This course will focus on one of the world’s most beautiful books, the Lindisfarne Gospels, made in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the early 8th century at the monastery of Lindisfarne, founded by Irish monks. We shall explore the manuscript itself, the way in which it was made and its art historical and historical context, in order to understand its cultural significance and its meaning to those who made it and who used it across the centuries. It provides a portal into a better understanding of the age in which it was made, in which the West and Near East moved from Late Antique into Medieval. Come and discover how this remarkable work illuminates the not so ‘Dark Ages’ and shows how Britain was made.