Bede's World hosts Gospels

Date: 2003-09-27, Publication: The Journal

Tv Archaeologist Julian Richards was on Tyneside yesterday to launch an exhibition of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The Meet the Ancestors presenter performed the ceremony at Bede's World in Jarrow, where a facsimile copy of one of the world's most famous and beautiful books will be on view for the next five weeks.

The copy of the Gospels is the centrepiece of the exhibition at Bede's World, a site synonymous with some of the finest books produced in the early medieval world.

The exhibition, The Lindisfarne Gospels - the Facsimile on Tour, has been put together by the British Library and North-East Museums Libraries and Archives Council to give people in the region the chance to see in detail one of the most remarkable works of religious art.

Bede's World is the first venue on the North-East tour and is open to the public from today until November 2.

It will then be exhibited at Hartlepool Museum, Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Hexham Abbey and Chester-le-Street public library.

Bede's World curator Laura Sole said: "I am delighted that the tour of the Lindisfarne Gospels facsimile will start at Bede's World. There is no more appropriate place.

"It echoes the collaboration between the monasteries at Lindisfarne and Wearmouth-Jarrow around the time that the Lindisfarne Gospels were produced and fits with the argument that the production of the Lindisfarne Gospels and Bede's Ecclesiastical History were both part of an effort to shape a new, united, cultural identity."

Bede's World is running a special Lindisfarne Gospels visit for schools, which includes sessions on the history and art of the book.

Stephanie Kenna, manager of the British Library's co-operation and partnership programme, said: "I am delighted that people across the North-East will be able to see and enjoy the beauty of the Lindisfarne Gospels on their doorstep."

The original Lindisfarne Gospels are on permanent display at the British Library.

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