sentences:  The language and style of the inscription recall some of the king's charters and as in some of these charters, Athelstan is styled "ruler of the English ["Anglorum basyleos"] and ruler of the whole of Britain ["curagulus totius Bryttanie"]", associating the king with "an imperial past and the glories of the heirs of Rome".Athelstan, in turn, may have received the book from his brother-in-law Otto the Great, who was king of Germany, and Otto's mother, Matilda (d. 968).Their names ( and ) are written, probably by an Englishman, on the back of the picture of Saint Matthew (f. 24r), here shown to the right.