Artwork Page for Text, folio 412 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 412 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 412 (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 1942.152.412.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.
A vertically oriented cream vellum page features dense rows of Greek script in dark brown ink. Larger, stylized initial letters punctuate the left margin, and a small gold cross is drawn at the bottom left. Handwritten pencil numbers mark the upper right corner of the aged, creased surface. Faint text from the reverse side shows through. The loopy characters vary in ink intensity, with some lines appearing lighter than others across the page.

Text, folio 412 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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