The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This manuscript was executed in 1475 CE by a scribe identified as Aristakes for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of sixteen images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the Gospels, as well as the traditional Evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the fifteenth century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-260) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a rebinding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.
Bolorgir (miniscule) for the text of the Gospels; erkat’agir (uncial) for letters introducing verses; upright erkat’agir (uncial) for the flyleaves and endleaves, which are from a thirteenth-century Gospel Book
Principal cataloger: Der Nersessian, Sirarpie
Principal cataloger: Landau, Amy
Principal cataloger: van Lint, Theo M
Cataloger: Dennis, Nathan S
Cataloger: Noel, William
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
Walters Art Gallery. The History of Bookbinding, 525-1950 A.D. An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, November 12, 1957, to January 12, 1958. Baltimore: Organized by the Walters Art Gallery and presented in cooperation with the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1957, pp. 12-13.
Sanjian, Avedis K. A Catalogue of Medieval Armenian Manuscripts in the United States. University of California Publications, Near Eastern Studies 16. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976; pp. 296-305, cat. no. 59.
Merian, Sylvie, L. “The Armenian Silversmiths Kesaria/Kayseri: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” In Armenian Kesaria/Caesarea and Asia Minor. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian, UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 12. Forthcoming 2013.
Der Nersessian, Sirarpie. Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1973; pp. 45-51, 88-89, cat. no. V, plates 128-160.
Thanks are expressed to Professor Bernard Coulie (Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve) for kindly making available his bibliography on the Armenian manuscripts kept in the Walters Art Museum.
Merian, Sylvie, L. "Newly Identified Armenian Plaques from Keyseri in the Fitzwilliam Museum." Manuscripta 51, no. 2 (2007): pp. 261-269.
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. 762, no. 29.
Merian, Sylvie, L., “Notes on Two Pairs of Armenian Silver Plaques from Kayseri in the Musée Arménien de France.” Manuscripta 55, no. 1 (2011): pp. 109-22.
Merian, Sylvie, L.,“The Structure of Armenian Bookbinding and Its Relation to Near Eastern Bookmaking Traditions.” Ph.D. diss. Columbia University, 1993, esp. pp. 81-82
Walters Art Gallery and Baltimore Museum of Art. 4000 Years of Modern Art. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1953, p. 42, no. 119
Der Nersessian, Sirapie. "An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century." Boston Public Library Quarterly, January 1950, p. 12.
Mathews, Thomas F., and Roger S. Wieck, eds. Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts. New York: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, pp. 150-151, cat. no. 9.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Possibly area around Lake Van, Turkey
1475 CE
book
Original Binding
Upper and lower boards made of wood and covered with goatskin, with a rectangular goatskin flap attached to the lower board to protect the fore-edge; two silver plaques have been attached to the upper and lower boards and are joined across the spine through use of three sets of five silver chains; upper-board silver plaque depicts the Adoration of the Magi in a central, rectangular field, with the figures and decorative elements in repoussé and gilded, with carefully incised details and blue, green, and yellow enamel employed for spatial and decorative effects; outer border is filled with grape-cluster motifs within a green-enamel background and semi-precious gems in the shape of rosettes and crosses; lower-board silver plaque incorporates the same decorative elements and design as the upper-board, but the central scene depicts the Ascension of Christ, with the heavenly background filled in with a marbled white enamel and the earthly background below in blue; inner boards lined with blue linen
The primary language in this manuscript is Armenian.
Created in 1475 CE by a scribe identified as Aristakes for a priest named Hakob, possibly in the Lake Van region of Turkey
Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired before 1931
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Possibly area around Lake Van, Turkey
1475 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Armenian.
Created in 1475 CE by a scribe identified as Aristakes for a priest named Hakob, possibly in the Lake Van region of Turkey
Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired before 1931
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This manuscript was executed in 1475 CE by a scribe identified as Aristakes for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of sixteen images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the Gospels, as well as the traditional Evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the fifteenth century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-260) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a rebinding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.
Bolorgir (miniscule) for the text of the Gospels; erkat’agir (uncial) for letters introducing verses; upright erkat’agir (uncial) for the flyleaves and endleaves, which are from a thirteenth-century Gospel Book
Principal cataloger: Der Nersessian, Sirarpie
Principal cataloger: Landau, Amy
Principal cataloger: van Lint, Theo M
Cataloger: Dennis, Nathan S
Cataloger: Noel, William
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
Walters Art Gallery. The History of Bookbinding, 525-1950 A.D. An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, November 12, 1957, to January 12, 1958. Baltimore: Organized by the Walters Art Gallery and presented in cooperation with the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1957, pp. 12-13.
Sanjian, Avedis K. A Catalogue of Medieval Armenian Manuscripts in the United States. University of California Publications, Near Eastern Studies 16. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1976; pp. 296-305, cat. no. 59.
Merian, Sylvie, L. “The Armenian Silversmiths Kesaria/Kayseri: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” In Armenian Kesaria/Caesarea and Asia Minor. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian, UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 12. Forthcoming 2013.
Der Nersessian, Sirarpie. Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1973; pp. 45-51, 88-89, cat. no. V, plates 128-160.
Thanks are expressed to Professor Bernard Coulie (Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve) for kindly making available his bibliography on the Armenian manuscripts kept in the Walters Art Museum.
Merian, Sylvie, L. "Newly Identified Armenian Plaques from Keyseri in the Fitzwilliam Museum." Manuscripta 51, no. 2 (2007): pp. 261-269.
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. 762, no. 29.
Merian, Sylvie, L., “Notes on Two Pairs of Armenian Silver Plaques from Kayseri in the Musée Arménien de France.” Manuscripta 55, no. 1 (2011): pp. 109-22.
Merian, Sylvie, L.,“The Structure of Armenian Bookbinding and Its Relation to Near Eastern Bookmaking Traditions.” Ph.D. diss. Columbia University, 1993, esp. pp. 81-82
Walters Art Gallery and Baltimore Museum of Art. 4000 Years of Modern Art. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1953, p. 42, no. 119
Der Nersessian, Sirapie. "An Armenian Gospel of the Fifteenth Century." Boston Public Library Quarterly, January 1950, p. 12.
Mathews, Thomas F., and Roger S. Wieck, eds. Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts. New York: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, pp. 150-151, cat. no. 9.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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