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The St Augustine Gospels (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Lib. MS. 286) is an illuminated Gospel Book which dates from the 6th century. It was made in Italy and has been in England since fairly soon after its creation; by the 16th century, it had probably already been at Canterbury for almost a thousand years. It has 265 leaves measuring about 252 x 196 mm,〔''The manuscripts of Sedulius'', Carl P. E. Springer (Google books )〕 and is not entirely complete, missing pages with miniatures in particular. This manuscript is the oldest surviving Latin (as opposed to Greek or Syriac) illustrated Gospel book,〔(Parker Library ), Lewine, 489〕 and one of the oldest European books in existence. Although the only surviving illuminations are two full-page miniatures, these are of great significance in art history, as so few comparable images have survived. ==History== The manuscript is traditionally, and plausibly, considered to be either a volume brought by St Augustine to England with the Gregorian mission in 597, or one of a number of books recorded as being sent to him in 601 by Pope Gregory the Great – like other scholars, Kurt Weitzmann sees "no reason to doubt" the tradition.〔Weitzmann, 22. There is another, unillustrated, possible survivor of the group in the Bodleian Library, the oldest copy of the Rule of St Benedict.()〕 The main text is written in an Italian uncial hand which is widely accepted as dating to the 6th century - Rome or Monte Cassino have been suggested as the place of creation.〔Schiller, II 14〕 It was certainly in England by the late 7th or early 8th century when corrections and additions were made to the text in an insular hand. The additions included ''tituli'' or captions to the scenes around the portrait of Luke, not all of which may reflect the intentions of the original artist.〔See Lewine, 487〕 The book was certainly at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury in the 11th century, when documents concerning the Abbey were copied into it. In the late Middle Ages it was "kept not in the Library at Canterbury but actually lay on the altar; it belonged in other words, like a reliquary or the Cross, to Church ceremonial".〔Pacht, 11. In the same way the Book of Kells was stolen from the sacristy, not the library, at Kells in the 11th century.〕 The manuscript was given to the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as part of the collection donated by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1575, some decades after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was traditionally used for the swearing of the oath in the enthronements of new Archbishops of Canterbury, and the tradition has been restored since 1945; the book is taken to Canterbury Cathedral by the librarian of Corpus for each ceremony.〔(Archbishop of Canterbury official website ).〕 The Augustine Gospels have also been taken to Canterbury for other major occasions: the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982,〔(''John Paul II: reflections from The Tablet'' ), p. 36, Catherine Pepinster, John Wilkins, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0-86012-404-5, ISBN 978-0-86012-404-7〕 and the celebrations in 1997 for the 1,400th anniversary of the Gregorian mission.〔(Independent, 1997 )〕 The Church of England likes to call the book the Canterbury Gospels, though to scholars this name usually refers to another book, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon gospel book written at Canterbury, now with one portion in the British Library as Royal MS I. E. VI, and another in the Cathedral Library at Canterbury. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Augustine Gospels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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