ABSTRACT
The Lindisfarne gospel codex is celebrated for its artwork: the intricate illuminated lettering of its gospel openings (incipits), the so-called 'carpet' pages, the evangelist portraits, the elegant arcades of its canon tables. The codex opens with two prefaces by Jerome and one by Eusebius which between them provide an introduction to Jerome's revised Latin gospels and the canon tables, a rationale for the four-gospel collection, and biographical information about the evangelists. The canon tables were devised by Eusebius of Caesarea for a new single-volume edition of the four gospels, and they represent one among a number of possible responses to the high levels of overlap between the canonical texts. The evangelist portraits of the Lindisfarne Gospels depict individuals who are already known to the reader from the prefatory material to the volume as a whole and to each individual gospel.
