Illuminated opening page (folio 1 verso) and 131 folios with Persian text, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4; margins added with rebinding, about 1900): Art, H

Illuminated opening page (folio 1 verso) and 131 folios with Persian text, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4; margins added with rebinding, about 1900) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The opening page of this Christian manuscript is ornamented in the manner of books made for elite Islamic patrons. Using costly pigments made from the semiprecious blue stone called lapis lazuli and gold paint, the artists created contrasting ground colors to set off delicate floral arabesques that evoke the waters and light of paradise. The text was written in Persian, the official court language of the Mughal rulers in India, and read from right to left. Father Jerome had studied Persian in India for seven to eight years before Akbar asked him to produce a history of the life of Jesus in Persian.

Object facts

• Title: Illuminated opening page (folio 1 verso) and 131 folios with Persian text, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
• Date: 1602–4; margins added with rebinding, about 1900
• Culture: Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 26.1 x 15.4 cm (10 1/4 x 6 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.145.1.b

A detail from the museum

Jesuits brought Netherlandish prints of biblical scenes to Mughal courts, which often had floral borders.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.