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Walters Ms. W.524, Gospel BookBrowse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format
Author
Authority name: Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340.
Author
Authority name: Cosmas, Indicopleustes, active 6th century
Abstract
This is a relatively early copy of the Gospels in the original Greek, remarkable on account of its calligraphic handwriting, illustrations, and prefatory material, the latter including Gospel prefaces by the sixth-century Cosmas Indicopleustes. It contains four full-page miniatures. The volume is now incomplete and misbound. Four miniatures in the collection of the late Dr. Seigfried Amberg-Herzog, Switzerland, were taken from this manuscript.
Date
First half of the 10th century CE
Language:
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453).
Support material
Parchment
Good quality, smooth, and without defects
Extent
Foliation: i+254+i
Twentieth-century pencil in upper right corners of rectos (followed here); earlier pencil foliation in lower right corners of rectos
Collation
Formula: i, 1(10,-1,7,8,9), 2(8), 3(2), 4-5(8), 6(10,-3,7), 7-9(8), 10(10,-3,7), 11-12(8), 13(2,-1), 14-16(8), 17(10,-4,8), 18-19(8), 20(12,-1,5,7,9), 21(2,-1), 22(2), 23-29(8), 30(8,-2,6), 21-32(8), 33-34(2), 35(2,-1), 36(4), 37-38(2), 39(2,-1), 40(4), 41(2,-1) 42(4), 43(*,-6,7,8), i
Catchwords: None
Signatures: None
Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 7(2), 15(3), 17(4), 25(5), 33(6), 41(7), 49(8), 57(9), 65(10), 73(11), 81(12), 89(13), 90(14), 98(15), 106(16), 114(17), 122(18), 130(19), 138(20), 146(21), 147(22), 149(23), 157(24), 165(25), 173(26), 181(27), 189(28), 197(29), 205(30), 211(31), 219(32), 227(33), 229(34), 231(35), 232(36), 236(37), 238(38), 240(39), 241(40), 245(41), 246(42), 250(43). The first and last quires are reconstituted from single leaves and are modern constructions. The original order of the folios currently extant in this manuscript was 1-3, 4-5, 15-16, 7-14, 17-88, 89, 90-145, 146, 147-148, 6, 149-204, 228, 205-210, 227, 211-226, 246, 252, 249, 238-239, 250, 240, 251, 247-248, 231, 232-233, 241-244, 234, 237, 235, 229, 253, 254, 230, 236, 245. Fol. 146, containing an image of the Apostle James preaching, evidently belonged to a lost volume of the Acts and Epistles that once formed a pair with the present manuscript. Four leaves in the collection of the late Dr. Siegfried Amberg-Herzog, Switzerland, come from the Walters manuscript: Nativity before fol. 7; Baptism before fol. 90; Annunciation before fol. 149; Anastasis before fol. 232.
Dimensions
12.2 cm wide by 17.5 cm high
Written surface
7.5 cm wide by 11.5 cm high
Layout
Contents:
fols. 1r - 254v:Decoration:
fol. 6v:
The labelling inscriptions read: "ho ha(gios) Loukas," "ho ha(gios) Paulos." Trans.: "St. Luke," "St. Paul."
The Evangelist is shown writing his Gospel, while Paul, who according to tradition instructed him, raises his hand in a gesture signifying speech.
fol. 89v:
The labelling inscriptions read: "ho ha(gios) Mar[kos]," "ho ha(gios) Petros." Trans.: "St. Mark," "St. Peter."
The Evangelist and Apostle are paired here in a manner similar to the miniature on fol. 6v.
fol. 146r:
The Apostle is labelled as "ho ha(gios) IakÅbos." Trans.: "St. James".
This image can only have been a frontispiece to the Epistle of James, a text not found in the present manuscript. It is very similar in style to the Evangelist portraits and must come from a second volume, paired with this one and now lost, which contained the Acts and Epistles.
fol. 231r:
The two figures are labelled "ho ha(gios) ProchÅros" and "ho ha(gios) IÅannÄs ho Theologos." Trans.: "St. Prochorus," "St. John the Theologian."
John is shown receiving inspiration from God, symbolically represented as a hand reaching out of the sky. The Evangelist's disciple Prochorus is writing under dictation. This scene is more suitable as a frontispiece to the Book of Revelation, but it was often used as one for the Gospel of John, too. This is one of the earliest examples of it in Christian art.
Binding
The binding is not original.
Early twentieth-century; fawn velvet over wooden boards, rebacked with leather; modern parchment flyleaves and pastedowns; the entire book block has been trimmed, partly to eliminate damage that the leavesâ margins (including those of the miniatures) had suffered from fire
Provenance
Greek village of Aidonochori, December 1907
Dr. Robert Forrer (d. 1947), Strasbourg, method of acquisition unknown
Seen by H. R. Willoughby âin a Paris bookstore,â 1928
Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired before 1931
Acquisition
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Bibliography
K. W. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America (Chicago, 1937), 351â52 with pl. lvi
M. L. Agati, La minuscola "bouletée" (Vatican City, 1992), 87-88
R. S. Nelson, The Iconography of Preface and Miniature in the Byzantine Gospel Book (New York, 1980), 76â79
K. Weitzmann, âAn Illustrated Greek New Testament of the Tenth Century in the Walters Art Gallery,â in Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy E. Miner, eds. U. E. McCracken et al. (Baltimore, 1974), 19â38; repr. in: K. Weitzmann, Byzantine Liturgical Psalters and Gospels (London, 1980), no.ix
G. Vikan, ed. Illuminated Greek Manuscripts in American Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann (Princeton, 1973), 62â65, cat. 5
K. Weitzmann, Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts: Addenda und Appendix. (Vienna, 1996), 90-91, with figs. 677â81
G. R. Parpulov, "A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum", Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004), 70-187, eps. 93-96
N. F. Kavrus-Hoffmann, "Tenth-Century Greek Gospels at the Walters Art Museum: Writing Styles and Ornamental Motifs", Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004), 21-34, eps. 21-27
Contributors
Principal cataloger: Parpulov, Georgi R.
Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William
Copy editor: Joyal, Stephanie
Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail
Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.
Publisher
The Walters Art Museum
License
Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.
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