The Book
The book is a illuminated manuscript Gospel Book lectionary containing only feast-day and Sunday readings. It is written in a large uncial hand in two columns on 294 parchment sheets of the size 20 x 24 cm. Each page contains eighteen lines. The book is concluded by the scribe's notice about the circumstances of its creation.
Three full page evangelist portraits survive, by two different artists, and many pages have decorative elements. The close resemblance between this and the equivalent pages in the Mstislav Lectionary suggests they are both based on a common prototype, now lost. The two artists who produced the evangelist portraits were both heavily influenced by Byzantine models, but the style of the portraits of Saints Mark and Luke seems to derive from Byzantine enamelled plaques rather than manuscripts.
More early Russian manuscripts have survived from Novgorod, which was never occupied by the Mongols, than any other centre.
Read more about this topic: Ostromir Gospels
Famous quotes containing the word book:
“A good book is the best of friends, the same today and for ever.”
—Martin Tupper (1810–1889)
“What good is a book that does not even transport us beyond all books?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)