Echternach Gospels

The Echternach Gospels (Paris, Bib. N., MS. lat. 9389) were produced, presumably, at Lindisfarne Abbey in Northumbria around the year 690. This location was very significant for the production of Insular manuscripts, such as the Durham Gospels (ms. A.II.17) and the Lindisfarne Gospels (ms. Cotton Nero D. IV). The scribe of the Durham Gospels is believed to have created the Echternach Gospels as well. This manuscript, and other such Hiberno-Saxon codices, were highly important instructional devices used in the Early Middle Ages primarily for conversion. The Echternach Gospels were probably taken by St. Willibrord, a Northumbrian missionary, to his newly founded Echternach Abbey in Luxembourg, from which they are named. It is significant that this early Hiberno-Saxon manuscript should have been brought here because, with Willibrord as Abbot, the scriptoria at Echternach would then become the most influential center for Hiberno-Saxon style manuscript production in continental Europe.

Early medieval manuscripts were produced in monastic scriptoria by scribes and artists. These manuscripts were made of parchment or vellum, stretched calfskin, that was then cut to size at the monastery. Next, a scribe would copy the words of the text before an artist would illuminate, or paint, them. The folios, or pages, would be bound after all the art was completed. Multiple scribes and artists would work on a single manuscript. The primary artist that worked on the Echternach Gospels is believed to be the same master who created the Durham Gospels at Lindisfarne. This assumption is credible due to the similarities in the style of the art and the close date of production.

The styles of the Durham and Echternach Gospels belong to the Hiberno-Saxon style of early medieval Britain. This style is classified by intricate interlacing or linear patterns, flat geometric layout, and reduced schematic figures. The author portraits that precede each of the books in the Echternach Gospels depict the Symbols of the Evangelists in a very flat representation surrounded by geometric patterns. The tradition of portraying each author’s portrait comes from the late antique Roman style of manuscript illumination. As the Christian Church spreads across Europe, a resurgence of Imperial Roman conventions in art is evidenced as early as the 6th century through the Carolingian period. The Hiberno-Saxon artistic style, however, did not have a precedent for the naturalized figural representation growing in popularity. The very flat and stylized figural representation that we see in the Echternach Gospels are a result of the integration of the Roman author portrait convention depicted in the native visual language which emphasizes abstraction.

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