The Lichfield Gospels: the question of provenance

The Lichfield Gospels: the question of provenance The volume known as the Lichfield Gospels, or the Gospels of St Chad, in the Lichfield Cathedral Library, is an illuminated manuscript of the gospels in Latin, in the style characteristic of the British Isles from the seventh to the ninth centuries. It now contains the complete text of only two gospels, Matthew and Mark, as well as Luke up to 3: 9. It seems, though, that it originally included all four gospels, as a fourteenth-century sacrist's roll for Lichfield Cathedral lists 'two ancient books which are called the books of St Chad'.1 It is commonly held thattiiesetwo books were a manuscript of the four gospels bound in two parts, of which the Lichfield Gospels represents the surviving portion. The Gospels came into the possession of Lichfield Cadiedral in the tenth century, as is indicated by some of the many marginal entries made in the manuscript.2 A n inscription, '+ Wynsige presul', inserted at die top of p. I,3 gives the name of a tenth-century Bishop of Lichfield. A record added to the bottom of p. 4 concerns charges brought by Leofgar, Bishop of Lichfield in the eleventh century. O n the bottom of p. 141 is a long list of Mercian names, including once again that of Wynsige.4 The marginal entries also suggest that in the ninth century, the manuscript was in the possession of a Welsh church of St Teilo, generally thought to be Llandeilo Fawr.^ At the top of p. 141 is a record of a Gelhi having purchased the manuscript for the price of a good horse, and given it to the church for the good of his soul. It reads: Ostenditur hie quod emit - Gelhi +filiusArihtiud hoc euangelium de Cingal, et dedit illi pro illo equm optimum, et dedit pro anima sua istum euangelium deo et sancti Teliaui super altare. + Gelhi + filius Arihtiud ... et + Cincenn +filiusGripiud.6 1 Douglas Brown, The Lichfield Gospels, London, 1982, p. 4. 2 Henry Savage, 'The Story of the St Chad Gospels', in Transactions of the Birmingham Archaeological Society 41 (1915), 5-21 (p. 13). 3 The convention with this manuscript is to use page, rather than folio, numbers. See Roger Powell, 'The Lichfield St Chad's Gospels: Repair and Rebinding, 19611962 ', in The Library 20 (1965), 259-65 (p. 259). 4 Henry Savage, 'The Story of the St Chad Gospels', p. 13. 5 Ibid., p. 10. 6 Ibid., p. 9. P A R E R G O N ns 13.2, January 1996—Text, Scribe, Artefact 52 P- James That this entry dates from the late eighth or early ninth century can be deduced from the name of the witness to the gift. This man, 'Cincenn filius Gripiud', is assumed to be the son of the prince 'GriphiudfiliusCincen' whose death in 814 is recorded in the Annales Cambriae and the Brut y Tywysogion.1 The script and placement on the page are not incompatible with the entry having been written at about this time, and there has been no suggestion that the deed is not authentic. That Gelhi was able to purchase the manuscript, and for such a moderate price, suggests that it was stolen property.8 It is extremely unlikely that the church could ever wish to dispose of such a treasured possession, and equally unlikely that the manuscript legitimately belonged to a secular owner. In any case, had the sale been legitimate, a more appropriate price must surely have been asked for such a valuable object than a single horse, which would only have been worth about four cows. It therefore seems appropriate to assume that, when Gelhi purchased the manuscript, it had indeed been stolen. However, the question of where it was stolen from is an extremely difficult one, and one which this paper aims to explore. The Vikings were raiding in Ireland and Northumbria at this time, and it is possible that the manuscript was plundered in either place and travelled thence to Wales, possibly changing hands during its journey. The Brut y Tywysogion tells us the Welsh raided Mercia during the appropriate period, so it could have been stolen there. It...