The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is an early 8th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to survive, and both the 94 vellum folios and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of this age. With a page size of only 138 by 92 millimetres (5.4 in × 3.6 in), the St Cuthbert Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The essentially undecorated text is the Gospel of John in Latin, written in a script that has been regarded as a model of elegant simplicity.
The book takes its name from Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, North East England, in whose tomb it was placed, probably a few years after his death in 687. Although it was long regarded as Cuthbert's personal copy of the Gospel, to which there are early references, and so a relic of the saint, the book is now thought to date from shortly after Cuthbert's death. It was probably a gift from Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey, where it was written, intended to be placed in St Cuthbert's coffin in the few decades after this was placed behind the altar at Lindisfarne in 698. It presumably remained in the coffin through its long travels after 875, forced by Viking invasions, ending at Durham Cathedral. The book was found inside the coffin and removed in 1104 when the burial was once again moved within the cathedral. It was kept there with other relics, and important visitors were able to wear the book in a leather bag around their necks. It is thought that after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England by Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, the book passed to collectors. It was eventually given to Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit school in Lancashire.
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.
^"St Cuthbert Gospel Saved for the Nation", British Library Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Blog, accessed 17 April 2012
^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
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Cathedral. The StCuthbertGospel is among the objects later recovered from StCuthbert's coffin, which is also an important artefact. After Cuthbert's death,...
commemorate the elevation of Cuthbert's relics in that year, which is also thought to have been the occasion for which the StCuthbertGospel (also in the British...
from the 7th-century Quran leaf palimpsest and the early 8th-century StCuthbertGospel, to a 21st-century autograph manuscript of J. K. Rowling's The Tales...
Rose Malleson (23 October 2014). "StCuthbertGospel returns to Palace Green Library". Palatinate. "St Chad's Library". St Chad's College. Archived from the...
Mulling Gospels Book of Durrow Domnach Airgid Echternach GospelsSt. Augustine Gospels Stonyhurst or StCuthbertGospel (St John only) Durham Gospels Lindisfarne...
book cover still attached to its book in the world (the 7th century StCuthbertGospel is the oldest European one). It is in gilt-copper with a wooden backing...
safeguarded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, including: The StCuthbertGospel (£4.5M to the British Library, 2012) The Hereford Mappa Mundi The...
Coptic sewing technique, notably the StCuthbertGospel in the British Library (c. 698) and the Cadmug Gospels at Fulda (c. 750). Modern Coptic bindings...
themselves have been influences. The tooled leather book binding of the StCuthbertGospel represents a simple carpet page in another medium, and the few surviving...
Sinaiticus Project (2002–2010). She also worked on the acquisition of the StCuthbertGospel (2010–2012) and was a co-investigator for the AHRC-funded Magna Carta...
ISBN 978-0-300-05689-1 Bloxham, Jim & Rose, Krisine. St. CuthbertGospel of St. John, Formerly Known as the Stonyhurst Gospel Brown, Michelle P. Mercian Manuscripts...
from early times. For example, the early 8th-century gospel book known as the StCuthbertGospel has a page size of only 138 by 92 millimetres (5.4 in...
executed by local workshops in several parts of Europe. However, the StCuthbertGospel (British Library), a decorated leather binding thought to date from...
as furniture. The earliest surviving European bookbinding is the StCuthbertGospel of about 700, in red goatskin, now in the British Library, whose decoration...
possible for the Northumbrian Lindisfarne Gospels and also the StCuthbertGospel, both with Saint Cuthbert, it may have been produced to mark the "translation"...
spiritual and perhaps medical benefits (the same was done with the StCuthbertGospel in a leather bag in medieval Durham). They were also used to bring...
donation to the appeal to purchase the oldest intact European book, the StCuthbertGospel, for the British Library in 2011/12. To the year ending June 2010...
Athelstan Gospels, Anglo-Saxon illuminated Gospel Book with Merovingian decoration, closely related to the Lindisfarne Gospels (700–749) StCuthbertGospel, a...
restore order in Normandy. 3 September – St. Cuthbert is reburied in Durham Cathedral and the St. CuthbertGospel of St. John removed. 1105 Henry I invades...
values. The Rothschild Prayerbook sold for $13.6 million while the StCuthbertGospel sold for $14.7 million. Both of these religious texts were sold in...
as by the same scribe as the StCuthbertGospel, working at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (T. Julian Brown, Stonyhurst Gospel, 7–10). The psalter was at one...
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