Durham Gospels

The Durham Gospels is a very incomplete late 7th-century insular Gospel Book, now kept in the Durham Cathedral Dean and Chapter Library (MS A.II.17).

A single folio of this manuscript is now in Magdalene College, Cambridge (Pepysian MS 2981).

Only two of the fully decorated pages survive: a Crucifixion (the oldest in English art) and the initial to John, and both of these are in poor condition.

There were probably originally evangelist portraits and carpet pages, as in other Insular Gospel books conceived on a similar scale.

During this service, the most senior first King’s Scholar from Durham School holds the Gospels for the Bishop to take his oath.