Just found that I feature (albeit very briefly) on the British Library blog on their website. Very exciting!
In June some representatives from the British Library came up to Durham to run a workshop with around 7 students and some other academics from the medieval manuscript field. I presented a paper on the Grimbald Gospels and the contemporary educational reforms which provide part of the backdrop to the manuscript's history.
This is the Grimbald Gospels:
And this is the short piece which I presented:
BL Session: The Grimbald Gospels
The Grimbald Gospels is an 11th century Gospel Book,
written in the mid-century, by the talented scribe Eadui Basan. The production
of the Gospels can be assigned to Christ Church, Canterbury on stylistic
grounds and the appearance of Eadui’s hand.
The decoration consists of an unusual use of silver and gold
suggesting an influence from Saint Bertin (the foundations of Canterbury and
Saint Bertin were in close proximity to each other). Beginning each of the four
Gospel texts is an evangelist portrait and a decorative initial page with
matching borders. However, the decoration for Mark is missing. These figures
and initials are boldly silhouetted on austerely blank vellum grounds which
mark a departure from the otherwise often elaborate surrounding of evangelist
portraits. The pages for Matthew and Luke contain narrower and more sombre
Winchester borders with acanthus patterns. The pages preceding St John have
frames recalling the Winchester type but their figural composition is most
unusual and not of Winchester origin.
Despite being made in the eleventh century, we can relate
this Gospel Book to kingship of the ninth and tenth centuries. The manuscript
contains a letter from Fulco, the Archbishop of Reims, to King Alfred
(871-899), King of the West Saxons, alluding to the desperation that Alfred had
shown in begging the Archbishop to help revitalise English book production and
learning. In response, the Archbishop had sent over his protégé, Grimbald, and
clearly felt that he was doing the king a great favour. Asser’s Life of Alfred
glosses over the Alfred’s desperate plea for help from Fulco, described by
Fulco in his letter, and simply states that Alfred’s envoys identified and
recruited Grimbald as part of the king’s push for greater standards of
education in England. Nonetheless, it supports the letter in describing the
recruitment of Grimbald.
The Grimbald Gospels is so-called because it contains the
earliest copy of Fulco’s letter. This letter was a later insertion into the
manuscript, added on a supplementary quire. This quire was written by a squire
from the New Minster, Winchester, a foundation in which Grimbald was celebrated
in this period. This explains why scholars have associated the Gospels with
Winchester – the manuscript must have been there sometime after its production
for this quire to be added.
The manuscript itself was the product of an ecclesiastical
scriptorium but the added letter attests to the key role played by the royal
court in the initial revitalisation of English book production at the end of
the ninth century. Aside from Fulco’s letter, we have other evidence of King
Alfred’s push for a revival of learning and education in England. Asser’s Life
of the King describes some of his activities and also alludes to his piety and his
enthusiasm for education that the king showed in his early life. One of the
most useful primary sources for information on the King’s push for the raising
of educational standards is in his preface to his translation of Gregory the
Great’s Pastoral Care in which Alfred laments the decline of educational
standards and monasticism in England, describes the destruction caused by the
Viking in invasions, and puts forward his thoughts on how education could be
improved. He also specifically mentions Grimbald, who he calls “his mass priest”,
as one of the men who helped him to learn the Latin which enabled him to
translate Gregory’s Pastoral Care.
Beginning with this push by King Alfred’s for raising
educational standards, evident in the letter copied into the Grimbald Gospels, England
would see a succession of English kings, notably Alfred’s grandson, King
Athelstan, and his grandson, King Edgar, who would drive educational and
monastic reform. Under King Athelstan we have numerous examples of him
importing and dealing in books for both political and pious reasons. For
example, his gift of Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert to the community of Chester-le-Street
can be seen as projecting a new image of kingship; one that portrayed the king
as learned and scholarly, but also pious and humble, in an attempt to
consolidate his control over Northumbria, an area over which he had only
recently gained control. Then under King Edgar we see the rise of the great
Benedictine reformers of Dunstan, Aethelwold and Oswald and a continued close
association with royalty, and educational and monastic reform.
Though this Gospel Book provides us with evidence of
Grimbald, and supports other evidence for King Alfred’s reforms, we actually
know very little about the king’s policies in this period. We know of Alfred’s
educational program because the foundation at Winchester culted Grimbald and
inserted a letter about him into the manuscript. On the whole, royal records do
not survive from this period so it is difficult to ascertain how extensive
Alfred’s educational programme really was.
