Although popularly known as the Sherborne Cartulary, this manuscript contains much more than just copies of charters relating to Sherborne. Of about 90 leaves, the last 50 or so contain mainly liturgical and biblical texts such as the accounts of the Passion from each of the Four Gospels, and Gospel readings and prayers to be said on major Church feast-days. The contents of the cartulary section, however, leave no doubt that the manuscript was written for Sherborne Abbey, in Dorset.
Facing the start of the narrative of the Passion of Christ according to the Gospel of St. John is a full-page miniature of the Evangelist (pictured), holding a quill pen in his right hand, and in his left the opening words of his Gospel on a scroll: 'In principio erat verbum . . .' (In the beginning was the word . . .).
