1. References
2. ↑1 The origins and dating of the Arenberg Gospels are debated. The Morgan Library & Museum dates the book to c. 1000-1020. T. A. Heslop and Robert Deshman also support an early eleventh-century dating, whereas Jane E. Rosenthal and T. A. M. Bishop date the manuscript to the late tenth century. I agree with a slightly earlier dating, within the range of the last decade of the tenth century to the first decade of the eleventh century, due to the Insular characteristics of the script and the arrangement of the leaves in the old Insular method (HFHF). Though scholars have studied the Arenberg Gospels' origins and movement to Cologne, the manuscript's use in oath rituals has received little scholarly attention. "Gospel Book," The Morgan Library & Museum, accessed September 22, 2022, https://www.themorgan.org/manuscript/159161; Jane E. Rosenthal, "The Historiated Canon Tables of the Arenberg Gospels" (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1974), 1, 73; "M.869," CORSAIR, The Morgan Library & Museum, accessed September 22, 2022, http://corsair.themorgan.org/msdescr/BBM0869a.pdf; T. A. M. Bishop, "NOTES ON CAMBRIDGE MANUSCRIPTS: Part IV: MSS. Connected with St Augustine's Canterbury," Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 2, no. 4 (1957): 323-36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41155317; Robert Deshman, "Christus rex et magi reges: Kingship and Christology in Ottonian and Anglo-Saxon Art," Frühmittelalterliche Studien 10, no. 1 (1976): 367-405, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110242096.367; T. A. Heslop, "The Production of 'de Luxe' Manuscripts and the Patronage of King Cnut and Queen Emma," Anglo-Saxon England 19 (1990): 151-95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44509957; Richard Gameson, The Role of Art in the Late Anglo-Saxon Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 17; Richard Gameson, "The Anglo-Saxon Artists of the Harley 603 Psalter," JBAA 143 (1990): 40-41. This approach is inspired by Arjun Appadurai's work on the social life of things. See: Arjun Appadurai, "Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value," in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ed. Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 3-63, https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/2027/heb32141.0001.001; Arjun Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/2027/heb32141.0001.001.
3. ↑2 The Arenberg Gospels is housed at The Morgan Library & Museum. The full-page Crucifixion miniature on fol. 9v precedes eight historiated Eusebian canon tables on fols. 10-13. The manuscript also contains four full-page Evangelist portraits after the prologues to the Evangelists' respective Gospels and a decorative incipit page after each Evangelist portrait. The same-colored inks appear throughout the drawings and decorative lettering, indicating that the same artist likely drew both. "Gospel Book (Arenberg Gospels)," CORSAIR Online Catalogue, The Morgan Library & Museum, accessed September 26, 2022, http://corsair.themorgan.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=159161; The Morgan Library & Museum, "M.869"; Rosenthal, "The Historiated Canon Tables of the Arenberg Gospels," 2.
4. ↑3 The Insular method was unique to the British Isles but fell out of favor in Britain by the late tenth century. Michael Hare, "Cnut and Lotharingia: Two notes," Anglo-Saxon England 29 (2000): 275, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263675100002489; Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2007), 15; The Morgan Library & Museum, "Gospel Book (Arenberg Gospels)."
5. ↑4 This darkening likely resulted from rebinding or improper supports or storage at certain points in the book's history, while the text in the opening quire may have flaked due to either human contact or unstable compounds in the paint reacting to more frequent exposure because of their placement in the book. Clemens and Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies, 101-04, 106-08.