A digital facsimile of selections fromWalters Ms. W.523, Gospel Book Title: Gospel Book
Published by: The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21201 http://www.thewalters.org/
Released under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode Published 2013
This document is a digital facsimile of selections from a manuscript belonging to the Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. It is one of a number of manuscripts that have been digitized as part of a project generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by an anonymous donor to the Walters Art Museum. More details about the manuscripts at the Walters can be found by visiting The Walters Art Museum's website www.thewalters.org. For further information about this book, and online resources for Walters manuscripts, please contact us through the Walters Website by email, and ask for your message to be directed to the Department of Manuscripts.
Shelf mark
Walters Art Museum Ms. W.523
Descriptive Title
Gospel Book
Text title
Gospel Book
Author
Authority name: Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340.
Abstract
This manuscript is of interest for the history of Greek handwriting because it presents a remarkably early example of a less formal, cursive script used for copying books (rather than just documents). The miniature at the beginning of the volume dates from ca. 1150 and must have been added as late as 1920-1930 in order to raise the book's selling price. It is rather damaged but reveals the preliminary drawing which guided the painter at the final stages of his work.
Date
10th century CE
Origin
Byzantine Empire
Form
Book
Genre
Scriptural
Language
The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453).
Support material
Parchment High quality parchment, light, smooth, and remarkably thin
Extent
Foliation: 335 Pencil foliation begins in upper right corners of rectos through fol. 4; foliation then continues from fol. 5 through the end in lower right corners of rectos; foliation omits leaves after fols. 213, 220, and 262
Collation
Formula: 1(4), 2-12(8), 13(8,-7), 14-20(8), 21(6), 22-33(8), 34(10), 35-40(8), 41(2), 42(4), 43(8), 44(6) Catchwords: None Signatures: None Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 5(2), 13(3), 21(4), 29(5), 37(6), 45(7), 53(8), 61(9), 69(10), 77(11),
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85(12), 93(13), 100(14), 108(15), 116(16), 124(17), 132(18), 140(19), 148(20), 156(21), 162(22), 170(23), 178(24), 186(25), 194(26), 202(27), 210(28), 217(29), 224(30), 232(31), 240(32), 248(33), 256(34), 265(35), 273(36), 281(37), 289(38), 297(39), 305(40), 313(41), 315(42), 319(43), 327(44); the first four leaves of quire 1 are all tipped Dimensions
15.5 cm wide by 21.8 cm high
Written surface
7.6 cm wide by 13.5 cm high
Layout
Columns: 1 Ruled lines: 19
Contents
fols. 1r - 332r: Title: Gospel Book Contents: Fols. 1r-v: letter from Eusebius to Carpianus; fols. 2r-3v: readings for the feast days from September 1 to January 21; fol. 5r, lower margin: readings for the feast days from January 22 to January 30; fols. 5r-98r: Gospel of Matthew; fols. 99r-158r: Gospel of Mark; fols. 159r-257v: Gospel of Luke; fols. 257v-258v: readings for the feast days from February 1 to June 29; fols. 260r-332r: Gospel of John; fols. 262bis r-v: readings for the feast days from July 1 to August 31 Hand note: Main hand written in sloping cursive minuscule, medium brown ink; fols. 2-3, 258, 262bis copied in thirteenth- or fourteenth-century hand
Decoration
fol. 4v: Title: The Evangelist John Form: Full-page miniature Comment: This miniature was certainly painted for a somewhat larger volume: it has been noticeably trimmed to fit its present position. Even though it now faces the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, it portrays the Evangelist John; the text of John 1:1 is written in the book in front of the Evangelist.
Binding
The binding is not original.
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Early twentieth-century (probably Leon Gruel); tooled leather over squared wooden board; five brass bosses on each cover; slightly raised endbands; pastedowns are fragments from Chicago, University of Chicago Library MS 138, fourteenth century Provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase from Leon Gruel
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), 350– 351 with pl. lv K. Weitzmann, Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Addenda und Appendix. (Vienna, 1996), 80 with fig. 631 G. R. Parpulov, “A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts of the Walters Art Museum”, Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004), 71-189, esp. 91-93 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. 27-34
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; Izer, Emily; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.
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The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201 http://www.thewalters.org/
Released under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode Published 2013
This document is a digital facsimile of selections from a manuscript belonging to the Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. It is one of a number of manuscripts that have been digitized as part of a project generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by an anonymous donor to the Walters Art Museum. More details about the manuscripts at the Walters can be found by visiting The Walters Art Museum's website www.thewalters.org. For further information about this book, and online resources for Walters manuscripts, please contact us through the Walters Website by email, and ask for your message to be directed to the Department of Manuscripts.
The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201 http://www.thewalters.org/
Released under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode Published 2013