TheHereford Gospels (Hereford,Hereford Cathedral Library, MS P. I. 2) is an 8th-centuryilluminated manuscriptgospel book ininsular script (minuscule), with large illuminated initials in theInsular style. This is a very late Anglo-Saxon gospel book, which shares a distinctive style with theCaligula Troper (Cotton Library, MS Caligula A.xiv). An added text suggests this was in thediocese of Hereford in the 11th century.[1]
The manuscript was likely produced either inWales (like theRicemarch Psalter [In the Doomsday books Hereford is referred to as Hereford, Wales] and possibly theLichfield Gospels) or in theWest Country ofEngland near the Welsh border.[2] Correspondences with the Lichfield Gospels include roughly 650 variances from the Vulgate, suggestive that the two manuscripts result from a similar textual tradition.
Like other Insular manuscripts, the decoration has features relating to pre-Christian Celtic art, featuring spirals, tri-partite divisions of circles, common in theLa Tene style, as well as Germanic and Mediterranean elements.
It is now housed in Hereford Cathedral in the largest survivingchained library, a library in which the books are chained so as to prevent theft.
This book should not be confused with a different manuscript sometimes known as the "Hereford Gospels", now held atPembroke College, Cambridge as MS 302.
 | This article about amanuscript is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |