The manuscript has 193 surviving folios which measure . It contains the text of the four
Gospels in
Latin written in an
uncial script on
vellum leaves that alternately are
dyed purple and undyed. The purple-dyed leaves are written with gold, silver, and white pigment, the undyed ones with black ink and red pigment. On some folios, the differing colours of ink are arranged to form geometric patterns.
Purple parchment was, in the Roman and Byzantine Empires, reserved for Imperial manuscripts, and in the West reserved for the grandest commissions, and often only seen on a few pages. The illustration programme includes two surviving
evangelist portraits, six
canon tables and seven large decorated initials. The manuscript is the oldest surviving example of initials decorated with
gold leaf. The style is a blend of
Insular art, as in the
Chi-Rho initial shown, and Mediterranean traditions, possibly including some from early
Carolingian art. In the opening shown at the start of Matthew the evangelist portrait to the left is in a consistent adaptation of Italian style, probably closely following some lost model, though adding interlace to the chair frame, while the text page to the right is mainly in Insular style, especially in the first line, with its vigorous Celtic spirals and interlace. The following lines revert to a quieter style more typical of
Frankish manuscripts of the period. Yet the same artist almost certainly produced both pages, and is very confident in both styles. The other surviving evangelist portrait of John includes roundels with
Celtic spiral decoration probably drawn from the enamelled escutcheons of
hanging bowls. This is one of the so-called "Tiberius group" of manuscripts, which leant towards the Italian style, and appear to be associated with
Kent, or perhaps the kingdom of
Mercia in the heyday of the
Mercian Supremacy. It is, in the usual chronology, the last English manuscript in which "developed trumpet spiral patterns" are found. ==History==