The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created in a Columban monastery in either Britain or Ireland and may have had contributions from various Columban institutions from both Britain and Ireland. It is believed to have been created c. 800 AD. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the Vetus Latina. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and represents the pinnacle of Insular illumination. It is also widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure.
The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram is a 9th-century illuminated Gospel Book. It is named after Emmeram of Regensburg and lavishly illuminated. The cover of the codex is decorated with gems and relief figures in gold, and can be precisely dated to 870, and is an important example of Carolingian art, as well of one of very few surviving treasure bindings of this date. The upper cover of the Lindau Gospels is probably a product of the same workshop, though there are differences of style. This workshop is associated with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles II, and often called his "Palace School". Its location remains uncertain and much discussed, but Saint-Denis Abbey outside Paris is one leading possibility. The Arnulf Ciborium, now in the Munich Residenz, is the third major work in the group, along with the frame of an antique serpentine dish in the Louvre. Recent scholars tend to group the Lindau Gospels and the Arnulf Ciborium in closer relation to each other than the Codex Aureus to either.
The Rossano Gospels, designated by 042 or Σ, ε 18 (Soden), at the cathedral of Rossano in Italy, is a 6th-century illuminated manuscript Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Empire. Also known as Codex purpureus Rossanensis due to the reddish-purple appearance of its pages, the codex is one of the oldest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the New Testament. The manuscript is famous for its prefatory cycle of miniatures of subjects from the Life of Christ, arranged in two tiers on the page, sometimes with small Old Testament prophet portraits below, prefiguring and pointing up to events described in the New Testament scene above.
The Book of Deer is a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book with early 12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is noted for containing the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland.
The Rabbula Gospels, or Rabula Gospels, is a 6th-century illuminated Syriac Gospel Book. One of the finest Byzantine works produced in Asia, and one of the earliest Christian manuscripts with large miniatures, it is distinguished by the miniaturist's predilection for bright colours, movement, drama, and expressionism. Coming from a period from which little art survives, and which saw great development in Christian iconography, the manuscript has a significant place in art history, and is very often referred to.
British Library, Additional Manuscript 11848 is an illuminated Carolingian Latin Gospel Book produced at Tours. It contains the Vulgate translation of the four Gospels written on vellum in Carolingian minuscule with Square and Rustic Capitals and Uncials as display scripts. The manuscript has 219 extant folios which measure approximately 330 by 230 mm. The text is written in area of about 205 by 127 mm. In addition to the text of the Gospels, the manuscript contains the letter of St. Jerome to Pope Damasus and of Eusebius of Caesarea to Carpian, along with the Eusebian canon tables. There are prologues and capitula lists before each Gospel. A table of readings for the year was added, probably between 1675 and 1749, to the end of the volume. This is followed by a list of capitula incipits and a word grid which were added in the Carolingian period.
British Library, Royal 1. B. VII is an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon illuminated Gospel Book. It is closely related to the Lindisfarne Gospels, being either copied from it or from a common model. It is not as lavishly illuminated, and the decoration shows Merovingian influence. The manuscript contains the four Gospels in the Latin Vulgate translation, along with prefatory and explanatory matter. It was presented to Christ Church, Canterbury in the 920s by King Athelstan, who had recorded in a note in Old English (f.15v) that upon his accession to the throne in 925 he had freed one Eadelm and his family from slavery, the earliest recorded manumission in (post-Roman) England.
The Schuttern Gospels is an early 9th century illuminated Gospel Book that was produced at Schuttern Abbey in Baden. According to a colophon on folio 206v, the manuscript was written by the deacon Liutharius, at the order of his abbot, Bertricus.
British Library, Egerton 609 is a Breton Gospel Book from the 9th century. The manuscript contains the Latin text of the four Gospels, along with prefatory material and canon tables. The manuscript contains an interesting mix of traditions. The script is similar to the form of Carolingian minuscule developed at Tours, which was one the classicising centers of the Carolingian Renaissance. And although the form of the large decorative letters which form the beginning of each Gospel are similar to the letters found in Carolingian manuscripts, the decoration of those letters is closer to that found in insular manuscripts such as the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels, although the decoration here is simpler and more geometric in form than that found in the Insular manuscripts. The beginning of each Gospel is preceded by full miniature of the apropiate evangelist's symbol. The vellum folios are 32.5 by 23 centimeters. This manuscript forms part of the Egerton Collection in the British Library.
Eusebian canons, Eusebian sections or Eusebian apparatus, also known as Ammonian sections, are the system of dividing the four Gospels used between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The divisions into chapters and verses used in modern texts date only from the 13th and 16th centuries, respectively. The sections are indicated in the margin of nearly all Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Bible, and usually summarized in Canon Tables at the start of the Gospels. There are about 1165 sections: 355 for Matthew, 235 for Mark, 343 for Luke, and 232 for John; the numbers, however, vary slightly in different manuscripts.
The Echmiadzin Gospels is a 10th-century Armenian Gospel Book produced in 989 at the Monastery of Bgheno-Noravank in Syunik.
The Evangeliary or Book of the Gospels is a liturgical book containing only those portions of the four gospels which are read during Mass or in other public offices of the Church. The corresponding terms in Latin are Evangeliarium and Liber evangeliorum.
The Bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura is a 9th-century illuminated Bible. It is the most sumptuous surviving Carolingian Bible.
The Gospels of Otto III is a late 10th or early 11th century illuminated Gospel Book. The manuscript is a major example of Ottonian illumination.
The Codex Aureus of Echternach is an illuminated Gospel Book, created in the approximate period 1030–1050, with a re-used front cover from around the 980s. It is now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.
The Golden Gospels of Henry III, also Codex Aureus of Speyer or Speyer Gospels, is an eleventh-century illuminated Gospel Book. The manuscript contains the Vulgate versions of the four gospels plus prefatory matter including the Eusebian canon tables. It was probably produced at the Abbey of Echternach under the patronage of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1046, Henry donated the manuscript to Speyer Cathedral to commemorate the dedication of the cathedral's high altar.
The Grandes Heures de Rohan is an illuminated manuscript book of hours, painted by the anonymous artist, the Rohan Master, probably between 1418 and 1425, in the Gothic style. It contains the usual offices, prayers and litanies in Latin, along with supplemental texts, decorated with 11 full page, 54 half page, and 227 small miniatures, decorated with tempera paints and gold leaf. The book margins are decorated with Old Testament miniatures with captions in Old French, in the style of a Bible moralisée. The full page illuminations are renowned for the highly emotional and dramatic portrayal of the agonies of Christ and the grief of the Virgin. According to Millard Meiss, "The Rohan Master cared less about what people do than what they feel. Whereas his great predecessors excelled in the description of the novel aspects of the natural world, he explored the realm of human feeling." Meiss concludes that the Rohan Master was the "greatest expressionist in 15th century France." Today, this manuscript is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France.
Minuscule 473, α 1390, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 11th century. Scrivener labelled it by number 512. It has liturgical books and full marginalia.
The Garima Gospels are two ancient Ethiopic Gospel Books. Garima 2, the earlier of the two, is believed to be the earliest surviving complete illuminated Christian manuscript. Monastic tradition holds that they were composed close to the year 500, a date supported by recent radiocarbon analysis; samples from Garima 2 proposed a date of c. 390-570, while counterpart dating of samples from Garima 1 proposed a date of c. 530-660.
The Harley Golden Gospels, British Library, Harley 2788, is a Carolingian illuminated manuscript Gospel book produced in about 800-825, probably in Aachen, Germany. It is one of the manuscripts attributed to the "Ada School", which is named after the Ada Gospels. It has four pairs of full-page Evangelist portraits and illuminated "Incipit" pages, canon tables, and other illuminations. As with other examples of the Codex Aureus, the text is written in gold ink.
