page_title: Celtic art
section_title: Early Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Celtic art / Early Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: English: Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels, Incipit to the Gospel of Matthew. The main text contains the first sentence of the Gospel According to Saint Matthew: "Liber generationis Iesu Christi filii David filii Abraham" (The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.) The first line contains the word "liber" (the book) with illuminated letters in insular majuscule, the first three letter (lib) are much more ornate than the last two (er) in white. The next two lines are in runic capitals (ie. latin letter in a rune inspired script, also seen in the Book of Nunnaminster for example): the first of these lines partially containts the word "generationis" (generation in genitive case) as "-onis" appears in the next line followed by the contracted form of "Iesu", namely "Ihu" with a tilde on the h. This type of contraction is called a Nomina sacra. The last line is in insular majuscule and begins with another Nomina Sacra, the contraction "χρi" with a tilde meaning "Christi". This is followed by a more compressed series of words. The first is "filii" (son, genetive) with a fi ligature and a letter "l" with two stacked "i" letters on its leg. Then "David" is seen and is formed with a letter "d" with an "a" stacked on a "v" in its Counter followed by "id". After that, "filii" is present again, this time however the fi ligature is replaced with the Greek letter phi (φ) given its name (note that son in Greek is υἱός, ie. unrelated). The last word is "Abraham" which is split into two lines. Español: es:Evangelios de Lindisfarne
context_page_description: Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages.
  Celtic art is a difficult term to define, covering a huge expanse of time, geography and cultures. A case has been made for artistic continuity in Europe from the Bronze Age, and indeed the preceding Neolithic age; however archaeologists generally use "Celtic" to refer to the culture of the European Iron Age from around 1000 BC onwards, until the conquest by the Roman Empire of most of the territory concerned, and art historians typically begin to talk about "Celtic art" only from the La Tène period onwards. Early Celtic art is another term used for this period, stretching in Britain to about 150 AD. The Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland, which produced the Book of Kells and other masterpieces, and is what "Celtic art" evokes for much of the general public in the English-speaking world, is called Insular art in art history.
caption: Folio 27r from the 8th-century Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit Liber generationis of the Gospel of Matthew.
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