Books of the four Gospels

The name - tetraevangheliar - is of Greek origin and means, literally, four gospels. It is the name given to those books, either in manuscripts or in print, which contain the writings of the evangelists, placed in the order of their succession in the New Testament, that is: Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s and John’s.

Ever since the first decades of Christianity, the manuscripts of the four gospels were adorned with various polychromatic decorations: initially flowery title pages, vignettes and small illustrations representing prophet figures, portraits of the evangelists and various religious scenes, set against architectural backgrounds or in barely suggested natural landscapes.

The so-called process of Byzantization, meaning the making of figures more ascetic and the amplifying of the decorative repertoire with numerous architectural, zoomorphic and vegetal motifs, of Oriental origin, manifested itself in its entirety after the year 1000. Thus, the prototype of the illustrated gospel book is consecrated in Constantinople, in the 12th century, becoming then widely known in all the countries that took over the Byzantine culture and art, including the Romanian Principalities.

Written by hand and specially adorned with great attention to details, on parchment sheets, the gospels were then placed in precious metal bindings of silver and gold, decorated in their turn with various religious scenes (mostly The descent of Jesus into hell on the first cover and The Assumption of the Holy Virgin on the second cover), either engraved or hammered, using the au repousse technique.


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