Walters Ms. W.917, Apocalypse with patristic commentary Apocalypse Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea Cataloger Kauffman, Nicholas Editor Herbert, Lynley Copy editor Dibble, Charles Contributor Bockrath, Diane Contributor Emery, Doug Contributor Noel, William Contributor Tabritha, Ariel Contributor Toth, Michael B. 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.

 This manuscript was made around 1800 by the “Old Believers,” a group of Russian Christians who dissented from the Russian Orthodox Church and were subsequently persecuted and excommunicated. Because their books were often confiscated and they were forbidden to use printing presses, they continued to write important works such as this one by hand. The manuscript contains the text of the New Testament book of Revelation along with a patristic commentary, which is accompanied by a series of seventy-one striking full-page miniatures. Baltimore The Walters Art Museum W.917 The primary language in this manuscript is Russian. 1r - 233v Apocalypse

Made of a variety of different types of paper, both laid and wove, ranging from thin to very thick; miniatures generally on thicker paper; some small repairs to paper; no watermarks visible; three different small (approximately 17 mm x 12 mm) raised seals appear occasionally, two containing Cyrillic letters and one ornamented

 Foliation: 23329.0 21.0 19.0 14.0 Pastedowns appear to be part of the original quire structure; folios numbered in pencil (arabic numerals) at top right and in ink (Cyrillic numerals) at bottom right; foliation includes the blank pages before and after the written text; one folio missing between fols. 162 and 163

The brittle condition of the paper makes it impossible to determine the exact structure of the quires, most of which are made with additional folios (generally those containing images) pasted in Signatures on first page of each quire at bottom center, in Cyrillic numbers; some signatures repeated on subsequent folios, probably to indicate where images were to be inserted None Quires begin on: pastedown(1), 8(2), 15(3), 19(4), 23(5), 29(6), 33(7), 38(8), 44(9), 48(10), 54(11), 58(12), 63(13), 68(14), 72(15), 76(16), 83(17), 88(18), 94(19), 99(20), 103(21), 109(22), 114(23), 118(24), 124(25), 132(26), 138(27), 144(28), 150(29), 156(30), 163(31), 168(32), 173(33), 180(34), 186(35), 190(36), 195(37), 201(38), 206(39), 213(40), 219(41), 225(42), 229(43)

 Script squared, semi-uncial Seventy-one full-page miniatures; three ornamented headpieces; decorated initials throughout (6-8 lines); rubrics in red; text in black ink Christ inspiring St. John Full-page miniature St. John narrates his vision Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Ephesus Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Smyrna Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Pergamum Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Thyatira Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Sardis Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Philadelphia Full-page miniature Christ's message to the church at Laodicea Full-page miniature Christ enthroned Full-page miniature Elders placing crowns before Christ Full-page miniature An angel approaches St. John Full-page miniature Christ enthroned with lamb Full-page miniature The first seal: the white rider Full-page miniature The second seal: the red rider Full-page miniature The third seal: the black rider Full-page miniature The fourth seal: the pale rider Full-page miniature The fifth seal: martyrs Full-page miniature The sixth seal: heavenly portents Full-page miniature Sealing of the 144,000 Full-page miniature Those who were sealed behold the throne Full-page miniature The seventh seal: seven trumpets Full-page miniature The first trumpet: fiery hail Full-page miniature The second trumpet: destruction of ships Full-page miniature The third trumpet: destruction of the waters Full-page miniature The fourth trumpet: obscuring of the sun and moon Full-page miniature The fifth trumpet: plague of locusts Full-page miniature The sixth trumpet: army of 200,000 Full-page miniature Angel presents book to St. John Full-page miniature St. John eats the book Full-page miniature The two witnesses and the beast Full-page miniature The ascension of the two witnesses Full-page miniature The seventh trumpet Full-page miniature A dragon and the woman clothed in the sun Full-page miniature War in heaven Full-page miniature The dragon pursues the woman Full-page miniature The dragon and the beast Full-page miniature The two-horned beast Full-page miniature The lamb on Mt. Sion with the 144,000 Full-page miniature An angel brings the Gospel to the people Full-page miniature The fall of Babylon Full-page miniature The mark of the beast Full-page miniature The harvest of the earth Full-page miniature The winepress Full-page miniature The seven vials of plague are distributed Full-page miniature The first vial Full-page miniature The second vial Full-page miniature The third vial Full-page miniature The fourth vial Full-page miniature The fifth vial Full-page miniature The sixth vial Full-page miniature The seventh vial Full-page miniature The whore of Babylon Full-page miniature The whore of Babylon Full-page miniature

This image is nearly identical to that on fol. 164v, though some colors are different

 Babylon Full-page miniature The punishment of the whore of Babylon Full-page miniature The bride of the lamb Full-page miniature The word of God Full-page miniature The punishment of the beast Full-page miniature The binding of the dragon Full-page miniature Wicked souls imprisoned Full-page miniature Forces of evil attack city of the saints; demons descend into hell Full-page miniature The delivering up of the dead Full-page miniature The New Jerusalem as a bride Full-page miniature Christ enthroned with angels Full-page miniature The New Jerusalem as bride of the lamb Full-page miniature The river of life proceeding from the throne of God Full-page miniature Prophets assembling in the city Full-page miniature St. John falls to the ground before the angel of his vision Full-page miniature St. John presents his book Full-page miniature St. John before Christ; Gabriel holds aloft a letter to one of the cities Full-page miniature

Leather over wooden boards, with brass clasps and studs; leather stamped with patterns, but heavily worn

 Ca. 1800 CE Russia Russia, ca. 1800, created by Russian "Old Believers" Unknown owner and date; ownership inscription in purple pencil on front and rear pastedowns and on fol. 1v: "Rukopis [ms] No7"; name written below appears to have been erased Unknown owner; inscription in green pencil on rear pastedown: "26. x. 34." "C. K. A. L. I. S." Walters Art Museum, 2005, purchased from Sam Fogg Rare Books and Manuscripts Museum purchase, 2005 Relevant Works Cleminson, Ralph. A Union Catalogue of Cyrillic Manuscripts in British and Irish Collections. London, 1988 (see discussion of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum Ms. 7-1972, comparable to W.917 in date and composition) 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 Biography Liturgical Devotional Scriptural Theological Legal Historical Scientific Scientific -- Medical Literary -- Prose Literary -- Poetry Philosophical Astrological Sufi English Bible Russian Book Codex Illumination Manuscript Walters Art Museum Russia 19th century Scripture Christian Miniature Original binding Treatise 18th century