TYPE: Manuscript

DIMENSIONS: 269 x 180 mm

COMPONENTS: 319 leaves and fifteen full page paintings, many smaller painted figures and decorative letters, ten Canon tables, and a flyleaf from an 11th century Gospel manuscript. Flyleaves and a loosely inserted bifolium at end, apparently complete, 2 leaves cancelled after fol. 154, collation: i" [of 12, i cancelled), ii-xill?, av-xrvil?, exil", with signatures at beginnings and end of each gathering, occasional pencil foliation incorrect and ignore here, double column, 21 lines, written space 202 mm., written in dark brown ink in a regular bolorgir hand, cross references to other Gospels in lower margins, small initials in bright red. Decorative chapter initials throughout in purple sometimes formed of birds and with extensive marginal ornaments in lush floral and leafy designs sometimes with birds or architectural designs, three marginal pictures of Gabriel (fol.158r), the Virgin (fol. 159r) and a shepherd (fol.162r) fourteen full-page decorations enclosing text, ten of them Canon Tables including portraits of the evangelists, birds (chickens, peacocks etc.), trees, grotesques with candles, etc., and four opening pages of Gospels including the symbols of the Evangelists and the opening lines of text formed of birds and faces, all drawn in purple ink with purple was with red and blue and sometimes yellow. Fifteen full-page miniature in ink and many colours with captions in dark brown. Panelled and stamped with rope work tools, spine raised 'alla greca' a flap projecting from outer edge, red silk paste down, flyleaf from a gospel book in Armenian incial script, perhaps 11h century, spine and upper cover replaced, pasted own at front from a printed book in Armenian, binding batteres, in a black quarter morocco fitted case, title gilt.

CONDITION: The picture on fol. 2v apparently unfinished, worn, some dampstains in upper and lower margins, many pages thumbed and creased, some edged frayed, fols. 68-69 and 76-77 partly glued together, mostly sound, lower cover (only) of contemporary blind-stamped binding of thick wooden boards covered with leather.

NOTES: Provenance:
Sotheby's London, 18 June 2002, lot 31 The Gospels were translated into Armenian in the fifth century. This is a large and impressive late medieval codex in the style characteristic of the Artsruni kingdom of Vaspurakan around Lake Van in southern Armenia. The pictures are coloured drawings with faces crisply drawn in black.

Especially good parallels are the Gospel Book of 1411, illustrated by Tserun, sold Sotheby's, 18 June 1996, lot 54, and in a group of miniatures in the Montreal Museum of Art, illustrated by Izik, datable to c.1420 (T.F. Mathews and R.S. Wieck, Treasures in Heaven, Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts, 1994, pp. 179-80, no.46). A later example, dated 1581 but in the same general style, was sold Sotheby's, 23 June 1992, lot 57.
Illustrations have an important part in the function of Armenian manuscripts, both spiritual and interpretative: "The images develop a point of view, they tell the reader how characters are to be interpreted and what unexpected turns the plot may take" (T.F. Mathews and A. Taylor, The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor, 2001, p.15).

The book comprises: a cycle of full-page illustrations (fols. 1v-6v), the letter of Eusebius to Carpanius (fols. 7v-8r), the Canon Tables (fols 8v-11r), Matthew (fol.13r),
Mark (fol.101r), Luke (fol. 156r) and John (fol.251r).

LANGUAGE

Armenian

ITEM ID: 5811