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Gospel Book with Commentaries
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this 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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineGospel Book with Commentaries, c. 1000–1100. Byzantium, Constantinople. Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding; sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1942.152
