Shortly before the tormented body of Stephen the Great found its eternal rest, Putna began the copying of a new Gospel Book, even more sumptuous than the 1489 one.
An anonymous Gospel Book (1504-1507)
An anonymous Gospel Book (1504-1507)
Written on vellum by an anonymous copyist, the manuscript reveals pages of impressive beauty. Gold is sparkling in titles, in dots, in random words, but also in whole lines – on the first page of the Gospel by Matthew. Gold shines among colors, inside the rich braids that form the first letters and the wide frontispieces. It overflows across the full‑page portraits of the evangelists.
The title page of the Gospel of Luke in the 1504-1507 anonymous Gospel Book.
The illuminated icon of Saint John the Evangelist
The borders and narrow frontispieces, with their play of intertwined circles, palmettes, and flower stalks, complete the decoration of this manuscript, the last illuminated book of Stephen the Great’s reign. The careful painting, in bright colors, has kept its freshness and brilliance to this day, a witness to a glorious era.
Stephen the Great did not live to see this Gospel Book finished.
Its notice reads, in translation: “By the will of the Father, the help of the Son and the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit, the right-believing and Christ-loving Io Stephen Voivode, by the grace of God Prince of Moldavia, who burning with godly desire and loving the word of Christ, zealously began this Gospel Book for his monastery at Putna, which is dedicated to the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God. But then death found him, and he did not live to finish it; and then his son, Bogdan Voivode, by the grace of God Prince of Moldavia, bound it and finished it in the name of his holy-reposed father, Stephen Voivode, and for his own good health and salvation”.
The front cover binding of the anonymous Gospel Book (1504-1507).
On the back cover of the silver‑gilt binding, a Slavonic inscription records the completion of the work: “Io Bogdan Voivode, by the grace of God Prince of Moldavia, hath bound this Gospel Book for his monastery at Putna, which is dedicated to the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, in the name of his holy-reposed father, Stephen Voivode, and for his own good health and salvation, in the year 7015 <1507>, the 5th of May”.