Durham Gospels

Named after its modern repository in Durham Cathedral, this fragment of a Gospel Book originated at Lindisfarne Abbey or possibly Iona in the late 7th century and was brought to Durham after the monks were forced to flee from Viking attacks. Although only two of the decorative pages survive, they include the oldest Crucifixion scene in Hiberno-Saxon art as well as a splendid incipit page for the Gospel of John. The same scribe responsible for the Echternach Gospels also appears to have written the Durham Gospels, but it is not clear whether this is an incomplete work or merely the surviving fragment of a Gospel Book that would have also contained the Evangelist portraits and carpet pages typical of Insular art. Nevertheless, these thirteen leaves represent the earliest specimen of an illuminated Insular Gospel Book and are thus of tremendous art-historical importance.