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British Library Buys Oldest Intact Book for 9 Million GBP

woensdag 25 april 2012

Photo: St Cuthbert Gospel © British Library

The British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom has purchased the oldest intact book. The so-called Gospel of St Cuthbert dating from the 7th century A.D. contains a manuscript of the Gospel of John according to the Latin translation of the Vulgate. Bound in red leather, the manuscript is in remarkably good condition and is very readable. Marginal notes dating from the late seventh century mark four passages (Jn 5:21; 6:37,51 and 11:21) which were used during the office for the dead.

For over 400 years the book was in the coffin of St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral and was only discovered in 1104, during the transfer of the relics of the saint. After the dissolution of the monasteries during the English Reformation (1536-1541) the book was lost again. In the eighteenth century it was owned by Earl George Henry Lee who donated it to a Jesuit of the English Jesuit College in Liège and thus the English Province of the Jesuits became its owner until its recent acquistion by the British Library.

The purchase was made possible by a major fundraising campaign by the British Library during the past year. This highly successful campaign (the largest ever in history) collected about half of the price (in total 9 million pounds!). The British Library has had to dig deep into its pocket more than once in the past for the acquisition of masterpieces from the British national religious heritage. In 1994, they paid little over one million pounds to obtain the (then) only known (nearly) complete copy of the oldest printed English New Testament (translated by William Tyndale, printed in Worms in 1526). This was at the time the largest sum ever paid for a book, now far surpassed by this recent acquisition of the St Cuthbert Gospel. The book will be temporarily exhibited to the public in the British Library.