The Book of Durrow and the question of programme
Martin Werner
In a recent study of the iconographic character cross-carpet page (lv) opening Book Durrow (Dublin, Trinity College A. 4. 5 (57)), I suggested that miniature and its facing evangelist symbols (2r) were intended to call mind images adjacent loca sancta Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – relic True Cross exhibited on altar Golgotha church for sombre Good Friday Adoratio crucis monumental cross Hill, site Crucifixion. These other references claimed Adomnán, scholarly abbot Columban foundation Iona, who, very likely, sponsored creation gospelbook between 682 686. Besides miniatures just cited, codex contains separate symbol pages, elaborately decorated incipits, small ornamental initials five carpet pages. Given great unusual weight which introductory sequence places explication Easter theme, an examination possibility pages manuscript develop or reiterate associations seems warranted.
Anglo-Saxon England