Image: LeningradBedeHiRes

Description: The Saint Petersburg Bede formerly known as the Leningrad Bede, is an early surviving illuminated manuscript of Bede's 8th century history, the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People). It was taken to the Russian National Library of Saint Petersburg at the time of the French Revolution. Although not heavily illuminated, it is famous for containing the earliest historiated initial (one containing a picture) in European illumination. The opening three letters of Book 2 of Bede are decorated, to a height of 8 lines of the text, and the opening h contains a bust portrait of a haloed figure carrying a cross and a book. This is probably intended to be St. Gregory the Great, although a much later hand has identified the figure as St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Title: Historiated initial, portrait of St Gregory
Credit: HistoryofScience.com and Russian National Library, St Petersberg
Author: Scriptorium de l'abbaye de Wearmouth-Jarrow
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No