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animal interlace
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Lindisfarne Gospels Lindisfarne Gospels
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Lindisfarne Gospels
Lindisfarne Gospels Interlace patterns of the initial page of the Gospel According to John from the Lindisfarne Gospels, Hiberno-Saxon, 8th century (British Library, Cotton Nero D. IV, fol. 211).

animal interlace

decorative motif
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History

animal interlace, in calligraphy, rich, fanciful decorative motif characteristic of work by the Hiberno-Saxon book artists of the early Middle Ages in the British Isles. Its intertwined, fantastic animal and bird forms are often densely and minutely detailedā€”an example in the Book of Kells (c. 800) contains 158 interlacements in a space of 0.25 square inch (1.61 square cm). Another work of comparable stylistic maturity is the Lindisfarne Gospels, written in Northumbria in honour of St. Cuthbert soon after his death in 687.