Hatton Gospels
Hatton Gospels is the name now given to a manuscript produced in the late 12th century or early 13th century. It contains a translation of the four gospels into the West Saxon dialect of Old English. It is a nearly complete gospel book, missing only a small part of the Gospel of Luke. It is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as MS Hatton 38. Illuminations The manuscript has decorated initials. They are large, and appear alternately in red or blue with pen ornament of the other color. The large initials are twenty percent into the margins. The text is indented around the large initials. At the beginning of each gospel, the large initial is green. History Origin The manuscript was probably produced at Canterbury. It contains paleographic evidence of such an origin. The scribes worked from another manuscript (which is extant) that is itself a copy of a manuscript that in turn is a translation of the Vulgate, the Latin Bible that was the standard Biblical text of Western Christianity. The manuscript was produced contemporaneously by three scribes. All text is by one hand except for three folios: folio 119 recto which supplies and marginal text on folios 13