Otho-Corpus Gospels - Astle's Copy

Astle's Copy

A copy of a page of the prefatory material for Mark was made in 1725 for the Earl of Oxford, and used by Thomas Astle for his book The Origin and Progress of Writing, which was published in 1784. The letters at the top of the page were display capitals, which were used to begin major sections of text. Farther down the page there is a second set of capitals in a different style which are surrounded by a block of small red dots. At the bottom of the page the scribe of the copy included a "sampler" of letter forms found in the manuscript which was not found on the original page. Astle's manuscript containing the copy is also in the British Library (MS Stowe 1061, fol. 36r).

• Astle's copy of the prefatory material of Mark.

• The surviving fragment of the original page.