Mac Durnan Gospels

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The Mac Durnan Gospels, also called the Book of Mac Durnan, is an illuminated Gospel book made in Ireland in the late 9th or early 10th century. It is now London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 1370.

What it contains
- The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in Latin (Vulgate), without the usual prologues.
- A full-page portrait of each Evangelist.
- An opening page shaped like a cross with the four Evangelist symbols, and elaborate decorated incipit pages.
- Three Gospel openings show Evangelist portraits; four miniatures from a 13th-century Psalter were added at the start of each Gospel (Crucifixion for Matthew, Flagellation for Mark, Betrayal for Luke, Entombment for John).

Script, size, and decoration
- Written on parchment in Irish minuscule script.
- Size about 15.8 cm by 11.1 cm.
- The page openings and initials are decorated with Celtic knot patterns and interlacing.

Origins and history
- Likely written or commissioned by Máel Brigte mac Tornáin, known as Mac Durnan, who was abbot of Armagh in the late 9th/early 10th century.
- The inscription suggests it left Armagh for England soon after and came into the hands of King Æthelstan, who reputedly gave it to Christ Church, Canterbury.
- In the 11th century, six Anglo-Saxon charters were copied into the book.
- By 1574 it belonged to Archbishop Matthew Parker, who had some folios decorated with miniatures from a 13th-century Psalter and gave the current binding.
- Parker left most of his manuscripts to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, but the Mac Durnan Gospels did not stay with them.
- Later owners included a London instrument maker named Brother Howel and antiquarian Lewis Morris; it eventually came to Lambeth Palace, where it is listed in catalogues by 1932.

Textual relations
- The text is very similar to passages in the Echternach Gospels, the Book of Armagh, and the Gospels of Máel Brigte.

Illustration and design
- The opening cross page frames the Evangelist symbols (an angel, eagle, bull, and lion) with Celtic knotwork and color-framed panels.
- The Evangelists’ portraits are richly decorated within interlacing panels.
- The initials at the starts of the Gospels follow a knot-and-fret style, and the frames around Luke and John are very similar.