Artwork Page for Text, folio 256 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 256 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 256 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100
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Byzantium, Constantinople

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Medium
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Measurements
Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1942.152.256.b
Public Domain
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Location
105 Byzantine(not visible)
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Did You Know?

Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.

Description

Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul—and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople.
An ink and tempera manuscript page on vertically oriented vellum features two sections of dark brown text. Five lines of larger script sit at the top. Below, a block of dense smaller script begins with a large initial letter on our left. The cream-colored vellum surface contains faint horizontal guidelines and dark staining along our right edge. To our left, a stack of additional pages is visible beside the leather binding on our far right.

Text, folio 256 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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