Miroslav Gospel. Complete Aprakos
1180-1190. Serbian Church Slavonic Serbian version. Scribe: Monk Pupil Gregory. Fragment

F (398/412 õ 273/276). 1 leaf.
Parchment. Ink, cinnabar, colours, gold.

It is written in a uncial hand in two columns.
There are two large initials, containting human figures, worked in paints with use of gold.

The main part of the manuscript is kept at the collection of the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade (¹ 1536). This portion of the memorial includes the inscription, stating the scribe -Monk Pupil Gregory, who wrote it in "gold" for Serbian Prince Miroslav, a son of Zavida.

The Miroslav Gospel is the oldest Cyrillic memorial in Serbian. The manuscript dates from the reign of Miroslav, the Great Prince of Hum, who was the brother of King Stefan Nemanja and owned the Land of the Hum. The Gospel was very likely produced for the Church of St Peter in Lima, commissioned by Prince Miroslav. There no reliable evidence of when and how the book was transferred to the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos from Hum. This is only the supposition that Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the the Hilandar Monastery, took the Gospel there. The monastery was sanctified in 1198, and Stefan Nemanja, who became a monk under the name of Simeon, died in 1199. During the second half of the 19th century thanks to Archbishop Porfiry Uspensky, the manuscript was put into scientific circulation. While visiting the Hilandar Monastery in winter of 1845/46, Archbishop Porfiry saw the manuscript at the library of the monastery and was amazed at its magnificence. Getting one leaf from the book to his collection, he took it away to Russia. This leaf was first shown at the exhibition in Kiev in 1874.

In 1883 the leave came into the Imperial Public Library along with the material gathered by Archbishop Porfiry Uspensky.

Shelfmark: ÐÍÁ. F.ï.I.83.