Artwork Page for Text, folio 374 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 374 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 374 (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 1942.152.374.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.
Rows of black Greek script ripple across a vertically oriented page of yellowed vellum. To the left, weathered, stacked book edges create a textured border. Large, upright letters alternate with passages of flowing cursive. Two decorative red and gold initials anchor the main text blocks. Faint horizontal creases and a vertical transparent band cross the warm parchment, which shows signs of wear at the edges.

Text, folio 374 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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