Peter Hunter-Blair has a story about the bible text known as the Codex Amiatinus that prodigy of the Northumbrian golden age which now resides in the Laurentian Library in Florence. He notes that one scholar who was allowed to consult the volume found that it was delivered by two men struggling under its weight because it is so massive. It weighs 56 kilos. This makes one wonder about the physical struggle which must have been part of the binding process-if not for the sewer at least for the person who constructed the housing for the book. The Codex Amiatinus must have been one of the largest insular manuscripts ever made and it could not have been manipulated with the ease with which the Stoneyhurst Gospels could be handled.
Imagine also Abbot Ceolfrith setting out from Wearmouth/Jarrow on his way to Italy with this monster on June 4, AD 716. It is now the oldest surviving copy of the Vulgate-the Latin Bible.Of the other two bibles made at the same time only fragments remain.
Peter Hunter-Blair,"Northumbria in the Days of Bede".
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