The Mind Creative SEPTEMBER 2014 | Page 38

The Mind Creative FEB 2014 The St. Cuthbert Gospel The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, is a 7th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to survive, and both the 94 vellum folios and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book this old. With a page size of only 138 by 92 millimetres, the St Cuthbert Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The essentially undecorated text is the Gospel of John in Latin, written in a script that has been regarded as a model of elegant simplicity. It was sold in 2012 for $14.3 million. 38