Add MS 89000
Early 8th century, The St Cuthbert Gospel (formerly known as the Stonyhurst Gospel) retains its original binding and is the oldest intact European book. Made in the early 8th century, the manuscript contains a copy of the Gospel of John. 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). The Gospel is intimately connected with St Cuthbert (c. 635–687): Cuthbert was re-interred at Lindisfarne in 698, his coffin was removed following Viking raids in the 9th century and was later taken to Durham, where it was opened in September 1104 on the occasion of the translation of his remains. The Gospel was discovered inside the coffin:"Ewangelium Iohannis quod inuentum fuerat ad capud beati patris nostri Cuthberti in sepulcro iacens anno translacionis ipsius" (13th-century note added on f. ii verso: "The Gospel of John which was found at the head of our blessed father Cuthbert lying in his tomb in the year of his translation"). A near-identical note in a 12th-century hand has been erased in the upper margin of f. 1r.An account of the miracles performed by Cuthbert, composed at Durham in the 1120s or 1130s, records that when the outer lid of the coffin was raised in 1104, the monks saw "a book of the Gospels lying at the head of the board" (R. Gameson in The St Cuthbert Gospel, eds C. Breay and B. Meehan (2015), pp. 129-36; The Stonyhurst Gospel, ed. T. J. Brown (1969), pp. 2–5; Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. T. Arnold, 2 vols, Rolls Series (1882–85), i, pp. 247–61, ii, pp. 359–62). During a sermon preached on the day of the translation, Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham (1099–1128), showed the people a Gospel of John in miraculously perfect condition, which had a satchel-like container of red leather with a badly-frayed sling made of silken threads. According to Reginald of Durham, writing in the 1160s or 1170s, William FitzHerbert, archbishop of York (1141–1147, 1153–1154), was shown a manuscript, apparently the St Cuthbert Gospel, when visiting Cuthbert's tomb at Durham in 1153 or 1154.The contents of the St Cuthbert Gospel are as follows:f. i recto–verso. An inserted, late-13th century leaf containing a court-roll of the prior of Durham, and not part of the original binding structure. Written no earlier than 6 August 1264 (heading on f. i recto, line 2).f. ii recto–verso. The original pastedown (?), with the note "Ewangelium Iohannis quod inuentum fuerat ad capud beati patris nostri Cuthberti in sepulcro iacens anno translacionis ipsius" on f. ii verso.ff. 1r–90v. The Gospel of John.lower pastedown (formerly numbered f. 91). An 18th-century, pasted paper leaf, recording the donation of the gospel-book to the English Jesuit College at Liège: "Hunc Evangelii Codicem dono accepit ab Henrico Comite de Litchfield, et dono dedit Patribus Societatis Iesu, Collegii Anglicani, Leodii, Anno 1769; rectore eiusdem Collegii Ioanne Howard: Thomas Phillips Sac. Can. Ton."There are 8th-century marginal annotations on the following pages, marking offices for the dead:f. 20v "pro defunctis" (beside John v. 21);f. 27r "pro defunctis" (beside John vi. 37);f. 28v "de mortuorum" (beside John vi. 51);f. 51r "de mortuorum" (beside John xi. 21).
 
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