Cleveland Museum of Art

Text, folio 240 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Date: c. 1000–1100
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Culture: Byzantium, Constantinople
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

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 level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople. Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.

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