In the early eighth century, three enormous Bibles were produced by monks at Wearmouth-Jarrow Abbey. Two were to remain in Northumbria, but in 716AD the other was sent, in the care of the then abbot, Ceolfrith, to Rome as a gift for Pope Gregory II.

Only a few fragments remain of the first two; the third, known as the Codex Amiatinus and described as one of the greatest works in Anglo-Saxon England, has remained in Italy until now.

For the first time in 1,302 years, the oldest surviving complete Bible in Latin has returned to the country of its creation to form the centrepiece of an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon art, literature, science and politics at the British Library in London.

Advertised as a “once in a generation” show, the exhibition lived up to its billing, said Dr Clare Breay, the lead curator. “It’s a phrase that’s sometimes overused, but I think in this case that’s absolutely true. In fact ‘once in a generation’ doesn’t really encompass it for a lot of the loans.”

In addition to the Codex Amiatinus, another returnee is the Vercelli Book, which has not been in the country for more than 900 years, she said. The book is one of the four poetic codices that contain most of the poetry to survive in Old English. All four, including the British Library’s unique copy of the text of Beowulf, are displayed together in a single case for the first time in history.

Other treasures include the St Augustine Gospels, thought to have been brought on the saint’s mission to convert the English in 597AD; the Lindisfarne Gospels, which contain the oldest translation of the Bible into English; and the intricately decorated Book of Durrow, on loan from Trinity College Dublin, which is making its first appearance in England in more than half a century.

Alongside them are many of the most spectacular archaeological finds from the period, including the ninth-century Alfred jewel, a book pointer commissioned by Alfred the Great; the great gold buckle from the Sutton Hoo ship burial; and the Winfarthing pendant, a spectacular gold and garnet jewel found by a metal detectorist in Norfolk a few years ago.

It was the library’s acquisition in 2012 of the eighth-century St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact European book with its original binding, that inspired the exhibition and prompted Breay to investigate whether that the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence would lend the Codex Amiatinus for the first time. Both manuscripts were produced in the same monastery during the same period, with the latter made from 500 calf skins and weighing 34kg (75lb).

“I went to see it myself, and going to see it myself was an incredible experience,” said Breay. “Obviously I had read about it, I had read the dimensions and I had seen a photograph of it. But until you actually see it yourself you can’t really take in the size of the book, the spine is a foot thick, because it contains the whole bible. There are over 1,000 leaves of parchment, so over 2,000 pages of text. Most biblical books that were circulating at that time were either gospel books or psalters, books of the psalms. It’s very unusual to have a whole bible. So the fact that it has survived intact is absolutely incredible.”

The exhibition, entitled Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, also includes the Domesday Book, she pointed out, which is rightly “the most famous book in English history”. “But Codex Amiatinus really is a treasure of equal importance, but it doesn’t have the public profile that I think it deserves, and I hope this exhibition will change that.”

According to the co-curator Dr Alison Hudson, the exhibits were chosen to reflect “ the long distance connections of trade and diplomacy and ideas that existed in this period”. Among them is the Offa dinar, a tiny gold coin made in England in the late eighth century but so close a copy from a coin that had been minted in Baghdad that it bears the inscription “there is no God but Allah alone” even if the die cutter, not understanding Arabic, inscribed the Islamic profession of faith upside down.

A 10th-century book of medical remedies contains a recipe for an eye balm that has been shown in modern laboratory conditions to be effective against MRSA, said Hudson, but also includes instructions on how to get rid of elves.

“We never use the term dark ages in this exhibition; we are trying to overturn a few stereotypes. They did know that the world was round, they did copy classical and continental scientific texts … So it’s a sophisticated society, just with a different world view than we have today.”

• Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War is on at the British Library in London from 19 October to 19 February.