Artwork Page for Text, folio 291 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 291 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 291 (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 1942.152.291.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.
One side of a vertically oriented cream-colored vellum page features dense rows of brown Greek script. A slightly larger initial character begins the text at the top left, while small accents of red ink and gold leaf mark the page's top and bottom. The parchment has irregular, wavy edges and a natural texture, with faint text from the reverse side showing through the thin material.

Text, folio 291 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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