Desco helps preserve Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels on display at Durham’s World Heritage Site in Palace Green Library are protected by an environment created by Desco of Sunderland. Special designs for this 1300-year-old manuscript, which is on loan from the British Library in London until the end of September 2013, include special lighting and precise climate controls.
The manuscript is Europe’s oldest surviving book and contains the four gospels of the New Testament. It is also the oldest known version of the gospels written in the English language. It is the work of one man, Eadfrith, then Bishop of Lindisfarne, a small island off the coast of Northumberland. Experts estimate that the manuscript took five to 10 years to complete.
The display also includes the jewelled cross, travelling altar and sapphire ring found in the coffin of St Cuthbert, for whom the Lindisfarne Gospels were written.
