Illuminated manuscripts produced across the Byzantine Empire
10th-century illumination in the Paris Psalter which depicts the life of King David, traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of Psalms. In total there are 14 images throughout the psalter.
Byzantine illuminated manuscripts were produced across the Byzantine Empire, some in monasteries but others in imperial or commercial workshops. Religious images or icons were made in Byzantine art in many different media: mosaics, paintings, small statues and illuminated manuscripts.[1] Monasteries produced many of the illuminated manuscripts devoted to religious works using the illustrations to highlight specific parts of text, a saints' martyrdom for example, while others were used for devotional purposes similar to icons. These religious manuscripts were most commissioned by patrons and were used for private worship but also gifted to churches to be used in services.[2]
12th century miniature from the Skylitzes Chronicle depicting Emperor Theophilos and his court.
Not all Byzantine illuminated manuscripts were religious texts, secular subjects are represented in chronicles (e.g. Madrid Skylitzes), medical texts such as the Vienna Dioscurides, and some manuscripts of the Greek version of the Alexander Romance. In addition to the majority of manuscripts, in Greek, there are also manuscripts from the Syriac Church, such as the Rabbula Gospels, and Armenian illuminated manuscripts which are heavily influenced by the Byzantine tradition.[3]
"Luxury" heavily-illuminated manuscripts are less of a feature in the Byzantine world than in Western Christianity, perhaps because the Greek elite could always read their texts, which was often not the case with Latin books in the West, and so the style never became common. However, there are examples, both literary (mostly early) and religious (mostly later).
The Byzantine iconoclasm paused production of figural art in illuminated manuscripts for many decades, and resulted in the destruction or mutilation of many existing examples.[3]
Combined there are 40.000 Byzantine manuscripts extant today but most are not illuminated.
^Cormack, Robin (2000). Byzantine art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192842114. OCLC 43729117.
^The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Kazhdan, A. P. (Aleksandr Petrovich), 1922-1997., Talbot, Alice-Mary Maffry., Cutler, Anthony, 1934-, Gregory, Timothy E., Ševčenko, Nancy Patterson. New York: Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN 9780195187922. OCLC 62347804.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ abBL
and 27 Related for: Byzantine illuminated manuscripts information
This is a list of illuminatedmanuscripts. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, cod. suppl. gr. 1294 (Romance Papyrus) Oxford, Sackler Library, Oxyrhynchus...
extant manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance. While Islamic manuscripts can also be called illuminated and use...
fourteen known Byzantinemanuscripts of the Book of Job dating from the 9th to 14th centuries, as well as a post-Byzantine codex illuminated with cycle of...
forms of Medieval Armenian art, Persian miniatures, and to Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts. The earliest surviving examples date back to the Golden Age...
Skylitzes is a twelfth century illuminatedmanuscript version of the Synopsis of Histories (Greek: Σύνοψις Ἱστοριῶν, Byzantine Greek: [ˈsy̜.nop.sis is.to...
described in the New Testament Dābbat al-Arḍ Book of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts The Giant Behemoth, an American-British science fiction giant...
carefully maintained canons of representation. Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts were another major genre of Byzantine art. The most commonly illustrated texts...
Dioscurides or Vienna Dioscorides is an early 6th-century Byzantine Greek illuminatedmanuscript of an even earlier 1st century AD work, De materia medica...
Italy, is a 6th-century illuminatedmanuscript Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Empire. Also known as...
Salalah in Oman. Answer to Job by Carl Jung Book of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts Moralia in Job Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, the "Babylonian Job" Testament...
Covenant laws Biblical and Quranic narratives Book of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts Criticism of the Bible Expounding of the Law Genealogies of...
Psalter (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. gr. 139) is a Byzantineilluminatedmanuscript, 38 x 26.5 cm in size, containing 449 folios and 14 full-page...
The Menologion, Menologium, or Menology of Basil II is an illuminatedmanuscript designed as a church calendar or Eastern Orthodox Church service book...
The Joshua Roll is a Byzantineilluminatedmanuscript of highly unusual format, probably of the 10th century Macedonian Renaissance, believed to have been...
6th-century illuminated Syriac Gospel Book. One of the finest Byzantine works produced in West Asia, and one of the earliest Christian manuscripts with large...
Mus. MS. D.129) is an illuminated marginal Psalter made in the middle of the 9th Century. It is a unique monument of Byzantine art at the time of the...
1909. Nestorian Evangelion Book of Job in ByzantineIlluminatedManuscripts Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York:...
The London Canon Tables (British Library, Add MS 5111) is a Byzantineilluminated Gospel Book fragment on vellum from the sixth or seventh century. It...
derive from the biblical Behemoth.) Bakunawa Book of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts Cetus (mythology) Devil Whale Falak (Arabian legend) Ikuchi...
conservation of a late antique illuminatedmanuscript on purple parchment" states "The parchment of Late Antique manuscripts, which date from the 4th –7th...
also known as the Codex Sinopensis, is a fragment of a 6th-century illuminated Greek Gospel Book. Along with the Rossano Gospels, the Sinope Gospels...
of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts Bristol ByzantineByzantine & Christian Museum Byzantine Catholic World Byzantine Chain Byzantine Church, Lin...
The Charioteer Papyrus (London, Egypt Exploration Society, s.n.) is a 5th-century fragment of an illustration from an unknown work of literature. It is...
Bible portal Biblical apocrypha Biblical canon Book of Job in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts Brenton's English Translation of the Septuagint Deuterocanonical...
prominent Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts—the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000) and the Theodore Psalter (1066)—and in a number of Byzantine churches...
(1976). The portrait in Byzantineilluminatedmanuscripts. Brill Archive. p. 110. ISBN 978-90-04-04783-9. The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society; Shaun...
Global Information
