St Cuthbert Gospel
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/St_Cuthbert_Gospel_-_f.1.jpg/260px-St_Cuthbert_Gospel_-_f.1.jpg)
The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is an early 8th-century pocket
The book takes its name from
From 1979 it was on long-term loan from the British province of the Jesuit order to the British Library, catalogued as Loan 74. On 14 July 2011 the British Library launched a fundraising campaign to buy the book for £9 million, and on 17 April 2012 announced that the purchase had been completed and the book was now British Library Add MS 89000.[1]
The library plans to display the Gospel for equal amounts of time in London and Durham. It describes the manuscript as "the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world's most significant books".[2] The Cuthbert Gospel returned to Durham to feature in exhibitions in 2013 and 2014, and was in the British Library's Anglo-Saxon exhibition in 2018/19; it also spends periods "resting" off display. A new book on the gospel was published in 2015, incorporating the results of research since the purchase; among other things this pushed the likely date from the late 7th century to between around 700 and 730.
Description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Meister_des_Codex_Amiatus_001.jpg/220px-Meister_des_Codex_Amiatus_001.jpg)
The St Cuthbert Gospel is a pocket-sized book, 138 by 92 millimetres (5.4 × 3.6 in), of the
Context
The St Cuthbert Gospel is significant both intrinsically as the earliest surviving European book complete with its original binding and by association with the 7th-century Anglo-Saxon saint
Early medieval
Text
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Cuthbert_text51.jpg/220px-Cuthbert_text51.jpg)
The text is a very good and careful copy of the single Gospel of John from what has been called the "Italo-Northumbrian" family of texts, other well-known examples of which are several manuscripts from Wearmouth–Jarrow, including the
Apart from enlarged and sometimes slightly elaborated initials opening the
The pages with the text have been ruled with a blind stylus or similar tool, leaving just an impression in the vellum. It can be shown that this was done for each gathering with just two sets of lines, ruled on the outermost and innermost pages, requiring a very firm impression to carry the marks through to the sheets behind. Impressed lines mark the vertical edges of the text area, and there is an outer pair of lines. Each line of text is ruled, only as far as the inner vertical lines, and there are prick marks where the horizontal lines meet the verticals. The book begins with 19 lines on a page, but at folio 42 changes to 20 lines per page, requiring the re-ruling of some pages. This change was evidently a departure from the original plan, and may have been caused by a shortage of the very fine vellum, as two different sorts are used, though the change does not coincide exactly with the change in the number of lines.[12]
Four passages are marked in the margin, which correspond to those used as readings in Masses for the Dead in the Roman lectionary of the mid-7th century. This seems to have been done hastily, as most left offset marks on the opposite pages from the book being closed before the ink was dry.[13] This seems to indicate that the book was used at least once as the gospel book for a Mass for the Dead, perhaps on the occasion of Cuthbert's elevation in 698. In the example illustrated at left, the start of the reading at line 10 is marked with a cross, and de mortuorum (lit. 'for the dead') written beside. The reading ends on the next page, which is also marked.[14]
Binding
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Upper_cover_%28Add_Ms_89000%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Upper_cover_%28Add_Ms_89000%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The original tooled red
The decoration of the covers includes three pigments filling lines engraved with a sharp pointed instrument, which now appear as two shades of yellow, one bright and the other pale, and a dark colour that now appears as blue-grey, but was recorded as blue in the earliest descriptions. The front cover includes all three colours, but the pale yellow is not used on the back cover. The pigments have been analysed for the first time, as one benefit of the purchase of the manuscript by the British Library, and identified by Raman spectroscopy as orpiment (yellow) and indigo (grey-blue).[20] The balance of the designs on both covers is now affected by what appears to be the greater fading of the dark blue-grey pigment.[21] The bookbinder Roger Powell speculated that the "pale lemon-yellow ... may once have been green", giving an original colour scheme of blue, green and yellow on the red background,[22] although the recent testing suggests this was not the case.
Given the lack of surviving objects, we cannot know how common the techniques employed were, but the quality of the execution suggests that the binder was experienced in them.
Although it seems clear from the style of the script that the text was written at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, it is possible that the binding was then added at Lindisfarne; the form of the plant scrolls can be compared to those on the portable altar also found in Cuthbert's coffin, presumed to have been made there, though also to other works of the period, such as the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon cross from Penrith and the Vespasian Psalter. Small holes in the folds of each gathering seem to represent a "temporary sewing" together of the pages, one explanation of which is a journey made by the unbound pages.[25]
Front cover
The decoration of the front cover is divided into fields bordered by raised lines. The central field contains a plant motif representing a stylised chalice in the centre with a bud and scrolling vine stems leading from it, fruit and several small leaves.[26] Above and below the central motif are fields containing interlace ornament in finely incised lines. The three motifs are enclosed within a border containing further interlacing.
Continuous vine
The two panels of interlace use the same design, of what David H. Wright describes as the "alternating pair thin-line type" which he calls "perhaps the most sophisticated of Insular interlace types".[31] The panels are symmetrical about a vertical axis, except for the left end of the upper panel, which is different. Whereas the other ends of the pattern finish in a flat line parallel with the vertical framing line, part of a shape like an incomplete D, the top left finishes in two ellipses pointing into the corners. The lines forming the interlace patterns are coloured in the dark blue/black and the bright yellow, but differently. In the lower panel the yellow colours the left half of the design, but the upper panel begins at the (deviant) left in the dark colour, then switches to yellow once the pattern changes to that used for the rest of the panels. It continues in yellow until the central point, then changes to the dark colour for the right hand side of the design.
The transition between the top left, perhaps where the artist began, and the standard pattern, is somewhat awkward, leaving a rather bald spot (for an interlace pattern) to the left of the first curving yellow vertical. The change in pattern pushes the halfway point of the upper panel rather off-centre to the right, whereas in the lower panel it falls slightly to the left of dead centre. These vagaries in the design suggest that it was done freehand, without marking-out the pattern using compasses for example.[34] The lowest horizontal raised line is not straight, being higher at the left, probably because of an error in the marking or drilling of the holes in the cover board through which the ends of the cord run.[35] The simple twist or chain border in yellow between the two raised frames resembles an element in an initial in the Durham Gospel Book Fragment, an important earlier manuscript from Lindisfarne.[36]
Back cover
The back cover is decorated more simply, with no raised elements and purely geometric decoration of engraved lines, which are filled in with two pigments which now appear as the bright yellow and the dark colour, once apparently blue. Within several framing lines making rectangles of similar proportions to the cover itself, a central rectangular panel is marked with pricks to make a grid of 3mm squares, 21 tall and 10 wide. Lines on the grid are engraved and coloured in yellow to form two stepped "crosses", or squares standing on one corner, with additional stepped elements in the four corners and halfway up the vertical sides, between the two "crosses". The vertical axial line down the grid and the two horizontal axes through the crosses are also coloured in the yellow pigment right to the edges of the grid. The remaining lines on the grid and all the lines along the edges of the grid are coloured in the dark colour.[37] This is a simple version of the sort of design found on Insular carpet pages, as well as in Coptic manuscript decoration and textiles, and small stepped crosses decorate the main panels of the famous Sutton Hoo shoulder-clasps.[38] The alignment of the various outer framing lines with the innermost frame and the panel with the grid is noticeably imperfect, as the top framing line was extended too far to the left. Traces of an uncoloured first attempt at this line can be seen on the right hand side, above the coloured line.[39]
Construction
Although the binding had never been taken apart for examination before it was bought by the British Library, a considerable amount can be said about its construction. A combination of looseness through wear and tear, damage in certain places, and the failure of the paste that glued the pages to the inside of the covers, now allow non-intrusive inspection of much of the binding construction, including the rear of the actual wooden front cover board, and some of the holes made through it.[40]
The raised framing lines can be seen from the rear of the front cover to have been produced by gluing cord to the board and tooling the leather over it, in a technique of
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Sewing_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg/220px-The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Sewing_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg)
The chalice and plant motif on the front, of which there is no trace from behind, has been built up using some clay-like material underneath the leather, as shown by
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Headband_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg/220px-The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Headband_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg)
The boards of the covers, previously assumed to be
The stitching of the binding uses "
Dating
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/St_Cuthbert_Gospel_-_f.11.jpg/220px-St_Cuthbert_Gospel_-_f.11.jpg)
The manuscript itself carries no date but a rather precise dating has been given to it, based mainly on its palaeography or handwriting, and also the known facts of Cuthbert's burial. The dating was revised after the acquisition by the British Library, who added to their online catalogue entry:
Previously dated to the end of the 7th century (The Stonyhurst Gospel, ed. T. J. Brown (1969), pp. 12–13), R. Gameson dates the script to c. 710–c. 730 and L. Webster dates the decoration on the covers to c. 700–c. 730 (The St Cuthbert Gospel, eds C. Breay and B. Meehan (2015), pp. 33, 80).[49]
The script is the "capitular" form of
Key to this sequence is the
There survive parts of a gospel book, by coincidence now bound up with the famous
From the palaeographical evidence, T. Julian Brown concluded that the Cuthbert manuscript was written after the main text of the Codex Amiatinus, which was finished after 688, perhaps by 695, though it might be later. Turning to the historical evidence for Cuthbert's burial, this placed it after his original burial in 687 but possibly before his elevation to the high altar in 698. If this is correct, the book was never a personal possession of Cuthbert, as has sometimes been thought, but was possibly created specifically to be placed in his coffin, whether for the occasion of his elevation in 698 or at another date.[56] The less precise hints about dating that can be derived from the style of the binding compared to other works did not conflict with these conclusions,[57] though in the new 2015 study, Leslie Webster now dates the cover to "c. 700–c. 730", and Richard Gameson "dates the script to c. 710–c. 730", as quoted above.
History
Background
Illustrations from British Library MS Yates Thompson 26, a manuscript of Bede's prose life of Cuthbert, written c. 721, copied at the priory of Durham Cathedral in the last quarter of the 12th century. The 46 full page miniatures include many miracles associated with Cuthbert both before and after his death.[58]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/BLYatesThomson26LifeCuthbertFol35vCuthTeaching.jpg/220px-BLYatesThomson26LifeCuthbertFol35vCuthTeaching.jpg)
Cuthbert was an
The tension between the Roman and Irish traditions, often exacerbated by Cuthbert's near-contemporary Saint Wilfrid, an intransigent and quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways, was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. Cuthbert himself, though educated in the Irish tradition, followed his mentor Eata in accepting the Roman forms without apparent difficulty after the Synod of Whitby in 664.[60] The earliest biographies concentrate on the many miracles that accompanied even his early life, but he was evidently indefatigable as a travelling priest spreading the Christian message to remote villages, and also well able to impress royalty and nobility. Unlike Wilfrid, his style of life was austere, and when he was able he lived the life of a hermit, though still receiving many visitors.[61]
He grew up near the new
Lindisfarne
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Incorrupt_Cuthbert.jpg/220px-Incorrupt_Cuthbert.jpg)
Although first documented in 1104, the book is presumed to have been buried with Cuthbert at
Numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory
Fleeing the Danes
In 793 Lindisfarne was devastated by the first serious
It was possibly at this point that a shelf or inner cover was inserted some way under the lid of Cuthbert's coffin, supported on three wooden bars across the width, and probably with two iron rings fixed to it for lifting it off.[72] Eardulf had decided to take the most important remains and possessions of the community with them, and whether new or old, the shelf in Cuthbert's coffin was probably loaded with the St Cuthbert Gospel, which was found there in 1104. It may also have held the Lindisfarne Gospels, now also in the British Library, and other books from Lindisfarne that were, and in several cases still are, at Durham Cathedral. Other bones taken by the party were those remains of St Aidan (d. 651), the founder of the community, that had not been sent to Melrose, and the head of the king and saint Oswald of Northumbria, who had converted the kingdom and encouraged the founding of Lindisfarne. These and other relics were reverently packaged in cloth and labelled, as more recent relics are. The community also took a stone Anglo-Saxon cross, and although they had a vehiculum of some sort, probably a cart or simple wagon, Cuthbert's coffin was carried by seven young men who had grown up in the community.[73]
They set off inland and spent the first months at an unknown location in west
Over the next century the Vikings of York and the north became gradually Christianized, and Cuthbert's shrine became a focus of devotion among them also. The community established close relations with Guthred (d. 895), Halfdene's successor as king, and received land from him at Chester-le-Street. In 883 they moved the few miles there, where they stayed over a century, building St Cuthbert's Church, where Cuthbert's shrine was placed. In 995 a new Danish invasion led the community to flee some 50 miles south to Ripon, again taking the coffin with them. After three or four months it was felt safe to return, and the party had nearly reached Chester-le-Street when their wagon became definitively stuck close to Durham, then a place with cultivated fields, but hardly a settlement, perhaps just an isolated farm. It was thought that Cuthbert was expressing a wish to settle where he was, and the community obeyed. A new stone church—the so-called White Church—was built, the predecessor of the present Durham Cathedral.[74]
Durham Cathedral
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Cuthbert%27s_healing_shoes.jpg/220px-Cuthbert%27s_healing_shoes.jpg)
In 1104, early in the bishopric of
As far as is known the book remained at Durham for the remainder of the Middle Ages, until the Dissolution, kept as a relic in three bags of red leather, normally resting in a reliquary, and there are various records of it being shown to visitors, the more distinguished of which were allowed to hang it round their neck for a while. According to Reginald of Durham (d. c. 1190) "anyone approaching it should wash, fast and dress in an alb before touching it", and he recorded that a scribe called John who failed to do this during a visit by the Archbishop of York in 1153–54, and "held it with unwashed hands after eating was struck down with a chill".[78] Books treated as relics are especially characteristic of Celtic Christianity; several of the surviving Irish book-shrines were worn in this way.[79]
Another recorded copy of the Gospel of John has also been associated with Cuthbert, and sometimes thought to be the St Cuthbert Gospel. Saint
After the Reformation
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Cuthbert_and_Boisil.jpg/220px-Cuthbert_and_Boisil.jpg)
It is thought likely that the book remained at Durham until the
According to an 18th-century Latin inscription pasted to the inside cover of the manuscript, the St Cuthbert Gospel was given by the
The manuscript was first published when in 1806 it was taken to London and displayed when a letter on it by the Rev. J. Milner, presumably
From 1950
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Fore_edge_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg/220px-The_St_Cuthbert_Gospel_of_St_John._%28formerly_known_as_the_Stonyhurst_Gospel%29_is_the_oldest_intact_European_book._-_Fore_edge_%28Add_Ms_89000%29.jpg)
From 1950 onwards the binding was examined several times, but not altered, at Stonyhurst and the British Museum by
In 2011 an agreement was reached with the Jesuit British Province for the British Library to buy the book for £9 million. This required the purchase money to be raised by 31 March 2012, and a public appeal was launched. In the early stages the emphasis was on raising large individual donations, which included £4,500,000 from the
The Gospel of John as an amulet
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Cuthbert%27s_body_heals_paralytic.jpg/220px-Cuthbert%27s_body_heals_paralytic.jpg)
There was a long and somewhat controversial tradition of using manuscripts of the
The size of the Cuthbert Gospel places it within the Insular tradition of the "pocket gospels", of which eight Irish examples survive,[107] including the Book of Dimma, Book of Mulling, and Book of Deer, although all the others are or were originally texts of all four gospels, with the possible exception of a few pages from the Gospel of John enshrined with the Stowe Missal in its cumdach or book-reliquary. There was a tradition of even smaller books, whose use seems to have been often amuletic, and a manuscript of John alone, with a page size of 72 x 56 mm, was found in a reliquary at Chartres Cathedral in 1712. It is probably Italian from the 5th or 6th century, and the label it carried in 1712 saying it was a relic of St Leobinus, a bishop of Chartes who died in about 556, may be correct. The other examples are mostly in Greek or the Coptic language and contain a variety of biblical texts, especially psalters. Julian Brown concludes that the three Latin manuscripts of John "seem to attest an early medieval practice of placing a complete Gospel of St. John in a shrine, as a protective amulet; and it seems reasonable to conclude that our manuscript was placed in St. Cuthbert's coffin to protect it".[108]
Exhibitions
Apart from being usually on display at the British Museum and British Library (see above), the book has been in the following exhibitions ( * denotes that there was a detailed published catalogue):
- 1862, Victoria & Albert Museum, Loan Exhibition[109]
- 1930, Victoria & Albert Museum, Medieval English Art *
- 1987, Durham Cathedral Treasury, An exhibition of manuscripts brought together at Durham to celebrate the saint's 1300th anniversary and the work of his early community
- 1991, British Museum, The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600–900 *
- 1996, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, Treasures from the Lost Kingdom of Northumbria
- 1997, British Museum, The Heirs of Rome: The Shaping of Britain AD 400–900, part of the series The Transformation of the Roman World Ad 400–900 *
- 2003, British Library, Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels *
- 2007, British Library, Sacred: Discover What We Share
- 2013 Palace Green Library, Taplow belt buckle.[110]
- 2014, Palace Green Library, Durham, Book binding from the Middle Ages to the modern day.[111]
- 2018/19 British Library, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War *[112]
- 2022, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, The Lindisfarne Gospels
A digital version[113] of the manuscript was produced to run on an Apple iPad,[114] which was exhibited in April 2012 at the British Library.
See also
Notes
- ^ "St Cuthbert Gospel Saved for the Nation", British Library Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog, accessed 17 April 2012
- ^ a b British Library press release, "British Library announces £9m campaign to acquire the St Cuthbert Gospel – the earliest intact European book", 13 July 2011, with good photos of the cover, and a video. Accessed 8 March 2012
- ^ British Library, Digitized Manuscripts page, on the binding: Battiscombe, throughout Powell's section, 362–373; Brown (1969), 46–55
- ^ Needham, 55–57
- ^ Avrin, 310–311: Brown (2003), 66–69 on "book icons".
- ^ Brown (2003), 208–210
- ^ Needham, 55–60; Marks, 6–7; Avrin, 309–311
- ^ Brown (1969), 6, 24–25, 61–62
- ^ Brown (1969), 21, 61–62; in analysis after British Library purchase, the pigment for the red initials was identified as red lead.
- ^ Wilson, 30
- ^ Brown (1969), 59
- ^ Brown (1969), 58–59; Battiscombe, 356
- ^ Brown (1969), 25–26
- ^ Brown (1969), 43–44
- ^ Brown (2007), 16; Marks, 20. The leather cover of the Irish Faddan More Psalter, of about 800 and discovered in 2006, is an interesting comparison, but apparently only decorated as a trial piece.
- ^ Regemorter, 45
- ^ Calkins, 53, 61–62
- ^ Wilson, 32–33; Calkins, 57–60
- ^ Brown (1969), 16–18, who makes a number of specific comparisons; Wright, 154
- ^ BL online page, "The lines of the left board are filled in yellow (orpiment) and grey-blue (indigo)". This is covered in the 2015 book
- ^ Brown (1969), 14–21
- ^ Battiscombe, 370
- ^ Regemorter, 44–45
- ^ Stevick, 9–18
- ^ Brown (1969), 22, 57 (quote); Bonner, 237; 296–8; Brown (2003), 209
- ^ "The left board is decorated with a rectangular frame with interlace patterns in the upper and lower fields and a larger central field containing a chalice from which stems project, terminating in a leaf or bud and four fruits" describes the BL online catalogue in 2015. Previously, eg in Battiscombe, 372, the chalice was not mentioned.
- ^ Wilson, 63–67; 70–77
- ^ Brown (1969), 21; illustrated at Wilson, 50, and in the chapter on it in Battiscombe.
- ^ Brown (1969), 21
- ^ Calkins, 61–62; Meehan, 25
- ^ a b Wright, 154
- ^ Schapiro, 224, note 82, comparing with Kells f 94, his figure 17 at page 216
- ^ Regemorter, 45; Brown (1969), 21; Battiscombe, 373
- ^ Battiscombe, 373; Brown (1969), 15–16
- ^ Stevick, 11–12
- ^ Battiscombe, 372. The chain runs down the centre of the two large verticals of the INI "monogram" on f2; it is illustrated at Brown (2007), 25.
- ^ Brown (1969), 14–15; colour photo of back cover, British Library Database of Bookbindings, accessed 3 March 2012
- ^ Wright, 154–155; Battiscombe, 372; Photo of the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasps
- ^ Stevick, 15–18
- ^ Battiscombe, throughout Powell's section, 362–373; Brown (1969), 46–55
- ^ Battiscombe, 367–368; Wright, 154; Jones and Michell, 319; Szirmai, 96
- ^ Bloxham & Rose; Brown (1969), 16 and note, suggesting the use of leather; Nixon and Foot, 1, suggesting gesso and cords.
- ^ Wright, 153–154
- ^ Brown (1969), 46; Battiscombe, 364. The identification as birch was first made by "Mr Embley, master-joiner at Stonyhurst" for Hobson, confirmed by samples and advice from the Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough.
- ^ Battiscombe, 367–368
- ^ Brown (2007), 16, quoted; Brown (1969), 47–49
- ^ Avrin, 309–310; Morgan Library, MS M.569, accessed 8 March 2012
- ^ Marks, 8–10; Needham, 58; Avrin, 309–310; Szirmai, 95–97
- ^ British Library Digitized manuscripts site, accessed 12 June 2015. see Further reading for the 2015 book
- ^ Brown (1969), 6–7; 62
- ^ Brown (1969), 6
- ^ Brown (1969), 11–13: see also Wilson, 30–32
- ^ Brown (1969), 9–11
- ^ Brown (1969), 8, 13. Brown in 1969 accepted the arguments for the 746 dating. Quote re Durham page 8.
- ^ Brown (1969), 7–8, 10; p. 8 quoted
- ^ Brown (1969), 9–11, 28
- ^ Brown (1969), 13–23
- ^ British Library Archived 2011-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, Detailed record for Yates Thompson 26, accessed 8 March 2012
- ^ Battiscombe, 115–116
- ^ Battiscombe, 122–129; Farmer, 53–54, 60–66; Brown (2003), 64–66. At least Bede records no reluctance, though Farmer and others suspect he may be being less than frank in this, as a partisan of Jarrow.
- ^ Battiscombe, 115–141; Farmer, 52–53, 57–60
- ^ Battiscombe, 120–125; Farmer, 57
- ^ Battiscombe, 125–141; Farmer, 60
- ^ Bede, Chapters 37 and 40
- ^ Battiscombe, 22–24; Bede, Chapter 42
- ^ Farmer, 52–53; 68
- ^ Battiscombe, 31–34; Brown (2003), 64 (quoted)
- ^ Marner, 9, quoted; Farmer, 52–53
- ^ Cronyn and Horie, 5–7, are the easiest guide to this very complicated history, or see Battiscombe, 2–22 and Ernst Kitzinger's chapter on the coffin; Bede, chapter 42 is the primary source
- ^ Brown (1969), 28, 41–44
- ^ Battiscombe, 25–28
- ^ Cronyn & Horie, x, 4, 6–7; Battiscombe, 7, and the chapter on the coffin. Brown (1969), 28, thinks it more likely that the shelf was part of the original design from 698. Kitzinger, in Battiscombe, 217 n., seems indifferent. Two iron rings are mentioned in the early sources, but their precise location and function is unclear.
- ^ Battiscombe, 27–28
- ^ Battiscombe, 28–36
- ^ Brown (1969), 2–3. The account uses the plural "gospels", which has caused a great deal of discussion. The majority of scholars who believe this to refer to the St Cuthbert Gospel take this as a slip by a chronicler writing some years after the event.
- ^ Brown (1969), 3
- ^ Brown (1969), 2
- ^ Bonner, 460; Brown (1969), 4–5
- ^ Brown (2003), 69–72, 210–211
- ^ Bede, Ch. VIII
- ^ Brown (1969), 4–5
- ^ Brown (1969), 28
- ^ Brown (1969), 1–2, 5. It seems probable that it was one of two books listed in 1383. See also Brown (2003) and Janet Backhouse's 1981 book on the Lindisfarne Gospels for more details on the Durham records and the various other gospel books that might be referred to.
- Benedictines for their students. Gloucester Hall had also been the main college for Benedictine monks at Oxford. See "Houses of Benedictine monks: Durham College, Oxford", in A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 2, 1907, pp. 68–70, on British History Online, accessed 27 March 2012.
- Heythrop Hall, some 5 miles away.
- ^ Brown (1969), 1
- ^ Milner; Battiscombe, 362
- ^ Milner, 19–21, 20 quoted; Brown (1969), 45; Battiscombe, 362
- ^ "The case of the missing Gospel", Daily Telegraph story by Christopher Howse, 16 June 2007, reporting an article by Michelle Brown. Accessed 2 March 2012
- ^ Weale, xxii, who in 1898 was sure it was the earliest.
- ^ Quoted in Battiscombe, 358; Brown (1969), 45–46
- ^ Meehan, 74–76, 74 quoted
- ^ Battiscombe, 362–363
- ^ All referenced here as Battiscombe
- ^ Battiscombe, 362–368; Brown (1969), 45–55, 59
- ^ NHMF Press release, Archived 26 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 14 July 2011, accessed 28 February 2012
- ^ Art Fund website, Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, British Library campaigns to buy the earliest intact European book, accessed 9 October 2011
- ^ British Library, Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts blog, accessed 24 February 2012; a breakdown of the funding from The Economist, as at July 2011, can be seen here
- ^ BL Press release on purchase, see next ref.
- ^ Support the BL, accessed 12 March 2012
- ^ https://www.medievalists.net/2012/04/british-library-purchases-the-st-cuthbert-gospel-for-9-million/
- ^ See first external link; "British Library acquires the St Cuthbert Gospel – the earliest intact European book", BL Press release, accessed 17 April 2012
- ^ Brown (1969), 29–31, 35–37
- ^ Brown (1969), 30; Skemer's subject is the wider use of textual amulets of all sorts
- ^ Bede, Ch 9; Skemer, 50–51
- ^ Skemer, 50–58
- ^ Szirmai, 97, following McGurk
- ^ Brown (1969), 32–36, 33 quoted
- ^ Weale, xxii
- ^ "Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition website". Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
- ^ Friends of Palace Green Library, "Events", accessed 7 December 2013.
- ^ BL blog, 20 May 2020, "Remembering Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War" by Claire Breay
- ^ "Digitised Manuscripts - Add MS 8900". British Library. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
- ^ "St Cuthbert Gospel iPad version". Clay Interactive Ltd. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
References
- Avrin, Leila, Scribes, Script, and Books, revised edn. 2010 (1st edn. 1991), ALA Editions,
- Battiscombe, C. F. (ed), The Relics of Saint Cuthbert, Oxford University Press, 1956, including R. A. B. Mynors and R. Powell on 'The Stonyhurst Gospel'
- Bede, Prose Life of Saint Cuthbert, written c. 721, online English text from Fordham University
- Bloxham, Jim & Rose, Kristine; St. Cuthbert Gospel of St. John, Formerly Known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, a summary of a lecture by two specialist bookbinders from Cambridge University given to the Guild of Bookworkers, New York Chapter in 2009, accessed 8 March 2012 (see also external links section below)
- Bonner, Gerald, Rollason, David & Stancliffe, Clare, eds., St. Cuthbert, his Cult and his Community to AD 1200, 1989, Boydell and Brewer, ISBN 978-0-85115-610-1
- Brown (1969); Brown, T. J. (Julian), et al., The Stonyhurst Gospel of Saint John, 1969, Oxford University Press, printed for the Roxburghe Club (reproduces all pages)
- Brown (2003), ISBN 978-0-7123-4807-2
- Brown (2007); Brown, Michelle P., Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age, 2007, British Library, ISBN 978-0-7123-0680-5
- Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, 1983, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-500-23375-6
- Cronyn, J. M., Horie, Charles Velson, St. Cuthbert's coffin: the history, technology & conservation, 1985, Dean and Chapter, Durham Cathedral, ISBN 978-0-907078-18-0
- Farmer, David Hugh, Benedict's Disciples, 1995, Gracewing Publishing,
- Jones, Dalu, Michell, George, (eds); The Arts of Islam, 1976, ISBN 0-7287-0081-6
- Marks, P. J. M., Beautiful Bookbindings, A Thousand Years of the Bookbinder's Art, 2011, British Library, ISBN 978-0-7123-5823-1
- Marner, Dominic, St. Cuthbert: His Life and Cult in Medieval Durham, 2000, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-3518-3
- Meehan, Bernard, The Book of Durrow: A Medieval Masterpiece at Trinity College Dublin, 1996, Town House Dublin, ISBN 978-1-86059-006-1
- Milner, John, "Account of an Ancient Manuscript of the St John's Gospel", in Archaeologia, Volume xvi (1812), pages 17–21 online text, accessed 3 March 2012
- Needham, Paul, Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400–1600, 1979, Pierpont Morgan Library/Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-211580-5
- ISBN 0-7011-2514-4
- Regemorter, Berthe van, Binding Structures in the Middle Ages, (translated by J. Greenfield), 1992, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels
- Skemer, Don C., Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages,
- Stevick, Robert D., "The St. Cuthbert Gospel Binding and Insular Design", Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 8, No. 15 (1987), JSTOR
- Szirmai, J. A., The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, 1999, Ashgate, ISBN 978-0-85967-904-6
- Weale, W. H. J., Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings in the National Art Library South Kensington, 1898, Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO
- Wilson, David M., Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, 1984, Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press)
- Wright, David H., review of Battiscombe (1956), The Art Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 2 (June 1961), pp. 141–160, JSTOR
Further reading
- Breay, Clare and Meehan, Bernard (eds), The St Cuthbert Gospel: Studies on the Insular Manuscript of the Gospel of John, 2015, British Library, ISBN 978-0-7123-5765-4, "scholarly pieces on Cuthbert in his historical context; the codicology, text, script and medieval history of the manuscript; the structure and decoration of the binding; the other relics found in Cuthbert's coffin; and the post-medieval ownership of the book".
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- British Library Digitized manuscripts site, with images of all pages
- "Getting Under the Covers of the St Cuthbert Gospel", BL blogpost, 25 June 2015, by Clare Breay, covering recent testing results
- British Library appeal campaign video, 4.55 minutes, with good views of the manuscript
- A shorter BBC video, 1.22 minutes, with the curator
- BBC Radio 4: 3 January 2012 episode of In Our Time with Melvyn Braggand guests including Claire Breay of the British Library. The St Cuthbert Gospel is discussed between 8:40 and 14:10 of a 30-minute recording.
- British Library press release on the work and its background and acquisition, by Claire Breay
- More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts