Artwork Page for Text, folio 396 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 396 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 396 (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 1942.152.396.a
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.
An ink and tempera manuscript page on vellum features three horizontal sections of Greek script in dark brown ink. The middle section contains larger, bolder characters. On our left, three decorative initial letters are embellished with gold and reddish-brown tempera. The cream-colored surface shows faint staining and a dark mark at the bottom right. Small binding holes and cord fragments line the edge on our left. Numbers appear in the top right corner.

Text, folio 396 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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