The Otho-Corpus Gospels is a badly damaged and fragmentary 8th century illuminated

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...

 manuscript. It was part of the Cotton library

Cotton library

The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...

 and was mostly burnt in the 1731 fire at Ashburnham House

Ashburnham House

Ashburnham House is an extended seventeenth-century house on Little Dean's Yard in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, and since 1882 has been part of Westminster School...

. The manuscript now survives as charred fragments in the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 (MS Cotton Otho C V). Thirty six pages of the manuscript were not in the Cotton collection and survived the fire. They are now in the library of Corpus Christi College

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 (MS 197B).

Original manuscript

The manuscript, before the fire, was a major insular

Insular art

Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, is the style of art produced in the post-Roman history of Ireland and Great Britain. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe...

 Gospel Book

Gospel Book

The Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...

 with close ties to the Lindisfarne Gospels

Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the British Library...

, the Book of Kells

Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier...

 and the Durham Cathedral Library, MS A. II. 10., the Echternach Gospels

Echternach Gospels

The Echternach Gospels is an 8th-century insular Gospel Book from the library of the monastery of Echternach, Luxembourg. It is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris . The manuscript was written by the same scribe that wrote the Durham Gospels.-References:* De Hamel, Christopher. A History...

, and other insular manuscripts, with both textual and decorative similarities. Although it is not known where or when this manuscript was made, the similarities to the manuscripts noted above make it likely that it was made in one of the monasteries in the network of monasteries founded by St. Columba.

Surviving fragments

The extant fragments show that the manuscript was decorated in much the same style as other Insular Gospel Books. The incipit pages of the Gospels had large decorated initials, which dominated the page similar to those in the Lindifarne Gospels, the Book of Durrow

Book of Durrow

The Book of Durrow is a 7th-century illuminated manuscript gospel book in the Insular style. It was probably created between 650 and 700, in Northumbria in Northern England, where Lindisfarne or Durham would be the likely candidates, or on the island of Iona in the Scottish Inner Hebrides...

, the Book of Kells and other Insular Gospel Books. For example, folio 28 recto in the British Library contains the remnant of the incipit page to the Gospel of Mark

Gospel of Mark

The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...

. All that is still legible is a portion of the word "Initium". (In the Vulgate

Vulgate

The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...

, Mark begins "Initium evangelii Iesu Christi".) The letters "INI" are formed into a large monogram decorated with red and yellow knotwork. This page was so damaged and shrunk by the fire that the vellum has become translucent and the text on the verso side is visible on the recto side.

In many of the insular gospels, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Book of Kells, each Gospel has an Evangelist portrait

Evangelist portrait

Evangelist portraits are a specific type of miniature included in ancient and mediæval illuminated manuscript Gospel Books, and later in Bibles and other books, as well as other media. Each Gospel of the Four Evangelists, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, may be prefaced by a portrait of...

 before the Gospel. In many other insular gospels, such as the Book of Durrow and the Echternach Gospels the portrait is replaced by a full page miniature of the Evangelist's symbol. Folio 27 recto (see illustration at right) in the British Library, which is one of the best preserved pages of this manuscript, contains the image of the lion of Mark. This page bears a remarkable stylistic similarity to the corresponding page in the Echternach Gospels, (see here) and gives a hint as to the quality of the manuscript before the fire.

Astle's copy

A copy of a page of the prefatory material for Mark was made in 1725 for the Earl of Oxford

Earl of Oxford

Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, held for several centuries by the de Vere family from 1141 until the death of the 20th earl in 1703. The Veres were also hereditary holders of the office of master or Lord Great Chamberlain from 1133 until the death of the 18th Earl in 1625...

, and used by Thomas Astle

Thomas Astle

Thomas Astle was an English antiquary and palaeographer.-Life:Astle was born on 22 December 1735 at Yoxall on the borders of Needwood Forest in Staffordshire, the son of Daniel Astle, keeper of the forest...

for his book The Origin and Progress of Writing, which was published in 1784. The letters at the top of the page were display capitals, which were used to begin major sections of text. Farther down the page there is a second set of capitals in a different style which are surrounded by a block of small red dots. At the bottom of the page the scribe of the copy included a "sampler" of letter forms found in the manuscript which was not found on the original page. Astle's manuscript containing the copy is also in the British Library (MS Stowe 1061, fol. 36r).