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Western Medieval Manuscripts : Gospel Book

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> An eighth-century Gospel Book made in Northumbria. It is incomplete, containing most of the Gospels of Luke (from 1:15 to the end) and John (1:18 to 20:17). At some point, the illustrated leaves at the beginning of each gospel, probably containing a full-page frontispiece and a large decorative initial, were cut out. <br /> By the tenth century, the book belonged to Ely Abbey and the monks filled some of the blank spaces in the gospel book with documentary records written in Old English relating to their estates. Two pages containing these documents were removed, probably by a sixteenth-century antiquary, and are now preserved in the British Library (in MSS <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=15071'>Sloane 1044</a> and Cotton Tiberius B. v). Later users of the manuscript have added liturgical references, including marking up the accounts of the Passion in both gospels (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(111);return false;'>177r</a>-<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(123);return false;'>183r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(216);return false;'>232v</a>-<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(225);return false;'>237r</a>) for reading aloud by two speakers. The words of Christ are indicated by ‘l’ and the words of the narrator by ‘c’.</p>


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