The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| British Library launches ‘Europe’s oldest book’ appeal Posted: 15 Jul 2011 06:19 PM PDT  File photo of people at the British Library in London on June 20, 2011. — Reuters pic The small volume was buried with one of England's most popular saints, Saint Cuthbert, at a time when the country was being swept by continental invasions following the departure of the Romans, and despite its age is still in perfect condition with its original leather cover. The Library is now just £2.75 million (RM13.75 million) from its target of £9 million to buy the Cuthbert Gospel. The book was loaned to the library in 1979 and has stayed there ever since but if the bid is successful it will stay there permanently. It has also been agreed that if the gospel is purchased, it will spend half the year at Durham Cathedral, where the saint is buried. St Cuthbert, also known as the "wonder worker of Britain," died in AD 687 and was buried on the Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne. He was widely regarded as Britain's most popular saint up until the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. When Viking raiders invaded Lindisfarne in 875, a group of monks fled, taking Cuthbert's body with them. After seven years of travelling with the body, the monks finally buried the saint again at what became Durham Cathedral. The book was found with him when his coffin was reopened in 1104. The book, written in Latin, is the Gospel of John. After it was taken from the coffin it was placed in a new shrine behind the altar of Durham Cathedral. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England by Henry VIII in the 16th century, the text passed to a series of private collectors. Chief executive of the library, Dame Lynne Brindley, said in a statement: "The St Cuthbert Gospel is an almost miraculous survival from the Anglo-Saxon period, a beautifully preserved window into a rich, sophisticated culture that flourished some four centuries before the Norman Conquest." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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