{{Short description|8th century illustrated gospel book}} {{distinguish|St Cuthbert Gospel}} thumb|Portrait of Matthew thumb|Figures from the Terrassa frescoes, which Kuhn compared to Cutbercht's portrayal of Matthew The '''Cutbercht Gospels''' (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex 1224) is an 8th-century illustrated Latin gospel book bound as a codex. It contains the four canonical gospels of ''Matthew'', ''Mark'', ''Luke'' and ''John'' as well as canon tables. It was copied and illustrated by an Englishman named Cutbercht (Cuthbert) at Saint Peter's Abbey in Salzburg.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}}
The Cutbercht Gospels contain a prologue (from Jerome's ''Commentary on Matthew'') which, with the first seventeen verses of ''Matthew'' 1, is derived from a different source text than the rest of the gospels.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}} ''Matthew'' 1:1–17 is set off from the rest of the gospel and labelled ''praefatio'' (preface).{{sfn|Tilghman|2016|p=176}} The canon tables and the portrait of the evangelist are inserted before verse 18.{{sfn|Tilghman|2016|p=168}} The text and portraits of the canon tables are based on Italian models, while the overall structure of "arcades" is from a northern model, perhaps from Canterbury.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}} Joseph Cincik detects "Slovak–Avar" or "Alpine–Danubian" influence in the decorative elements and even argues for Islamic influence via the Danubian cultures.{{sfn|Kirschbaum|1958–1959}}{{sfn|Nees|1987|p=69n}}
Each gospel is introduced with a portrait of the evangelist. The iconography of the evangelists can be traced back to 6th-century Ravenna, but the symbols included with two of them are from a different source.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}} Matthew's pose and the colour scheme of the portraits has been compared to the contemporary frescoes in the church of Sant Miquel in Terrassa.{{sfn|Kuhn|1928|p=129}} The ornamentation of the text is in the Insular style with some motifs also found in Coptic textiles. Cutbercht may have made use of a pattern book designed for textiles.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}}
The gospel book was produced in Salzburg,{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Bullough|1998|p=130}} although older scholarship sometimes located it in Mercia or Northumbria.{{sfn|Kendrick|1938|pp=143–144}} Cutbercht made use of several Insular scripts. He was working at Salzburg during the 780s or 790s, during the pontificate of Virgil (died 784) or his successor, Arn.{{sfn|Bullough|1998|p=130}} Cincik would date it to after 796, when Avar capital was sacked during the Avar Wars, allowing eastern motifs—such as pear-shaped leaves, of ultimately Persian origin—to be brought westward in the form of booty.{{sfn|Kirschbaum|1958–1959}}{{sfn|Cramp|1977|p=206}} Cutbercht may be the scribe responsible for a now fragmentary manuscript of the prophetic books from Kremsmünster (Stiftsbibliothek, Fragm.I/1).{{sfn|Bullough|1998|p=130}} He is not named in the ''{{ill|Salzburger Verbrüderungsbuch|de}}'', indicating that he probably did not die at Salzburg. He may have been an itinerant artist. His Insular style was not followed by others at Salzburg.{{sfn|Tholl|1986|loc=abstract}}
==Notes== {{reflist|20em}}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} *{{cite journal |first=Donald A. |last=Bullough |author-link=Donald A. Bullough |title=A Neglected Early Ninth-century Manuscript of the Lindisfarne ''Vita S. Cuthberti'' |journal=Anglo-Saxon England |year=1998 |volume=27 |pages=105–137 |jstor=44510370}} *{{cite book |first=Joseph G. |last=Cincik |title=Anglo-Saxon and Slovak-Avar Patterns of Cuthbert's Gospel: A Study in Slovak Art of the Early Carolingian Era |publisher=Editions Slovak Institute |year=1958}} *{{cite book |author-link=Rosemary Cramp |first=Rosemary J. |last=Cramp |chapter=Schools of Mercian sculpture |year=1977 |title=Mercian Studies |pages=191–233 |editor=Ann Dornier |publisher=Leicester University Press}} *{{cite book |author-link=T. D. Kendrick |first=T. D. |last=Kendrick |title=Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900 |publisher=Methuen |year=1938 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.279561}} *{{cite journal |first=J. M. |last=Kirschbaum |title=Review of {{harvnb|Cincik|1958}} |journal=Slavic and East-European Studies |volume=3 |issue=4 |year=1958–1959 |pages=240–243 |jstor=41055710}} *{{cite journal |first=Charles L. |last=Kuhn |author-link=Charles L. Kuhn |title=Notes on Some Spanish Frescoes |journal=Art Studies |volume=6 |year=1928 |pages=128–130}} *{{cite book |first=Lawrence |last=Nees |title=The Gundohinus Gospels |publisher=Medieval Academy of America |year=1987}} *{{cite thesis |title=The Vienna Cutbercht Gospels (Wien, Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex 1224) |last=Tholl |first=Susan E. von Daum |institution=Columbia University |year=1986 |type=PhD diss.}} {{ProQuest|8906505}} *{{cite book |last=Tholl |first=Susan E. von Daum |chapter=The Cutbercht Gospels and the Earliest Writing Center at Salzburg |pages=17–37 |editor=Linda L. Brownrigg |title=Making the Medieval Book: Techniques of Production |year=1995 |publisher=Anderson-Lovelace}} *{{cite journal |first=Benjamin C. |last=Tilghman |title=Ornament and Incarnation in Insular Art |journal=Gesta |volume=55 |issue=2 |year=2016 |pages=157–177}} {{refend}}
==External links== *[http://data.onb.ac.at/dtl/7365239 Manuscript digitized online]
Category:Gospel Books Category:8th-century illuminated manuscripts Category:Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts