LONDON (AFP) ― The St. Cuthbert gospel, Europe’s oldest intact book, will remain in Britain after a record-breaking fundraising campaign by the British Library, it said Tuesday.
Half of the 9 million pounds ($14.2 million) required to purchase the 7th century copy of the Gospel of St. John came from the The National Heritage Memorial Fund with charitable foundations, trusts and the public making up the rest.
This photo shows a page in the St. Cuthbert Gospel, a remarkably preserved palm-sized book which is a manuscript copy of the Gospel of John in Latin. (AP-Yonhap News)
It is the largest ever campaign mounted by the library and ensures the manuscript, which was buried with the early English Christian leader on Lindisfarne, off north east England, in about A.D. 698, stays in the U.K.
“To look at this small and intensely beautiful treasure from the Anglo-Saxon period is to see it exactly as those who created it in the 7th Century would have seen it,” said Lynne Brindley, the library’s chief executive.
“The exquisite binding, the pages, even the sewing structure survive intact, offering us a direct connection with our forebears 1300 years ago.”
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure the gospel for the nation and we were both grateful and touched that so many people felt moved to support our campaign,” she added.
The book was rediscovered in Durham Cathedral in 1104 when a Viking raid forced the coffin to be moved.
The gospel, which has been on loan to the library since 1979, was sold by the clergical Society of Jesus (British Province) to raise money for education and restoration work.
It will now be displayed equally at the library and in the north east of England.