Artwork Page for Text, folio 303 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 303 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 303 (recto), 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 1942.152.303.a
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.
A vertically oriented cream vellum page is inked with handwritten Greek text. A decorative header in gold and red ink sits at the top. The script alternates between large characters in the center and dense, smaller writing. Red and gold circular ornaments mark paragraph breaks along the left edge. Brown stains and faint bleed-through from the reverse side mark the aged, cream-colored surface.

Text, folio 303 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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