A 1,000-Year-Old Gospel Likely Written by Women to be Auctioned December 10

One of the rarest early medieval manuscripts ever to appear on the market, with an estimated value of $880,000 to $1.26 million.

CITY OF LONDON, GB / ACCESS Newswire / December 3, 2025 / A thousand-year-old Gospel manuscript, believed to have been written by a community of women in medieval Germany, will be offered at Christie's London on December 10 th as part of Valuable Books, Manuscripts and Photographs, including Highlights from The Royal Society of Medicine. It is one of the most significant manuscript discoveries in decades, with an estimated value of $880,000 to $1.26 million (£700,000 to £1 million).

Linked to the abbey of Essen, an early center of women's scholarship, the Gospel is one of fewer than ten Latin manuscripts from the 10 th century or earlier to appear at auction in the past century and possibly the first connected to a female scriptorium, where manuscripts were copied and illuminated by women scribes.

The text, written in elegant Carolingian minuscule, includes prayers "for the veiling of handmaidens of God," a phrase used for women taking religious vows, which strongly suggests it was created by canonesses - aristocratic women who lived devotedly while maintaining wealth, literacy, and social status. Only a handful of female scriptoria are known to have existed across medieval Europe, most notably at Essen, Chelles, and Regensburg, making this Gospel one of the rare physical links to women's literary activity more than a millennium ago.

Professor Rosamond McKitterick, world-renowned expert in medieval history and the Frankish kingdoms, says: "This is a wonderful codex, carefully presented and beautifully written very early in the 10 th century. It deserves further serious study."

Locked away for nearly a century, the manuscript was only recently identified as an early medieval Gospel. Its rediscovery the Chicago Theological Seminary, Hammond Library, is a major contribution to the understanding of women's literary culture in early Europe. The Gospel will be on public view at Christie's London ahead of the auction from December 6 - 10.

Eugenio Donadoni, International Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, Christie's, comments: "It is an extraordinary privilege to have a manuscript of this importance at Christie's - and with such a compelling connection to women's scholarship. To encounter a thousand-year-old Gospel so well preserved, and so eloquent in what it reveals about the intellectual and spiritual lives of medieval women, is truly exciting. This rediscovery sheds new light on the role of female communities in shaping early European culture, and its appearance at auction offers collectors and institutions a once-in-a-generation opportunity to engage directly with that remarkable history."

Images and additional details of the 1,000-year-old Gospel manuscript can be found here.

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SOURCE: Christie's London