Gospels.

Format
Manuscript, Book
Language
Ancient Greek (to 1453)
Published/​Created
Late 11th-early 12th and late 13th centuries with inserted late 13th century miniatures.
Description
328 leaves : parchment, illustrations ; 251 x 201 mm

Details

Subject(s)
Related name
Donor
Rare books genre
Getty AAT genre
Summary note
Gospels of the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Notes
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title from printed catalog.
  • Collation: Parchment ; fols.iii + 328 + iii ; foliation in brown ink was mostly trimmed away by an earlier binder: it is preserved only on fols. 206r-209r. Later foliation (19th century?) in brown ink.
  • Layout: 20-28 long lines per page ; hard point ruling ; prick-marks in the lower margin are not always visible.
  • Description: Scribe A wrote fols. 12r-16v and fols. 17v-327v in a calligraphic minuscule script in brown ink in the late 11th or early 12th century ; titles are written in gold alexandrinischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel (fols. 12r-41v) and epigraphischer Auszeichnungsmaiuskel (fols. 42r-327v) ; text, initials, chapter numbers, and liturgical indications are in gold. Scribe B is probably identical with the later owner of the manuscript, the hieromank Kallistratos ; he wrote fols. 1r-11v, the captions that accompany the miniatures of the evangelists, and the note on fol. 327v in brown ink around 1300. Scribe C, who wrote fols. 16v-17r was perhaps identical with scribe A but wrote in cursive style in brown ink.
  • Decoration: The gospel was written in the late 11th-early 12th centuries; the miniatures, lectionary tables, and calendar added around 1300. There are four evangelist portraits, some of the largest ever painted in a Byzantine manuscript. Also, the canon tables in this manuscript can be ranked among the finest products of late 11th-early-12th century Constantinopolitan art. The painted ornament of the headpieces is more loosely organized than that of canon tables, and it has been suggested that the headpieces may have been executed by a different artist.
Language note
Greek;
Script
calligraphic minuscule script.
Contents
  • 1. fols. 1r-7v: Synaxarion tou kata ioannen hagiou euangeliou. Te hagia kai megale kyriake tou pascha.
  • 2. fols. 7v-11v: Synaxarion tou holou tou eniautou. Men septemvrios a'.
  • 3. fols. 12r-14r: Tou en hagiois patros hemon ioannou tou chrysostomou hypomnema eis ton hagion matthaion ton apostolon.
  • 4. fols. 45r-123v: Euangelion kata matthaion.
  • 5. fols. 126r-176r: Euangelion kata markon.
  • 6. fols. 180r-264v: Euangelion kata loukan.
  • 7. fols. 268r-327v: Euangelion kata ioannen.
Source acquisition
Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.
References
Kotzabassi, Sofia. Greek manuscripts at Princeton, sixth to nineteenth century: a descriptive catalogue, pages 7-18.
Other format(s)
Also available in an electronic version.
Other title(s)
Garrett MS. 2
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