Book of Mulling
Encyclopedia
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...
from the late 8th century. The text collection includes the four Gospels, a liturgical service which includes the "Apostles' Creed
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol"...
", and in the colophon, a supposed plan of St. Moling's monastery enclosed by two concentric circles.
The name derives from a former notion that the scribe was the Leinster saint St. Moling
Saint Moling
Mo Ling was the second Bishop of Ferns in Ireland. The town of Monamolin in County Wexford is named after him, as is the parish church in Ballycanew....
(d. 697), founder of Tech-Moling (St. Mullins, Co. Carlow), whose subscription occurs in the colophon at the end of St John's Gospel: [N]omen scriptoris Mulling dicitur. However, the manuscript is younger and the script reveals that three scribes were involved: one for the prefaces, another for the synoptic gospels
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...
(Matthew, Mark and Luke) and a third for St John's Gospel. It remains possible that the manuscript was copied from an autograph manuscript of St Moling.
The script is a fine Irish minuscule
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
. This is in fact one of the latest surviving documents to use the high style in Illuminated manuscripts. The decoration includes illuminated initials and three surviving Evangelist portraits: those of Matthew, Mark and John. Its jewelled shrine (cumdach) is also preserved at Trinity College.