Insular Gospel Manuscripts

Insular Gospel Manuscripts are manuscripts containing the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) copied in Latin using an Irish script (i.e. Insular Majuscule and related hands). Most (but not all) of these manuscripts were produced in Ireland. Some manuscripts referred to as Insular Gospels were produced in Britain and elsewhere. There are an additional ten or so similar manuscripts that are closely related to (or even derived or copied from) the Insular Gospel tradition, but which were not produced in the Britain or Ireland.

There are also a number of fragments of Gospels firmly in the Insular tradition, though the manuscripts are no longer complete. Moreover, manuscripts produced in Ireland didn’t necessarily stay in Ireland, and neither did Irish monks.

Important Insular Gospels at Trinity College, Dublin

Codex Usserianus Primus, Trinity College, MS 55
DRIS Trinity College Library Dublin

Codex Usserianus Secundus (Garland of Howth), Trinity College, MS 56
DRIS Trinity College Library Dublin

Book of Durrow, Trinity College, MS 57

Book of Kells, Trinity College, MS 58
DRIS Trinity College Library Dublin

Book of Mulling, Trinity College, MS 60
DRIS Trinity College Library Dublin

Important Insular Gospels Not In Ireland

Lindisfarne Gospels (The Book of Lindisfarne), London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D. iv
Digitised Manuscripts

Echternach Gospels, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms lat. 9389

Evangelia quattuor Evangiles dits d’Echternach ou de Saint Willibrord. | Gallica

Barberini or Wigbold Gospels, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Barb. lat. 570

Cutbercht Gospels, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1224