St. Cuthbert Gospel

The British Archive in London has acquired Europe's oldest unbroken book, dubbed the St. Cuthbert Gospel, for almost $14 million. It is a copy of St. John's Gospel, believed to have been created in northeastern England in the seventh century.

Claire Breay is the British Library's supervisor of ancient modern manuscripts. According to her, the book's exquisitely designed red leather front is an excellent illustration of Anglo-Saxon leather craftsmanship, and the inside is amazingly well-preserved. "The content is brilliantly crafted and seems to have been penned yesterday," she comments.

"St. Cuthbert Gospel is the oldest surviving European book in its entirety. Thus, the book's pages, the stitching that binds them intact, and the coverings that preserve the pages are all intact, as they were when it was created at the end of the 7th century” she continues. "As such, it serves as the foundation for our proof for the Western book's history."

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Price at launch: $14M

Author: An 8th-century historian