800-year-old Glastonbury bible page returns home

A bible page written by monks 800 years ago has returned to the place it was penned.

On public display for the first time in the UK, the roughly A5-sized page has gone on public display at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset.

Written on animal skin, the page features Latin text, ornate lettering and full colour decoration.

Loaned by Bristol University after it was bought at auction in 2020, it will be on display until 2 October.

While the exact age of the two-sided page is unknown, it is believed to have been written in the abbey's scriptorium between 1225 and 1250.

Containing the beginning of the Old Testament Books of Chronicles, the hand-written page narrates the history of Israel and Judah from the Creation.

The coloured writing and decoration, written on prepared animal skin known as vellum paper, was produced using a technique called tempera.

The technique started to phase out in the 13th century, further indicating the bible's age.

Tempera is where pigments usually taken from natural materials such as stone, minerals and soil, were mixed with water-soluble emulsion such as egg yolk.

Lucy Newman, the abbey's collections manager, said the "beautiful object" was like "a tiny jewel because it's so small yet so important in the history of the abbey."

"The quality of it is utterly amazing, considering its age, and it's the workmanship that would have gone into writing it that's astonishing, when you consider the writing materials they would have had to use 800 years ago," she added.

Famous for its vast library of books and manuscripts, the contents of Glastonbury Abbey's library were destroyed, dispersed or sold following the dissolution of the abbey by King Henry VIII in 1539.

Surfacing in the collections of 18th century politician and antiquarian Roger Gale in 1744, the bible's whereabouts were unknown for 240 years until it surfaced at Sotheby's Auction House in London.

Bought by a manuscript dealer from Ohio in the 1980s, the bible was then dismantled and sold page-by-page.

Uncovered around the world, the main bulk of the bible has been acquired by Oslo Cathedral School in Norway.

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