Gospel Book

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Accession number: 
MS M.708
Title: 
Gospel Book
Created: 
England, 1051-1064.
Binding: 
English or German binding from the last third of the 11th century; boards with original gold and silver gilt; jeweled upper cover with Christ in Majesty and the Crucifixion cast in silver, gilt, gold filigree and gem mounts; engraved silver frame; titulus of Crucifixion in cloisonné green enamel.
Credit: 
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1926.
Description: 
86 leaves (1 column, 32 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 296 x 197 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, 1051-1064.
Decoration: 4 full-page Evangelist portraits and 4 illuminated incipit pages.
Textiles: plain yellowish-green silk curtain top of Matthew portrait.

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