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Reading Aldred's Colophon for the Lindisfarne Gospels

E. A. Lowe wrote: "In palaeography we mostly splash about in a sea of uncer tainty or complete nescience: our ignorance is such that we cling to straws. Every now and then, however, we sight a raft which by careful steering takes us to terra firma. Such rafts have been the mainstay of our discipline. These are, of course, our dated and placed manuscripts."1 The manuscript known to scholars and the general public as the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero D.IV),2 has long been regarded as such a precious "raft," confidently stated as having been written at the island monastery of Lindisfarne by Eadfrith, bishop of the monastery from 698 to 721, the date often narrowed to ca. 698, the date of St. Cuthbert's translation as well as of Eadfrith's assumption of the episcopacy. Richard Gameson opens his fine article published in 2001 with a sentence that evokes Lowe's statement, while shifting from a nautical to a terrestrial, and a less insecure, metaphor: "The Lindisfarne Gospels is?thanks to the colophon that