Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (review)

In Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture, Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle present a thematic catalogue of a collection, which contains more than 130 manuscripts presented on 142 color plates. The book highlights masterpieces of the British Library such as the Codex Sinaiticus, the Cotton Genesis, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Vespasian Psalter, the Harley Golden Gospels, the Moutier-Grandval Bible, the Lothar Psalter, the Ramsey Psalter, the Harley Psalter, the Tiberius Psalter, the Silos Apocalypse, the Stavelot Bible, the Rochester Bible, the Winchester Psalter, the Siegburg Lectionary, the Psalter of Henry the Lion, the Floreffe Bible, the Worms Bible, the Arnstein Bible, the Abingdon Apocalypse, the Holkhalm Bible Picture Book, the Queen Mary Psalter, and the Egerton Genesis.

The manuscripts, which date from the second to the sixteenth century and are mostly "classical" parchment codices, belong mainly to the Latin medieval world; only a few examples are from Asia Minor and the Middle East and written in languages other than Latin. The manuscripts are arranged in chronological order. In general, each manuscript—most selected because of their outstanding quality in decoration—is represented by one or two full-page illustrations. The single color plates are accompanied by short captions that identify the text and the subject of illumination, the language in which it is written, the place of origin and the date, and the measurements and the shelf-number of the British Library. Certain aspects of the manuscripts are explained: decoration, content, the type of manuscript, the circumstance of its creation, and the origin or provenance. This approach allows the general reader to use the publication as a picture book; however, such a method of organization will disappoint the reader looking for textual coherency. The introduction (pp. 7–11) partly addresses this issue, but gives only some references to the manuscripts that follow;in general, the connection to the descriptions remains loose. The introduction includes a map (pp. 8–9) that shows the places of origin (called "Centres of Christianity") of the manuscripts and gives an idea of the geographical main topics that lie in southern England, north-western Europe, and Italy.

At the end of the book, a further reading section; an index of biblical citations; an index of manuscripts; and a general index of cited places, individuals, types of manuscripts, and iconographic terms provide further assistance to the reader.

In summary, this is a very fine book, especially for the general reader who will appreciate the scholarly and instructive captions.