British Library, Egerton MS 609 is a Breton Gospel Book from the late or third quarter of the ninth century.

However, the decoration in the Breton Gospel Book is simpler and more geometric in form than that found in the Insular manuscripts.

[1] In the fifteenth century, the Benedictine Abbey of St Martin at Tours owned the manuscript; it has the inscription "Iste Liber est de Ecclesia beatissimi Martini Turonensis" on folio 102v (the last page).

[1] The Breton Gospel Book was then acquired by the Maurist Abbey of Marmoutiers, also in Tours, during the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the inscription "Majoris monasterii Congregationis S Mauri" on folio 1r (the first page).

[4] There have long been cross-cultural artistic connections between the British Isles and Brittany, which is especially evident in medieval manuscripts, due to their locations across the channel from each other.

Insular script developed in Ireland before spreading to the British Isles and other parts of Europe.

St. Jerome's letter to Pope Damasus was usually placed before the texts of the gospels in a manuscript, and is called 'Novum Opus' because of its first words.

[1] It is thought that the monastery was not wealthy because the manuscript was modestly produced, along with a limited variety of colors.

[11] The animal heads and interlace which appear on the 'LI' are related to styles that have been transformed and simplified from early medieval Northern and Western France.

[9] For this letter the shape and interlace have been modified into linked geometric patterns, where traditionally they use spirals and curves.

[5] The title is written at the top of the folio (f. 8r) in capital letters with color added to the script.

[5] The beginning letters of the gospel are almost the size of the page and slowly shrink until it becomes standard script.

[5] The decoration with the animal heads and the interlace shows the Breton tradition of imitating Irish and similar art in manuscripts.

Another way of portraying the evangelists were to use their symbols, which appeared in the vision Ezekiel had, and also in the Book of Revelation, and early Christian writers interpreted the four creatures as signs of the gospels.

[13] By the ninth century, hybrid depictions of the evangelists' symbols were rarely being produced anymore.

[13] Areas that were remote, like Brittany, and not major centers were often resistant to the Carolingian standardization so the older traditions could flourish better.

[13] In the Symbol of John, there are serpents in the bottom panels of the frame which show the Breton-style of animal interlace.

[13] There were many different types of depictions of them developed early on with the combination of the animal head with a human body, just like the ones in this manuscript.

[13] According to Jerome, and the most common belief, is that Matthew is the man, Mark is the lion, Luke is the ox, and John the eagle, as depicted in the miniature portrait.