This eleventh-century Gospel Book is of great importance for art historians due to the style of its miniatures, which suggest that it may have been produced in Antioch on the Orontes. The city was a major Byzantine center before its fall to the Seljuks in 1084, but very little of its artistic production survives. Unfortunately, the fragile condition of the manuscript and its binding makes full imaging impossible at this time, so only the exterior could be digitized. Although the volume contains the continuous text of the Gospels, its size is quite large, and it may have been used for public liturgical readings in church, much like a Gospel lectionary.
Written in large, rounded liturgical minuscule; Eusebian letter, preface and chapter titles, and verses in Alexandrian Auszeichnungs-Majuskel, and the Gospel titles in epigraphic Auszeichnungs-Majuskel
Principal cataloger: Parpulov, Georgi R.
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Parpulov, Georgi R. "A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): pp. 119-122, p. 161 (fols. 2r, 4r), p. 162 (fols. 16v, 97v), p. 163 (fols. 239v, 240r), p. 164 (fols. 17r, 94v, 146r, 166r)
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 759, no. 5
Saminsky, Alexander. "Assimilation and Creation of GreekArt in Antioch-on-the-Orontes in Syria during the Second Periodof Byzantine Domination (969–1084)." East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean II Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality. Acta of the Congress held at Hernen Castle (the Netherlands) in May 2006. Edited by K. Ciggaar and V. Van Aalst. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 199 (2013): pp. 219-226, figs. 3-5, 10, 13, 17, 22, 23.
Clark, Kenneth Willis. A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937, pp. 363-365
Walters Art Gallery. Early Christian and Byzantine Art: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22, 1947. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1947, p. 145, no. 733, pl. CIV
Berkowitz, David S. In Remembrance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 1968, p. 28, no. 46
Eastern Mediterranean
Late 11th century CE
book
Non-original Binding
Covered, probably in the mid-sixteenth century, with blind-tooled brown goatskin over squared flush-grooved wooden boards; later re-covered with red velvet; traces of metal attachments
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453).
Given to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1541/42
Taken to Damascus by Patriarch Damianus of Jerusalem ca. 1918
Bought by Henry Walters in Paris, after 1918
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Eastern Mediterranean
Late 11th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453).
Given to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1541/42
Taken to Damascus by Patriarch Damianus of Jerusalem ca. 1918
Bought by Henry Walters in Paris, after 1918
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This eleventh-century Gospel Book is of great importance for art historians due to the style of its miniatures, which suggest that it may have been produced in Antioch on the Orontes. The city was a major Byzantine center before its fall to the Seljuks in 1084, but very little of its artistic production survives. Unfortunately, the fragile condition of the manuscript and its binding makes full imaging impossible at this time, so only the exterior could be digitized. Although the volume contains the continuous text of the Gospels, its size is quite large, and it may have been used for public liturgical readings in church, much like a Gospel lectionary.
Written in large, rounded liturgical minuscule; Eusebian letter, preface and chapter titles, and verses in Alexandrian Auszeichnungs-Majuskel, and the Gospel titles in epigraphic Auszeichnungs-Majuskel
Principal cataloger: Parpulov, Georgi R.
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Dibble, Charles
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Parpulov, Georgi R. "A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum." Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): pp. 119-122, p. 161 (fols. 2r, 4r), p. 162 (fols. 16v, 97v), p. 163 (fols. 239v, 240r), p. 164 (fols. 17r, 94v, 146r, 166r)
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 759, no. 5
Saminsky, Alexander. "Assimilation and Creation of GreekArt in Antioch-on-the-Orontes in Syria during the Second Periodof Byzantine Domination (969–1084)." East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean II Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality. Acta of the Congress held at Hernen Castle (the Netherlands) in May 2006. Edited by K. Ciggaar and V. Van Aalst. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 199 (2013): pp. 219-226, figs. 3-5, 10, 13, 17, 22, 23.
Clark, Kenneth Willis. A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937, pp. 363-365
Walters Art Gallery. Early Christian and Byzantine Art: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22, 1947. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1947, p. 145, no. 733, pl. CIV
Berkowitz, David S. In Remembrance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 1968, p. 28, no. 46
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