The Codex Amiatinus and the Place of Rome in Early Medieval Culture and Thought
FAIN: FB-51662-05
Celia Chazelle
College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ 08628-0718)
This book reassesses the distinction between Roman and non-Roman, Mediterranean and barbarian commonly posited in studies of early medieval Latin culture. A new analysis is offered of the art of the Codex Amiatinus, a Bible made at Wearmouth-Jarrow in northern England by 716 and sent from there to Rome. Amiatinus, which shows the influence of late-antique Mediterranean art, is generally held to reflect the importation into England of essentially alien cultural norms. I critique this view, and the theory on which it is based of the cultural relation between early medieval northern Europe and the Mediterranean, by examining the artistic, intellectual, and political context in which Amiatinus and its "sister Bibles" were produced.