Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has endorsed the British Library’s appeal to acquire the 7th-century St Cuthbert Gospel for the nation, as we enter the final phase of our £9million appeal.
Bragg featured the Gospel on his recent Radio 4 series, In Our Time: The Written World, which charted the development of the written word throughout history. As the earliest surviving intact Western book, the St Cuthbert Gospel is the starting point for the history of the book as we know it today. He has described it as “unique, British and one of the great glories among books”. Read the blog entry by Tom Morris, producer of The Written World, which describes the first time he and Melvyn Bragg set eyes on the St Cuthbert Gospel.
The Gospel, which retains its original red leather binding, looks exactly the same today – inside and out – as it did to the monks who created it fourteen centuries ago.
Claire Breay, Lead Curator of Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts at the British Library, says “By acquiring the St Cuthbert Gospel, the Library will be able to preserve and provide access to it for present and future generations. We have also developed an innovative display partnership with partner organisations in the North East which will allow the Gospel to be exhibited in the region where it was created for 50% of the time that it is on display.”
The appeal has already received outstanding support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the Garfield Weston Foundation, and it has also resonated with donors across the country. £7.25million has been raised in less than a year and the Library is now working to close the remaining gap by the end of March.
This is your chance to get involved. For more information about the St Cuthbert Gospel appeal and to give online, please visit support.bl.uk. You can read more about the St Cuthbert Gospel here.
Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts
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Thank you for endorsing this. Given the book’s north-eastern origins, its close association with St Cuthbert’s body, and the fact that it was in the library of Durham Cathedral Priory until the 16th century, we in the Durham World Heritage Site have been closely involved in this fundraising campaign. The Friends of the Cathedral have contributed generously to it. I gave an interview about the CG in the shrine of St Cuthbert to the BBC R4 Sunday Programme last week, and expect it will be broadcast in a week or two. The BL has done a magnificent fundraising job, but the deadline is looming. It is essential that we do not lose this national treasure. Please support us.
Michael Sadgrove
Dean of Durham