Artwork Page for Text, folio 276 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 276 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 276 (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 1942.152.276.b
Public Domain
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Location
105 Byzantine(not visible)
Print
?

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.
A vertical vellum manuscript page features two blocks of dark brown Greek script. The top half contains small, dense lines beneath a faded red heading. The lower half displays larger, undulating characters beginning with a decorative capital letter. The creamy tan vellum shows wrinkles and brown staining, bound along the left edge into a thick stack. The script's varying sizes create a rhythmic, tiered visual flow across the weathered parchment.

Text, folio 276 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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