Dialogues of Gregory Dvoeslov (Gregory the Dialogist) on Gospel.
13th cent. South-western Russia

F (300 õ 250). 328 leaves.
Parchment. Ink, cinnabar, colours.

It is written in a uncial hand in two columns.

The illumination of the manuscript includes the miniature of Christ the Almighty with St Gregory Dvoeslov and the Martyr Eustaphius (on folios 1 îá.). There are interlaced head-pieces in cinnabar and ink (fol. 2r), initial letters with Old Byzantine motifs in cinnabar and ink. Folio 41v bears a record of a legal case dating from 14th - 15th centuries, written in a semi-uncial hand.

The manuscript is the earliest Slavic copy of Commentaries on the Gospel of Pope Gregory I the Great (died in 604) that survives today. The codex was created in south-western Russia. The book is of great artistic and scientific value. It reflects various kinds of medieval Russian art and craftsmanship and also contains an evidence of legal nature from the period of feudal division.

In 1852 the manuscript came into the Imperial Public Library along with the other contents of the Mikhail Pogodin's collection.

Shelfmark: ÐÍÁ. Ïîãîä. 70.