-Manuscript made from 130 calfskins
--Evangelist portraits come first, followed by a carpet page(so-called because it resembles a carpet). These pages are followed by the opening of the gospel with a large series of capital letters -Written by Earth, bishop of Lindisfarne -Unusual in that it is the work of an individual artist and not a team of scribes.
-The first four books of the New Testament, used for services and private devotion
Context
--Written in Latin with annotations in English between the lines; some Greek letters
--This page is called “Incipit”, meaning it depicts the opening words of Saint Luke’s gospel: “Quoniam Quidem…” -Numerous Celtic spiral ornaments are painted in the Large Q; step patterns appear in the enlarged O. -Naturalistic detail of a cat in the lower right corner; it has eaten 8 birds -Incomplete manuscript page; some lettering is not filled in.
-Cross depicted on a page with horror vacui decoration -Dog-headed snakes intermix with birds with long beaks -Cloisonne style reflected in the bodies of the birds -Elongated figures lost in a maze of S shapes -Black background makes patterning stand out
--Mixture of traditional Celtic imagery and Christian theology
--The traditional symbol associated with Saint Luke is the calf(a sacrificial animal) -Identity of the calf is acknowledged in the Latin phrase “imago vituli” -Saint Luke is identified by Greek words using Latin characters: “Hagios Lucas.” There is also Greek text -Saint Luke is heavily bearded, which gives weight to his authority as an author, but he appears as a younger man -Saint Luke sits with legs crossed holding a scroll and a writing instrument -Influenced by classical author portraits.