A digital facsimile of selections fromWalters Ms. W.917, Apocalypse with patristic commentary Title: Apocalypse
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.917
Descriptive Title
Apocalypse with patristic commentary
Text title
Apocalypse
Author
Authority name: Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea
Abstract
This manuscript was made around 1800 by the “Old Believers,� a group of Russian Christians who dissented from the Russian Orthodox Church and were subsequently persecuted and excommunicated. Because their books were often confiscated and they were forbidden to use printing presses, they continued to write important works such as this one by hand. The manuscript contains the text of the New Testament book of Revelation along with a patristic commentary, which is accompanied by a series of seventyone striking full-page miniatures.
Date
Ca. 1800 CE
Origin
Russia
Form
Book
Genre
Scriptural
Language
The primary language in this manuscript is Russian.
Support material
Paper Made of a variety of different types of paper, both laid and wove, ranging from thin to very thick; miniatures generally on thicker paper; some small repairs to paper; no watermarks visible; three different small (approximately 17 mm x 12 mm) raised seals appear occasionally, two containing Cyrillic letters and one ornamented
Extent
Foliation: 233 Pastedowns appear to be part of the original quire structure; folios numbered in pencil (arabic numerals) at top right and in ink (Cyrillic numerals) at bottom right; foliation includes the blank pages before and after the written text; one folio missing between fols. 162 and 163
Collation
Formula: The brittle condition of the paper makes it impossible to determine the exact structure of the quires,
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most of which are made with additional folios (generally those containing images) pasted in Catchwords: None Signatures: Signatures on first page of each quire at bottom center, in Cyrillic numbers; some signatures repeated on subsequent folios, probably to indicate where images were to be inserted Comments: Quires begin on: pastedown(1), 8(2), 15(3), 19(4), 23(5), 29(6), 33(7), 38(8), 44(9), 48(10), 54(11), 58(12), 63(13), 68(14), 72(15), 76(16), 83(17), 88(18), 94(19), 99(20), 103(21), 109(22), 114(23), 118(24), 124(25), 132(26), 138(27), 144(28), 150(29), 156(30), 163(31), 168(32), 173(33), 180(34), 186(35), 190(36), 195(37), 201(38), 206(39), 213(40), 219(41), 225(42), 229(43) Dimensions
21.0 cm wide by 29.0 cm high
Written surface
14.0 cm wide by 19.0 cm high
Layout
Columns: 1 Ruled lines: 18-20
Contents
fols. 1r - 233v: Title: Apocalypse Hand note: Script squared, semi-uncial Decoration note: Seventy-one full-page miniatures; three ornamented headpieces; decorated initials throughout (6-8 lines); rubrics in red; text in black ink
Decoration
fol. 9v: Title: Christ inspiring St. John Form: Full-page miniature fol. 15v: Title: St. John narrates his vision Form: Full-page miniature fol. 19v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Ephesus Form: Full-page miniature
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fol. 22v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Smyrna Form: Full-page miniature fol. 25v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Pergamum Form: Full-page miniature fol. 28v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Thyatira Form: Full-page miniature fol. 32v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Sardis Form: Full-page miniature fol. 35v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Philadelphia Form: Full-page miniature fol. 38v: Title: Christ's message to the church at Laodicea Form: Full-page miniature fol. 41v: Title: Christ enthroned Form: Full-page miniature fol. 45v: Title: Elders placing crowns before Christ Form: Full-page miniature fol. 47v: Title: An angel approaches St. John Form: Full-page miniature fol. 49v: Title: Christ enthroned with lamb Form: Full-page miniature fol. 54v: Title: The first seal: the white rider Form: Full-page miniature fol. 56v: Title: The second seal: the red rider
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Form: Full-page miniature fol. 58v: Title: The third seal: the black rider Form: Full-page miniature fol. 61v: Title: The fourth seal: the pale rider Form: Full-page miniature fol. 63v: Title: The fifth seal: martyrs Form: Full-page miniature fol. 65v: Title: The sixth seal: heavenly portents Form: Full-page miniature fol. 68v: Title: Sealing of the 144,000 Form: Full-page miniature fol. 73v: Title: Those who were sealed behold the throne Form: Full-page miniature fol. 76v: Title: The seventh seal: seven trumpets Form: Full-page miniature fol. 79v: Title: The first trumpet: fiery hail Form: Full-page miniature fol. 81v: Title: The second trumpet: destruction of ships Form: Full-page miniature fol. 83v: Title: The third trumpet: destruction of the waters Form: Full-page miniature fol. 85v: Title: The fourth trumpet: obscuring of the sun and moon Form: Full-page miniature
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fol. 88v: Title: The fifth trumpet: plague of locusts Form: Full-page miniature fol. 92v: Title: The sixth trumpet: army of 200,000 Form: Full-page miniature fol. 96v: Title: Angel presents book to St. John Form: Full-page miniature fol. 100v: Title: St. John eats the book Form: Full-page miniature fol. 103v: Title: The two witnesses and the beast Form: Full-page miniature fol. 107v: Title: The ascension of the two witnesses Form: Full-page miniature fol. 109v: Title: The seventh trumpet Form: Full-page miniature fol. 111v: Title: A dragon and the woman clothed in the sun Form: Full-page miniature fol. 115v: Title: War in heaven Form: Full-page miniature fol. 118v: Title: The dragon pursues the woman Form: Full-page miniature fol. 121v: Title: The dragon and the beast Form: Full-page miniature fol. 125v: Title: The two-horned beast
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Form: Full-page miniature fol. 129v: Title: The lamb on Mt. Sion with the 144,000 Form: Full-page miniature fol. 132v: Title: An angel brings the Gospel to the people Form: Full-page miniature fol. 134v: Title: The fall of Babylon Form: Full-page miniature fol. 136v: Title: The mark of the beast Form: Full-page miniature fol. 139v: Title: The harvest of the earth Form: Full-page miniature fol. 141v: Title: The winepress Form: Full-page miniature fol. 144v: Title: The seven vials of plague are distributed Form: Full-page miniature fol. 148v: Title: The first vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 150v: Title: The second vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 152v: Title: The third vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 154v: Title: The fourth vial Form: Full-page miniature
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fol. 156v: Title: The fifth vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 158v: Title: The sixth vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 161v: Title: The seventh vial Form: Full-page miniature fol. 164v: Title: The whore of Babylon Form: Full-page miniature fol. 167v: Title: The whore of Babylon Form: Full-page miniature Comment: This image is nearly identical to that on fol. 164v, though some colors are different fol. 172v: Title: Babylon Form: Full-page miniature fol. 179v: Title: The punishment of the whore of Babylon Form: Full-page miniature fol. 182v: Title: The bride of the lamb Form: Full-page miniature fol. 184v: Title: The word of God Form: Full-page miniature fol. 187v: Title: The punishment of the beast Form: Full-page miniature fol. 190v: Title: The binding of the dragon Form: Full-page miniature
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fol. 192v: Title: Wicked souls imprisoned Form: Full-page miniature fol. 195v: Title: Forces of evil attack city of the saints; demons descend into hell Form: Full-page miniature fol. 198v: Title: The delivering up of the dead Form: Full-page miniature fol. 201v: Title: The New Jerusalem as a bride Form: Full-page miniature fol. 204v: Title: Christ enthroned with angels Form: Full-page miniature fol. 206v: Title: The New Jerusalem as bride of the lamb Form: Full-page miniature fol. 219v: Title: The river of life proceeding from the throne of God Form: Full-page miniature fol. 223v: Title: Prophets assembling in the city Form: Full-page miniature fol. 225v: Title: St. John falls to the ground before the angel of his vision Form: Full-page miniature fol. 227v: Title: St. John presents his book Form: Full-page miniature
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fol. 229v: Title: St. John before Christ; Gabriel holds aloft a letter to one of the cities Form: Full-page miniature Binding
The binding is original. Leather over wooden boards, with brass clasps and studs; leather stamped with patterns, but heavily worn
Provenance
Russia, ca. 1800, created by Russian "Old Believers" Unknown owner and date; ownership inscription in purple pencil on front and rear pastedowns and on fol. 1v: "Rukopis [ms] No7"; name written below appears to have been erased Unknown owner; inscription in green pencil on rear pastedown: "26. x. 34." "C. K. A. L. I. S." Walters Art Museum, 2005, purchased from Sam Fogg Rare Books and Manuscripts
Acquisition
Museum purchase, 2005
Bibliography
Cleminson, Ralph. A Union Catalogue of Cyrillic Manuscripts in British and Irish Collections. London, 1988 (see discussion of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum Ms. 7-1972, comparable to W.917 in date and composition)
Contributors
Cataloger: Kauffman, Nicholas Editor: Herbert, Lynley Copy editor: Dibble, Charles Conservator: Quandt, Abigail Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Emery, Doug; 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