, n. 58. Numerous
points of this stimulating article were discussed
article of 1996.
63
barbaritas: Barbari
Institutiones, ed. Mynors,
p. x. For a reproduction of this page see Magistra
I libri, il destino, Instrumenta
in Italia (Milan, 1984),
Vivarium:
illus. 545; also Fabio Troncarelli,
Patristica 33 (Turnhout, 1998), plate 3.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1106
pressiveof thethree.64
It isdominatedby a largecross filled
with interlacedesign
and surroundedby theletters
CR /VX. Inwhatwould have been thelastdivision,
thatofAugustine,theNew Testamentis likewiseenclosedwithin a cross (Fig.7).
It is as ifCassiodoruswanted the layoutto stressthattheChristianmessage of
salvation,throughthecross,dominates thewhole of Scripture,no matterwhat
divisionsaremade. The visual evidenceof theBambergmanuscript is essential
and underlines
Michael Gorman's recentplea thatRogerMynors's editionof the
Institutions(Oxford,1937) should be supplemented
with plates showinghow
Cassiodorus's diagrams are presentedin themanuscripts.65If thepointsmade
above are correct,theyprovidea new basis foranalyzingtheartisticpresentation
of the threediagrams inAmiatinus.The crossesof theGrandior are sufficient
to
explain theuse of crossdesignsinAmiatinus-the two largecrosses inAmiatinus
(antiqua translatio)resembletheone in theBambergmanuscript,fol. 15r (Au
gustine)-while thefourlozengesinAmiatinus (Jerome)
may have been inspired
by thetwoon fol.15v of theBambergmanuscript.Having designed"containers,"
theNorthumbrianscribessimplytransferred
thetextsintothesefromtheCodex
Grandior.
when writingmy articleof 1996, I am now con
Contrary towhat I thought
vinced thattheTrinitarianimagerypresentin themedallions above thedivisions
inAmiatinuswas not borrowed fromtheGrandior butmust be consideredan
The textspresentedinAmiatinus, in ta
originalcreationofWearmouth-Jarrow.
and
the
bulae ansatae, above
under
divisionswere almost certainlytakenover
fromtheCodex Grandior.But the insertionofmedallions in thecenterof the
upper tabulae (Fatherin theantiqua translatiodivision,Lamb in theJeromedi
vision,andDove in theAugustinedivision) is,as LawrenceNees has pointedout,
not something
Cassiodorus can be consideredguiltyof.66
These three
medallions,
theTrinityremainimportantforhelpingto show that in
however,representing
the initialplanningstage thedivisionswere chosen accordingto theorder they
occupied in theCodex Grandior.One further
comment,however,needs to be
medallions are aWearmouth-Jarrow
then
added here. If theTrinitarian
invention,
thecouplet justabove theDove, invokingtheHoly Spirit,has no connection
with
64
The
use of interlace in the cross and the profusion of interlace in the drawing of Vivarium on fol.
illus. 547) lend strong support to Karl Nordenfalk's
barbaritas,
(see Magistra
argument that the
nationale de France, lat. 12190, may
single leaf (fol. A) with interlace designs in Paris, Biblioth?que
to the volume of samples for designs to be placed on bindings that Cassiodorus
well have belonged
in chapter 14 of the Institutions. Nordenfalk
mentions
demonstrated
that the interlace on this page is
29v
A Pattern Page Bearing

of Middle
Eastern, and not of insular, origin: see "Corbie and Cassiodorus:
on the Early History of Bookbinding,"
32 (1974), 225-31.
Pantheon
65
in the Oldest Manuscripts
"The Diagrams
Michael
of Cassiodorus'
Institutiones," Revue
Gorman,
b?n?dictine
110 (2000), 27-41.
66
That Cassiodorus
the texts is shown by the personal
composed
responsibility he claims, in the
text underneath the antiqua translatio division, for the translation of Epiphanius
("quern latino fecimus
sermone
texts may
pp. 839-44,1
transferri"). In "Bede, Cassiodorus,"
suggested what alterations Cassiodorus's
at Wearmouth-Jarrow,
have undergone
like the change from Hilary of Poitiers to Pope
etc. For Lawrence Nees's
in Early Me
comments, see his "Problems of Form and Function
Hilarus,
dieval Illustrated Bibles
from Northwest
(above, n. 10), pp. 121-77,
at p. 165.
Europe,"
in Imaging
the Early Medieval
Bible,
ed. Williams
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1107
The Holy Spirit-Dovemedallion,however,showingwings

theCodex GrandiorA67
and beak pointingdownwardprobablyexplainsthepeculiar"pointed
outstretched
ovals" used to frameCassiodorus's texton thispage,which have no counterparts
were inspiredby a
among thedrawingsof theBambergmanuscript.I thinkthey
In thetenth-century
mosaic of the
Pentecostimageknown toWearmouth-Jarrow.
of
flame"
the
at
Hosios
Lukas
dome
"tongues
descendingon theapos
sanctuary
the
ovals
of
the
Amiatinuspage (Fig.
scene
rather
resemble
in
the
Pentecost
tles
that
somePentecostimage
we
can
suspect
was
traditional
imagery,
Since
this
8).68
here.
betraysits influence
If in theearlystageof preparation,thesequenceof thedivisionsof Scripturein
the firstquire ofAmiatinus closelymirrored thatof theCodex Grandior, there
was somethingin thissequence thatbotheredBede.69In thechroniclethatforms
chapter66 ofDTR, Bede describedthegiftCeolfrithtook toRome as "pandectem
a beatoHieronimo inLatinum exHebreo uelGraeco fontetranslatum"(thefull
Bible translatedby theBlessed JeromefromtheHebrew and Greek sources).70
thatsincetheirgiftpandect
Bedemust have argued,and probablyratherstrongly,
containednot theantiqua translatiobut Jerome'sversionof theBible, theorder
theyhad originallychosen fortheopening leaves failedto respectJerome'spri
ority.The resultof thedebatewas the removalofwhat had been thecentral
and theantiqua translatio
bifolium,thepurple leafwithCassiodorus's prologue71
in
and
each
leaf
a new position.One
It
was
cut
two
Bible.
assigned
of
the
division
divisionrepresents
the
"noble"
after
the
Augustine
purplepage
sensesthatplacing
both a demotionand an anomaly.Once thecircleswith thequotations fromJe
romehad been inscribedon theback of thehalf leafwith theantiqua translatio
division,the leafwas assigned itsnew,and again anomalous,positionas opening
causedJerome'sdivisionofScrip
page of thePentateuch.So thefinalarrangement
on the imageofEzra. One can
tureto acquire firstplace, followingimmediately
suspect that thesealterationsoccurredat a late stage,probably justbefore the
North
volumewas due to be bound; and since thedate forthedeparturefrom
umbriahad alreadybeen set,both the timeand perhaps also theenergywere
quire all over again fromscratch,usingnew setsofblank
lackingtobegin thefirst
bifolia.
We must now turnour attentionto the imageofEzra of theCodex Amiatinus
David
(Fig. 1). Looking at thispage, art historianslikeRupertBruce-Mitford,
67
The
uolumina pandunt / Spiritus hoc Sancto fudit

couplet reads, "Eloquium Domini quaecunque
ab ore Deus."
68
in Greece, Hosios
Lucas and Daphni
See Ernst Diez and Otto Demus, Byzantine Mosaics
(Cam
3 (Freiburg, 1971),
1931), plate 5 and fig. 7; and Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie,
bridge, Mass.,
p. 418 (under Pfingsten): "Die Feuerflammen gehen vielfach vom Schnabel

at Venice have a similar Pentecost scene.
in St. Mark's
mosaics
69
biblical books follows
That the general sequence of Old Testament
der Geist-Taube
aus." The
the order they had in the

remains proof that the Codex Grandior was considered the model to be followed.
Codex Grandior
70
CCSL
123B, p. 534, lines 2047-50.
71
The prologue came from the Codex Grandior. See especially Bonifatius Fischer, "Codex Amiatinus
Biblische Zeitschrift, n.s., 6 (1962), 68: "Nach Stil und Inhalt ist der Prolog sicher
und Cassiodor,"
von Cassiodor
The Text of the Old Testament, p. 119;
also Marsden,
und aus dem Codex Grandior";
and Meyvaert,
pp. 866-68.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
@el?08^G
E&Zz?>D
t&e
ar3.aeb" 4perra
kg.I
b~~~~~L. tspqtlqt
wfo
[ii
Fig.
5. Bamberg,
Staatsbibliothek,
MS
wntO
K k~~~~~~~~~~~~~Pxnnif
Patr.
61,
fol. 15v.
The antiqua translatio division.

(Figs. 5-7 reproduced by permission.)
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
:I, ,.d>.sew*O4n7ar'~h
I~~~~~~~~T
.
...,.vS*~
'_l
'.p:
uwuwa.w
'.
'
Tbsrwasri.urbAffrwedawl
* bu.n.4sn%LuAw6.wu.CSJarv,
Sq^
.Acor4bMMfCf|
f'2'_
t~2
ztynEz.ij
anca_
Caw ;SajwiWccfe$wmwCLn4tm
wf*m4u
Fig. 6. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek,MS Patr. 61, fol. 14v.

The Jeromedivision.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
.h..-bt7,.
:4
ECceut%L,a;,*flL^...
c rwfrrA
flinp
Fig. 7. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek,MS Patr. 61, fol. 15r.

The Augustine division.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
Labw 4us
Law'4MW
tap,
a W><M
Sd lWc""
10"94ho"|
14
F
4.
i-rI
lw|W*>1||".as,,jXU.mm
nb
%e%wwa
l&
"
X~~~~~~~~~~~M
At$T
#4
%4Ln
Ma|VM
w m,aw
1 a,^ *e"~~~~~~~~pk
tot ~V
4I%fl
a14.aL*A
cidy
Lai
pr
IW'
Fig. 8. (Top) Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,

Amiatino 1, fol.VIlIr (detail).
The Augustine division.
(Su concessione delMinistero per iBeni e leAttivita Culturali.
E vietata ogni ulteriore riproduzione con qualsiasi mezzo.)
(Bottom) Part of thePentecost mosaic at Hosios Lukas.
(AfterDiez and Demus, Byzantine Mosaics, fig.7.)
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1112
Wright, and othershave stronglysuspecteditwas not an originalNorthumbrian

Mediterranean imagedone atVi
artisticcreationbut thecopy of a late-antique
variumand belongingto theCodex Grandior.72Iwant to argue thatthisview is
Cassiodorus seated,clad
basicallycorrectand thattheoriginalimagerepresented
with a pallium, inMediterranean style,over a tunic,with a largebook open on
his knees,and holdinga pen inhis hand.73The bookcase,with doors open, dis
on theirspines
played fiveshelvesonwhich restedninevolumes,theinscriptions
indicatingthattogethertheyconstitutedall thebooks of theOld andNew Tes
A tablewith an inkpotstood close by,and strewnalong thegroundwere
taments.
instruments
suggesting
a place equipped forproducingbooks. Because no inscrip
Bede (and no doubt also his community)became
tion identified
theseated figure,
on noticing
intrigued
by thisimage.Had he possessed a copy of theInstitutions,
themany allusions to thenine volumeswith thebooks of Scripture,he would
must represent
Cassiodorus himself,
soon have concluded that theseated figure
he
on
his
knees.
But lackingthis
possiblywith the largeBible codex mentions
work hewent lookingfora biblicalcontextthatcould givemeaning to such an
imageplaced near theopeningof theOld Testament.Rememberingstorieshe had
maiorum famaest"), about Ezra havingrewritten
heard fromothers("communis
many books of theOld Testamentand in doing so adding some phrasesof his
must representEzra.74Since theNew
own to the text,he concluded the figure
Testamentbooks, however,were also visible in thebookcase, itmust be Ezra
connected in someway with theNew Testament,thus suggestinghe must be
Christ.The themeBede developed in his In Ezram thus
viewed as symbolizing
became planted inBede's mind. The decision to includean imageof Ezra in the
explanationof
firstquire ofAmiatinus therefore
providesus with a satisfactory
on Ezra.
to
and
shelve
Genesis
concentrate
why rathersuddenlyBede wanted
a
Concentratingon Ezra involvedmaking carefulcopy of the image fromthe
to ensuretheresultcompliedwith
Codex Grandior,butmodifyingit sufficiently
his own concept of Ezra, and then writing the commentary
to help underline the
While holdingBede was responsiblefor

of thisimage.
deep spiritualsignificance
72
David
in Stil und ?berlieferung

in
Italian Stimulus on English Art around 700,"
in Bonn
(Akten des 21. Internationalen
Kongresses
f?r Kunstgeschichte
... we know from the
1964), 1 (Berlin, 1967), p. 85: "In the case of the illustration of Ezra
peculiarities
of the iconography and some references in Bede that the model was a page of the Codex Grandior of
der Kunst
H. Wright,
"The
des Abendlandes
in southern Italy in
which had been painted in Vivarium
can recognize aspects of the late antique style, particularly
ground and in the treatment of the furnishings, but it is clear this painter
the human figure." Wright gives a reference to R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford
Cassiodorus,
century. We
et al., 2 (?lten,
"The Art of the Codex Amiatinus,"
Thomas
D. Kendrick
the third quarter of the sixth

in the color gradations on the
has no confidence in handling
in Codex Lindisfarnensis,
ed.
and 285-86.
See also R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford,
pp. 143-49
3rd ser., 32
Association,
Journal of the British Archaeological
1960),
(1969), 1-25, at pp. 8-13.

73 See
below at n. 113.
74
"In quo opere ferunt quia
CCSL
119A, p. 307, lines 796-804:
[Ezra] non nulla uerba quae
oportuna arbitraretur adiecerit e quibus est illud" etc. This shows there was a quite lively interest in
day in Ezra's
could be considered
Bede's
biblical
scholarship
text: the seeking out of phrases that

involvement with the Old Testament
possible
in the
in their context, while it bears witness to some sophistication
anachronistic
of the period, also helps to explain what caused Bede to lean in the direction of
Ezra.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1113
I am also prepared to assert thathe had a hand in fashioning

thecommentary,
theAmiatinus image.
Itwould be useful,however,ifat thispointwe becamemore fullyconsciousof
thereal situation,namely,thatthenumerousreferences
encounteredin somany
publications to the "Ezra" imageof theCodex Amiatinus havemeaning only
because of thecoupletBede placed above this image-and, I will argue later,
placed therenot longbeforethecodex left
NorthumbriaforRome.7sTake those
identifying
versesaway and "Ezra," as such,vanishes.That iswhy reproductions
of the imagethatfailtodisplay theversesabove itdo notmake sense.No one in
theseventhor eighthcenturyencounteringa seated figure,
with a halo,wearing
a twelve-stone
with head gear and garmentssuggestingan Old Tes
breastplate,
tamenthigh priest,writingTironian notes in a book, placed inproximityto a
bookcase containingall thebooks of theOld andNew Testaments,couldpossibly
have concluded that it represented
Ezra; the "Ezra" we see in theCodex Amia
tinus,that is, the seated figuregarbed theway he is, is totallyBede's creation,
explainedbasicallybyhismisinterpretation
of theimageinCassiodorus'sCodex
Grandior,coupledwith thebeliefhe held duringa limitedperiodof his life-the
yearswhen hewas composingIn Ezram andmaking the image-that Ezra had
been a Jewishhighpriest.
But beforewe dealwithBede to seewhat he did,we will dowell to takeanother
glance, inourmind's eye,at the image thatwas in theCodex Grandior.Let us
beginbynotingthatwhen Cassiodorus thinksof thewhole of Scripture,it is the
imageof a bookcase thatcomes to hismind:
What in fact is there that one cannot find in thisheavenly bookcase of thedivine scrip
tures (in isto caelesti armario scripturarumdiuinarum)? Ifyou search forGenesis, there
is an explanation here of how theworld was made. Ifyou mention a prophet,who has
said so much about theLord's incarnation? Ifyou long for the gospel, itclearly reveals
in countless places the passion and resurrection of the Lord Christ. If you want an
apostle, listen to this teacher and consoler who both proclaims the future judgment to
correct us, and often prays for sinners.Not to extend the discussion longer, ifyou read
with the greatest care, you find all that is done in heaven, on earth, in the sea, in the
world below aptly recounted in theirdue places.76
And elsewhere:
75
See below, p. 1126.

76
from Cassiodorus:
Quoted
Writers 53 (New York, 1991),
Explanation
of the Psalms, 3, trans. P. G. Walsh, Ancient Christian
I have substituted "bookcase"
p. 466 (here and in the next quotation
as "chest"); ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL 98 (Turnhout, 1958), p. 1330,
translation oiarmarium
forWalsh's
lines 178-80:
inuenire non possis? Ge
"Quid enim in isto caelesti armario scripturarum diuinarum
nesim quaeras, hie quemadmodum
fuerit mundus
fabricatus exponitur. Prophetam dicas, quis de in
tanta locutus est? Euangelium

et resurrectionem Christi Domini
cupias, passionem
ostendit. Apostolum
uelis, audi doctorem, audi miserentem,
qui et futura
et pro peccatoribus
correctiones praedicat
frequenter exorat. Et ne longius differam,
carnatione
Domini
innumeris
locis euidenter
iudicia propter
in caelo,
quidquid
competenter
in terra, inmari,
uel apud
inferos agitur, si cautissime
legas, omnia
suis locis posita
agnoscis."
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1114
So the psalm [Psalm 109] is, so to say, the sun of our faith, themirror of the heavenly
secret,
thebookcaseof theholyScriptures
(armarium
sanctarum
scripturarum),
inwhich
all that is told in the proclamation of both testaments is spoken in summary.77
On theshelvesof thisbookcase lieninevolumes,the"novemcodicesauctoritatis

divinae" accordingto theInstitutions.
What countsforthe"numerologically
sen
sitive"Cassiodorus-to useMark Vessey'sapt expression78-is lesstheindividual
order inwhich theyare listedthantheirtotalnumberof nine,as clearlyemerges
fromhis commentson Psalm 144,where he noted thatverses3 and 4 of thepsalm
gave thenine reasonswhywe shouldpraise theLord:
I thinkthattheseninetopicsfrom
which theLord'spraisesarebegotten
aregathered
into a greatmystery, so that thehonor to theTrinity can be acknowledged by thenumber
of thrice three,which theyembody. This number is reflectedalso in the sacred books (in
codicibussacris)
whichGod's holyChurchreadsand reveres:
Octateuch,
Kings,Proph
Acts
ets,Psalter,
Solomon,
HolyBooks (hagiographis),
Gospels,Epistlesof theApostles,
of theApostlestogether
with theApocalypse.So thisnumberisfertile
with therecollec
tionof things
heavenly.79
In the InstitutionstheProphetscome afterSolomon and are followedbyHagi

ographa (whichhas eightbooks),while inthebookcase theHagiographa preceded
Psalms, Solomon, and Prophets.Hagiographa was a termBede never used in
connectionwith thebooks of Scripture,and I considerthechangefrom"AGI LIB
What
VIII" to "HIST LIB VIII" to be one hemade while copyingthebookcase.80
we need to recognize,as JamesHalporn andMark Vessey bringout in thenew
translationof theInstitutions,is thatthe term"novemcodices" refersprimarily
not to physicalvolumesbut toCassiodorus's own way of conceivinghowHoly
we read,"quos ego
was divided.When in theprefaceto his Institutions
Scripture
cunctosnovem codices auctoritatisdivinae,ut senex potui ... sedula lectione
transivi,"
Halporn rightlytranslates,"I have read over carefullyall nine sections
containingthedivineauthorityas best as an old man could."81For thisreason it
isprobablywiser to refrainfromtransporting
particularcodices, liketheGospels,
77
trans. Walsh,
Cassiodorus,
p. 116; CCSL
98, p. 1005, lines 9-13:
(ut ita dixerim)
"Quapropter
est quidam
sol fidei nostrae, speculum caelestis arcani, armarium sanctarum scripturarum, ubi totum
narratur." In Institutions 14 Cassiodorus
summatim dicitur quod utriusque testamenti praedicatione
mentions
that the Greek
other bookcases
Bible was
contained
even without knowing what books the

in the eighth bookcase?so
to underline how important the very notion o? armarium
(book
this helps
case) was to Cassiodorus.

78 In
trans. Halporn
Cassiodorus,
(above, n. 61), p. 51.
79
sacramentum
"In magnum
haec nouem
CSEL
quoque
loca, unde
122, p. 1292, lines 136-45:
ut Trinitatis honor tertio in se triplicato numero
nascuntur arbitror apprehensa;
laudes dominicae
numerus continetur et in codicibus

Iste quoque
sacris, quos sancta Domini
possit agnosci.
legit et
ueneratur Ecclesia;
in psalterio,
in Salomone,
in hagio
in Regum,
in prophetis,
id est in Octateucho,
cum Apocalypsi.
in actibus apostolorum
in epistolis apostolorum,
Sic numerus
graphis, in euangeliis,
iste caelestium rerum commemoratione

fecundus est."
80
Cassiodorus
(Institutions 6) lists the eight book of the Agiographa
Maccabees
(two books), but in the Augustine
(two books), and Esdras
tions 13) these are all subsumed under the twenty-two books
simul et historicus."
Bede refers to Ezra as "propheta
81
trans. Halporn,
Cassiodorus,
p. 109.
as Job, Tobit, Esther, Judith,

division of Scripture (Institu
of history. In his Genesis preface to Acca
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1115
fromthis"heavenlybookcase" toEngland, and thendebatingtheirprecisecon

tents.
What cannotbe doubted is thattheimageof the"heavenlybookcase of the
divinescriptures"came tohold deep spiritualsignificance
forCassiodorus.Allow
inghimselfto be representedin theproximityof sucha bookcasewas notmeant
tounderlinehis accomplishments
as a learned
man, but ratherto stress
what had
become thereal spiritualcenterof his life,
God's writtenmessage of salvationto
mankindmediated throughtheninedivisionsofHoly Scripture.82
Let us now turntoBede, intentonmaking a copy of the imagepresentin the
old pandect thatCeolfrithhad broughtfromRome. A firstthingwe should be
aware of concernsBede's manual skills.I have longbeen convincedthathewas
someoneofgreatmanual dexterity,
simplyfromseeinghismasteryindealingwith
numbers,and forhimnumbersinvolved"fingercounting,"
manipulatingfingers;
1
DTR
isentitled"De loqueladigitorum"-"Calculating or Speaking
chapter of
with theFingers,"as FaithWallis translatesit.83
Dexteritywas requiredfor
making
double numbers (e.g., 19) using only the fingersof one hand and, further,
for
masteringtheknack of linkingnumbersto alphabet lettervalues (e.g.,T = 19).
Bede says,"Ifyouwish towarn a friend
who isamong traitorsto act cautiously,
showwith your fingers
3, 1, 20, 19, 5 and 1, 7, 5; in thisorder,theletterssignify
caute age ['act cautiously']"-one wonders ifhe ever sent thismessage across a
crowded room to a misbehavingpupil.84In theprefaceof his commentaryon
Luke, Bede admits thatsometimeshe acted not only as dictator-that is,while
he spoke,anotherwrote downwhat he said-but also as his own notariusand
librarius;that is,he could pen rapidnotes but also possessed enoughcommand
over different
stylesof scriptto produce a finishedcodex.85The inscription
over
theEzra image,which I have littledoubt is inhis own hand, demonstrateshis
masteryof capitalis.And, as must be carefullynoted, he also enjoyedcopying
drawings.In hisDe locissanctis,aftergivinga longverbaldescriptionof a series
of buildingsinJerusalem,
he thoughtitwould help to providea drawingforhis
readers,prefacedby the remark"Sed singula,utmanifestiusagnosceres,etiam
prae oculis depingerecuraui." Elsewhere in thesamework he providesanother
drawing,precededby "Huius ergo ecclesiae talisdicituresse figura"and, before
a thirddrawing,farther
on: "huiusquoque basilicae figuram
prae oculisdepingere
placuit."86"Depingerecuraui" and "depingereplacuit" arenot theexpressionsof
82
Theodulf
of Orl?ans
preferred a sixfold to a ninefold division; see the list he gives in his Bible
. . .Ordo
. . .Ordo
(Paris, BnF lat. 9380, fol. 3v): "Ordo Legis . . .Ordo Prophetarum
Agiograforum
. . .Ordo
eorum librorum qui inHebraeorum
Canonen
habentur . . .Ordo Evangelicus
Apostolicus."
For an image of fol. 3v, see Nees,
"Problems of Form," p. 129, fig. 4.
83
Wallis, Reckoning
of Time (above, n. 20), p. 9.
84
Ibid., p. 11.
85
Ed. D. Hurst, CCSL
120 (Turnhout, 1960), p. 7, lines 94-96:
". . . iniuncti me operis labori
in quo ut inn?mera monasticae
seruitutis retinacula praeteream
subposui
ipse mihi dictator simul
notarius
medieval
86
Ed.
et librarius existerem
..."
Scribal
sources.
skills were
taught youths at an early age as we know
from
I. Fraipont
in CCSL
175 (Turnhout, 1965), 2.2, p. 258, lines 46-47;
2.5, p. 258, lines 73
In each case a drawing follows. The manuscripts
of Bede's De locis
74; and 6.1, p. 263, lines 26-27.
sanctis failed to transmit good copies of Bede's original drawings; many simply omitted them alto
De
locis sanctis,
gether. Since Bede was making copies of the drawings he had found in Adamnan's
the plates
that reproduce
the drawings
from the excellent
ninth-century manuscript
(Vienna, ?ster
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1116
a man shyabout copyinga drawing. In factBede was heredirectlycopyingthe

drawingshe foundinAdamnan'sDe locissanctisbut, indoing so, showingus he
knewhow tohandle rulerand compass-this lastused notonly formaking circles
but also formeasuringspaces. I doubt ifdabblingwith paintwould have bothered
him,sincehisworks are strewn
with references
showinghe lovedcolors,although
one cannotexclude thepossibilitythatin thepaintingstagehe appealed forhelp
to some artistinhismonastic community.87
In theage of parchmentoneway to duplicatewas throughthedrypointtech
nique, namely,tracingover theoutlinesof an existingimagewith a stylusand
pressingsufficiently
hard to ensure the linesgot recordedon a blank piece of
parchmentplaced underneaththe image.This is a topic thatcould benefitfrom
muchmore research.In a reviewhewrote in1961 David Wrightpointedout, in
passing, thattheoutlinesof virtuallyeveryfigurein theAshburnhamPentateuch
Middle Ages beenheavilytracedoverwith a stylus.88
had at sometimeinthe
Again
in 1985Wright showed thatwhile theVaticanVergilwas at Tours, around 845,
we have twocases
was also used on someof itsfigures.89
drypoint
Here, therefore,
where a close inspectionof theoriginalsbringsout evidencethatcopies had been
made throughthe initialuse of a stylus,althoughthecopies thusmade are now
lost.
With theEzra imageof theCodex Amiatinus it is thereverse:theimageBede
with theCodex Grandior,has now disappeared,but the
was copying,together
linesthatBede traced
with his styluscan stillbe identified
throughcloseand careful
will
is
new
This
and
evidence
that
scrutiny.
important
help to establishsomenew
When the initialquirewas recentlytakenapart,SabinaMagrini of
conclusions.
theLaurenzianawas thefirsttonotice,and theI.C.P.L. techniciansthenconfirmed,
thatsomedrypointlinesvisibleon theEzra page had evenpenetratedto itscon
jugate leaf(theonewith thedivisionof Scriptureaccordingto Jerome).But since
at this timethematter of drypointlinesdid not get fullyinvestigated,I asked
Magrini toundertakeameticulousand close examinationof all thedrypointlines
that are visible on the Ezra
folio and on its conjugate
leaf.More
recently,while
in Denis Meehan's
MS
De
reichische Nationalbibliothek,
Adamnan's
locis sanctis, Scriptores
458)
Latini Hiberniae
3 (Dublin, 1958), give one an idea of what Bede's copies might have looked like. One
can compare the plate opposite p. 47 with the drawing reproduced
in CCSL
175, p. 256, and see how
over time transmission brought in deterioration.

87
It is frustrating that we know so little about community activities atWearmouth-Jarrow
in Bede's
lifetime. From the anonymous
(c. 11) we know that twenty-two monks were sent
Life of Ceolfrith
to found Jarrow in 681, but we do not know the size of theWearmouth
fromWearmouth
community
at the time. Then comes the story of both communities being decimated through a plague. Nevertheless
in 716, the anonymous

left for Rome
Life gives six hundred as the number for both
skills and crafts other than penmanship
had been developed within the two
together! What
communities
remains unknown. For me the big mystery will always remain, how did Bede come by
that lucid and perfect command of Latin that is his hallmark?
88
Reviewing Andr? Grabar and Carl Nordenfalk,
Painting from the Fourth to the
Early Medieval
Eleventh Century (1957), in Art Bulletin 43 (1961), 245-55.
See p. 250, where Wright also suggests
when
Ceolfrith
houses
this could provide a link to the relationship Grabar detected between certain frescoes at Tours and the
in the Pentateuch manuscript.
Ashburnham
Pentateuch. Grabar
failed to notice the stylus markings
89
inTours,"
in Studien zur mittelalterlichen Kunst,
David H. Wright, "When the Vatican Vergil Was
800-1250:
zum 70. Geburtstag,
ed. Katharina
Bierbrauer, Peter
Festschrift f?r Florentine M?therich
K. Klein,
and Willibald
Sauerl?nder
(Munich,
1985),
pp. 53-66,
at p. 64 and p. 66, n. 10.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1117
HerbertKesslerwas on a visittoFlorence,he andMagrini togethertookanother

close look to ascertainthedrypointlines.Fig. 9 provides theresultofMagrini's
investigation.(A close examinationof fol.596r, thereverseside of the leafwith
thepaintedMaiestas thatintroducestheGospels,makes itcertainthatdrypointing
was not used to create thisimage.)90
Since fols.2 and 3 are a singlebifolium,we get a clue about themanner in
was done. The Ezra imagewas clearlyplanned to appear
which thedrypointing
on thefirstrectoof a bifolium
whose secondrectowould latercontaintheJerome
divisionof Scripture.Bede insertedtheblank foldedbifoliumimmediately
behind
the image in theCodex Grandior he wanted to trace,and itwould not have
matteredwhether in theGrandior thisimageoccupied therectoor versoof a leaf.
Using a foldedbifoliumexplainswhy somany of thedrypointlinespenetrated
onto thesecond leaf.91
What we can immediately
deduce fromthetracingis the
largesizeof theoriginalimage-and by inference
of theCodex Grandior-since
Bede began by using stylusand rulerto trace the large rectangularframethat
surroundedtheoriginal image.92
What likewiseemergesis thata veryconfident
handwas doing thetracing,one thatfeltno need to traceeverysinglelineof the
bookcase, but only those thatprovided theessentialdimensions,sincewith the
help of compass and rulerBede knew he would have no difficulty
completing
therestof thebookcase drawing.
Where Bede knew hewould need tomake real changeswas in the"accoutre
ment" of theseated figure,so thatthisfigurecould reemergeforhim as an iden
tifiable
pontifex,or Jewishhighpriest.The seated figurein theCodex Grandior
was almostcertainlyclothed in theRomanMediterranean fashion,
with pallium
over tunic,likethefigure
ofMatthew in theLindisfarne
Gospels. In theAppendix
below I argue that theLindisfarneGospels replicates,but in a different
artistic
style,a Gospel codexwith evangelistimagesthatCeolfrith,abbot ofWearmouth
Jarrow,had sentas a giftto theLindisfarnecommunity.
The imageofMatthew
in thisgiftcodex had been drypointedon the imageofCassiodorus in theGran
90 I
and Kessler to verify this matter.

specifically asked Magrini
91
"Storia delle rilegature," p. 161, n. 109, distinguishes
this feature from the other "off
Magrini,
sets": "Un caso a s? ? rappresentato,
della miniatura
inoltre, dalla impronta del disegno preparatorio
di f.Vr (f. 4r) visibile a f.VIr (f. 5r), ossia sull'altra meta del bifolio. La circostanza, di per
l'artista stava lavorando a bifolio chiuso,
s?, indica soltanto che durante l'esecuzione dell'illustrazione
ma il fatto che tracce del diagramma
di f.VIr (f. 5r) siano passate sul verso di f.Vr (f. 4r) dimostra
di Esdra
I hold, however, that the pen

che, anche in seguito, all'interno del bifolio non fu inserito alcunch?."
etration of the drypoint lines to the conjugate of this bifolium while the drawing was being transferred
from the Grandior
to be inserted in
does not constitute proof that no other bifolium was planned
between the two leaves.

92
Sabina Magrini
has kindly provided me with the following measurements
for the lines that form
the frame: (horizontal lines) with top edge of the leaf = 0 and bottom edge = 495, the lines come at
= 0 and inner fold =
58, 64, 84 and 397, 410, 416, 423 mm.;
(vertical lines) with outer edge
330,
mm. This means the size of frame in the Codex Grandior
the lines come at 56,64,77
and 280,285,304
was
to me, catching all the drypoint lines is a

has explained
just about 14 by 10 inches. (AsMagrini
delicate matter, depending on the lighting combined with the angle from which one views the page.
More
very close study may well allow her to detect a few further small lines and details. The important
thing here is to have established that drypointing did occur, in other words, that an image was trans
ferred.)
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
I
. ........
.
J?i
ni:
47
..........
i?e
A
:jy
;P,
&AL
iu
iJ4
for the image of Ezra

Fig. 9. Drypointing
in the Codex
Amiatinus
(cf. Fig. 1).
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1119
dior. It is therefore
thisclothing,palliumovera tunic,thatBede needed tomodify
inorder tomake it fithis conceptof Ezra, and it is indoing thisthatBedemost
clearlybetrayshis hand, placing,as itwere, his own signatureon the imageof
Ezra inAmiatinus.On firstbecomingpuzzled over the image in theGrandior,
wondering ifitmight represent
Ezra, he had consultedthetextsofEzra foundin
thesame old pandect and had encountered
what modern scholarscall 3 Ezra, a
Latin versionbased on theGreek Septuaginttext.93
Reading throughthis,hemet
severalreferences
toEzra as pontifex,a word thatforhim had specificconnota
tions.As ithappens,3 Ezra is theonlyLatin source-and thisalso includesLatin
to in thismanner,but ithelped toplant
patristicsources-where Ezra is referred
inBede'smind, at thisparticularperiodof his life,theimageofEzra as pontifex,
that is, as a Jewishhigh priest. In theThirtyQuestions on Kings,which also
belongs to thisperiod,we findhimwriting:
Vastata namque a Chaldaeis Iudaea et bibliotheca est antiquitus congregata interalias
ex qua pauciqui nuncinsanctascriptura

opeshostiliigneconsumpta
prouinciae
con
etprophetaesuntindustria
tinentur
libripostmodum
Ezraepontificis
restaurati.
Vnde
scriptum est de eo, "Ascendit Ezras de Babilone et ipse scriba uelox in legeMoysi,"
ueloxuidelicet
litterarum
qui promptiores
quameatenus
Hebraeihabebantrep
figuras
perit....94
DeGregorio has indicatedthatthereferences

toEzra, considereda pontifex,con
tinuethroughoutthecommentary
on Ezra.95IfEzra had been a pontifex,thenhe
must be shownwearing theaccoutrementbefitting
his rank.We must beginby
remembering
thatBede,who isactingas a rather
meticulouscopyistand not as a
giftedfreehandartist,had to takecare thatany visual alterationshe introduced
fittheimageof theseated figure
hewas copying.Bedewas familiar
with Jerome's
LettertoFabiola (Letter64), inwhich, afterenumeratingthefourpiecesof cloth
ingthatpriestsand highpriestshad incommon ("communessacerdotumuestes
atque pontificum"),hewent on to specifythefourthatwere proper to thehigh
93
The
d'Esdras
numbering of the Books of Ezra has a complicated

history: see P.-M. Bogaert, "Les livres
et leur num?rotation
dans l'histoire du canon de la Bible latine," Revue b?n?dictine
110
5-26. For the Ezra text Bede found in the Codex Grandior, seeMeyvaert,
(2000),
pp. 875-76.
94
C. 7, CCSL
"For when the Chaldeans

lines 17-24:
119, pp. 301-2,
destroyed Judea, a raging fire
its library,which had been assembled
long before, as well as that province's other treasures.
By his diligence, Ezra, High Priest and prophet, later restored from that [library] a few books now
inHoly Scripture. Consequently,
contained
this iswritten of him, Ezra went up from Babylon and he
consumed
was
more
a nimble
scribe in the law ofMoses

(nimble, that is, because he devised shapes of letters that were
than those that the Hebrews
had used up until that time" (quoted from Bede: A
easily written
Biblical Miscellany,
trans. W.
Trent Foley
and Arthur G. Holder,
Translated
Texts
forHistorians
28
[Liverpool, 1999], p. 102).

95 In
Ezras "eundem populum ab uxoribus alienigenis
Ezram, CCSL
119A, p. 310, lines 889-90:
pontificali auctoritate purgauit"; p. 327, line 1586: "quia per se ipsos nequeunt referunt ad pontificem,
id est archiepiscopum";
"Scidit pallium et tunicam pontifex ut populum quern
p. 328, lines 1626-28:
"omnes conturbati ad preces

p. 330, lines 1707-8:
regebat minus perfecta habere opera designaret";
et lamenta sui pontifias ostenduntur";
"Vbi notanda deuotio pontifias qui
p. 333, lines 1821-22:
agente industrio
lugens orans ac ieiunans pro transgressione populi"; p. 336, lines 1949-50:
"Denique
pont?fice"', p. 366, line 1078: "rogaueruntque

uniuersum ergo populum pontifex eminet."
ipsi [populi] pontificem
suum"; p. 367,
line 1134:
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
"Super
1120
priestsalone ("reliqua quattuorpropriepontificumsunt").96Since itwas plainly

impossibleto display theundergarments
sharedby priestsand highpriests,Bede
needed only to show thatEzra possessed thefourpieces thatwere proper to the
pontifex,namely,thesuperumerale,the tunicasuperumeralis,therationale,and
the laminaaurea he carriedon his head.
Gazing at thefigure
ofEzra inAmiatinus,RupertBruce-Mitford,
who no doubt
thoughthe shouldbe lookingat thetraditionalimageof someonewearing a pal
liumdraped over a tunic,objected, "There iscompleteconfusionover thedrap
where thecoloursof thegarmentsare transposed
eries,particularly
about thelegs,
and a gratuitousand impossiblethirditemof dress,a second tunica,is introduced
(darkblue incolourand seenshowingabove thefeet)" (myemphasis).97
Unknow
inglyhe has singledout two importantchangesBede made. Since theouter and
most important
garmentof thepontifexwas his superumerale(Exod. 28.6), Bede
needed to alter thepallium of theoriginal tomake it become a superumerale
(coveringtheshoulders).Bruce-Mitford'sremarkabout an inversion
of colorscan
be understoodonly ifthereaderconsultsa color reproductionof the imageand
noticeswhere theredgarmentthatcovers theback and shouldersdisappearsand
thenreemergesagain, seeminglytuckedinbetweenthe legs.98
Bede explains thatthesuperumerale,as itsname implied,coveredboth shoul
ders. SinceCassiodorus's pallium-as we know throughtheMatthew imageof
theLindisfarneGospels-left therightshoulder"bare," that is,coveredonly by
thetunic,Bede had tomake sure thatboth of "Ezra's" shouldersendedup being
properlycovered.At thedrypointstagewe findhim inserting
a curve to indicate
how the rightshoulderwill get covered.To make senseofwhat Bruce-Mitford
called the transposition
of colors around the legs a briefhistoricalnotewill be
usefulhere.Abelard once repliedto a questionput tohimbyHeloise: "Quid aliud
scapulae quam humeri?Aut quid scapularenisi superhumerale?"(Scapulae and
humeribothmean shoulders,and therefore
thesuperhumeraleand thescapular
are the same thing).99
Inmonastic terminology
scapularewas theequivalentof
a garmentthatcoveredand hungdown fromtheshoulders.
superumerale,
Among
amonk's clothingSt.Benedict,inchapter55 of his rule,listsa "scapularepropter
opera." It became a standardpiece ofmonastic clothingthroughthecenturies
rightdown tomodern times:a longpiece of cloth,of shoulderwidth, and at an
earlierdate probablya bitwider,with a hole in thecenterto letthehead through,
thatstretched
both in thefrontand at theback fromtheshouldersdown tonear
theground and was worn over a monastic tunicor "habit."With timea hood
96
Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi
1, ed. Isidor Hilberg, CSEL 54 (Vienna, 1910), p. 597: "Dis
Epistulae,
sacerdotum uestes atque pontificum";
p. 600: "His quattuor uestimentis
primum communes
... de quo nunc
diximus, tarn sacerdotes quam pontifices utuntur. reliqua quattuor proprie pontificum
camus
cum sacerdotibus,
sunt"; p. 605: "Didicimus,
quae communia
quae
sint."
97
"The Art" (above, n. 72), p. 12.
Bruce-Mitford,
98
For a good color image see the references above in nn. 10-11.
specialia
pontificis
99PL178:717B.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
uestimenta
1121
became attached to thescapular.InBenedict'sday itappears to have servedas a

kind of apron forcertaintypesofwork.100
We have no precise information
aboutmonastic clothinginBede's day,butwe
know thatBenedictBiscopwas proud thattherulehe establishedforhismonastic
foundationinNorthumbriawas based on thebest customshe had come across
in thecourseof his visitsto seventeen
monasterieson theContinent,andwe also
know thathe held theRule of St.Benedict ingreatesteem.101
Looking at theway
theseatedEzra has dealtwith his superumerale,I get thestrongimpressionthat
it shows Bede's familiarity
with themonastic scapulare and thathe used this
to depictEzra. Here I can recallmy own experienceof severaldecades
familiarity
livingas a monk and wearing a scapular.A scapular seated on the shoulders
When you satdown,you had several
coveredonly thefrontand back of thebody.
options:On a bench, ifthe floorbehindwas not dirty,you could fliptheback
panel behind thebench.On a chair you could siton thisclothpanel, but then
with timeitacquired an unpleasantshine;or you could takehold of it,bring it
roundto thefrontandwhen seatedopen your legsa bit and tuckittogether
with
thefront
panel down betweenyour legs.This isprecisely
what I seehas happened
toEzra's superumerale.102
Sinceourmonastic tunicand scapularwere of thesame
Not sowith Ezra!
color,black,no visual clash resultedfromthisgesture.
AlthoughthetextofExodus refersto thecolorof thesuperumerale
as amixture
of "gold, and blue, and purple,and scarlettwicedyed,"Bede, commentingon
thisgarmentinhisDe tabernaculo,shows thatthecolor uppermostinhismind
was thatof blood: "the colour purple can also be understoodas thespillingof
one's blood forChrist,or as theenduranceof variousafflictions;
forit is thevery
cross thatwe who followtheLord are orderedto bear daily.Hence rightly
does
theappearanceof such [a colour] shineamong theotherson theshouldersof the
103 This
priest,thatitmay teachhim to be alwayspreparedto sufferadversities."
surelyexplains thecolor of thesuperumeralein theEzra image.
Bede elongatedtheredof thisscapularlsuperumerale
garment-containedbe
tweenthe legs-sufficientlyto enable him to provideEzra with anotherpiece of
Let us again
clothingproper to thepontifex,namely,the tunicasuperumeralis.
100If
the scapular was a bit more than shoulder width and one tied it round the waist,
itwould
certainly act as an apron.
101
See the statements about Benedict Biscop in the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith: (6) "Deniquereferre
erat solitus, quia regulam, quam docebat,
in antiquissimis Xcem et Vlltem monasteriis
didicerat, et
in sacculo sui pectoris rec?ndita, Brittanniamque
quaeque
ubicumque
optima uidisset, haec, quasi
..."
(16) "sicut ... et regula sancti patris Benedicti
tradiderit";
perlata, nobis sequenda
(Plummer,
Baedae
St. Benedict's
Cassino
opera hist?rica, 1:390 and 393). Was
among the sev
abbey of Monte
enteen "most ancient monasteries"
that Biscop had visited? Bede, in his Lives of the Abbots,
increases
the note of veneration toward the founder ofMonte Cassino:
"Sed iuxta quod regula magni quondam
..."
Benedicti
3
rule in In Ezram
(Plummer, 1:375), and refers to chapter 7 of Benedict's
in humilitate consistere reueren
(CCSL 119A, p. 350, lines 466-68):
"Quos profecto gradus maxime
dissimus pater nomine et uita Benedictus
intellexit cum ..."
102
Having made myself a long white scapular that hung from the shoulders down to the ground,
onlookers
seeing me sit down while tucking the back and front panels of the scapular between my legs
have said they now fully understood
the inversion of colors present in the Ezra image.
103
Cited from the translation of Arthur G. Holder, Bede: On the Tabernacle,
Translated Texts for
abbatis
Historians
18 (Liverpool,
1994),
pp.
113-14.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1122
recallBruce-Mitford'scommentabout the"impossiblethirditemof dress,a sec

ond tunica ... (darkblue incolour and seen showingabove thefeet)."Bede has
simplyinsertedthatlineof blue to showEzra did not lack thistunic,totallyblue
("tota hyacinthina"),reachingdown to thefeet("ad pedes usque pertingebat"),
whose major part, however,was supposedlyhidden by the (red) superumerale
("cuiuspars nonminima superumeralitegebatur").104
There was one itemof clothing,the tunicworn by the figurein theCodex
Grandiorbeneathhispallium,thatBede could not avoid copyingand thatremains
an anomaly on the "Ezra" page.We see it as thegreen tunicvisiblewhere the
rightarm emergesfromthesuperumerale,and thenagain at theknees and legs.
The pontifex,Bede tellsus, together
with thepriestsshared a finewoven tunic
("linea siuebyssina"),105
which also stretched
down tonear thefeet,but sincethis
was an interiortunic,
worn under thehighpriest'sblue tunic,itcannotbe iden
with thegreentunic.Bede needed tokeep thistunictomaintain theintegrity
tified
but it isan elementthatcontinuestobetraytheoriginalimage
of theseatedfigure,
of theCodex Grandior. It is fascinating
here to examinethedrypointlinesand see
how Bede prepared forthe "new" clothing.He needed to know thepositionof
thefeet,and likewiseto have theoutline forthe leftleg,but he lefta largespace
where thenew garmentarrangement
empty
had tobe fittedin.He inserteda curve
over therightshoulderso hewould knowwhere thesuperumerale
must fitover
thisshoulder.Two smallcurves lowerdown allowed him to distinguishthebody
was seated.
fromthecushiononwhich thefigure
A thirdadornmentproper to thehighpriestwas his rationale,or breastplate,
which essentiallyconsistedof a displayof twelvepreciousstones,arrangedinfour
rowsof three,andwas obviously intendedto beworn in thecenterof thebody.
It did not requiremuch skilltodraw a rectangleinwhich twelvestonescould be
was holding,therationalehad
set;but because of thelargebook theseated figure
to be fittedratherawkwardlyto theleftof theopen book. I feelsure thisiswhy,
at the drypoint stage, Bede marked
out the position
itwould
occupy
in relation
to thebook. It isunfortunatethatall theupperpainton thisbreastplatehas flaked

offbecause theApocalypse and therationalesharedsevenpreciousstones,and in
on theApocalypse,an earlywork,Bede had showna greatinterest
hiscommentary
in thepreciousstonesand theircolors.106
Itwould have been interesting
to be able
to compare his commentsabout color in theApocalypse commentary
with the
actual color each stonedisplayedon thebreastplate.107
At thebottomof thera
tionalewhere somuch paint has flakedaway,we see a band that,passingunder
therightarm,appears toconnectwith a band of similar
width at thefigure's
back.
Ifthisband had continuedover theredsuperumerale,itcould have been identified
104
See Bede's comments inDe tabern?culo
(CCSL 119A, p. 109, lines 633-45).
105
"Interior [tunica] ergo erat linea siue byssina quod lini esse genus nobilissi
Ibid., lines 638-40:
mum constat exterior uero tunica tota hyacinthina nil omnino coloris alterius admittens."
106
were sardius, topazius, zmaragdus,
The stones common to the breastplate and to the Apocalypse
sapphirus, iaspis, chrysolitus, and berillus.
107
The best treatment of Bede's handling of the precious stones in the Apocalypse
is that of Roger
Gryson,
provides
12(1983),
Bedae
Presbyteri Expositio
several essential correctives
Apocalypseos,
to P. Kitson's
CCSL
121A
study of Bede's
it
pp. 173-77:
(Turnhout, 2001),
treatment inAnglo-Saxon
England
73-123.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1123
with thegirdleproper to thehighpriest ("cingulopropriepontifexutebatur"),

which, accordingtoBede inDe tabernaculo,bound thesuperumeraleand breast
plate (rationale)together.108
Lastly,as regardsthepontiff's
headdressI suggestedinmy Speculumarticlethat
thesource that liesbehindwhat we see on theAmiatinuspagewas probablythe
descriptionJosephusgives inhisAntiquitates,a work thatwe knowBede had in
hand while composinghis commentaryon Ezra.109Josephusmentions that,in
addition to thebonnethe sharedwith all otherpriests,thehighpriest,pontifex,
had a goldencrown from
which arose in themiddle of theforehead,as itwere, a
of
smallgold chalice thedimensionsof thesmall finger.110
The ornamentwe see
coincidesmorewith thisverbaldescriptionfoundin theLatin Josephusthanwith
any of thebulkyornamentsappearingon theheads ofAaron andMoses in the
ByzantineOctateuchs. In otherwords a verbal descriptionratherthana visual
sourceseemsto have inspired
Bede's smalldrawing.
SinceEzra was forBede beatusEzra (HolyEzra),1"1itwas fitting
to endowhim
with a golden halo."12I thinkthehalo appears at thedrypointstage-Sabina
Magrini confirmsthatthecompasspoint isplaced above therighteye-to make
sure it ispositionedcorrectlyin relationto thehead. Perhaps thecompasspoint
was alreadytherein theCodex Grandior image,datingfromthetimewhen dry
pointingwas used forcreatingtheMatthew imagesent to Lindisfarne(see the
Appendix below), or perhaps itwas put thereby Bede, who wanted thehalo
correctly
positioned in relationtoEzra's head.
The seated figure
of theCodex Grandiornot onlyhad a largebook open on his
kneesbut also held a pen inhis righthand.While such a figure,forBede, could
to as scriba,to show
well conjureup an imageofEzra,who is repeatedlyreferred
thatitcan also fitour perceptionofCassiodoruswould requirean excursusfor
tonot onlyas scribabut as
which thereisno place here."' SinceEzra is referred
108
CCSL
119A, p. 119, lines 1010-14.
109
p. 876.
Meyvaert,
1101 have looked carefully at all the images in the two books of Elisabeth Revel-Neher,
L'arche
dans l'art juif et chr?tien du second au dixi?me si?cles (Paris, 1984), and The Image of the
d'alliance
Jew in Byzantine Art (New York, 1992), but have been unable to find anything that might suggest
Bede had a visual source for Ezra's headgear.
111In
"Verum quia beatus Ezras non solum praedi
Ezram 2 (CCSL 119A, p. 315, lines 1084-87):
catorum sanctae ecclesiae e quibus unus ipse erat sed etiam domini saluatoris ad cuius membra per
tinebat typum gessit. ..."
112
The presence of the round halo shows this feature has no connection whatever with Cassiodorus.
1131 reached this conclusion after a fruitful e-mail discussion with Mark Vessey that took as its basis
not only his introduction to James Halporn's

translation of the Institutions but especially his important
to Ductus:
inWestern
Late Antiquity
article "From Cursus
Figures ofWriting
(Augustine, Jerome,
in Patrick Cheney and Frederick A. de Armas, eds., European
Cassiodorus,
Bede),"
Literary Careers:
a rapid reading
(Toronto, 2002), pp. 47-103. While
from Antiquity to the Renaissance
an aris
maintains
of some passages
of the Institutions might leave the impression that Cassiodorus
to distance himself from full-blown scribal activity?a
tocratic stand of wanting
servile work?other
The Author
show him taking personal responsibility for entering corrections, adding notae or tituli, to
passages
the books of Scripture. We see him, in other words, with pen in hand. Let me sum up by quoting one
comments to me: "It seems to me that we are leftwith equivocation.
On the one hand,
of Vessey's
himself quite closely with the work of writing. On the other
Cassiodorus
appears to be associating
hand, he can
leave the appearance
of distance
between
himself and
'other' scribes, however
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
glorious
1124
scribauelox, a termBede interpreted

asmeaning thathe had inventeda shorthand
of theOld Testamentbooks, all Bede needed
letterform
to speedup therewriting
to do was to insertsome "scribbles"on theopen page of the largebook visible
While many evangelistimagesdisplay recognizableletterson such
to thereader.
we see inEzra's book ratherresembles
Tironiannotation
open pages, thescript
thesignat theend of line4 distinctly
resemblestheTironiannoteEmileChatelain
Itwould be surprisingifamong thenumerousbooks
givesfortheword reuertet.114
BenedictBiscop broughtback fromItalytoNorthumbriaa fewdid nothavewhat
Bede-even ifhe couldnot read them-would concludetobe a formof shorthand
writing.
Apart fromthechangesmade to ensurethattheseated figure

became, inBede's
eyes,a recognizableJewishhighpriest,itwould seem thattheoverallaimwas to
faithfully
reproduceall theother featuresjustas theyappeared in theoriginal.If
the copy betraysa certainawkwardness, it is quite simplybecause some ele
culturalmilieu,one thatwas
mentsof theoriginal,comingfroma totallydifferent
weremisunderstood.RupertBruce
with naturalisticrepresentation,
veryfamiliar
Mitford, forexample, singledout thechangeof color thatoccurs in thefloor
or
passing fromlightin theforegroundto dark-as a "signof amateurishness,
But ifJurgen
Merten iscorrectinnotingthatthecopyistfailed
inexperience."'115
to see thatwhat was placed rightnext to the ink bottle on the floorwas its
onemight simplyconclude thatBede, unfamiliar
with classical natu
shadow,"16
ralisticpainting,copied thechangeof color but failedtounderstandthatitmeant
a portionof thefloor
was portrayedas being in thesunlight.
Chapter 31 ofBede's
DTR shows he knew all about sunlightcausing shadows,but a shadow as part
hewas unfamiliar
of a naturalisticpaintingwas probablysomething
with."17
Bede
with collapsible tablesand so did not understandhow to
was likewiseunfamiliar
produce thestructurethatappearedunderneaththetabletop.Correct renderings
(hence the 'vos' [in Institutions 8.1]). The ambiguity or coyness, I am still tempted to argue,
life and
index of the delicacy
(and historical interest) of what is being transacted, in this man's
person, between an ancient tradition of 'liberal' culture and the divinely 'mechanical'
activity of the
that underlay the image in the Codex Grandior
of Cassiodorus
Christian
scribe." The visual model
theirwork
is one
to a manuscript
of the pre
holding a pen was, no doubt, an evangelist portrait belonging
did have a pen, Vessey likewise made
iconoclastic period. To strengthen the argument that Cassiodorus
the point to me that itwas unlikely that both Bede and the artist who drew theMatthew
image in the
independently have created the figure of a scribe if in the original
gift codex sent to Lindisfarne would
shown
was simply shown holding a book on his knees. (Vessey hopes to return to the topic of
Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
and his pen in a future article.)
114
Emile Ch?telain,
Introduction ? la lecture des notes tironiennes (Paris, 1900), p. 47, col. C, top.
In "Bede, Cassiodorus,"
p. 873,1 had thought something resembling Tironian notation on the open
book in the Grandior
image might have helped Bede suspect itwas Ezra. I now wish to consider Bede
responsible for the "Tironian notes" he put there, to boost his Ezra theory.
115
"The Art," p. 12.
Bruce-Mitford,
116
"Die Esra-Miniatur
Trierer Zeitschrift 50 (1987), 313: "Hier
des Codex Amiatinus,"
J.Merten,
hat aber der Illuminator des Codex Amiatinus nicht den in seiner Vorlage dargestellten Schlagschatten
abbilden
weiteren,
117
The
Shadows"
awareness
vielmehr hat er den Schatten des Tintenfl?schchens

mi?verstanden
wollen;
braun gemalten Gef?? umgedeutet."
title of DTR
chapter 31 is "The Varying Length of Days and the Different
(trans. Wallis,
of the position
p. 89). To see the ink bottle had a shadow

of the sun in relation to that ink bottle.
would
have
und
zu einem
Position
of the
involved
direct
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1125
of thiskind of tableare to be foundin severalByzantinemanuscriptswith evan

gelistportraits."8
The scribalparaphernaliadisplayedalong thefloorin theAmia
copied,but theyinturnaregood indicators
tinuspage seem tohave beencarefully
Vivarium. Ifwe arewilling
fortheplace of originof theoriginal image,namely,
to browse throughseveraldozen Byzantineevangelistimages,we will findthey
have thesame scribaltools,but theseare alwaysneatlylaidout, on a tableor on
a shelfbelow a tableor on theshelfof an open bookcase; theyare neverstrewn
on theflooras intheEzra image,inamannerunfamiliartoBede but so reminiscent
points to a
of earlierRoman imagery-thusan additional featurethatstrongly
milieu likeCassiodorus'sVivarium.119
Looking at the seated "Ezra" writing inhis book, but at the same timefully
attiredas highpriest,convincesme thattheimagewas made at an earlystageand
convincedhimselfthatthe
Bede,who had veryrecently
by a younger,enthusiastic
figurein theCodex Grandior showedEzra and thatEzra had been a pontifex.
Amiatinushad leftforRome, he came towritehis
When, severalyears later,after
befitting
thehigh
De tabernaculoand todiscoursemore fullyon theaccoutrement
priesthe explained,"The highpriestwould put on theseeightkindsof garments
at the timeof performing
sacrifice(His octo generibusuestiumpontifextempore
but thehighpriestcould hardlydo so when sitting
sacrificiisolebat indui),"'120
down towrite in a book! Bede's RetractatioinActus apostolorumshows thathe
was aman not embarrassedbydiscoveringhemightoccasionallyhave said some
visual-and theAmiatinus
thing
wrong. I am impressedthatall thestatements,
toEzra as pon
imageiscertainlya strongvisual statement-andverbal,referring
tifex,a Jewishhigh priest,are now provablyearly.In thechroniclethatforms
chapter66 ofDTR datingfromc. 725, Bede liststhenamesof severalJewishhigh
priests("iudeorumpontifex . . ."), but in theentryfortheyear3529 of creation
to simplyas "sacerdos et scriba legisDei."'12' I thinkthatas time
Ezra is referred
went on and Bede sortedoutmore andmore biblical facts,he came to see that
apart from3 Ezra no othersources lentsupporttoEzra as pontifex-ratherthe
On theotherhand, in thecourse ofwritinghis commentaryon Ezra,
contrary.
done as a kind of companion to the image,Bede laid great stresson Ezra as a
of Christ,who was indeed"uerus rex et pontifex."'122
This would
prefiguration
what
have eliminatedtheneed forany kind of explicitretractatioconcerning
118
"The Art," plate III, shows a similar table in the tenth-century Matthew
Bruce-Mitford,
image
56. For a color plate of this image see Anna Marava
from Athens, National
Library of Greece, MS
tes Ethnik?s Vivlioth?k?s
t?s
Chatz?nikolaou,
vyzantin?n
cheirograph?n
Katalogos
mikrographi?n
Hellados,
(Luke); MS
1 (Athens,
2645,
1978),
plate 316
plate
3. In this volume
(Luke);
illus. 34 (Luke).
likewise
the same type of table occurs
in George
Galavaris,
Z?graphike
inMS
Vyzantin?n
56, plate 5
cheirogra
ph?n (Athens, 1995),

119
See Meyvaert,
p. 870 with n. 170 and fig. 6. Browsing through the plates
inGerhard Zimmer's R?mische Berufsdarstellung
(Berlin, 1982) helps to show that we are in a Roman
and not a Byzantine tradition. As regards the painting of the youth in the hypogeum of Trebius Justus
see now the excellent illustration in Rossella
in n. 170 of "Bede, Cassiodorus"),
Rea,
(mentioned
Forma Vrbis 4/7-8
di Trebio Giusto,"
(1999), 7. (I thank my friend Fabrizio Martello
"L'ipogeo
kindly obtaining a copy of this important, and splendidly illustrated, article forme.)
120
CCSL
119A, p. 98, lines 204-5.
121
CCSL
123B, p. 486, line 715.
122
122 (Turnhout, 1955), p. 36, line 164.
1.5, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL
Bede, Homelia
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
for
1126
remaineda smallhistoricalblunder.Yet it is fascinatingto see how thisblunder,

situated
because itcan be tiedto a particularindividual,
Bede, and chronologically
in a particularperiod of his life,helps to shed new lighton a captivatingpage
fromtheCodex Amiatinus.Earlier Imade thepoint thatwithoutBede's verses
must be Ezra.
above the image therewas nothingto indicatethe seated figure
Viewing theway the image is set in thepage, surroundedbywide marginson all
sides,I cannotbelievethathavingversesabove theimagewas partof theoriginal
tag" at a late
planning.Theywere inserted,I think,byBede as an "identifying
who remainedpuzzled, because
date and at theurgingof some of his brethren,
Bedewanted tomake sure the imagewould be recognizedforwhat itwas meant
to bewhen thegiftpandect reachedRome.123
One further
pointmay help to underlinethatthe imageofEzra belongs to the
earlieststagesof thepreparationof thefirst
quire,with possiblysomeyearselaps
ingbetween itsproductionand the last text thatwas insertedinto theCodex
Amiatinus,namely,Ceofrith'sdedicationverseson fol. 1v, the side of the leaf
made a shrewdobservation
directlyfacingtheEzra image.RupertBruce-Mitford
thatsupportssome lapseof timeand thatwas not disprovedby therecentI.C.P.L.
scientificanalysis.He writes, "Offsetsfromthe rectangularframeof theEzra
miniature ... seem to underliethepink and blue arcade frameof thededicatory
verse.At leastalthoughtheoffsetsare clear on theadjacentvellum,no slightest
traceof themappears on thesurfaceof thearcading,which isonlyexecuted ina
So the
lightwash, andmight be expected to retainsome traceof theoffset."'124
Ezra imagemust have stayedpressedagainst the,still-blank,fol. lv fora consid
erable time to allow thatoffsetto develop. Even if thededication lineswere a
to note thatthemonks readingthemcould
ratherlate insertion,it is interesting
what both theanon
not guesswhat was reallygoing tohappen, thusconfirming
The
ymousLife and Bede tellus about Ceolfrith's"sudden" decision to leave.125
dedication reads as thoughCeolfrithwas sendinghis gifts("mitto") toRome,
while stillremainingabbot in a faroff,distant land.126
Only on themorningof
123
Bibbie miniate
"Nota critica" (by

has an interesting and well-balanced
(above, n. 5), pp. 53-57,
on the problems
set by the illuminations of the Codex Amiatinus.
I note the fol
Ceccanti)
sia stato
raffigurato nella miniatura
lowing comment
(p. 55a) about Ezra: "Sul perch? il personaggio
. . . non
che fare congetture, tenendo presente che se non fosse per i
identificato con Esdra
possiamo
Melania
come Girolamo
versi che accompagnano
la figura potremo riconoscerla
che, can?nicamente,
lega la
sua immagine all'apertura
della Bibbia nel ru?lo di traduttore." That in Rome the image?given
the
have been interpreted as Jerome, I rather doubt. But the author
Jewish high-priest ornaments?might
at least recognizes that it is only the verses that identify the image.
124
"The Art," p. 8. This important point is again underlined
Bruce-Mitford,
and n. 47.
delle rilegature," pp. 146-47
125
Anonymous
Life: "Therefore he readied a ship, decided on who he would
inMagrini,
"Storia
pick as envoys for

be brought to the Blessed Peter, and procured a sufficient
arranged for the gifts which would
supply of the things necessary for so great a journey. But the fact that he himself was going to go with
them he advisedly kept secret for the time being" (cited from Albertson, Anglo-Saxon
Saints, pp. 259
60 [see n. 4 above]). For Bede's text, see above, n. 3.
126"...
extremis de finibus abbas, /Deuoti
affectus pignora mitto mei. /
Ceolfridus, Anglorum
semper habere locum": cited
meosque
optans tanti inter gaudia patris / In caelis memorem
Meque
Rome,
fromMarsden,
The Text of the Old
Testament,
p. 88.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1127
2 June716 didBede learn,tohisgreatdistress,thatCeolfrithhad decided to leave

with thegiftsand end his days inRome.
together
A longpoem (no. 69) ofAlcuin thatgives thedescriptionof awhole Bible ends
with thesefourlines:
Codicibussacrishostilicladeperustis
Ezra Deo feruenshoc reparauit opus
Hoc opus,hoc etenimflammis

tesubtrahit
atris,
0
lector,si tu pacis amore legis.127
I havenow abandoned theintricate

explanationofmy articleof 1996,which tried
to account forthefirstcoupletby assumingthatAlcuin had seena sisterpandect
ofAmiatinuswith a duplicateof theEzra imageaccompaniedby itsinscription.
I now believe theEzra imagemust be consideredunique toAmiatinusand thatit
neverexisted induplicate.A farmore directand likelyexplanationwas recently
proposed byCelia Chazelle: Alcuin knew thecoupletbecause he had seenCeol
frith's
giftpandect inRome.'28We can assume thatAlcuinwas fullyaware of the
splendidgiftpandectcarriedofftoRome in716 fromreadingBede's Lives of the
not
Abbots, thechronicleinchapter66 ofDTR, theanonymousLifeofCeolfrith,
tomention theverbalaccountsgivenhimduringhis visitstoWearmouth-Jarrow.
His way of referring
toCeolfrithshows thegreatesteem inwhich he held this
particularabbot. Donald Bullough dates Poem 69 to theyears 790-93, when
ButAlcuin's visitstoRome weremade earlier,in
Alcuinwas again inEngland.129
the late770s with Aelberht,and again in780-81, when hewent to obtain the
Would itnot have beennaturalforhimwhile inRome to
pallium forEanbald.130
ask to seeCeolfrith'sgiftto St.Peter's,and havingseen itto remembertheverses
over theEzra image,or perhaps even to have jotted themdown? Bullough is
preparedto linkAlcuin's lateruse ofRoman epigraphicformulaeto reminiscences
(perhapsalso jottings
made?) dating fromtheseRoman visits.13'If,as Bullough
Poem 69 accompaniedthegiftof a largeBible toCharlemagne,this
must
suggests,
have broughttoAlcuin'smemory theother largepandect,with itsinscription,
he
had seen inRome. He drewamoral lessonby linkingthebooks thathad perished
by fire("codicibus . . . perustis")of theEzra coupletwith the idea of escaping
eternalfire("igne / flammis. . . atris") taken froma lineof Juvencus'sGospel
Amiatinusand thevisitstoRome thussufficeto
poem he had come to cherish.132
account forthepresenceof theEzra couplet inAlcuin's poem.
Let me conclude by returning
to thearticleof ScottDeGregoriowithwhich I
insightsintothethoughtsabout church
began.He has providedmany interesting
reformand renewalthatBede developed in thecourseofwritinghis commentary.
Situatingthiscommentaryin itscorrectchronologicalplace innoway diminishes
127
MGH
Poetae 1, p. 292, lines 201-4.
128
"Ceolfrid's Gift to St Peter," p. 146, n. 49.
Chazelle,
129
and Reputation,
and Society in theMiddle
Donald A. Bullough, Alcuin: Achievement
Education
16 (Leiden, 2004), pp. 405-10.
Ages and Renaissance
130
and 333-36.
Ibid., pp. 242-45
131
Ibid., p. 246.
132
Alcuin quotes and adapts this line in Letter 186 (MGH Epp. 4, p. 313): "Hoc opus, hoc etenim
non solum subtrahet igne /Te iam, sed faciet caeli conscendere arcem"; and in Letter 225 (ibid., p. 369):
"Hoc
opus, hoc etenim forsan te subtrahit
igni: /Hoc
opus, hoc etenim caelesti
te inserit aulae."
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1128
DeGregorio hasmade. It simply

means thatwe have now
thevalue of theremarks
become aware thattheseideasabout theneed forchurchreformanimatedBede
froma quite earlyperiod of his career.133
The verycontentsof theBook of Ezra,
dealingwith the spiritualrenewalof theJewishpeople,would have prompted
Bede, no matterwhat period of his lifehe was commentingon Ezra, tomake
remarksabout theneed forreformand renewalinhis own church.But beingable
to situateBede's commentaryat thevery timewhen theCodex Amiatinuswas
beingpreparedto be offeredas a giftat St.Peter'screatesa specialbond between
thecommentary
and theimageofEzra.We findourselvesintheprivilegedposition
of sharingthe intimatethoughtsof deepChristian love thatfilledBede'smind as
he gazed on the imageof Ezra thathe had helped to shape:
Ezra surely is the typeof theLord Savior since he renewed Scripture, recalled thepeople
out of captivity to Jerusalem, enriched the house of theLord with greater gifts,estab
lished leaders and rulersbeyond theEuphrates who were familiarwith the laws ofGod,
and reproached the sons of the captivity for taking foreignwives. In similarmanner the
Lord restoredHoly Scripture,which scribes and Pharisees had soiled by theircustoms
or interpretedonly according to the letter,since he showed thewritings ofMoses and
the Prophets to be fullof deep spiritualmeaning, and by sending theHoly Spirit upon
them he caused Apostles and apostolic men to write theNew Testament. He led the
people out of theBabylonian captivity,and after freeingthembrought them to Jerusalem
and into the promised land; dying once upon the cross, he redeemed thewhole world
throughhis blood, and descending intoHell, he snatched all true Israelites, namely, the
chosen ones he found there, and leading them into the precincts of the heavenly city,
granted them the joys of theirpromised heritage; daily he gathers the faithfulfrom the
tribulations of this earth into the fold ofHoly Church and into the eternal kingdom.134
APPENDIX
The RelationshipbetweentheImagesofEzra andMatthew

That some kind of relationship exists between the image of Ezra in theCodex Amiatinus
(A) and that ofMatthew in theLindisfarne Gospels (Y) has long been suspected, and my
aim here is to try to clarify this relationship. Elucidating the link, however, will depend
mainly on our ability to understand the nature of the textual relationship that exists be
tween theGospels, with theircapitula, as theyare presented in both manuscripts. A chro
nological approach to theproblem will prove helpful here.135Among thevolumes Benedict
133
The
case DeGregorio
seeks to build for a late date for In Ezram rests heavily on the connection
he thinks exists between the commentary and Bede's Letter to Egbert, which is dated 734. See "Bede's
In Ezram,"
"Its [the commentary's]
pp. 22-23:
remarkably close intertextual affinities above all to
suggest to me that itmay have been written near the end of Bede's career, when his mind
crisis and solutions for reform. No other com
especially fixated on the current Northumbrian
it out as unique in the
insistent preoccupation
with this theme, marking
mentary exhibits In Ezram's
the Ep?stola
was
remain specu
corpus. Hence, while such a proposal must, in our present state of knowledge,
of In Ezram was begun sometime in the late 720s
lative, I offer the possibility that the composition
in 734. Such a dating
and could have occupied Bede into the early 730s, before he wrote the Ep?stola
would make In Ezram Bede's latest extant commentary, a distinction usually given to the De templo."
134
inMeyvaert,
lines 1957-76)
Cited from my translation of In Ezram
(CCSL 119A, pp. 336-37,
Bedan
pp. 881-82.
1351am grateful to Laura Light for a fruitful discussion
concerning
topics dealt with
in thisAppendix.
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1129
was a codex containing

Biscop had brought back fromone of his several journeys to Italy136
the fourGospels, each with a distinctiveand numbered setof capitula or summaries (eighty
eight forMatthew, forty-sixforMark, ninety-fourforLuke, and forty-fivefor John); the
roman numerals distinguishing the capitula were repeated along themargins of theGospel
texts themselves,and in numerous instances they representeddivisions introduced into the
Gospel that corresponded to passages intended to be read on specificdays in the course of
the liturgical year. From the point of view of the development of liturgical books, with
lectionaries
seenas theculmination
of thedevelopment,
this
methodofproceeding
Gospel
by Gospel marks a very early and primitive stage.137A rubricated notation that followed
the capitulum showed when thepassage was meant to be read. Thus to give a few examples
from theGospel ofMatthew:
IX Vocat Petrum,Andream, lacobum et lohannem piscatores, qui mox secuti sunt eum
In ieiunium
(rubr.
sancti
Andreae).[Matt.4.18-22]
XLI Discipulorum
sabbatospicasuellentium
reprehensores
exemplo
Dauid etcircum
cisioneredarguit
(rubr.
Cottidianapermesses).[Matt.12.1-8]
LXX Secundum
scripturam
prophetiae
seditsuperasinaepullum,et ingressus
templum
eicit uendentes: ubi sanat caecos et claudos clamantibus paruulis Osanna
filioDauid
(rubr.
Indedicatione
BasilicaeStephani).[Matt.21.1-16]
LXXXIII Parabolamdicithoministribusseruistalentadiuersinumericommendantis
(rubr. In natale sancti Ianuarii). [Matt. 25.14-30]'13
Bede came to admire theGospel summaries of this codex for their literaryquality, recog
nizing them to be well above average, and he took them as models for the summaries he
himselfcomposed formany books of theBible.139Scholars studying the liturgicalnotations
have suspected thatNaples was the place where thisGospel book had originated.140This
codex was treasured in Bede's community and played a role in helping to develop its
still need it to explain why Bede is commenting on a particular
liturgical calendar-we
Gospel passage for a given day. Initiallyone special Gospel book could serve the liturgical
needs of theWearmouth community founded in 674, but new developments occurred in
theyears 679-82 that altered the situation. Benedict Biscop, togetherwith Ceolfrith,made
a journey toRome fromwhich they returned,not only carrying theCodex Grandior, but
in the company of John, archcantor of St. Peter's and abbot of theRoman monastery of
St.Martin. Bede isour witness thatJohn's presence brought an infusionofRoman liturgical
practice to his monastery, and it is certainly legitimate to suspect thatWearmouth's litur
136
On
the acquisitions
connected with these journeys see Paul Meyvaert,
at
8 (1979), 63-77.
Paintings
Wearmouth-Jarrow,"
England
Anglo-Saxon
137See
A. G. Martimort,
Les lectures liturgiques et leurs livres, Typologie
"Bede
and
the Church
des Sources du Moyen

64 (Turnhout, 1992), pp. 28-31.
Occidental
138
from the text Laura Light and I are preparing that will present the series of capitula from
Quoted
in their original form, together with comments on other related matters
the four Gospels
like the
?ge
in the "Burchard" Gospels

annotations
and references to Bede's homilies.
139
lectionum"
"Bede's Capitula
(above, n. 14), pp. 348-73.
Meyvaert,
140
The Neapolitan
origin was first pointed out by Dom Germain Morin,
au
"La liturgie de Naples
temps de Saint Gr?goire d'apr?s deux ?vang?liaires du septi?me si?cle," Revue b?n?dictine 8 (1891)
are Matthew
481-93
70 ("In dedicatione
and 529-37:
the indicators forNaples
basilicae Stephani")
sanctae Mariae")
and 83 ("In natale sancti Ianuarii") and John 5 ("In dedicatione
and 32 ("In ieiunium
so few saints in the calendar Guy Philippart tells me he considers Matthew
sancti Ianuarii"). With
36
at an early
("In sancti Viti") striking, since the Acts of Vitus suggests a cult somewhere close toNaples
"In
Lucaniam
S. Viti,"
date, and an early version of theMartyrologium
Hieronymianum
gives simply
The passage on Ianuarius in Bede's martyrology
suggesting a cult existed in the proximity of Naples.
alludes
to the Naples
basilica
of St. Stephen.
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1130
at thistime.141
With thefoundation
ofa new
gicalcalendarunderwent
somemodifications
monastic community at Jarrow in 681/82, twelve miles distant fromWearmouth-its
second Gospel book would have been
churchwas dedicated on 23 April 685 (or 686)-a
needed. From the surviving evidence I thinkwe can piece together a plausible theoryof
what occurred. A scribewas told tomake a copy of the old Gospel codex but,while doing
so, to gather into separate lists for each Gospel the liturgical annotations that lay strewn
among the summaries. Itwas thisnew codex that served as exemplar for theGospel texts
of the two Vulgate pandects thatCeolfrith caused to be made on becoming abbot of the
twinmonasteries in 688. Since thesepandects were destined only forconsultation and not
for liturgicalpurposes, the separate liturgical listswere not copied into them.The listsare
equally absent fromA, the thirdpandect and the only one to survive. But A does bear
witness to a small accident that occurred during the copying process when the scribe re
sponsible for thenew codex failed to omit the liturgicalnotation, in red, linked to capitulum
89 of Luke (fol. 852r) and, later, threenotations, all in red, attached to capitula 15, 17,
and 19 (fol. 882r) of John's Gospel.142 A, therefore, remains our witness to the small
accident thathappened during thecopying stage.As regards the separate listswith liturgical
annotations in the new codex, thesewould have retained fullpractical value as long as the
numbers of the original summary stood beside each line item.Anyone familiarwith the
vastworld ofmedieval manuscripts knows there isabundant evidence to show thatat times
some tasks failed to get accomplished or completed: initial lettersnever got inserted,or the
job of rubricationwas never finished,etc., and this is probably what we encounter here.
We know that friendlyrelations existed between the two communities ofWearmouth
Jarrow and Lindisfarne and can understand thatCeolfrith might have wished to present
the island community up northwith the gift of a Gospel book that showed off the new
writing skills being developed in his scriptorium. The monastery where the giftwas re
ceived, however, had deep Irish roots, had already been in existence forover three-quarters
of a century,and was proud of the artistic skills ithad developed during that long period. 13
Y shows, on the artistic level,what became of the gift thatCeolfrith sent there,but I think
we have to posit the existence of thisgift in order to fullyunderstand many elements inY
We need an exemplar coming directly from
Wearmouth-Jarrow to explain
that resulted.144
141
Bede
Roman
etiam
connected with the

(c. 6) refers specifically to written material
of the Abbots
in
"non pauca
from
the
Archcantor
the
Wearmouth
John
preserved
deriving
library:
liturgy
in eiusdem monasterii
bibliotheca memoriae
litterismandata
gratia ser
reliquit, quae hactenus
in his Lives
uantur"
(ed. Plummer, Baedae

History 4.18.
142
On fol. 852 (rubricated)
opera hist?rica,
1:369).
See also a similar reference
in his Ecclesiastical
fol. 882r (all rubricated)

lectio potest quolibet
tempore did";
"quae
in quadragesima."
circa pascha,"
Their isolated pres
"Legenda
"Legenda
"Legenda pro defunctis,"
ence on the large page clearly points to an earlier event when they were overlooked
in the copying
stage.
143
Michelle
P. Brown, The Lindisfarne Gospels:

Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (Toronto, 2003),
art historical evidence for . . . grounding
[the Lindisfarne Gospels]
p. 55: "There is overwhelming
within the Columban
and 'Celtic' traditions."
144
as an exemplar for that
On p. 166 Brown writes, "The Gospelbook
used atWearmouth/Jarrow
part of the [pandect] Bible's texts ismore likely to have been the source loaned out for consultation
a tome as one of the Ceolfrith

especially given the logistics of copying from so large
I regret to say, establishes the wrong perspective for tackling thewhole problem. The
a mass of biblical codices that were used to create Ceol
Wearmouth-Jarrow
library had accumulated
lent out to other mon
frith's pandects. Brown then imagines these exemplars brought in from abroad
[to Lindisfarne],
pandects."
This,
the pandects were in being. But such a view neglects a crucial piece of historical evidence,
forwhich we have Bede himself as witness, which counters the idea of exemplars "lent out." We need
to develop a full understanding
to keep this key evidence
in mind ifwe want
of the nature of the
asteries once
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1131
the very close link between theGospel text of Y and that of A, a closeness thatwas un
derlined inJohnWordsworth and Henry JulianWhite's edition of theGospels.145 The link
holds not only for theGospel texts themselves but also for the capitula or summaries,
where we find the same small slips concerning rubrics inA reappearing in Y. To find an
adequate explanation for the separate listswith liturgicalnotes, which inY follow on the
capitula forMatthew, Mark and John, but precede those of Luke, we must go back to the
earlier stage atWearmouth when these liturgicalnotationswere deliberately separated from
among the capitula and suppose that the exemplar sent to Lindisfarne simply lacked the
roman numerals that should have been presentwith the lists.
The giftmanuscript had canon tables similar in design to those of A but necessarily
occupying more pages (sixteen instead of seven) because its sizewas so much smaller than
that of the large pandect. Rupert Bruce-Mitford stated confidently,"Of all thevarying sets
of Canon Tables in Insularmanuscripts, these two [A and Y] aremost alike. Zimmerman
shrewdly
saw this,through
thesuperficial
[artistic]
differences,
and thought
thattheLin
disfarne tables were derived from those of Amiatinus."'146We may add, not directly from
Amiatinus, but froman exemplar made in the same scriptorium.
It had likewise been decided to enhance the giftcodex by adding images of the evange
lists.147I find ithard to believe thatBede was the firstto discover that drypoint could be
used in order to copy an image.When making theEzra image hewas repeating something
he knew had been done earlier.Whoever made the drawings for the gift codex thatwent
toLindisfarne-not having, itwould seem, a complete set of evangelist images fromwhich
to borrow148 chose to drypoint the figureofMatthew from the seated figurein theCodex
Grandior. That is the real, but indirect,connection between theMatthew ofY and theEzra
of A. But Matthew inY does provide us with a glimpse of how the figure in theCodex
Grandior was clothed, with pallium over tunic, in theRoman Mediterranean fashion, an
arrangement thatBede needed to alter in order to cause Ezra to emerge.
that underlies the Lindisfarne Gospels. When
Bede tells us that he produced
capitula lec
tionum, that is, chapter summaries, for the whole New Testament
(as well as formost of the books
of the Old Testament), with the exception of the Gospels, he is in fact telling us that theWearmouth
exemplar
its own copies of many books of the Bible, not in the

Jarrow scriptorium was very busy producing
form of pandects, but of lesser volumes containing either a single book or a cluster of books (Te/7
In "Bede's Capitula
lectionum" I showed that one such codex, with Bede's summaries,
handschriften).
had contained
the Pauline Epistles, while another had Acts, the Catholic Epistles, and the Apocalypse
I give there on p. 373, explained that
De Bruyne, in the quotation
together. Dom Donatien
that a new division had been undertaken
for a biblical
creating new capitula or summaries meant
book. Bede's
book,
statement, therefore, tells us that
implying a need for copying the whole
was disseminating
its own new editions of biblical books. That Bede refrained
Wearmouth-Jarrow
grouped
from making new capitula for the Gospels, being very satisfied with those that had come to him in the
was producing
its own copies
Gospel book, in no way disproves thatWearmouth-Jarrow
Neapolitan
of the Gospels,
containing the capitula series of which it highly approved, to be offered elsewhere.
145
... ; Pars
Nouum
Testamentum
prior
p. 706, "Y is
(Oxford, 1889-98),
Quattuor
Euangelia
bound to A in a very close manner"
("arcto uinculo coniunctus");
p. 709, "In the four Gospels A and
sunt
("In Euangeliis
together even in their mistakes"
quattuor A et Y coniunctissimi
in erroribus"). A wealth of detail (on pp. 708-13)
about the relationships between the manu
Brown for her book on
scripts would have provided
important insights and clarifications toMichelle
Lindisfarne.
146
"The Art," p. 19. The reference is to Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann,
Die vorka
Bruce-Mitford,
stand closest
etiam
(Berlin, 1916), text vol., p. 114.

rolingische Miniaturen
147
The Matthew
inmany publications;
see
for a good color reproduction
image of Y is available
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Janet Backhouse,
1981), p. 40.
(Ithaca, N.Y.,
148
Brown, The Lindisfarne Gospels, p. 353: "the evangelist miniatures were compiled with reference
to several visual sources, rather than copied
directly from one model."
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1132
The separate lists of liturgical references foundwith the capitula in Y, although rather
meaningless and lacking any practical use within theLindisfarne context, can now bemade
to acquire a new and unexpected importancewith respect toWearmouth-Jarrow. When
they are repositioned in theirappropriate place inA's Gospel capitula, we bring back to
life, almost in its integrity,the original Neapolitan Gospel codex as itwas when it first
reachedWearmouth. This is importantnew liturgicalevidence. Given the fact thatwe know
John theArchcantor spent a while atWearmouth, and given the paucity of saints' names
in theNeapolitan Gospel codex, we could expect to see the liturgicalcalendar of thisGospel
codex becoming enlarged by infusion of some Roman elements and the addition ofmore
names of saints. This corresponds precisely with what we find inwhat is known as the
"Burchard" Gospel book, which, I will argue, is our key document for establishing the
nature of the liturgical year atWearmouth-Jarrow in 716, when A was removed from
Northumbria forRome.
Whatever the evidence for its later connection with Bishop Burchard, Wurzburg, Uni
versitatsbibliothek,M. p. th. f. 68 (henceforthJw),149is securely viewed as a sixth-century
Italian Gospel book thatwas brought toWearmouth-Jarrow, where some folioswere added
to it,and which later traveled back to theContinent, where it acquired furtheradditional
folios. For our present purpose the remarkable featureof Jw lies in the series of liturgical
notations, written in aWearmouth-Jarrow hand, found in theupper margins of each Gos
pel, since in themajority of cases theycorrespond verballywith the notations in the lists
in Y mentioned above. The evidence of Jw, in other words, allows us to relocate with
precision in each Gospel thepassages that correspond with the items in theLindisfarne list
drawn uniquely from theNeapolitan Gospel book. We discover, however, that in addition
towhat was in theNeapolitan codex, another source connected with the liturgyof Rome
and its stational churches has also made a contribution. The names of the saints celebrated
in the liturgyhave also been increased.150But what does Jw really represent?Surprisingly,
as Dom Bonifatius Fischer firstpointed out, a passage from theanonymous Life of Ceolfrith
about the abbot's journey toRome in 716 seems to provide us with an adequate historical
setting:
From the time he departed from his monastery until he closed the account of his last
day, he sang the psalter ofDavid right through thricedaily, besides the regular singing
of thecanonical hours; and thishe did as an addition to a veryold custom of hiswhereby
formany years he had been in the habit of singing the psalter through twice daily. And
he offered theHoly Sacrifice to theLord himself and those dear to him every single day
without fail, even on the occasions when he was too exhausted to ride horseback and
was being conveyed in a horse-drawn litter,except for thatone day at sea when the ship
was tossed about by the storm and he was in great distress thewhole time, and except
for the four days immediatelypreceding his death.151
149
in Bonifatius Fischer's Die lateinischen Evangelien
This is the siglum given to thismanuscript
bis
zum 10. Jahrhundert, 1, Aus der Geschichte
der lateinischen Bibel 13 (Freiburg, 1988), p. 14*, a work
that forms the basis of the CD-ROM
attached to Brown's Lindisfarne Gospels.
150
The article Laura Light and I are preparing will show that all the names that appear
in Jw are
also present in Bede's martyrology.
151
Cited from Albertson, Anglo-Saxon
Saints (c. 33), p. 267. Bonifatius Fischer made his comment
in "Bibeltext und Bibelreform unter Karl dem Grossen,"

in Lateinische
im fr?hen
Bibelhandschriften
der lateinischen Bibel 11 (Freiburg, 1985), p. 172, n. 43: (concerning
Mittelalter, Aus der Geschichte
. . .
the peculiar
features of Jw) "Man kann daf?r eine konkrete historische Situation nachweisen.
Hatten
die Northumberl?nder
auf der Reise
also ein entsprechendes Evangeliar

in ihrem Reisegep?ck,
da ja Ceolfrid
der Historia Abbatum
feierte?"
Zeugnis
t?glich die Messe
nach dem ausdr?cklichen
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC
1133
A journey fromNorthumbria to Rome was not accomplished in a week but took several
months. Reaching Langres on 25 September afterhaving left
Wearmouth on 4 Junemeant
ithad taken nearly fourmonths for the largegroup of eightypersons to complete no more
than half the journey toRome. IfCeolfrith's intentionwas to saymass each day while he
was on the road, he would have seen to it that a Gospel book for thedaily celebrationwas
stored togetherwith the other luggage. Jw seems to fit in verywell with this scenario: its
liturgicalnotations allowed the abbot, while en route, to keep his celebration inharmony
with that of his community back home. The anonymous Life tellsus that afterCeolfrith's
death somemonks returnedhome toNorthumbria, while others traveled on toRome with
the gifts intended for St. Peter's and yet "still others preferred to remain in that same city
of Langres, prompted by the love for their fatherburied there." Perhaps this iswhere Jw
also remained for a while and acquired itscanon tables,written, as E. A. Lowe asserts, by
an Anglo-Saxon hand but exhibiting a decoration that is "distinctly Frankish. "152The
importance of Jw remains that of helping us to establish themain outline of the calendar
for the liturgical year as itwas celebrated atWearmouth-Jarrow in 716, that is, during
Bede's time.
Aldred in his famous colophon states thatY was written by Eadfrith,whom we know
was bishop of Lindisfarne from698 to 721. How longEadfrith had been a member of the
community before becoming bishop we do not know. It has been suggested that, once
bishop, he would not have had the leisure to undertake such a time-demanding project.
Whatever the real story, the point Iwant tomake here by way of conclusion is that the
arrival of Ceolfrith fromRome in 680 with theCodex Grandior and its image of Cassio
dorus provides a terminuspost quem for the production of the giftGospel book, with its
image ofMatthew, thatwas sent to Lindisfarne.While theWearmouth-Jarrow side of the
story carries a series of textual complications that need to be unraveled, theLindisfarne
side of the story is, I believe, a quite straightforwardand simple one.153The gift that the
island community received fromCeolfrith underwent a complete transformationon the
artistic level,which resulted in theLindisfarne Gospels.154
152In
Codices Latini antiquiores, 9 (Oxford, 1960), no. 1423b.
153
to exhibit no significant textual variants that
Let me try to be clear on this point. Y appears
would
suggest consultation of a Gospel codex other than the gift codex Lindisfarne had received from
Ceolfrith.
The textual relationships that may have existed between various Gospel codices being pre
for distribution elsewhere is a different matter and would demand a full
pared atWearmouth-Jarrow
blown textual analysis that might allow us to discern to which strand the copy sent as a gift to
Lindisfarne belonged. Without
such a full-blown study?which
would
involve Royal l.B.vii, the Gotha
Reims MS
is wiser not to attempt a judgment. To give only one example,
in
9, etc.?it
that accompanies
Brown's Lindisfarne book, we find atMatt. 4.16 "lucem
appendix 2, the CD-ROM
. . .magnam
I lumen magnam Nyr," suggesting A has "lucem."
In fact the, unusual, reading of A (fol.
is neuter], while Y and R (Royal
806v) is "lumen uidit magnum"
(which is correct, since "lumen"
Gospels,
give "lumen uidit magnam,"

perhaps reflecting greater familiarity with the more
uidit magnam."
This example
shows the caution needed
ifwe want to establish
the
between
manuscripts.
relationship
154
See Brown's comment quoted above in n. 143.
l.B.vii)
"lucem
common
a correct
Paul Meyvaert, who retiredas Executive Director of theMedieval Academy and Editor of
Speculum in 1981, lives at 8 Hawthorne Pk., Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail:Meyvaert@
fas.harvard.edu).
on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Paul Meyvaert - The Date of Bede's 'In Ezram' and His Image of Ezra in The Codex Amiatinus

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Paul Meyvaert - The Date of Bede's 'In Ezram' and His Image of Ezra in The Codex Amiatinus

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The Date of Bede's In Ezram

and His Image of Ezra in

St. Augustine, in a passage of hisDe Genesi ad litteramcited by theVenerable

1967), p. 51, lines 1601-2.

119 [Turnhout, 1962],

. . . [ibi] extremum senex halitum reddere disponendo

the two sources

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's In Ezram and theCodex Amiatinus

community'spleas beggingCeolfrithnot to leave themwere of no avail, and two

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

119A (Turnhout, 1969), p. v;

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

HOS1Ilt %i.%L"I LNtVNI5

Fig. 1. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1, fol. 2r,

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

latework, datingfrombetween725 and 731."14 Itwas my desireto reconcilethis

in The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

hundred and eighty-fifth

In theprefaceof In Ezram Bede toldAcca thatJerome'scommentarieson the

simply with how he handles what

the point of departure,

"In quo nimirum opere m?ximo nobis adiumento fuit praefatus

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

This last sentenceechoes a commentof Jerome'sin thecommentaryon Daniel

cursum, quern nos in septimum decimum uel octauum decimum Ti

over many years and later integrated

into the work

from Jerome's chronicle and his commentary on Daniel,

almost certainly predates

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's In Ezram and theCodex Amiatinus

are connected with Bede.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

Bede shows, therefore,

and the Ep?stola ad Pleguinam,

a quo for Bede's

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

Not beingan experton computus,Iwanted to feelsure thatArcher's reasoning

dismiss720 as theyearwhen Bedewas involved

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's In Ezram and theCodex Amiatinus

on Ezra-predating bothDe tabernaculo(c.721

scripturae seriem quae pariter igniconsumpta estprout sibi uidebatur legentibussufficere

This isvintageBede, fascinatedbywhat human skillscan achieve,likedevisinga

they said, would

have guessed to be some

formof shorthandscript.Iknowofno otherwriterexceptBedewho, encountering

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's In Ezram and theCodex Amiatinus

an art he had seenperformed

The italicizedphrases in theabove twopassages, so close to each other,could not

in Famulus Christi: Essays

on Sat, 16 May 2015 04:20:45 UTC

Bede's InEzramand theCodexAmiatinus

Iwould be tempted to think that theCodex