THE New Minster Charter (BL, Cotton Vespasian A.viii) was produced in Winchester in 966 to commemorate the refoundation of the New Minster two years earlier by King Edgar with the assistance of his new bishop, Æthelwold. The famous frontispiece (frontis. to this book) has been understood largely as a political statement: a visualization of the ideals of the monastic reform, of Edgar's exalted vision of kingship (or Æthelwold's exalted vision of Edgar's kingship), and of the united concerns of king and bishop, specifically as they are conveyed in the text of the charter the miniature prefaces. The iconography of the frontispiece has been associated most frequently with that of the Ascension of Christ, as represented by, for example, the Ascension miniature in the Galba Psalter of ca. 925–39 (BL, Cotton Galba A.xviii), or the slightly later Benedictional of Æthelwold (BL, Add. 49598), the date of which will be considered in more detail below. The manuscript's assimilation to a liturgical book is also well-remarked, both as regards its lavish format and materials, and as regards its probable display on the altar of the church. It is written on parchment of a very high quality and light colour, which is showcased by the ample margins that surround the text. It is also the only illuminated charter and the only manuscript written entirely in gold to survive from the Anglo-Saxon period.