The Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Cotton Claudius B.Iv : The Frontier of Seeing and Reading in Anglo-Saxon England

"The Old English Hexateuch" is a manuscript of the earliest vernacular translation of the Old Testament books of "Genesis" through to "Joshua".

The texts belong, in part, to the Anglo-Saxon monk Aelfric (950-1010) and to several anonymous translators and at least one artist who compiled these translations and illustrated them with nearly four hundred narrative images that are carefully integrated into the manuscript.

The Hexateuch testifies to the creativity and innovation of Anglo-Saxon bookmakers and stands as an important if little known witness to the relationship between early book-making technology and the history of literacy.

Benjamin C. Withers examines codilogical features of the manuscript, focusing on the working processes of the artist and scribes in order to understand how the newly translated text and the newly developed imagery were integrated so seamlessly.Grounded in art history and literary theory, this work considers the narrative relationships created by the careful design of the Hexateuch and seeks to place the manuscript within the broader social and cultural development of vernacular literacy in the eleventh century.