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Gospel Lectionary with Marginal Illuminations (Dumbarton Oaks MS 1)


Middle Byzantine
second half of the 11th century
32.6 cm x 24.8 cm x 7.3 cm (12 13/16 in. x 9 3/4 in. x 2 7/8 in.)
tempera on vellum
BZ.1939.12

Not on view


Permalink: http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/37002

Additional Images
Click an image to view a larger version
Additional Image Back cover
Back cover
Additional Image Folio 122v
Folio 122v
Additional Image Folio 122v, detail
Folio 122v, detail
Additional Image Folio 145a, detail
Folio 145a, detail
Additional Image Folio 15v
Folio 15v
Additional Image Folio 1v
Folio 1v
Additional Image Folio 1v
Folio 1v
Additional Image Folio 22a, detail
Folio 22a, detail
Additional Image Folio 26a, detail
Folio 26a, detail
Additional Image Folio 32r
Folio 32r
Additional Image Folio 32r, detail of Apostles, lower left
Folio 32r, detail of Apostles, lower left
Additional Image Folio 32r, detail of Christ, top center
Folio 32r, detail of Christ, top center
Additional Image Folio 40v
Folio 40v
Additional Image Folio 4v, upper left corner
Folio 4v, upper left corner
Additional Image Folio 65r
Folio 65r
Additional Image Folio 7, detail
Folio 7, detail
Additional Image Folio 8, detail
Folio 8, detail
Additional Image Folio 88r
Folio 88r
Additional Image Front cover
Front cover


Description
Gospel lectionaries compiled episodes from the life of Christ, not in natural narrative order, but in the order they were read according to the liturgical calendar, beginning with Easter. The lectionary was a working book, and the signs of wear and tear on this manuscript are the result of repeated use in the performance of the liturgy.

Liturgical books were among the most expensive and most crucial necessities for churches and monasteries, which relied on benefactors for funding. Deluxe manuscripts enriched the written word by the use of gold, elaborately decorated initial letters, and marginal or full-page painted images, all of which honored God and expressed the extravagance and piety of the patron. The Dumbarton Oaks Lectionary has several of these embellishments. What is particularly intriguing, however, is the way they are organized within the book; there is a radical change between folios 41 and 42. The first section is written in carmine ink (a costly ink whose red cast comes from carminic acid, obtained from the scales of certain insects) dusted with gold dust. There are many decorative initials and marginal images, both depicting appropriate New Testament scenes. From folio 42r. on, some of the extravagance disappears. The ink is brown, the initials, though decorative, are not decorated with figures, and there are no marginal images. On the other hand, the format of the page changes from the more common columns to the shape of a cross, a form known only in a handful of surviving lectionary manuscripts. The only illustration in the cruciform section of the manuscript is the image of Christ crucified, echoing the symbolic shape of the text block. Why this change from the heavily-painted columnar folios to the sparser cruciform section? The patron may have seen a cruciform lectionary and decided to emulate it. The scribe may have misunderstood the plan and begun in columns, only to be corrected forty-one folios later. It is impossible to say for certain.

- J. Hanson

To page through a digital facsimile of this manuscript, visit: https://www.doaks.org/resources/manuscripts-in-the-byzantine-collection/gospel-lectionary-with-marginal-illuminations
High resolution files of the manuscript may be viewed here: https://nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:doak.mus:10527118


Bibliography
Sotheby & Company, Catalogue of Valuable Western and Oriental Illuminated Manuscripts July 12th, 1939 (London, 1939), no. 1.

G. Vikan, Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections. An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, exhibition catalogue, The Art Museum, Princeton University, April 14th-May 20th, (Princeton, 1973), 112,113, no. 25, fig. 43,44.

J. C. Anderson, The New York Cruciform Lectionary (University Park, 1992), 81-88, fig. 52,53.

N. Kavrus-Hoffmann, "Greek Manuscripts at Dumbarton Oaks: Codicological and Paleographic Description and Analysis," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 50 (1996): 289-96, pl. 1,2.

I. Hutter, "Le Copiste de Métaphraste: On a Center for Manuscript Production in Eleventh Century Constantinople," in I manoscritti greci tra riflessione e dibattito: atti del V Colloquio internazionale di paleografia greca: Cremona, 4-10 ottobre 1998 2, ed. G. Prato (Firenze, 2000), 535-86, esp. 570.

G. Galavaris, Holy Monastery of Iveron: Illustrated Manuscripts (Mount Athos, 2002), 42-45.

N. Kavrus-Hoffmann, "S?t?roud?s, Panagiontes. Katalogos Hell?nik?n Cheirograph?n Tomos ?? (1387-1568). Hagiov Horos, 2007 (review)," Manuscripta 55 (2011): 222-28, esp. 225-6.


Exhibition History
Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, "Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections, an Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann", April 14th-May 20th, 1973, no. 25.

Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks, "Four Byzantine Manuscripts", April 24th -September 29th, 2013.


Acquisition History
Purchased from Sotheby & Co. by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, July 12, 1939;

Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, 1939-1940;

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C.