Gospel Book
A ninth-century illuminated Gospel book, a manuscript copied by hand in a monastic scriptorium for liturgical reading, now held by a Swiss library. The single picture shows an ornamental initial letter Q in a ring of banded red, green and ochre knotwork, with a dark foliate sprig inside and a column of Latin text beside it. A designer might take the interlace borders, the sprig motif and the ruled, stacked lettering as a model for decorative capitals and historical pattern.
