7th century illuminated manuscript in the Insular style made either at Durrow Abbey near Durrow in County Offaly Ireland, or in Northumbria in Northern England, with modern and traditional scholarship tending towards Durrow. It was started in 650. It is a Gospel Book, possibly the oldest extant complete illuminated gospel from Ireland or Britain. The text includes the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, plus several pieces of prefatory matter. It measures 247 by 228 mm and contains 248 vellum folios. It contains a large illumination program including six extant carpet pages, a full page miniature of the four evangelist's symbols, four full page miniatures, each containing a single evangelist symbol, and six pages with decorated text. It is written in insular script.

The Book of Durrow is unusual in that it does not use the traditional scheme for assigning the symbols to the Evangelists. Each Gospel begins with an Evangelist's symbol - a man for Matthew, an eagle for Mark (not the lion traditionally used), a calf for Luke and a lion for John (not the eagle traditionally used). Each evangelist symbol, except the Man of Matthew is followed by a carpet page, followed by the initial page. This missing carpet page is assumed to have existed. A first possibility is that it was lost, and a second that it is in fact folio 3, which features swirling abstract decoration.

The first letter of the text is enlarged and decorated, with the following letters surrounded by dots. Parallels with metalwork can be noted in the rectangular body of St Matthew, which looks like a millefiori decoration, and in details of the carpet pages.

There is a sense of space in the design of all the pages of the Book of Durrow. Open vellum balances intensely decorated areas. Animal interlace of very high quality appears on folio 192v. Other motifs include spirals, triskeles, ribbon plaits and circular knots in the carpet pages and borders around the Evangelists.

Book of Durrow Illustrations

Illustration 1

	Page (Folio): 84v decorated page with frame and eagle
	Vector Clipart See also vector image "Book of Durrow - decorated page with frame and eagle"

Illustration 2

	Page (Folio): 84v Eagle of Mark
	Vector Clipart See also vector image "Book of Durrow - Eagle of Mark"

Illustration 3

	Page (Folio): 86r letter N
	Vector Clipart See also vector image "Book of Durrow - letter N "