On this episode of five minutes in church history, we will be talking about a

14 million dollar book. Now believe it or not that's not the most expensive book

of all time. That honor goes to Leonardo da Vinci's Codex, a notebook of his, a 72 page

notebook of his that sold for 30.8 million dollars at auction. It was purchased by Bill Gates. There were other books that were pretty

expensive too. In 1987, a Gutenberg Bible went up for auction at $ million dollars and if you have six million

dollars just lying around and you don't know what to do with it you could purchase a

first folio of Shakespeare. There have been some other medieval manuscripts that have gone for significant money.

There was a text called The Gospels of Henry the Lion.

Henry the Lion was the Duke of Saxony.

He commissioned this particular edition of the

Gospels. It was a very elaborate book with a very elaborate cover. He

commissioned it for the altar at the Brunswick Cathedral,

and it's a 12th century manuscript of the four Gospels

and it's sold for $11 million.

But the book we're talking about

is known as St. Cuthbert Gospel.

This is a book from the late 7th or the early 8th century.

It's a rather simple book.

It's only 5.5. It's only five and a half inches by three and a half inches.

It has a stamped leather cover over wood board binding. Its pages are cord bound and its pages are vellum.

Vellum was a bit of an advance, a technological advance,

if you will, over papyrus.

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