UK #coronation #bible #extraordinary book - the Gospel of St.Augustine. #westminsterabbey #london

#UK coronation

#bible

#extraordinary book - the Gospel of  St.Augustine. 

#westminsterabbey

#london

Yesterday,during the coronation of Charles III,London

 the opportunity to see an extraordinary book - the Gospels of St.  Augustine. 

It is the oldest surviving Latin illustrated gospel book and one of the oldest European books.  Tradition - recognized by scientists as true - says that the manuscript written in Italy

(in Rome or Monte Cassino) was brought

to England by Saint Augustine of Canterbury, who in 596 was sent by Pope Gregory the Great on an evangelizing mission to the Anglo - Saxons. 

Alternatively, the Gospels may have been among the books sent to Augustine

by the pope in 601. No doubt the book was

in Canterbury before the end of the seventh century.

The manuscript was in Canterbury for 1,000 years. In 1575, several decades after

the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, donated the Gospel Book to the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, University

of Cambridge. The manuscript returns

to Canterbury occasionally, during

the enthronement of the archbishop. 

He also went there during the visit of John Paul II in 1982 and in 1997, during the celebration

of the 1400th anniversary of the mission. Somebody telling it is 6 century.

of St.  Augustine to the British Isles.

To this day, 2 out of probably 8 full-page illustrations have been preserved. 

In the photo below, we see Luke the Evangelist as a scribe.

The book has been digitized and can be admired here: https://iiif.biblissima.fr/collections/manifest/d520adae0f8e75bf850426034ea412cd93c6aa0d

#coronation

#bible

#extraordinary_book - #theGospel_of_St_Augustine. 

#westminsterabbey

#london

#KSR_Post

7-5-2023.