Boston Public Library, MS q Med.34
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Metadata
- DS ID:
- DS3538
- Shelfmark:
- MS q Med.34
- Title:
- Gospels : in Armenian].
- Place:
- Muradiye (Turkey)]
- Date:
- 1475.
- Language:
- arm
- Physical Description:
- Extent: 321 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 167 x 113 (125 x 85) mm
- Former Owner(s):
- Sommerville, Maxwell, 1829-1904
Huskan-ordi (Monastery : Muradiye : Turkey)
- Note:
- Ms. codex.
In Armenian.
Title devised by cataloger. Date and place of production from colophon (fol. 311).
Script: Written in brown ink in bolorgir script. Capitals and rubrics in red and/or gold. Opening lines of each gospel in gold erkat'agir script.
Collation: Parchment, fol. 321 ; 1-22; 310 412 58(1+1) 6-1112 1212(±7) 13-1512 1612(±11) 17-1912 2012(2+1) 2112(7+1) 2212 2312(±6) 2412 2514 2610(7+1) 2712 2810 296; 302(±1,-2) 312 ; first recto and final verso of each gathering, from gatherings 6-28, signed from 1-23 in Armenian numerals. Modern pencil foliation in lower right margin of each leaf.
Layout: Primarily in two columns, 21 lines per column. Some leaves with bounding and writing lines scribed in blind.
Decoration: 23 full-page miniatures, mostly in verso/recto pairs (5v-26r). Canon tables with illuminated borders and headpieces (27v-35v). Full-page portraits of the evangelists, with large gilt headpieces and borders, facing the first page of each gospel (36v, 115v, 166v, 247v -- all but the first replaced with ca. 17th-century miniatures on paper). First letter of each gospel formed from the...
Binding: Silver decorated panels nailed to sheepskin-covered wooden boards. Panel on the upper cover depicts the crucifixion. Panel on the lower cover depicts the resurrection. Silver binding executed in 1663 by Ter Hohanes (John) of Bagesh (see inscription on fol. 316). Housed in a tan cloth box with a leather spine label.
Origin: Written in 1475 at the monastery of the Son of Hussig (Ter Huskan-ordi) in Berkri, Armenia (present-day Turkey). According to the colophon, the scribe was a monk named Grigor who copied and illuminated the book for his brother, the abbott Mkrtitch. See Der Nessian for complete description of origin and provenance.
Provenance: According to several inscriptions on leaves 165 and 311-318, removed from the monastery of Huskan-ordi to Mush. Returned to Huskan-ordi in 1663 after rebinding. Removed at a later date to Erzerum, where a note records its presence in 1869. Acquired by Maxwell Sommerville and by two subsequent owners.
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased Oct. 1926.
Call number: MS q Med.34.
Former call number: MS 1327.
Bibliography: Sirarpie Der Nessian, "An Armenian gospel of the XVth century," Boston Public Library quarterly, 2, no.1 (1950): 3-17; More books/Boston Public Library quarterly, 1, no. 12 (1926): 338; Nancy Netzer, ed., Secular/Sacred 11th-16th Century Works from the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston College, 2006), nr. 79. - Keyword:
- Institutional Record:
- https://catalog.mbln.org/Polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=12.1033.0.0.5&pos=1&cn=8444905
- IIIF Manifest:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/f7626m598/manifest
- Holding Institution:
