Gospel Book

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Accession number: 
MS M.709
Title: 
Gospel Book
Created: 
England, probably Canterbury, ca. 1065.
Binding: 
11th-century Belgian gold repoussé book cover attached to compartmented wooden board; gold filigree and gem mounts; modern tin rim. On the front cover, Christ in mandorla surrounded by four winged beasts.
Credit: 
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1926.
Description: 
154 leaves (1 column, 24 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 293 x 191 mm
Provenance: 
Probably made for Judith of Flanders, wife of Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria; donated by her to the Benediktinerabtei Weingarten in 1094; sent to the abbey of St. Peter's, Salzburg for safekeeping in 1796; after secularization requisitioned by Frederick Wilhelm of Orange Nassau in 1805 and sent to Fulda; removed from Fulda by the French town-major Niboyet in 1806; purchased by Thomas William Coke (later 1st Earl of Leicester) through Delehante and H. Phillips in 1818 (given the shelfmark Holkham Hall Ms 15); 2nd Earl of Leicester; purchased privately by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) from the 3rd Earl of Leicester in 1926.
Notes: 

Ms. Gospel book; written and illuminated in England, probably in Canterbury, ca. 1065.
Decoration: 5 full-page miniatures (4 Evangelist portraits and the Crucifixion); 4 illuminated incipit pages with full borders.
Textiles: curtains before Mark and Luke.

Script: 
English Caroline minuscule
Language: 
Latin
Century: 
Classification: