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| Vol. 4, Issue 5 May 2012 |
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Goings On |
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Do the Math |
British Library needs $14.3 million for 7th Century gospel
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Published :1 August 2011 |
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This is bibliophilia at its extreme—a 1,300-year-old book for £9 million ($14.3 million). But what the British Library wants, it usually gets: running on a budget of £131,431 (2010-11), of which acquisitions comprises only £17,107, it recently gave into greed and launched a major fundraising campaign to buy the 7 AD St Cuthbert Gospel, a pintsized codex measuring 5.4 inches by 3.8 inches. The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, features an elaborately-tooled goatskin cover—the earliest surviving example of Western binding—the Gospel of St John in Latin, and relict Insular geometrical ‘carpet’ artwork. Owned by Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, it was entombed with him after he died in 687 BC, and is considered so invaluable that it led its current proprietor, the Society of Jesus, to part with it for an un-Jesuit-like sum that is costing the British Library both arms, a leg and all its sense of judgement.
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