Walters Ms. W.527, Gospel Book Gospel Book Principal cataloger Parpulov, Georgi R. Editor Herbert, Lynley Editor Noel, William Copy editor Joyal, Stephanie Contributor Bockrath, Diane Contributor Emery, Doug Contributor Noel, William Contributor Tabritha, Ariel Contributor Toth, Michael B. Conservator Owen, Linda Conservator Quandt, Abigail The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.

 The Gospel text in this Constantinopolitan manuscript of ca. 1000 is now fragmentary and its folios are bound out of order. However, it provides a fine and quite early example of the so-called pearl script: a calligraphic form of minuscule handwriting that was extremely popular in the Byzantine Empire. The single surviving miniature is of interest because of the peculiar technique, similar to watercolor, in which it was painted. Another Evangelist portrait from the same set survives in Mount Athos, Docheiariou Monastery MS 56. Baltimore The Walters Art Museum W.527 The primary language in this manuscript is Greek, Ancient (to 1453). 1r - 135v Gospel Book Gospel Book Incomplete and out of sequence: fols. 1v-39v: Mark 1:1-14:3; fols. 40r-59v: Luke 2:41-8:16; fols. 60r-72v: Luke 9:41-12:42; fols. 73r-v: John 8:19-8:33; fols. 74r-v: John 10:4-10:18; fols. 75r-v: John 8:5- 8:19; fols. 76r-v: John 9:29-10:3; fols. 77r-135v: Gospel of Matthew, beginning lost, starts at Matthew 9:6

High quality, white and smooth

 Foliation: i+136+i20.4 15.0 12.8 8.5 Twentieth-century pencil foliation in upper right corners of rectos (followed here), includes fol. 36bis, ends at fol. 135; earlier pencil foliation in lower right corners of rectos

1(10,-10), 2-4(8), 5(8,-8), 6-7(8), 8(10,-7), 9(8), 10(4), 11(8,-7,8), 12-13(8), 14(12,-3,6,8,11), 15(10,-3,9), 16-17(8), 18(8,-6,7,8) There are three parallel sets of quire signatures in the lower margins of each quire's first and/or last leaf. Two of them are in Greek characters, the third one is in Cyrillic characters. All postdate the copying of the book by several centuries. Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 10(2), 18(3), 26(4), 34(5), 40(6), 48(7), 56(8), 65(9), 73(10), 77(11), 83(12), 91(13), 99(14), 107(15), 115(16), 123(17), 131(18). Missing some quires, others reconstructed. Original order of folios currently extant in this manuscript: lacuna, fols. 77-135, 1-39, lacuna, fols. 40-59, lacuna, fols. 60-72, lacuna, fols. 75, 73, lacuna, fols. 76, 74.

 Hardpoint ruling Perlschrift, medium to dark brown ink, one hand One full-page miniature extant; one ornamental headpiece; rubrics in red or gold over maroon; text in dark brown ink Evangelist Mark Gospel of Mark Full-page miniature

Inscribed "ὁ ἅ(γιος) Μάρκος" or "St. Mark."

The Evangelist is shown deep in thought, his hand raised to his mouth (compare to image with similar composition in Baltimore, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.530.A). On the desk before him are pens, an inkwell, a pair of compasses, and two knives (used to prepare parchment for writing and to erase errors).

 Title page of the Gospel of Mark Mark 1:1-5 Ornamented headpiece

Inscribed "τὸ κατὰ Μάρκο(ν) ἄγιον εὐ(α)γ(γέλιον)· τῇ κυ(ριακῇ) πρὸ τῶν Φώτων· κε(φάλαιον) α," or "The Holy Gospel according to Mark; on the Sunday after the Feast of the Baptism; Chapter 1."

Reused Armenian cover originally from Venice, San Lazzaro MS 1580 (according to Guy Petherbridge); tooled brown leather over thin squared boards

 Ca. 1000 CE Constantinople (Istanbul) Henry Walters, acquired before 1931 Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest Relevant Works Clark, Kenneth. A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937, pp. 357-358. Vikan, Gary, ed. Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 70-71, cat. no. 7. Weitzmann, Kurt. Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts: Addenda und Appendix. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996, p. 82, figs. 640-641. Parpulov, Georgi. “A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum.” Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004): 71-189. Art Medicine Museum Poetry Script Muhammad, the Prophet Kashmiri Horses Walters Art Museum Document Astrology Devotion History Legal Literature -- Poetry Literature -- Prose Liturgy Philosophy Science Science -- Medicine Scripture Sufism Theology Mineralogy Logic Geography Geomancy Cosmology Cartography Fortune-telling Koran Qur`an Firman Palimpsest Prayer Bible Gospels Psalter Missal Lectionary Book of Hours Antiphonary Homilary Processional Horologion Breviary Hymnal Chronicle Maghreb Sub-Saharan (West) Africa Turkey Afghanistan Central Asia Egypt England India Iran Iraq Pakistan Germany France Austria Netherlands Ethiopia Armenia Flanders Greece Mamluk Mughal Ottoman Ottonian Armenian Byzantine Abbasid Qajar Rajput Christian Arabic Austrian Dutch Egyptian Fatimid German Indian Islamic Persian Safavid Timurid Turkish Umayyad English French Flemish Ethiopian Carolingian Calligraphy Colophon Headpiece Illumination Illustration Medallion Miniature Ornament Painting Early Abbasid script Ragini Romanesque Gothic Watermark Grotesques Historiated initial Inhabited initial White-vine lettering Textura Batarda Humanistic Uncial Accordion book Album Book Codex Manuscript Heraldry Saint's Life Drawing Grisaille Binding New Abbasid style Musical notation Russia Romania Charter Russian Genealogy Mass book Prayer book Gospel Lectionary Psalter-Hours Treatise Grammar Gloss Pontifical Private devotional text Gradual Protective scroll Scroll 10th century 11th century 12th century 13th century 14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century 8th century 9th century Block book Caroline minuscule Central Arab lands (Near East) Chart English secretary hand Kufic Gothic book hand Original binding Treasure binding Gospel Book Spanish Spain Italian Italy Coptic Scrapbook American United States Maryland Historical Society Friendship book Friendship Liturgical Devotional Scriptural Theological Legal Historical Scientific Scientific -- Medical Literary -- Prose Literary -- Poetry Philosophical Astrological Sufi English Christian Codex Manuscript Walters Art Museum Byzantine Gospel Book Binding Book Headpiece Illumination Miniature Greece 10th century 11th century Scripture Turkey