The Lindisfarne Gospels

[@bethwilliams4903]

Thank you for this lovely podcast. I only just realised that the Lindisfarne Gospels escaped complete loss when Henry VIII destroyed the abbeys and cathedrals, manuscripts like these ended up with ‘new’ owners who had little or no idea what they were and even less appreciation. Robert Cotton, who I only knew about because of the huge Cottonian Library (which because the core of the British Library via his grandson’s efforts) was a frenetic antiquarian. The only reason we even have the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the only surviving copy of Beowulf, is that intrepid collector! what a great fortune that a Robert Cotton was there to rectify at least some of that psychotic man’s destruction!