The North East book not seen in England since Anglo-Saxon times - 1,300 years ago; The Codex Amiatinus, made at Wearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, weighs 35kg and was a gift to the Pope in 716AD. It stars in a new exhibition.
Byline: Mike Kelly
An exhibition currently being staged in London harks back to a time when the North East was a real powerhouse.
An intellectual and political powerhouse whose books helped shed light on the history of England for future generations, even before England officially came into being.
At the heart of it is an extraordinary book produced in the North East in the 8th century which weighs over five and a half stone, given as a gift to the Pope and which is now on show in England for the first time in 1,300 years.
The Codex Amiatinus is at the heart of the exhibition called Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms that is being staged in the British Library in London.
Also on show are the Lindisfarne Gospels as well as a number of others books and manuscripts sourced in the North East, which are among a treasure trove of works helping to shed light on the so-called Dark Ages of British history, which dates from around 500AD when the Roman invaders left to 1066 and the Norman Conquest.
Lead curator of the exhibition, Dr Claire Breay, said: "People do think of this period as the Dark Ages and one of the things we're really trying to show is the sophistication of the artistry and intellectual life, and literary and political culture, of the period."
The Codex Amiatinus is the oldest surviving, complete Latin translation of the Bible in the world and was created at Wearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria in the early 8th century.
It contains 1,000 parchment leaves, its spine is over a foot thick and it weighs 34kg. It was taken to Italy as a gift for the Pope in 716AD and has never been back since.
However a replica of it, created in Italy, was blessed at the seventh century St Paul's Church atJarrowin 2016, on the site of the monastery.
Another curator at the British Library, Alison Hudson, described its journey abroad which apparently began on June 4 when the Abbot Ceolfrith - one of whose monks at the time was the Venerable Bede - sailed across the River Wear with it on the first stage of the trip.
He then travelled on horseback with it to the mouth of the River Humber and set sail for the continent, although he was blown off course three times, before arriving in France.
Ceolfrith continued first on horseback and then in a litter after he became ill. He got as far as Langres in France where he died, however the quest was taken on by a group of monks who took it to the Pope, Gregory II.
Over the years it eventually ended up at the Biblioteca Laurenziana...
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