The Anonymous Book of the Four Gospels from Peter Albota

1569 - the manuscript and the miniatures; 1571 - the binding

This is a Slavonic manuscript, written on parchment, with half-inch lettering, by an anonymous ruler’s secretary. It contains 276 sheets, in folio.

On each regular page are written 20 lines, in black ink; the dots, some letters, words and lines are written in gold and the decorations in red ink.

The four gospels are preceded by sitting portraits of the evangelists that fill the whole page, against gold backgrounds, and projected against architectural settings. An exception is John the Evangelist, whose face can be seen through the dark opening of a cave. The chromatic elements of the representations are bright, with blue, green, brown and violet hues, dominated by the various shades of red of the roofs, the garments and some of the things that the characters possess.

The titles of the Gospels, tall and sumptuous, are written in golden capitals, and the title pages are painted in gold and coloured inks, combining in the background intertwined or concentric circles, as well as straight, curved or broken lines.

The manuscript is bound in covers of golden silver, decorated by hammering, chiselling and incising. On the front cover, the scene of Jesus’ descent into hell (Anastasis) is depicted, inside a border decorated with geometric motifs.

The composition on the second cover is The assumption of the Holy Virgin, with the well-known imagery, set against an architectural background, suggestive of Jerusalem. The covers are bound by their spine through a system of metallic joints.


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