Collection ID: 0054 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Gospel Book

Authors

• Eusebius of Caesarea (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79150225)

Other related names

• Henry Walters, former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr94027104)

Call number

W.522
(Baltimore, Walters Art Museum)

Publisher

Walters Art Museum

Language

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Origin

Place

Constantinople (Istanbul)

Summary

This Gospel book was likely created in the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, in the eleventh century. The manuscript is remarkable on account of its exceptionally small size, as well as the high quality of its script and miniatures. Its extensive image cycle includes six full-page miniatures, four half-page miniatures, four historiated initials, and marginalia.

Notes

• Parchment, lightweight, smooth, high quality; Fols. 247-261 slightly lighter in weight and color
   

Extent

3.8 cm wide by 7.0 cm high bound to 6.7 cm wide by 9.9 cm high

Foliation

i+291+i; Two sets of pencil foliation: Incorrect earlier foliation in lower right cornersof rectos; Modern pencil foliation in upper right corners of rectos (followed here)

Collation

Formula: 1(2,-2), 2(8), 3(2), 4-10(10), 11(8), 12-16(10), 17(2), 18-25(10),26(10,-2), 27-28(10), 29(8), 30-32(2,-2), 33-35(10); Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 2(2), 10(3), 12(4), 22(5), 32(6),42(7), 52(8), 62(9), 72(10), 82(11), 90(12), 100(13), 110(14), 120(15),130(16), 140(17), 142(18), 152(19), 162(20), 172(21), 182(22), 192(23),202(24), 212(25), 222(26), 231(27), 241(28), 251(29), 259(30), 260(31),261(32), 262(33), 272(34), 282(35); Quires 1, 30, 31, and 32 are singletons

Signatures

Some traces remain, but mostly trimmed away

Support

Parchment

Binding

The binding is not original; Early twentieth-century; Green velvet over wooden boards, bronze clasp; Modern parchment flyleaves

Layout

Columns: 1; Ruled lines: 25

Decoration

Six full-page miniatures; Four half-page miniatures; Four historiated initials; Marginalia

Script

One hand throughout

Provenance

• Likely created in Constantinople, ca. 1080-1100.
   
• Acquired by Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1931.
   
• Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest.
   

Related resources

• Clark, Kenneth. A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937, pp.348–350, pl. liv.
• Cutler, Anthony. "The Dumbarton Oaks Psalter and New Testament: TheIconography of the Moscow Leaf." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37 (1983): 35-45; reproduced in idem. Imagery and Ideology in Byzantine Art. Hampshire: Variorum, 1992, no. viii.
• Parpulov, Georgi. "A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): 71-189.
• Weyl Carr, Annemarie. "Diminutive Byzantine Manuscripts." Codices Manuscripti 6 (1980): 130-161, figs. 15-16; reproduced in eadem. Cyprus and the Devotional Arts of Byzantium in the Era of the Crusades. Hampshire: Variorum, 2005, no. v.
• Weyl Carr, Annemarie. "Gospel Frontispieces from the Comnenian Period." Gesta 21 (1982): 3-20; reproduced in eadem. Cyprus and the Devotional Arts of Byzantium in the Era of the Crusades. Hampshire: Variorum, 2005, no. iii.
• Kavrus-Hoffmann, Nadezhda. "Cataloguing Greek Manuscripts in the Collections of the USA: New Findings and Identifications." In Atsalos, B.and N. Tsironis, eds. Actes du VIe Colloque International de Paléographie Grecque (Drama 21-27 Sept. 2003). Vol. 2. Athens: 2008, pp. 809-814.

Keywords

• Gospel Book
• Byzantine
• Miniature
• Greece
• Headpiece
• Historiated initial
• Christian
• Scripture
• Turkey
• 11th Century

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Walters Art Museum W.522: Gospel Book are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is ©2024 The Walters Art Museum and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License version 2.0 (CC-BY-SA-3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 2r — Letter from Eusebius to Carpianus
• fol. 4v — Canon tables
• fol. 9v — Preface to the Gospel of Saint Matthew
• fol. 10r — Chapter list for the Gospel of Saint Matthew
• fol. 12r — Gospel of Saint Matthew
• fol. 87r — Preface to the Gospel of Saint Mark
• fol. 88r — Chapters list for the Gospel of Saint Mark
• fol. 90r — Gospel of Saint Mark
• fol. 138r — Preface to the Gospel of Saint Luke
• fol. 139r — Chapter list for the Gospel of Saint Luke
• fol. 142r — Gospel of Saint Luke
• fol. 228r — Preface to the Gospel of Saint John
• fol. 229v — Chapters list for the Gospel of Saint John
• fol. 230r — Verses in praise of the Evangelist John
• fol. 231r — Gospel of Saint John; Incomplete, ends with John 21:3

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Full-page miniature with Christ blessing the Apostles; The inscription reads "Χ(ριστὸ)ς εὐλογ(ῶν) [τοὺς ἀπο]στόλ[ους]"; The scene known as "Mission of the Apostles" corresponds to John 21:12-19 and is seldom found in Byzantine Gospel illustration; It is not certain that this leaf now occupies its original position: it might have once faced the first page of Acts in a now lost companion volume to W.522
• fol. 1v — Full-page miniature with Cross; The inscription "XXXX" stands for "Χ(ριστὸς) χ(άριν) χ(ριστιανοῖς) χ(αρίζει)" (Christ gives grace to [all] Christians); A cross placed at the beginning of a book was believed to protect its contents and it owner; This particular form, with two horizontal arms, is known as a patriarchal cross
• fol. 11v — Full-page miniature of the Evangelist Matthew writing; The inscription is illegible; As usual, the Evangelist is shown in the process of writing his Gospel; The curtain, held by a decorative lion's mask above his head, conventionally suggests that he is situated inside a building
• fol. 12r — Half-page miniature of the Nativity; The inscription in the upper margin reads "Κυ(ριακὴ) πρὸ τῆς Χ(ριστο) ῦΓεννή(σεως) τ(ῶν) ῾Αγίων Π(ατέ)ρων" (Sunday of the Holy Fathers, [the Sunday] before Christ's Nativity); This is the feast day on which the text found on this page is read in church; An image of the Nativity (as seen here) sometimes serves as a headpiece for the Gospel of Matthew because the first important liturgical reading in the Gospel of Matthew is the one for Christmas; The image is very worn: most of the paint has flaked, laying bare the preliminary ink drawing; However, the three angels in the upper left corner are still visible, raising their hands in veneration toward the star of Bethlehem (Luke 2:13); In the upper right corner, an angel talks to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-12); On the lower left, Joseph sits deep in thought at the mystery of the Incarnation; Next to him, the newborn Jesus is being washed by his two midwives (the tub resembles a baptismal font); In the center, the Virgin lies on a red bedsheet next to her infant son
• fol. 12r — Marginal miniatures of standing figures Abraham, David, Jesus Christ; Next to the figures in the right-hand margin: "῾Ο προπάτωρ ᾿Αβραάμ, ῾Ο πρ(ο)φ(ήτης) Δα(υί)δ, ᾿Ι(ησοὺ)ςΧ(ριστό)ς" (The forefather Abraham, The prophet David, Jesus Christ)
• fol. 12r — Inhabited inital "B" with the figure of the Evangelist Matthew, 9 lines; The vertical stroke of the initial letter "B" in Matthew 1:1 ("Book of the generation...") is formed by a figure of the Evangelist, pen in hand; He is actually writing the text that we read on the page; This is the very beginning of the Gospel, where Christ's genealogy is recounted; Correspondingly, the three standing figures in the side margin form a sort of abbreviated family tree of the Savior: Abraham above, David in the middle, and Christ at the bottom
• fol. 89v — Full-page miniature with the Evangelist Mark writing; The inscription reads "῾Ο ἅγιος Μάρκος" (Saint Mark)
• fol. 90r — Half-page miniature with Jesus Christ; The inscription in the upper margin reads "Κυριακὴ πρὸ τῶν Φώτων" (Sunday before Epiphany [the feast of Christ's Baptism), the day on which the text on this page is read in church; In the side margin: "῾Οἅ(γιος) ᾿Ιω(άννης) ὁ Πρ(ό)δ(ρομος)" (Saint John the Forerunner [ofChrist]). Next to the initial "A:" "῾Ο ἅ(γιος) Μάρκος" (Saint Mark); The large miniature portrays "Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1), while the smaller image in the margin corresponds to Mark 1:4
• fol. 90r — Marginal miniature with the Evangelist Mark
• fol. 90r — Historiated initial "A," 6 lines
• fol. 141v — Full page miniature with Luke the Evangelist writing
• fol. 142r — Half-page miniature with the birth of Saint John the Baptist; The inscription in the upper margin reads "Εὐ(αγγέλιον) εἰς τὸ γενέ(σιον)τοῦ Προδρόμου τῆς λειτουργίας" (Gospel [reading] for the liturgy on the [feast day of] the birth of the Forerunner [John]); In the side margin,"Ζαχαρί(ας) ὁ Πρ(ο)φ(ήτης), ῾Ο [...]" (Zechariah the Prophet, The [angel of the Lord]). Next to the initial "E," "῾Ο ἅ(γιος) Λουκᾶς" (Saint Luke); The scene of John's birth is generally comparable to Christ's Nativity on fol. 12r; Here the infant is being washed in a font-like tub (notice also the golden pitcher from which water is being poured into it); Two women are bringing gifts to Elizabeth on the occasion of her delivery
• fol. 142r — Marginal miniatures with the Annunciation to Zechariah
• fol. 142r — Historiated initial "E" with the Evangelist Luke, 8 lines
• fol. 230v — Full-page miniature with The Evangelist John and his disciple Prochorus; The inscription reads "[῾Ο ἅ(γιος) ᾿Ιω(άννης) ὁ] Θεολόγος" ([Saint John the] Theologian); The elderly John is dictating his Gospel to Prochorus, who is seated in a cave on the desert island of Patmos (this scene is more appropriate for the Book of Revelation, but is also used as an author potrait for the Gospel of John); Next to Prochorus is a basket with (probably blank) scrolls of parchment
• fol. 231r — Half-page miniature with frontal image of Jesus Christ; The inscription in the upper margin reads "Τῇ ἁγίᾳ κ(αὶ) μ(ε)γ(άλῃ)Κυρι(ακῇ) τοῦ Πάσχ(α)" ([Reading] on the holy and great Sunday of Easter); Next to the initial "I," "῾Ο ἅ(γιος) ᾿Ιω(άννης) ὁ Θεολόγος" (Saint John the Theologian); The Gospel here is preceded by an image of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, thus illustrating John 1:1
• fol. 231r — Historiated initial "I," 10 lines