Artwork Page for Text, folio 384 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 384 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 384 (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 1942.152.384.b
Public Domain
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Location
105 Byzantine(not visible)
Print
?

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 vertical vellum page features three distinct blocks of Greek script in brown ink. Top and bottom sections contain dense, fine script, while the center displays larger, more widely spaced characters. Reddish-brown decorative initials punctuate the start of the lower blocks. Stains dapple the aged, cream-colored surface. To the left, the thick, stacked edges of numerous pages are visible, revealing the manuscript's full volume.

Text, folio 384 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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