Illuminated Initial And Ownership Inscription, In Glossed Gospels Of Matthew And Mark

Except for service books such as Psalters and Missals, manuscripts like this one--books of the Bible accompanied by extensive glosses--were perhaps the most numerous type of manuscript produced during the 12th century. They encompass not only the biblical text, but a careful selection of the interpretations of a variety of the Church's greatest early thinkers and writers, arranged adjacent to the passage being interpreted. This manuscript was owned in the Middle Ages by the library of York Cathedral. The small inscription in brown ink in the lower margin of the first page of text is an abbreviated and partly erased ownership inscription of St. Peter's, York (the cathedral): 'Lib. S. [Petri] Ebor.'.