Title: Gospel lectionary
Artist: St Margaret

This was the favourite book of Margaret, an eleventh-century queen of Scotland. It is a gospel lectionary ? that is, a selection of passages from the Gospels. Each of the four series of extracts is preceded by a beautifully illuminated page containing the first words of the relevant gospel and a miniature of the evangelist. Small (with just thirty-eight pages) and therefore portable, it was a book for everyday devotion. Renowned for her piety and good works, and for the civilizing influence she had on matters of politics and religion, Margaret was canonized in 1249?50. While she was crossing a ford one of her retinue unwittingly dropped this gospel-book into the water. Sometime later the book was found miraculously unharmed. 

MS. Lat. liturg. f. 5, fols. 21v?22r