Gospel Book with Commentaries (c. 1000–1100): Art, History and Details

Gospel Book with Commentaries (c. 1000–1100) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Each of the four Gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul— and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its high level of sophistication is characteristic of monasteries in Constantinople.

Object facts

• Title: Gospel Book with Commentaries
• Date: c. 1000–1100
• Culture: Byzantium, Constantinople
• Type: Bound Volume
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
• Dimensions: Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1942.152

A detail from the museum

Gospel Books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Clark, Kenneth Willis. A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America. Chicago, Ill: The University of Chicago Press, 1937.
• Milliken, William M. “Byzantine Manuscript Illumination” ClevelandMuseum of Art Bulletin34 (March 1947)
• Milliken, William M. “Early Christian and Byzantine Art in America” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Vol. V (June 1947)

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.