File:LindisfarneFol27rIncipitMatt.jpg

English: Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels, incipit to the Gospel of Matthew. The main text contains the first sentence of the Gospel According to Saint Matthew: "Liber generationis Iesu Christi filii David filii Abraham" ("The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham").

The first line contains the word "liber" ("the book") with illuminated letters in insular majuscule; the first three letters ("lib") are much more ornate than the last two ("er") in white. The next two lines are in runic capitals (i.e. Latin letters in a rune-inspired script, also seen in the Book of Nunnaminster for example): the first of these lines partially contains the word "generationis" ("generation" in the genitive case) as "-onis" appears in the next line, followed by the contracted form of "Iesu", namely "Ihu" with a tilde on the "h"; this type of contraction is called a nomen sacrum.

The last line is in insular majuscule and begins with another nomen sacrum, the contraction "χρi" with a tilde, meaning "Christi". This is followed by a more compressed series of words. The first is "filii" ("son", genitive) with an "fi" ligature and a letter "l" with two stacked "i" letters on its leg. Then "David" is seen and is formed with a letter "d" with an "a" stacked on a "v" in its counter followed by "id". After that, "filii" is present again, however this time the "fi" ligature is replaced with the Greek letter phi (φ) due to its phonetic similarity. The last word is "Abraham", which is split into two lines.