Ostromir Gospel

Tetraevangelion

Tetraevangelion.
The last quarter of the 14th cent. Serbian version (Bosnian type)

Q (208/217 õ 144/149). IV + 110 leaves. Both the beggining and the end are lost, several leaves are missing from the middle part of the codex.
Parchment (fols. 44r-45r, 48r), paper. Ink, cinnabar, yellow colour.

It is written in a Bosnian uncial script. Spelling is typical of manuscripts of Bosnian origin.

The decoration of the manuscript contains a head-piece in cinnabar, executed in the Old Byzantine style (fol. 36r), interlaced head-pieces in ink and cinnabar, worked in the Balkan style (fols. 37r and 73r); an interlaced three-colour head-piece of the Balkan style in black ink, cinnabar and yellow paint (fol. 71v). There are initials in cinnabar, which are mostly outlines, some of them are filled in ink or yellow paint, some are ornamented. The interlaced initial 'B' on folio 92v includes a human head.

It follows from an inscription on the Alexander Hilferding's bookplate (fol. III) that this Gospel was found by him in 1857 at the Monastery of Dovolja (then Herzegovina).

In 1868 the manuscript came into the Imperial Public Library along with the Alexander Hilferding's collection.

Shelfmark: ÐÍÁ. Ãèëüô. 7.

© The National Library of Russia, 2007