Artwork Page for Text, folio 309 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 309 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 309 (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 1942.152.309.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.
One side of a vertically oriented off-white vellum page features two sections of Greek script in dark brown ink. Seven lines of large, widely spaced characters sit atop a dense block of smaller, loopy handwriting. Touches of gold leaf and red ink accent several initial letters. The aged surface shows brown staining and irregular edges, with small handwritten numbers in the top right corner.

Text, folio 309 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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