Artwork Page for Text, folio 331 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 331 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 331 (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 1942.152.331.b
Public Domain
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Location
105 Byzantine(not visible)
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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 vellum page features dense, handwritten Greek text in dark brown and reddish-brown ink. Small, slanted characters flow across horizontal grid lines on the aged surface, marked by scattered brown stains. Large, decorative headers and initial letters in reddish-brown ink punctuate the blocks of writing. On the left, a translucent strip covers part of the page, and small holes line the right edge.

Text, folio 331 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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