Painter of the Bible
Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium)
The Master of the Codex Amiatinus is the conventional art-historical name for the principal anonymous illuminator of the Codex Amiatinus — the great early-eighth-century Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian illuminated Bible now in …
Codex Amiatinus, 1 Chronicles 5 (canvas 533)Life & work
The Master of the Codex Amiatinus is the conventional art-historical name for the principal anonymous illuminator of the Codex Amiatinus — the great early-eighth-century Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian illuminated Bible now in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence (MS Amiatinus 1) and the earliest surviving complete Latin Vulgate Bible. The manuscript was produced at the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine twin abbey of Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria around 692–716 under the patronage of Abbot Ceolfrith.
The Codex Amiatinus is enormous — over a thousand parchment leaves, more than seventy-five pounds in weight, written in a careful insular uncial script — and was originally one of three pandects (one-volume Bibles) that Ceolfrith commissioned for the Wearmouth-Jarrow library. In 716 the aging Ceolfrith left the abbey on a final pilgrimage to Rome carrying the Codex Amiatinus as a gift for Pope Gregory II, but he died on the journey at Langres in Burgundy. The Bible was eventually delivered to the Lombard abbey of Monte Amiata in Tuscany (from which it takes its modern name) and remained there until the suppression of the Italian monastic houses in 1782, when it was transferred to the Laurentian Library in Florence.
The manuscript contains eight surviving full-page illuminations — the Tabernacle of the Old Covenant, the Ezra page (Ezra writing the books of the Bible, traditionally identified with the manuscript's principal patron Ceolfrith himself), the Maiestas Domini at the front of the New Testament, and several decorative cross-and-symbol pages. The Master of the Codex Amiatinus pictorial style is the unmistakable Anglo-Saxon insular signature combined with strong late-Antique Mediterranean pictorial conventions absorbed from imported Byzantine and Italian manuscripts that the Wearmouth-Jarrow library held in considerable numbers.
The manuscript was, until the end of the twentieth century, the principal scholarly text-witness for the modern critical reconstruction of the Latin Vulgate. Its pictorial program shaped the entire Anglo-Saxon and subsequent insular illuminated tradition.
Bible scenes Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium) painted
1 Chronicles
- 1 Chronicles 1
- 1 Chronicles 2
- 1 Chronicles 3
- 1 Chronicles 4
- 1 Chronicles 5
- 1 Chronicles 6
- 1 Chronicles 7
- 1 Chronicles 8
- 1 Chronicles 9
- 1 Chronicles 10
- 1 Chronicles 11
- 1 Chronicles 12
- 1 Chronicles 13
- 1 Chronicles 14
- 1 Chronicles 15
- 1 Chronicles 16
- 1 Chronicles 17
- 1 Chronicles 18
- 1 Chronicles 19
- 1 Chronicles 20
- 1 Chronicles 21
- 1 Chronicles 22
- 1 Chronicles 23
- 1 Chronicles 24
- 1 Chronicles 25
- 1 Chronicles 26
- 1 Chronicles 27
- 1 Chronicles 28
- 1 Chronicles 29
Luke
1 Corinthians
1 Timothy
3 John
Revelation
1 John
2 Chronicles
2 Kings
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 1
- Deuteronomy 2
- Deuteronomy 3
- Deuteronomy 4
- Deuteronomy 5
- Deuteronomy 6
- Deuteronomy 7
- Deuteronomy 8
- Deuteronomy 9
- Deuteronomy 10
- Deuteronomy 11
- Deuteronomy 12
- Deuteronomy 13
- Deuteronomy 14
- Deuteronomy 15
- Deuteronomy 16
- Deuteronomy 17
- Deuteronomy 18
- Deuteronomy 19
- Deuteronomy 20
- Deuteronomy 21
- Deuteronomy 22
- Deuteronomy 23
- Deuteronomy 24
- Deuteronomy 25
- Deuteronomy 26
- Deuteronomy 27
- Deuteronomy 28
- Deuteronomy 29
- Deuteronomy 30
- Deuteronomy 31
- Deuteronomy 32
- Deuteronomy 33
- Deuteronomy 34
Exodus
- Exodus 1
- Exodus 2
- Exodus 3
- Exodus 4
- Exodus 5
- Exodus 6
- Exodus 7
- Exodus 8
- Exodus 9
- Exodus 10
- Exodus 11
- Exodus 12
- Exodus 13
- Exodus 14
- Exodus 15
- Exodus 16
- Exodus 17
- Exodus 18
- Exodus 19
- Exodus 20
- Exodus 21
- Exodus 22
- Exodus 23
- Exodus 24
- Exodus 25
- Exodus 26
- Exodus 27
- Exodus 28
- Exodus 29
- Exodus 30
- Exodus 31
- Exodus 32
- Exodus 33
- Exodus 34
- Exodus 35
- Exodus 36
- Exodus 37
- Exodus 38
- Exodus 39
- Exodus 40
Leviticus
- Leviticus 1
- Leviticus 2
- Leviticus 3
- Leviticus 4
- Leviticus 5
- Leviticus 6
- Leviticus 7
- Leviticus 8
- Leviticus 9
- Leviticus 10
- Leviticus 11
- Leviticus 12
- Leviticus 13
- Leviticus 14
- Leviticus 15
- Leviticus 16
- Leviticus 17
- Leviticus 18
- Leviticus 19
- Leviticus 20
- Leviticus 21
- Leviticus 22
- Leviticus 23
- Leviticus 24
- Leviticus 25
- Leviticus 26
- Leviticus 27
Numbers
- Numbers 1
- Numbers 2
- Numbers 3
- Numbers 4
- Numbers 5
- Numbers 6
- Numbers 7
- Numbers 8
- Numbers 9
- Numbers 10
- Numbers 11
- Numbers 12
- Numbers 13
- Numbers 14
- Numbers 15
- Numbers 16
- Numbers 17
- Numbers 18
- Numbers 19
- Numbers 20
- Numbers 21
- Numbers 22
- Numbers 23
- Numbers 24
- Numbers 25
- Numbers 26
- Numbers 27
- Numbers 28
- Numbers 29
- Numbers 30
- Numbers 31
- Numbers 32
- Numbers 33
- Numbers 34
- Numbers 35
- Numbers 36
Joshua
1 Kings
Psalms
Judith
Job
Ecclesiastes
Isaiah
Song of Solomon
Acts
Romans
Matthew
Genesis
- Genesis 1
- Genesis 2
- Genesis 3
- Genesis 4
- Genesis 5
- Genesis 6
- Genesis 7
- Genesis 8
- Genesis 9
- Genesis 10
- Genesis 11
- Genesis 12
- Genesis 13
- Genesis 14
- Genesis 15
- Genesis 16
- Genesis 17
- Genesis 18
- Genesis 19
- Genesis 20
- Genesis 21
- Genesis 22
- Genesis 23
- Genesis 24
- Genesis 25
- Genesis 26
- Genesis 27
- Genesis 28
- Genesis 29
- Genesis 30
- Genesis 31
- Genesis 32
- Genesis 33
- Genesis 34
- Genesis 35
- Genesis 36
- Genesis 37
- Genesis 38
- Genesis 39
- Genesis 40
- Genesis 41
- Genesis 42
- Genesis 43
- Genesis 44
- Genesis 45
- Genesis 46
- Genesis 47
- Genesis 48
- Genesis 49
- Genesis 50
1 Samuel
- 1 Samuel 1
- 1 Samuel 2
- 1 Samuel 3
- 1 Samuel 4
- 1 Samuel 5
- 1 Samuel 6
- 1 Samuel 7
- 1 Samuel 8
- 1 Samuel 9
- 1 Samuel 10
- 1 Samuel 11
- 1 Samuel 12
- 1 Samuel 13
- 1 Samuel 14
- 1 Samuel 15
- 1 Samuel 16
- 1 Samuel 17
- 1 Samuel 18
- 1 Samuel 19
- 1 Samuel 20
- 1 Samuel 21
- 1 Samuel 22
- 1 Samuel 23
- 1 Samuel 24
- 1 Samuel 25
- 1 Samuel 26
- 1 Samuel 27
- 1 Samuel 28
- 1 Samuel 29
- 1 Samuel 30
- 1 Samuel 31
2 Samuel
Judges
Ruth
2 John
All works by Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium) in our library
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium)?
- The Master of the Codex Amiatinus is the conventional art-historical name for the principal anonymous illuminator of the Codex Amiatinus — the great early-eighth-century Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian illuminated Bible now in the Biblioteca Medic…
- What Bible scenes did Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium) paint?
- Our library currently holds 425 approved works by Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium), with works depicting passages from 1 Chronicles, Luke, 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, 3 John, Revelation, 1 John, 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings, Deuteronomy, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 Kings, Psalms, Judith, Job, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Song of Solomon, Acts, Romans, Matthew, Genesis, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Judges, Ruth, and 2 John.
- How many works by Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium) are at Learn of Christ?
- We currently have 425 works by Master of the Codex Amiatinus (Monkwearmouth-Jarrow scriptorium) in our public-domain library, indexed to the chapters and verses they depict.