The Miniatures in the Gospels of St Augustine

Amongst the manuscripts collected by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and presented to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the most venerable is the sixth-century manuscript of the Gospels formerly owned by the great Benedictine Abbey of St Augustine’s Canterbury. The manuscript has by tradition been associated with St Augustine, the Apostle of the English and first Archbishop of Canterbury; and may well have been one of the books sent by Pope Gregory the Great to St Augustine in the early years of the seventh century. In this volume, which was originally published in 1954, Professor Wormald tells what may be surmised about the origin and history of this manuscript and examines in detail the surviving work, with cautious suggestions about portions no longer existing. He concludes that there must have been a cycle of gospel scenes in the miniatures, certainly 72 and possibly 844.