Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286: Gospels of St Augustine

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Title:
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286: Gospels of St Augustine
Alternate Title:
Evangelia Cantuariensia
Language:
Latin and English, Old (ca. 450-1100)
Extent:
ff. 2 + 265 + 6
Dimensions:
245 Height (mm) and 190 Width (mm)
Approximate Date:
[ca. 500 A.D. - 599 A.D.]
Provenance:
Written in Italy. From St Augustine's, Canterbury (see charters at end). Ancient Libraries, pp. lxvii, lxviii. It is probably mentioned by Thomas of Elmham.
Table of contents:
  • Gospel of Matthew
  • Prologue and Capitula to Mark
  • Gospels of Mark, Luke and John
  • Grant of renders from land at Brabourne, Kent by Ealhburg to St Augustine's Abbey, c. A.D. 850
  • Agreement between Wulfric, abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, and Ealdred, son of Lyfing, about land at Clife, Kent, c. A.D. 990 x 1005
  • Agreement about land at Wicham
  • Agreement between Osbern de Ripla and St Augustine's Abbey
  • List of relics
  • Agreement about a hill near Sakenhethe
  • Agreement about seven acres in Betleshangre
  • Agreement about the messuage of Colombine the cleric
  • Agreement about the messuage of Benedict son of Radulph
  • Agreement about ten and a half acres at Estbotleshangre
  • Confirmation of the previous agreement about ten and a half acres at Estbotleshangre
  • Agreement about the garden of William son of John of Fenglesham
Description:
CCCC MS 286 is the famous manuscript known as the St Augustine Gospels. This is a late sixth-century gospelbook which has for centuries been held to have been sent by Pope Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604) during his mission to England. Certainly the manuscript was in Canterbury by the end of the seventh century, and various additions were made there, including some tenth-century Anglo-Saxon charters written between the gospels of Matthew and Mark. CCCC MS 286 is the earliest surviving Gospel Book with figure illumination: although most of it has been lost, with only a picture of Luke as a scribe under an arcade, and a page of gospel images in a grid. Unfortunately, only these two of the probably eight full-page pictures which the book contained have survived. These images seem to have been highly influential on later English art; a number of Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque manuscripts seem to owe a debt to its imagery, as does a famous scene in the Bayeux Tapestry. In the later Middle Ages this manuscript was probably kept on the altar at St Augustine's, Canterbury, where Thomas of Elmham describes a number of manuscripts associated with Augustine being kept. Parker may have been unaware of its association with the Gregorian mission. In recent years it has continued to play a role outside the library: since the Second World War it has been used in the enthronement of archbishops of Canterbury, and in 1982 it was put in the place of honour between Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Robert Runcie during the first papal visit to England since the Reformation.
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