The Art and Culture of Anglo-Saxon England Study Day Event

A major exhibition, ‘Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms’, will be held at the British Library, London, from Oct. 19, 2018, to Feb. 19, 2019. On display will be a bible written and decorated in northern England in the late seventh/early eighth century, which was taken to Italy to present to the Pope in 716, and has never before left Italy – it takes its name, the Codex Amiatinus , from the monastery in which it was housed until the eighteenth century. It is embellished with several paintings, the best-known of which is of the scribe Ezra writing in his study. On display also will be a St John’s Gospel, bound in its original seventh-century red goatskin, and various other manuscripts, including the late eleventh-century Domesday Book, loaned from the National Archives. Artefacts to be displayed include some from the Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009 and not seen in London since that year.

The purpose of the study programme is to explore aspects of the culture of the seventh to eleventh centuries in England; it will focus on manuscript paintings and drawings, on sculptures and on artefacts, to set the British Library exhibition in context. There will be two lectures, which will not discuss only what is on display there, but what can be seen in museums and churches generally – the Franks Casket, the Bradford-on-Avon carved angels, cross-shafts in northern and southern England, as well as other illustrated books such as the Benedictional of St Ethelwold , produced in late tenth-century Winchester.

The two lectures will be given by Professor David A. Hinton of the University’s Department of Archaeology. There will be an interval for tea between them.

This study day is free however you must register to attend, please register via the Book this Event button above.  The booking deadline is 13:00 on Thursday 18 October.

Photograph: part of the inscription on the arm of a gold cross from the Staffordshire Hoard. Kevin Leahy