Artwork Page for Text, folio 418 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 418 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 418 (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 1942.152.418.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 vertically oriented page on cream vellum features three horizontal blocks of hand-written Greek script in brown ink. Densely packed cursive flows across the top and bottom, surrounding larger, more spaced lettering in the middle. A large gold and reddish-brown initial sits at the start of the central text. Mottled purple and brown stains mark the edges, while the book's bound edge is visible on the left.

Text, folio 418 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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