St John (left) dictating to the Venerable Bede (right), 12th century. An Anglo-Saxon theologian, scholar and historian, the Venerable Bede (c.673-735) was a monk at Jarrow, Northumberland. As a scholar and historian his most important work was the 'Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum' (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), a political and ecclesiastical history of England from the time of Caesar to the date when Bede completed it (731). This manuscript illustration was produced in Austria. It is from a miscellany that includes Bede's 'Explanatio Apocalypsis', a commentary on the Revelation of John which is attributed to Saint John the Evangelist. It dates from around 1140 and was produced using pen with brown and red ink, with colour washes on vellum.