1.
Old Testament
–
Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names. The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the 39 books in common to all the Christian canons corresponds to 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the split of texts in the Christian Bibles into separate books, for example, Kings, Samuel and Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, the books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Protestant bibles do not include books in its canon. The Old Testament consists of translations of many books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. The canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books. The Old Testament contains 39 or 46 or more books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch, the books, the wisdom books. For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, for the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the spelling when referring to them in the New Testament. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon, several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much the material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, were finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two to four Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and these history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order the world, the Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well
Old Testament
–
Jesus
2.
Scribal abbreviation
–
Scribal abbreviations or sigla are the abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in Latin, and later in Greek and Old Norse. Modern manuscript editing employs sigla as symbols indicating the location of a source manuscript, thus, lapidaries, engravers, and copyists made the most of the available writing space. Scribal abbreviations were infrequent when writing materials were plentiful, but by the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, writing materials were scarce and costly. During the Roman Republic, several abbreviations, known as sigla, were in use in inscriptions. Additionally, in this period shorthand entered general usage, the earliest Western shorthand system known to us is that employed by the Greek historian Xenophon in the memoir of Socrates, and called notae socratae. This notation was akin to modern stenographic writing systems and it employed symbols for whole words or word roots and grammatical modifier marks, and could be used to write either whole passages in shorthand or only certain words. However the alphabet notation had an existence as it was often associated with witchcraft and magic. Sigla were mostly used in inscriptions, in some places. The identity and usage of abbreviations is not constant but changes from region to region, Scribal abbreviation increased in usage and reached its height in the Carolingian Renaissance. The most common abbreviations, called notae communes, are encountered across most of Europe, Scribal abbreviations can be found in epigraphy, sacred and legal manuscripts, written in Latin or in a vulgar tongue, either calligraphically or not. These two forms of abbreviation are called suspensions, according to Trabe, these abbreviations are not really meant to lighten the burden of the scribe but rather to shroud in reverent obscurity the holiest words of the Christian religion. Still, when occasion required referring to three or four persons, the doubling of the final consonant yielded to the simple plural siglum. To that effect, a vinculum above a letter or a letter-set also was so used, likewise the tilde, an undulated, curved-end line, came into standard late-medieval usage. These typographic abbreviations should not be confused with the abbreviations, i. e. loc. cit. viz. Moreover, besides scribal abbreviations, ancient texts also contain variant typographic characters, including ligatures, the s. The u and v characters originated as scribal variants for their respective letters, some ancient and medieval sigla are still used in English and other European languages, the Latin ampersand, replaces the conjunction and in English, et in Latin and French, and y in Spanish. The Tironian sign ⁊, resembling the digit seven, represents the conjunction et, and is only to the x-height, in current Irish language usage. Typographically, the ampersand, representing the word et, is a ligature of the letters e and t
Scribal abbreviation
–
Text sample from an early 15th-century Bible manuscript
Scribal abbreviation
–
Sigla frequently used in contemporary
Church Slavonic
Scribal abbreviation
–
Entries for
Croydon and
Cheam,
Surrey, in
Domesday Book (1086), as published using
record type in 1783.
3.
Manuscript
–
A manuscript is any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some automated way. More recently, it is understood to be a written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations. The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS. ms or ms. for singular, and MSS. mss or mss. for plural are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural, by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means pages. Before the invention of printing in China or by moveable type in a printing press in Europe. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls or books, manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived, in India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, when Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud. Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Originally, all books were in manuscript form, in China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868, in the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive, private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus and this type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the document in the hot
Manuscript
–
Christ Pantocrator seated in a capital "U" in an
illuminated manuscript from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany.
Manuscript
–
10th-century minuscule manuscript of
Thucydides 's
History of the Peloponnesian War
Manuscript
–
Armenian Manuscript
Manuscript
4.
Vulgate
–
The Vulgate is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Churchs officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. The translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, in 382 AD, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. Once published, it was adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the versio vulgata or, more simply. The Catholic Church affirmed it as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent, the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely the work of Jerome. Its components include, Jeromes independent translation from the Hebrew, the books of the Hebrew Bible, usually not including his translation of the Psalms. Translation from the Greek of Theodotion by Jerome, The three additions to the Book of Daniel, Song of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, and The Idol Bel and the Dragon. The Song of the Three Children was retained within the narrative of Daniel, translation from the Septuagint by Jerome, the Rest of Esther. Jerome gathered all these additions together at the end of the Book of Esther, translation from the Hexaplar Septuagint by Jerome, his Gallican version of the Book of Psalms. Jeromes Hexaplaric revisions of other books of Old Testament continued to circulate in Italy for several centuries, free translation by Jerome from a secondary Aramaic version, Tobias and Judith. Revision by Jerome of the Old Latin, corrected with reference to the oldest Greek manuscripts available, Old Latin, more or less revised by a person or persons unknown, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah,3 Esdras, Acts, Epistles, and the Apocalypse. Old Latin, wholly unrevised, Epistle to the Laodiceans, Prayer of Manasses,4 Esdras, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, how much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge today, but little of his work survived in the Vulgate text. Jerome first embarked on a revision of the Psalms, translated from the revised Septuagint Greek column of the Hexapla and he also appears to have undertaken further new translations into Latin from the Hexaplar Septuagint column for other books. But from 390 to 405, Jerome translated anew from the Hebrew all 39 books in the Hebrew Bible, including a further version of the Psalms. This new translation of the Psalms was labelled by him as iuxta Hebraeos, the Vulgate is usually credited as being the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh, rather than the Greek Septuagint. Moreover, Augustine in that passage demonstrates his own preference for the Greek thus eliminating any possibility that Saint Jerome translated the OT from Greek. In these letters, Jerome described those books or portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical, Jeromes views did not, however, prevail, and all complete manuscripts and editions of the Vulgate include some or all of these books. Their style is markedly distinguishable from Jeromes
Vulgate
–
Saint Jerome in his study, by
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Vulgate
–
A page from
Codex Amiatinus
Vulgate
–
Vulgata Sixtina
5.
Jerome
–
Jerome was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia and he is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin, and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive, the protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and this focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families. He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and his feast day is 30 September. Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347 A. D and he was of Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect. He was not baptized until about 360–366 A. D. when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies and he studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek, though not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a schoolboy. As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial escapades and wanton behaviour of students there, to appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Jerome used a quote from Virgil—On all sides round horror spread wide, although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once, during one of these illnesses, he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. Seized with a desire for a life of penance, he went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid. During this period, he seems to have time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew, Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly, soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the three he was in Rome again, as secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians
Jerome
–
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by
Bernardino Pinturicchio
Jerome
–
St. Jerome in His Study (1480), by
Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Jerome
–
St. Jerome reading in the countryside, by
Giovanni Bellini
Jerome
–
This painting by Antonio da Fabriano II, depicts St. Jerome in study. The writing implements, scrolls, and manuscripts testify to Jerome's scholarly pursuits. The Walters Art Museum.
6.
Book of Baruch
–
The Book of Baruch, occasionally referred to as 1 Baruch, is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible in some Christian traditions. In Judaism and most forms of Protestant Christianity, it is considered not to be part of the Bible and it is named after Baruch ben Neriah, Jeremiahs scribe, its purported author. It contains reflections on the theology and history of Israel, discussions of wisdom, and addresses to residents of Jerusalem, some scholars propose that it was written during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees. Although the earliest known manuscripts of Baruch are in Greek, there is evidence that the beginning of Baruch was originally translated from a Semitic language. Although not in the Hebrew Bible, it is found in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate Bible, Eritrean/Ethiopian Orthodox Bible and it is grouped with the prophetical books which also include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets. 1, 1–14 Introduction, And these are the words. which Baruch. wrote in Babylonia, and when they heard it they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord. 1, 15–2,10 Confession of sins, he Lord hath watched over us for evil, and we have not hearkened to his voice. 2, 11–3,8 Prayer for mercy, or the dead that are in hell, whose spirit is taken away from their bowels, shall not give glory,3, 9–4,14 Paean for Wisdom, Where are the princes of the nations. That hoard up silver and gold, wherein men trust and they are cut off, and are gone down to hell. 4, 5–5,9 Message to those in captivity, You have been sold to the Gentiles, not for your destruction, or the sins of my children, he hath brought a nation upon them from afar. who have neither reverenced the ancient, nor pitied children. Quotations from the New Revised Standard Version, chapter 6, See Letter of Jeremiah Lk 13,29 bears relation to Baruch 4,37. Jn 3,13 bears relation to Baruch 3,29,1 Cor 10,20 bears relation to Baruch 4,7. Jn 1,14 bears relation to Baruch 3,38 as well as to Lev 26, 11–12,1 kg 8,27, athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Salamis and Pope Innocent I listed the Book of Baruch as canonical. The Synod of Laodicea declared Baruch canonical, the same happened with the Synod of Hippo, followed by the Councils of Carthage. Later, Augustine of Hippo would confirm in his book On Christian Doctrine the canonicity of the book of Baruch and this list mentions the book of Baruch as a part of the Old Testament Canon. In the Catholic Church, Baruch 3, 9–38 is used in the liturgy of Holy Saturday during Passiontide in the lectionary of scriptural readings at Mass. A similar selection occurs during the liturgy for the Easter Vigil. Baruch 1,14 –2,5,3, 1–8 is a liturgical reading within the revised Roman Catholic Breviary for the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, and the Lord fulfilled the warning he had uttered against us
Book of Baruch
–
Tanakh (Judaism)
7.
Letter of Jeremiah
–
It is included in Catholic Bibles as the final chapter of the Book of Baruch. It is also included in Orthodox Bibles as a standalone book, some scholars claim that the title of this work is misleading, as they consider it to be neither a letter nor written by the prophet Jeremiah. According to the text of the letter, the author is the biblical prophet Jeremiah, the biblical Book of Jeremiah already contains the words of a letter sent by Jeremiah from Jerusalem to the captives in Babylon. The Letter of Jeremiah portrays itself as a piece of correspondence. Against the traditional view, most contemporary scholars agree that the author was not Jeremiah, the chief arguments put forward are literary quality, as well as the religious depth and sensitivity. J. T. Marshall adds that the use of seven rather than seventy years for the duration of the exile points away from Jeremiah towards one who deplored the long exile. The author may have been a Hellenistic Jew who lived in Alexandria, the earliest manuscripts containing the Epistle of Jeremiah are all in Greek. The earliest Greek fragment was discovered in Qumran, Gifford reports that in his time the great majority of competent and impartial critics considered Greek to be the original language. As one of these critics O. F. Fritzsche put it, If any one of the Apocryphal books was composed in Greek, the strongest dissenter from this majority view was C. J. Ball, who marshalled the most compelling argument for a Hebrew original. However, Yale Semitic scholar C. C, torreys own conclusion was that the work was originally composed in Aramaic. In recent years the tide of opinion has shifted and now the consensus is that the letter was composed in Hebrew. The date of work is uncertain. Most scholars agree that it is dependent on certain passages, notably Isa 44, 9–20,46, 5–7. Since a fragment was identified among the scrolls in Qumran Cave 7, further support for this terminus ad quem may be found in a possible reference to the letter in 2 Maccabees 2, 1–3. As mentioned above, the use of seven rather than seventy years points to a later period. Ball calculates the date to be c.307 –317 BC, although the letter is included as a discrete unit in the Septuagint, there is no evidence of it ever having been canonical in the Masoretic tradition. The earliest evidence we have of the question of its canonicity arising in Christian tradition is in the work of Origen of Alexandria, as reported by Eusebius in his Church History. Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion writes that Jews had in their books the deuterocanonical Epistle of Jeremiah and Baruch, Jerome provided the majority of the translation work for the vulgar Latin translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate Bible
Letter of Jeremiah
–
Tanakh (Judaism)
8.
Book of Lamentations
–
The Book of Lamentations is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiahs authorship is no generally accepted, although it is generally accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BCE forms the background to the poems. The tone is bleak, God does not speak, the degree of suffering is presented as undeserved, Lamentations consists of five distinct poems, corresponding to its five chapters. Chapter 3 has 66 verses, so that each letter begins three lines, and the poem is not acrostic but still has 22 lines. The purpose or function of this form is unknown, the book consists of five separate poems. In the first, the city sits as a desolate weeping widow overcome with miseries, in Chapter 2 these miseries are described in connection with national sins and acts of God. Chapter 3 speaks of hope for the people of God, the chastisement would only be for their good, Chapter 4 laments the ruin and desolation of the city and temple, but traces it to the peoples sins. Chapter 5 is a prayer that Zions reproach may be away in the repentance. The language fits an Exilic date, and the poems probably originated from Judeans who remained in the land, scholars are divided over whether they are the work of one or multiple authors. Lamentations combines elements of the qinah, a dirge for the loss of the city. It reflects the view, traceable to Sumerian literature of a thousand years earlier, beginning with the reality of disaster, Lamentations concludes with the bitter possibility that God may have finally rejected Israel. Sufferers in the face of grief are not urged to a confidence in the goodness of God, the poet acknowledges that this suffering is a just punishment, still God is held to have had choice over whether to act in this way and at this time. Hope arises from a recollection of Gods past goodness, but although this justifies a cry to God to act in deliverance, repentance will not persuade God to be gracious, since he is free to give or withhold grace as he chooses. In the end, the possibility is that God has finally rejected his people and may not again deliver them, if God is predictable, nevertheless, it also affirms confidence that the mercies of Yahweh never end, but are new every morning. The Book of Lamentations is recited annually by Jews on Tisha bAv, in Western Christianity, readings, chantings, and choral settings of the book are used in the Lenten religious service known as the Tenebrae. In the Church of England, readings are used at Morning and Evening Prayer on the Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the books third chapter is chanted on the twelfth hour of the Good Friday service, that commemorates the burial of Jesus. In Dunn, James D. G. Rogerson, John William, in McKenzie, Steven L. Graham, Matt Patrick. The Hebrew Bible Today, An Introduction to Critical Issues, hillers, Delbert R. Lamentations of Jeremiah
Book of Lamentations
–
Tanakh (Judaism)
Book of Lamentations
–
"Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem" (
Rembrandt)
9.
Anglo-Saxon
–
The Anglo-Saxons are a people who have inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their settlement and up until the Norman conquest. The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including government of shires. During this period, Christianity was re-established and there was a flowering of literature, charters and law were also established. The term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England, in scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English. The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity and it developed from divergent groups in association with the peoples adoption of Christianity, and was integral to the establishment of various kingdoms. Threatened by extended Danish invasions and occupation of eastern England, this identity was re-established, the visible Anglo-Saxon culture can be seen in the material culture of buildings, dress styles, illuminated texts and grave goods. Behind the symbolic nature of these emblems, there are strong elements of tribal. The elite declared themselves as kings who developed burhs, and identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms, above all, as Helena Hamerow has observed, local and extended kin groups remained. the essential unit of production throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. Use of the term Anglo-Saxon assumes that the words Angles, Saxons or Anglo-Saxon have the meaning in all the sources. Assigning ethnic labels such as Anglo-Saxon is fraught with difficulties and this term began to be used only in the 8th century to distinguish the Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent. The Old English ethnonym Angul-Seaxan comes from the Latin Angli-Saxones and became the name of the peoples Bede calls Anglorum, Anglo-Saxon is a term that was rarely used by Anglo-Saxons themselves, it is not an autonym. It is likely they identified as ængli, Seaxe or, more probably, also, the use of Anglo-Saxon disguises the extent to which people identified as Anglo-Scandinavian after the Viking age or the conquest of 1016, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman conquest. The earliest historical references using this term are from outside Britain, referring to piratical Germanic raiders, Saxones who attacked the shores of Britain, procopius states that Britain was settled by three races, the Angiloi, Frisones, and Britons. The term Angli Saxones seems to have first been used in writing of the 8th century. The name therefore seemed to mean English Saxons, the Christian church seems to have used the word Angli, for example in the story of Pope Gregory I and his remark, Non Angli sed angeli. The terms ænglisc and Angelcynn were also used by West Saxon King Alfred to refer to the people, at other times he uses the term rex Anglorum, which presumably meant both Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Alfred the Great used Anglosaxonum Rex, the term Engla cyningc is used by Æthelred
Anglo-Saxon
–
Page with
Chi Rho monogram from the Gospel of Matthew in the
Lindisfarne Gospels c. 700, possibly created by
Eadfrith of Lindisfarne in memory of
Cuthbert
Anglo-Saxon
–
The migrations according to Bede who wrote some 300 years after the event, however there is evidence that the original settlers came from many of these continental locations
Anglo-Saxon
–
Æthelstan presenting a
gospel book to (the long-dead) St
Cuthbert (934); Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 183, fol. 1v
Anglo-Saxon
–
The
Oseberg ship prow,
Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.
10.
Northumbria
–
The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the southern limit to the kingdoms territory. Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times, at the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey, the later earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria was lost to the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south, much of this land was debated between England and Scotland, but the Earldom of Northumbria was eventually recognised as part of England by the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of York in 1237. On the northern border, Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is north of the Tweed but had changed many times, was defined as subject to the laws of England by the Wales. The local Environment Agency office, located in Newcastle Business Park, otherwise, the term is not the official name for the UK and EU region of North East England. See also, List of monarchs of Northumbria and Timeline of Northumbria Northumbria was originally formed from the union of two independent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, Bernicia covered lands north of the Tees, while Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. He was defeated and killed around the year 616 in battle at the River Idle by Raedwald of East Anglia, who installed Edwin, the son of Ælla, a former king of Deira, as king. Edwin, who accepted Christianity in 627, soon grew to become the most powerful king in England, he was recognised as Bretwalda and conquered the Isle of Man and Gwynedd in northern Wales. He was, however, himself defeated by an alliance of the king of Gwynedd, Cadwallon ap Cadfan. After Edwins death, Northumbria was split between Bernicia, where Eanfrith, a son of Aethelfrith, took power, and Deira, cumbria tended to remain a country frontier with the Britons. Both of these rulers were killed during the year that followed, after the murder of Eanfrith, his brother, Oswald, backed by warriors sent by Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield in 634. He incorporated Gododdin lands northwards up to the Firth of Forth and also extended his reach westward, encroaching on the remaining Cumbric speaking kingdoms of Rheged. Thus, Northumbria became not only part of modern Englands far north, King Oswald re-introduced Christianity to the Kingdom by appointing St. Aidan, an Irish monk from the Scottish island of Iona to convert his people. This led to the introduction of the practices of Celtic Christianity, a monastery was established on Lindisfarne. In 642, Oswald was killed by the Mercians under Penda at the Battle of Maserfield and this battle marked a major turning point in Northumbrian fortunes, Penda died in the battle, and Oswiu gained supremacy over Mercia, making himself the most powerful king in England
Northumbria
–
Extent of Northumbria in 800
Northumbria
–
This article is about the medieval English kingdom. For the Old English dialect, see
Northumbrian dialect. For the modern county, see
Northumberland.
Northumbria
–
Coin of Eric Bloodaxe at the
British Museum. The legend reads ERIC REX ("King Eric")
Northumbria
–
Page from the
Lindisfarne Gospels, c 700.
11.
Pope
–
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
Pope
Pope
–
Bishop of
Rome
Pope
–
Saint Peter
Pope
–
St. Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
12.
Calligraphy
–
Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, a contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable, classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, the principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, for some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens. There are some styles of calligraphy, like Gothic script, which require a stub nib pen, Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work, ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with litterea unciales, and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well, common calligraphy pens and brushes are, Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script. The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, and by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, in the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was more suitable for copying the Bible. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, at the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain, when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon, each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are mostly cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the copying of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands, the 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagnes devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of a crowd of scribes, according to Alcuin, Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one hand from which modern booktype descends
Calligraphy
–
Calligraphy
Calligraphy
–
Calligraphy of the German word "Urkunde"(deed)
Calligraphy
–
Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.700) contains the
incipit from the
Gospel of Matthew.
Calligraphy
–
Calligraphy in a
Latin Bible of 1407 on display in
Malmesbury Abbey,
Wiltshire, England. This bible was hand written in Belgium, by Gerard Brils, for reading aloud in a
monastery.
13.
Florence
–
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
14.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
–
The Laurentian Library is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. It contains the manuscripts and books belonging to the library of the Medici family. The library is renowned for its architecture, designed by Michelangelo, a Codex Laurentianus identifies any of the book-bound manuscripts in the library. The Laurentian Library was commissioned in 1523 and construction began in 1525, however and it was then continued by Tribolo, Basari, and Ammannati based on plans and verbal instructions from Michelangelo. In this way, the library integrates parts executed by Michelangelo with others built much later in an interpretation of his instructions, the Laurentian Library is one of Michelangelos most important architectural achievements. Even Michelangelos contemporaries realized that the innovations and use of space in the Laurentian Library were revolutionary, the admirable distribution of the windows, the construction of the ceiling, and the fine entrance of the Vestibule can never be sufficiently extolled. The two-story Quattrocento cloister remained unchanged by the addition of the library, because of this, certain features of Michelangelo’s plan, such as length and width, were already determined. Therefore, new walls were built on pre-existing walls and cloisters, because the walls were built on pre-existing walls, recessing the columns into the walls was a structural necessity. This led to a style and pattern that Michelangelo took advantage of. The vestibule, also known as the ricetto, is 19.50 m long,10.50 m wide and it was built above existing monastic quarters on the east range of the cloister, with an entrance from the upper level of the cloisters. Originally, Michelangelo planned for a skylight, but Clement VII believed that it would cause the roof to leak, blank tapering windows––framed in pietra serena, surmounted by either triangular or segmental pediments, and separated by paired columns set into the wall––circumscribe the interior of the vestibule. The plan of the stairs changed dramatically in the design phase, originally in the first design in 1524, two flights of stairs were placed against the side walls and formed a bridge in front of the reading room door. A year later the stairway was moved to the middle of the vestibule, Tribolo attempted to carry out this plan in 1550 but nothing was built. Ammannati took on the challenge of interpreting Michelangelo’s ideas to the best of his abilities using a clay model, scanty material. The staircase leads up to the room and takes up half of the floor of the vestibule. The treads of the flights are convex and vary in width. The three lowest steps of the flight are wider and higher than the others, almost like concentric oval slabs. As the stairway descends, it divides into three flights, the reading room is 46.20 m. long,10.50 m. wide, and 8.4 m. high
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
–
Aerial view. The Laurentian Library can be identified in the long row of windows above the cloister extending to the left of the picture. The taller structure with two rows of windows immediately to its right is the vestibule.
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
–
The vestibule
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
–
Plan
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
–
The reading room
15.
Mount Amiata
–
Mount Amiata is the largest of the lava domes in the Amiata lava dome complex located about 20 km northwest of Lake Bolsena in the southern Tuscany region of Italy. Mount Amiata is a lava dome with a trachytic lava flow that extends to the east. It is part of the larger Amiata complex volcano, a massive viscous trachydacitic lava flow,5 km long and 4 km wide, is part of the basal complex and extends from beneath the southern base of Corno de Bellaria dome. Radiometric dates indicate that the Amiata complex had a major eruptive episode about 300,000 years ago, the main economical resources of the Amiata region are chestnuts, timber and, increasingly, tourism. The lower areas are characterized by trees and vines. Other vegetation include beech and fir, in ancient times cinnabar was extracted here. The region is included in the comuni of Abbadia San Salvatore, Arcidosso, Castel del Piano, Piancastagnaio, Santa Fiora and Seggiano, list of volcanoes in Italy Monte Amiata museum of mercury mines Museum of Mines of Mercury Monte Amiata at Google Cultural Institute
Mount Amiata
–
View
16.
Tuscany
–
Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy, Tuscany produces wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is considered a nation within a nation. Tuscany is traditionally a popular destination in Italy, and the main tourist destinations by number of tourist arrivals are Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia and Grosseto. The village of Castiglione della Pescaia is also the most visited destination in the region. Additionally, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val dOrcia are also internationally renowned, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2012, the city of Florence was the worlds 89th most visited city, roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north and east, Umbria to the east and Lazio to the southeast. The comune of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany has a western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea, containing the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately 22,993 square kilometres, surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and with few plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, and mountains. Plains occupy 8. 4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the River Arno, many of Tuscanys largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks, following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan before Orientalization occurred and the Etruscan civilization rose, the Etruscans created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory, throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, one reason for its eventual demise was this increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans. Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, however, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West collapsed in the 5th century AD, in the years following 572, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia
Tuscany
–
Hilly landscape in
Val d'Orcia
Tuscany
–
Tuscany Toscana
Tuscany
–
Tuscan landscape near
Siena
Tuscany
–
Cinerary urns of the
Villanovan culture
17.
Christ in Majesty
–
The image develops from Early Christian art, which directly borrowed the formulae of depictions of the enthroned Roman Emperor. John the Baptist, and often other figures, the central group of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus of 359 is the earliest example with a clear date. This depiction is known as the Traditio legis, or Christ the lawgiver - the apostles are indeed officials and this depiction tends to merge into one of Christ the teacher, which also derives from classical images of bearded philosophers. Other Imperial depictions of Christ, standing as a general, or seated on a ball representing the world. Christ Triumphant had a future development, usually standing, often with both hands raised high. The Pantocrator figure first became half-length because large versions filled the semi-dome of the apse of many, if not most, a full-length figure would need to be greatly reduced for the head to make maximum impact from a distance. The gesture Christ makes has become one of blessing, but is originally an orators gesture of his right to speak. The Deesis became standard at the centre of the beam in Orthodox churches and the templons successor, the iconostasis. Generally the Pantocrator has no visible throne, but the earlier Deesis does, the Deesis continues to appear in Western art, but not as often or in such an invariable composition as in the East. In the Romanesque period the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse are often seen, Christ also holds a book and makes the blessing gesture, no doubt under Byzantine influence. In both, Christs head is surrounded by a crossed halo and this development paralleled the movement towards a more realistic depiction of the heavenly court seen in the increasingly popular subjects of the Maestà and the Coronation of the Virgin by Christ. A Christ in Majesty became standard carved in the tympanum of a decorated Gothic church portal, by now surrounded by a large number of much smaller figures around the archivolts. In painting, the Ghent Altarpiece is the culmination of the Gothic image, although a minority of art historians believe that in case it is God the Father, not Christ. A variant figure, or the figure in a different context, of Christ as Judge, became common in Last Judgements. Generally Christ still looks straight forward at the viewer, but has no book, he gestures with his hands to direct the damned downwards
Christ in Majesty
–
Christ in majesty in a
mandorla, surrounded by emblems of the evangelists: ivory plaques on a wooden coffret, Cologne, first half of the 13th century (
Musée de Cluny)
Christ in Majesty
–
Traditio legis, or "transmission of the law," Christ as lawgiver,
mosaic,
Basilica of San Lorenzo, Milan, 4th century, includes a scroll box at Christ's feet.
Christ in Majesty
–
The Deesis mosaic in the
Hagia Sophia in Constantinople
Christ in Majesty
–
Romanesque
illuminated manuscript Gospel Book, c.1220
18.
Four Evangelists
–
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence. Also known to have written the book of Acts and to have been a friend of Paul of Tarsus, John – a disciple of Jesus. They are called evangelists, an meaning people who proclaim good news. Images normally, but not invariably, appear with wings like angels. e. Man, the king of creation as the image of the creator, the lion as the king of beasts of prey, the ox as the king of domesticated animals and the eagle as the king of the birds. Matthew the Evangelist, the author of the first gospel account, is symbolized by a winged man, matthews gospel starts with Josephs genealogy from Abraham, it represents Jesus Incarnation, and so Christs human nature. This signifies that Christians should use their reason for salvation, Mark the Evangelist, the author of the second gospel account, is symbolized by a winged lion – a figure of courage and monarchy. The lion also represents Jesus resurrection, and Christ as king and this signifies that Christians should be courageous on the path of salvation. Luke the Evangelist, the author of the gospel account, is symbolized by a winged ox or bull – a figure of sacrifice, service. Lukes account begins with the duties of Zacharias in the temple, it represents Jesus sacrifice in His Passion and Crucifixion, the ox signifies that Christians should be prepared to sacrifice themselves in following Christ. John the Evangelist, the author of the gospel account, is symbolized by an eagle – a figure of the sky. This symbolizes that Christians should look on eternity without flinching as they journey towards their goal of union with God, each of the symbols is depicted with wings, following the biblical sources first in Ezekiel 1–2, and in Revelation. They were presented as one of the most common found on church portals and apses. When surrounding Christ, the figure of the man appears at top left – above Christs right hand. Underneath the man is the ox and underneath the lion is the eagle and this both reflects the medieval idea of the order of nobility of nature of the beasts and the text of Ezekiel 1.10. From the thirteenth century their use began to decline, as a new conception of Christ in Majesty, showing the wounds of the Passion, sometimes in Evangelist portraits they appear to dictate to the writing evangelist. Matthew is often cited as the first Gospel account, not only owing to its place in the canon, most biblical scholars however, see the gospel account of Mark as having been written first and Johns gospel account as having been written last. It has become customary to speak of the Gospel of Matthew
Four Evangelists
–
Jacob Jordaens,
The Four Evangelists, 1625–1630
Four Evangelists
–
The four winged creatures that symbolise the Four Evangelists surround
Christ in Majesty on the
Romanesque tympanum of the
Church of St. Trophime in
Arles
Four Evangelists
–
The lion symbol of
St. Mark from the
Echternach Gospels, here without wings.
Four Evangelists
–
The symbols of the four Evangelists are here depicted in the
Book of Kells. The four winged creatures symbolize, clockwise from top left,
Matthew,
Mark,
John, and
Luke.
19.
New Testament
–
The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
New Testament
–
Books of the New Testament
New Testament
–
Evangelist Mathäus und der Engel, by
Rembrandt.
New Testament
–
Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 17th-century painting. Most scholars think Paul actually dictated his letters to a secretary.
New Testament
–
Papyrus Bodmer VIII, at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, showing 1 and 2 Peter.
20.
Latin Psalters
–
The Latin Psalters are the translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are the premier liturgical resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours of the Latin Rites of the Roman Catholic Church. These translations are typically placed in a volume or a section of the breviary called the psalter. In the Middle Ages, psalters were often lavish illuminated manuscripts, the Latin Church has a diverse selection of more-or-less different translations of the psalms. Three of these translations, the Romana, Gallicana, and juxta Hebraicum, are ascribed to Jerome. Two of these translations, the Pian and New Vulgate versions, were made in the 20th century, many of these translations are actually quite similar to each other, especially in style, the Roman, Gallican, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic psalters have relatively few differences between them. The concord among these similar psalters is attributable to an original translation from the Greek Septuagint. The New Vulgate psalter, though similar to these, diverges rather more from these traditional psalters insofar as it more closely follows the Hebrew Masoretic text. Two of these psalters stand apart as independent translations from the Hebrew, Jeromes juxta Hebraicum, also called the Psalterium Vetus, the psalter of the Old Latin Bible was used in the earliest days of the Latin liturgy in Rome, under Pope Damasus I. A translation from the Septuagint, it provided the basis for Jeromes first revision of the psalter and this is the version used in the Ambrosian rite. It was made in the middle of the 4th century from the Septuagint and it is similar to the version used in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic rites. The Roman version is used in the Roman Missal, but in the Divine Office, however and it lived on in Britain where it continued to be used until the Norman Conquest in 1066 and in Saint Peters Basilica in Rome and in St. The Versio Gallicana or Psalterium Gallicanum has traditionally been considered Jeromes second revision and this became the psalter of the Vulgate bible, and the basis for Gregorian chant. It is still used today in some monasteries and churches and by traditionalist Catholics and this most influential psalter has a distinctive style which is attributable to its origins as a translation of the Septuagint. Following the Septuagint, it eschews anthropomorphisms, for instance, the term rock is applied to God numerous times in the Hebrew Psalter, but the Latin term petra does not occur as an epithet for God in the gallicana. Instead more abstract words like refugium, refuge, locus munitus, place of strength, or adiutor and this psalter retains many Hebraisms by way of the Greek, the most noticeable being the redundant demonstrative. The relative pronoun is indeclinable in Hebrew, and so is accompanied by a redundant demonstrative and this use is reproduced in the Latin, although Latin has no need for it. For instance, Ps 18,4, quorum non audiantur voces eorum, also Ps 32,12, Beata gens cujus est Dominus Deus ejus, blessed is the nation whose God, its God, is the Lord
Latin Psalters
–
The "Golden psalter" open to psalm 51(52), Quid gloriaris in malitia, qui potens es in iniquitate?
Latin Psalters
–
"Beatus initial" for the start of Psalm 1 "Beatus vir", from the
Leiden St Louis Psalter
21.
Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum
–
The Epistle of Jerome to Pope Damasus I, written in 376 or 377 AD, is a response of Jerome to an epistle from Damasus, who had urged him to make a new translational work of the Holy Scripture. The letter was written before Jerome started his translational work, Jerome agreed that Old-Latin translation should be revised and corrected, acknowledging the numerous differences between every Latin manuscript such that each one looked like its own version. To remedy the problem, Jerome agreed that they should be corrected on the basis of the Greek manuscripts, Jerome explained why the Old-Latin order of the Gospels should be changed into the order Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, because it is relevant for the Greek manuscripts. Jerome also explained the importance of the Eusebian Canons and how to use them, copies of the letter occur in many Latin manuscript Gospel books and Bibles. Usually it is placed at the beginning of the gospel book
Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum
–
The beginning of the Epistle in
Codex Sangallensis 48
Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum
–
The Epistle in
Codex Beneventanus
22.
Illuminated manuscript
–
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders and miniature illustrations. Comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted, islamic manuscripts may be referred to as illuminated, illustrated or painted, though using essentially the same techniques as Western works. This article covers the technical, social and economic history of the subject, for an art-historical account, the earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period 400 to 600, produced in the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire. The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent artistic and historical value, had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have perished in Europe. As it was, the patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians, the majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. The majority of manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, a number of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, which had superseded scrolls, a very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, which does not last nearly as long as vellum or parchment. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment, beginning in the late Middle Ages manuscripts began to be produced on paper. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century, Manuscripts are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages, many thousands survive. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting. There are a few examples from later periods, the type of book that was most often heavily and richly illuminated, sometimes known as a display book, varied between periods. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be Gospel Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Romanesque period saw the creation of many huge illuminated complete Bibles – one in Sweden requires three librarians to lift it. Many Psalters were also illuminated in both this and the Gothic period. Finally, the Book of Hours, very commonly the personal book of a wealthy layperson, was often richly illuminated in the Gothic period. Other books, both liturgical and not, continued to be illuminated at all periods, the Byzantine world also continued to produce manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. See Medieval art for other regions, periods and types, reusing parchments by scraping the surface and reusing them was a common practice, the traces often left behind of the original text are known as palimpsests. The Gothic period, which saw an increase in the production of these beautiful artifacts, also saw more secular works such as chronicles
Illuminated manuscript
–
In the strictest definition of illuminated manuscript, only manuscripts with gold or silver, like this
miniature of
Christ in Majesty from the
Aberdeen Bestiary (folio 4v), would be considered illuminated.
Illuminated manuscript
–
The decoration of this page from a French
Book of Hours, ca.1400, includes a miniature, initials and borders
Illuminated manuscript
–
A 13th-century manuscript illumination, the earliest known depiction of
Thomas Becket 's assassination
Illuminated manuscript
–
The 11th century Tyniec Sacramentary was written with gold on purple background.
23.
Insular art
–
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, is the style of art produced in the post-Roman history of Ireland and Britain. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for island, in this period Britain, most Insular art originates from the Irish monastic movement or metalwork for the secular elite, and the period begins around 600 with the combining Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. One major distinctive feature is interlace decoration, applied to decorating new types of objects mostly copied from the Mediterranean world, above all the codex or book. The finest period of the style was brought to an end by the disruption to monastic centres and these are presumed to have interrupted work on the Book of Kells, and no later Gospel books are as heavily or finely illuminated as the masterpieces of the 8th century. In England the style merged into Anglo-Saxon art around 900, whilst in Ireland the style continued until the 12th century, the influence of insular art affected all subsequent European medieval art, especially in the decorative elements of Romanesque and Gothic manuscripts. Surviving examples of Insular art are mainly illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and carvings in stone, surfaces are highly decorated with intricate patterning, with no attempt to give an impression of depth, volume or recession. The best examples include the Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Durrow, brooches such as the Tara Brooch, carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, although historiated initials, canon tables and figurative miniatures, especially Evangelist portraits, are also common. The term was derived from its use for Insular script, first cited by the OED in 1908, the Insular style is most famous for its highly dense, intricate and imaginative decoration, which takes elements from several earlier styles. From the Iron Age came the style called late Celtic art or Ultimate La Tène, there is no attempt to represent depth in manuscript painting, with all the emphasis on a brilliantly patterned surface. The origins of the format of the carpet page have often been related to Roman floor mosaics, Coptic carpets and manuscript paintings. Across all the society was effectively entirely rural, buildings were rudimentary. Especially in Ireland, clerical and secular elites were very closely linked. Ireland was divided into numerous, generally small kingdoms, while in Britain there was a number of generally larger kingdoms. The elites of all the peoples had long traditions of metalwork of the finest quality. The Insular style arises from the meeting of their two styles, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon animal style, in a Christian context, and with awareness of Late Antique style. This was especially so in their application to the book, which was a new type of object for both traditions, as well as to metalwork, the role of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the formation of the new style appears to have been pivotal. The Irish monastery at Iona was established by Saint Columba in 563, christianity discouraged the burial of grave goods so that, at least from the Anglo-Saxons, we have a larger number of pre-Christian survivals than those from later periods. The majority of examples survive from the Christian period have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were rapidly hidden
Insular art
–
This page (folio 292r) of the
Book of Kells contains the lavishly decorated text that opens the
Gospel of John.
Insular art
–
David from the
Durham Cassiodorus, early 8th century,?Jarrow.
Insular art
–
One of hundreds of small initials from the Book of Kells
Insular art
–
Early Anglo-Saxon shoulder-clasps from
Sutton Hoo, early 7th century. Gold, garnet, and
millefiori glass.
24.
Vellum
–
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane used as a material for writing on. Vellum is prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, vellum is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation and the quality of the skin. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, to create tension, scraping is alternated with wetting and drying. A final finish may be achieved by abrading the surface with pumice, modern paper vellum is a quite different synthetic material, used for a variety of purposes, including plans, technical drawings, and blueprints. In Europe, from Roman times, the vellum was used for the best quality of prepared skin, regardless of the animal from which the hide was obtained, calf, sheep. Although the term derives from the French for calf, animal vellum can include hide from virtually any other mammal. The best quality, uterine vellum, was said to be made from the skins of stillborn or unborn animals, there has long been, however, much blurring of the boundaries between these terms. In 1519, William Horman could write in his Vulgaria, That stouffe that we wrytte upon, modern scholars and custodians increasingly use only the safe if confusing term membrane. In the usage of modern practitioners of the crafts of writing, illuminating, lettering. Vellum is a translucent material produced from the skin, often split, the skin is washed with water and lime, but not together. It is then soaked in lime for several days to soften, once clear, the two sides of the skin are distinct, the side facing inside the animal and the hair side. The inside body side of the skin is usually the lighter, the hair follicles may be visible on the outer side, together with any scarring, made while the animal was alive. The membrane can also show the pattern of the animals vein network called the veining of the sheet, any remaining hair is removed and the skin is dried by attaching it to a frame. The skin is attached at points around the circumference with cords, to prevent tearing, the maker then uses a crescent shaped knife, to clean off any remaining hairs. Once the skin is dry, it is thoroughly cleaned and processed into sheets. The number of extracted from the piece of skin depends on the size of the skin. For example, the average calfskin can provide three and half sheets of writing material. This can be doubled when it is folded into two conjoint leaves, also known as a bifolium, historians have found evidence of manuscripts where the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions now followed by modern membrane makers
Vellum
–
The
Magna Carta written in Latin on vellum, held at the
British Library
Vellum
–
A vellum
deed dated 1638, with pendent
seal attached.
Vellum
–
A
portolan chart (map) by Jacobo Russo (Giacomo Russo) of Messina (1533)
Vellum
–
A Volume Of Treatises On Natural Science, Philosophy, And Mathematics (1300) Ink on vellum.
25.
Uncial
–
Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek, Latin, and Gothic, early uncial script is likely to have developed from late Old Roman cursive. In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the De bellis macedonicis manuscript in the British Library, all of the letters are disconnected from one another, word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage. As the script evolved over the centuries, the became more complex. Specifically, around AD600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts, ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compact minuscule scripts arose circa AD800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, uncial was still used, particularly for copies of the Bible, tapering off until around the 10th century. There are over 500 surviving copies of uncial script, by far the largest number prior to the Carolingian Renaissance, in general, there are some common features of uncial script, ⟨f⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨t⟩ are relatively narrow. ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are relatively broad, ⟨m⟩ is formed with curved strokes ⟨⟩, ⟨e⟩ is formed with a curved stroke, and its arm does not connect with the top curve ⟨⟩, the height of the arm can also indicate the age of the script. ⟨l⟩ has a base, not extending to the right to connect with the next letter. ⟨r⟩ has a long, curved shoulder ⟨ꞃ⟩, often connecting with the next letter, ⟨s⟩ resembles the long s ⟨ſ⟩, in uncial it ⟨ꞅ⟩ looks more like ⟨r⟩ than ⟨f⟩. In particular, the bow of the letter ⟨a⟩ is particularly sharp, italian uncial has round letters with flatter tops, and a with a sharp bow, an almost horizontal rather than vertical stem in ⟨d⟩, and forked finials. Insular uncial generally has definite word separation, and accent marks over stressed syllables, probably because Irish scribes did not speak a language descended from Latin. French uncial uses thin descenders, an ⟨x⟩ with lines that cross higher than the middle, and a ⟨d⟩ with a stem, and there are many decorations of fish, trees. Cyrillic manuscript developed from Greek uncial in the ninth century. The earlier form was called ustav, and later developed into semi-ustav script, there is some doubt about the original meaning of the word. Uncial itself probably comes from St. Habeant qui volunt veteres libros, vel in membranis purpureis auro argentoque descriptos, vel uncialibus ut vulgo aiunt litteris onera magis exarata quam codices. Let those who so desire have old books, or books written in gold and silver on purple parchment, or burdens written in uncial letters, the term uncial in the sense of describing this script was first used by Jean Mabillon in the early 18th century. Thereafter his definition was refined by Scipione Maffei, who used to refer to this script as distinct from Roman square capitals, the word, uncial, is also sometimes used to refer to manuscripts that have been scribed in uncial, especially when differentiating from those penned with minuscule
Uncial
–
The
Book of Kells, c. AD 800, is lettered in a script known as "insular majuscule", a variety of uncial script that originated in Ireland.
Uncial
–
A sample of the Latin text from the
Codex Bezae
Uncial
–
A portion of the
Codex Sinaiticus, in Byzantine uncial, containing
Esther 2:3–8.
Uncial
–
Ancient and Medieval
26.
Gospels
–
A gospel is an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity places a value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be revelations from God. This position however, requires a view of Biblical inerrancy. The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings, the gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and of redemption through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the central Christian message. The Greek word euangelion is also the source of the terms evangelist, the authors of the four canonical Christian gospels are known as the Four Evangelists. Paul the Apostle used the term εὐαγγέλιον when he reminded the people of the church at Corinth of the gospel I preached to you, the earliest extant use of gospel to denote a particular genre of literature dates to the 2nd century. Justin Martyr in the Apology wrote of. the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, more generally, gospels compose a genre of early Christian writings. Gospels that did not become canonical also circulated in Early Christianity, many, such as the work known today as Gospel of Thomas, lack the narrative framework typical of a gospel. Scholars hold a wide spectrum of views on the origins and composition of the gospels, for example, the vast majority of material in Mark is also present in either Luke or Matthew or both, suggesting that Mark was a source for Matthew and Luke. He writes that the four gospels were probably all written by the end of the first century. But they did not yet at that time have a consistent narrative, in 170 Tatian sought to find a solution by composing a single narrative out of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with some additional oral material. Richies concludes that the gospel passages themselves can be unclear, and some of the messages within are straightforwardly ambiguous, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are considered synoptic gospels on the basis of many similarities between them that are not shared by the Gospel of John. Synoptic means here that they can be seen or read together, the fourth gospel, the Gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics. Of the many gospels written in antiquity, only four came to be accepted as part of the New Testament. An insistence upon there being a canon of four gospels, and no others, was a theme of Irenaeus of Lyons. Irenaeus was ultimately successful in declaring that the four gospels collectively and he also supported reading each gospel in light of the others. This canon, which corresponds to the modern Catholic canon, was used in the Vulgate, Gospel of Matthew Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark This order is found in the following manuscripts, Bezae, Monacensis, Washingtonianus, Tischendorfianus IV, Uncial 0234. Although there is no set order of the four gospels in patristic lists or discussions, moody Smith suggests that the standard order of Matthew-Mark-Luke-John projects a kind of intention that can scarcely be ignored
Gospels
–
The first page of the
Gospel of Mark in
Armenian, by
Sargis Pitsak, 14th century.
Gospels
27.
Ammonian Sections
–
Eusebian canons, Eusebian sections or Eusebian Apparatus, also known as Ammonian Sections, are the system of dividing the four Gospels used between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The divisions into chapters and verses used in modern texts date only from the 13th and 16th centuries, the sections are indicated in the margin of nearly all Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Bible, and usually summarized in Canon Tables at the start of the Gospels. There are about 1165 sections,355 for Matthew,235 for Mark,343 for Luke, and 232 for John and it was traditionally believed that he divided the four Gospels into small numbered sections, which were similar in content where the narratives are parallel. In the first nine tables he placed in parallel columns the numbers of the common to the four. In the tenth he noted successively the sections special to each evangelist and these marginal notes are reproduced in several editions of Tischendorfs New Testament. Eusebiuss explanatory letter to Carpianus was also very often reproduced before the tables and this form was derived from Late Antique book-painting frames like those in the Chronography of 354. In many examples the tables are the decoration in the whole book. Chronicon This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. British Library illuminated manuscripts - add canon tables to search box for many examples
Ammonian Sections
–
The
London Canon Tables are two folios from a Byzantine manuscript of the 6th or 7th century, showing the typical arcaded frame.
Ammonian Sections
–
One of the canon tables from the 8th century
Codex Beneventanus.
Ammonian Sections
–
Canon table from the
Book of Kells; the tables in the book were effectively unusable, as they were over-condensed and the corresponding sections were not marked in the main text. This is either because it is unfinished, or because it was a display book not meant for study.
Ammonian Sections
–
An Armenian illimunated mansuscript of a canon table by
Toros Roslin (active 1256 - 1268) entitled Canon Table Page.
28.
Stichometry
–
Stichometry refers to the practice of counting lines in texts, Ancient Greeks and Romans measured the length of their books in lines, just as modern books are measured in pages. This practice was rediscovered by German and French scholars in the 19th century, stichos is the Greek word for a line of prose or poetry and the suffix -metry is derived from the Greek word for measurement. The length of line in the Iliad and Odyssey, which may have been among the first long, Greek texts written down. This standard line was thus as long as an epic hexameter, scribes were paid by the line and their fee per line was sometimes fixed by legal decree. Authors occasionally cited passages in the works of authors by giving their approximate line number. Book buyers used total line counts to check that copied texts were complete, Library catalogs listed the total number of lines in each work along with the title and author. Scholars believe that stichometry became established in Athens sometime during the 5th century BCE when copying prose works became common, Stichometry is mentioned briefly in Platos Laws, several times in Isocrates, and in Theopompus, but these casual references suggest the practice was already routine. The standard work on stichometry is Kurt Ohlys 1928 Stichometrische Untersuchungen which collects together the results of some fifty years of scholarly debate and research. Today, stichometry plays a small but useful role in research in fields as diverse as the history of the ancient book, papyrology, there are two kinds of stichometry. Total stichometry is the practice of reporting the number of lines in a work. Partial stichometry is the practice of including a series of numerals in the margins of a text, Stichometry was sometimes confused with colometry, the practice of some Christian authors in late antiquity of writing texts broken into rhetorical phrases to aid delivery. The libraries of Europe contain many copies of ancient Greek. Many of these contain short notes or subscriptions on the page that, in hundreds of cases. Thus these stichometric totals are thought to descend, along with the content of the texts, galen complains about the verbosity of a rival and says he can offer a description in fewer lines. In the 1st century BCE, a philosopher criticized Zeno of Citium, diogenes Laertius probably draws on the Pinakes, the published catalogue of the Library of Alexandria, when he reports the total number of lines in the oeuvres of various authors. He says, for example, that Speusippus wrote 43,475, Aristotle wrote 445,270, beginning in the 19th century, archaeologists discovered a large number of more or less fragmentary Greek scrolls in Egypt. Ohly describes and analyzes some fifty papryi which provide direct, ancient evidence for total and partial stichometry and this discovery established the concept of the standard line. He was able to show that other manuscripts had similar marginal markings and his 1881 article named this kind of line-counting partial stichometry and contrasted it to total stichometry studied by Graux
Stichometry
–
A List of Total Line Counts for Christian Texts: The title is 'Versus Scribturarum Sanctarum' or 'Lines of Holy Scriptures.' The second line says 'Genesis Versus IIIId' or 'Genesis Lines 4500.' The third line says 'Exodus Versus IIIdcc (= 3700). From the
Codex Claromontanus (5th or 6th century CE), Leaf 467v, National Library, Paris, France.
Stichometry
–
Charles Graux (1852--1882): French classicist and palaeographer. His discovery of the standard line launched the rigorous, modern study of stichometry.
Stichometry
Stichometry
29.
Cassiodorus
–
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer serving in the administration of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank, Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in Calabria, Italy. He began his career as councillor to his father, the governor of Sicily, while still young, he made a name for himself as learned in the ways of law. During his working life he worked as quaestor sacri palatii c, 507–511, as a consul in 514, then as magister officiorum under Theoderic, and later under the regency for Theoderics young successor, Athalaric. Cassiodorus kept copious records and letterbooks concerning public affairs, at the Gothic court his literary skill, which seems mannered and rhetorical to modern readers, was so esteemed that when in Ravenna he was often entrusted with drafting significant public documents. His culminating appointment was as praetorian prefect for Italy, effectively the prime ministership of the Ostrogothic civil government, Cassiodorus also collaborated with Pope Agapetus I in establishing a library of Greek and Latin texts which were intended to support a Christian school in Rome. In addition, Boethius father-in-law Symmachus, by this time a distinguished elder statesman, all this was a result of the worsening split between the ancient senatorial aristocracy centered in Rome and the adherents of Gothic rule at Ravenna. But to read Cassiodorus Variae one would never suspect such goings-on, there is no mention in Cassiodorus selection of official correspondence of the death of Boethius. Athalaric died in early 534, and the remainder of Cassiodorus public career was dominated by the Byzantine reconquest and his last letters were drafted in the name of Vitiges. Around 537-38, he left Italy for Constantinople, where his successor was appointed from and he notably met Junillus, the quaestor of Justinian. His Constantinopolitan journey contributed to the improvement of his religious knowledge, Cassiodorus spent his career trying to bridge the 6th century cultural divides, between East and West, Greek culture and Latin, Roman and Goth, and between an Orthodox people and their Arian ruler. He speaks fondly in his Institutiones of Dionysius Exiguus, the calculator of the Anno Domini era, in his retirement he founded the monastery of Vivarium on his family estates on the shores of the Ionian Sea, and his writings turned to religion. Cassiodorus Vivarium monastery school was composed of two buildings, a coenobitic monastery and a retreat, for those who desired a more solitary life. Both were located on the site of the modern Santa Maria de Vetere near Squillace, the twin structure of Vivarium was to permit coenobitic monks and hermits to coexist. The Vivarium appears not to have governed by a strict monastic rule. Rather Cassiodorus Institutiones was written to guide the monks studies, to this end, the Institutiones focuses largely on texts assumed to have been available in Vivariums library. The Institutiones seem to have composed over a lengthy period of time, from the 530s into the 550s. Through them I believe that both the sequence of Holy Scripture and also a compact account of secular letters may, with Gods grace
Cassiodorus
–
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (Gesta Theodorici: Leiden, University Library, Ms. vul. 46, fol. 2r)
Cassiodorus
–
Vivarium from the Bamberg manuscript of the Institutiones Patr. 61, fol. 29v
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
