Landévennec Group Explained

The Landévennec Group is a group of 10th and 11th century illuminated manuscripts of the Four Evangelists from Basse-Bretagne, probably all from the scriptorium of Landévennec Abbey. Influenced by insular art, they are marked by their representation of the evangelists as humans with animal heads.

List

• British Library, Breton Gospel Book (British Library, MS Egerton 609):^[1] provenance from Marmoutier Abbey, Tours, entered the British Museum in 1836
• Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 85:^[2] dating to 850-900, once belonged to Fleury Abbey
• Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 8:^[3] dating to 850-900, brought by monks fleeing from Landévennec after its destruction by the Vikings in 913, who settled in Montreuil-sur-Mer
• Troyes, Médiathèque, MS 960:^[4] dating to 909, Gospels, known as the Saint-Gildas-de-Ruys Gospels
• Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 2. 16:^[5] dating to 900-950, given to Exeter Cathedral by bishop Leofric.
• New York Public Library, Harkness Gospels, MS 115:^[6] dating to 890-910, named after its former owner, who donated his book collection to the New York Public Library in 1928, with two other more classical Romanesque miniatures added in the 11th century.

References

1. Web site: Detailed record for Egerton 609. British Library. 2020-04-14.
2. Web site: Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 85. e-codices – Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. 2020-04-14.
3. Web site: BVMM - BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, Bibliothèque municipale, 0008. bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr. 2020-04-14.
4. Web site: Evangelia IV ex Hieronymi versione, cum ejusdem praefationibus, et canonibus Eusebianis, atque Evangeliorum partitione per totum annum (Ms 960). portail.mediatheque.grand-troyes.fr. 2020-04-14.
5. Web site: Latin Gospels Bodleian Library MS. Auct. D. 2. 16. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. 2020-04-14.
6. Web site: New York, New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL MA 115. Digital Scriptorium. dead. https://archive.today/20140123215836/http://ucblibrary4.berkeley.edu:8088/xtf22/search?smode=basic;text=harkness;rmode=digscript;docsPerPage=1;startDoc=1;fullview=yes. 23 January 2014.

Sources

• Evangéliaires carolingiens de Bretagne
• René Crozet, Les représentations anthropo-zoomorphiques des évangélistes dans l'enluminure et dans la peinture murale aux époques carolingienne et romane, vol. 1e année, avril-juin 1958, pages 182-187, chap. n° 2
• Jonathan J. C. Alexander, « La résistance à la domination culturelle carolingienne dans l'art breton du IXe siècle: le témoignage de l'enluminure des manuscrits », dans Landévennec et le monachisme breton du haut Moyen Âge, Actes du colloque du XVe centenaire de l'abbaye, 1985, p. 269-280
• Louis Lemoine, « Le Scriptorium de Landévennec et les représentations de saint Marc », dans Mélanges François Kerlouégan, Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 1994, p. 363-380