The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander ( bg, Четвероевангелие на (цар) Иван Александър, transliterated as ''Chetveroevangelie na (tsar) Ivan Aleksandar'') is an
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
Gospel Book
A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels (Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazar ...
, written and illustrated in 1355–1356 for
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
Ivan Alexander of the
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...
. The manuscript is regarded as one of the most important manuscripts of medieval
Bulgarian culture
A number of ancient civilizations, including the Thracians, ancient Greeks, Scythians, Celts, ancient Romans, Goths (Ostrogoths and Visigoths), Slavs (East and West Slavs), Varangians and the Bulgars have left their mark on the culture, histo ...
, and has been described as "the most celebrated work of art produced in Bulgaria before it fell to the Turks in 1393".
The manuscript, now in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
(Add. MS 39627), contains the text of the Four Gospels illustrated with 366
miniature
A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to:
* Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting
* Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture
* Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...
s and consists of 286
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...
folios, 33 by 24.3 cm in size, later paginated with pencil. The language of the text is variously described as Bulgarian,
Middle Bulgarian
Middle Bulgarian language was the lingua franca and the most widely spoken language of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Being descended from Old Bulgarian, Middle Bulgarian eventually developed into modern Bulgarian language by the 16th century.
...
, Slavonic, and
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
.
Contents and binding
![Magic square Chetveroevangelie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Magic_square_Chetveroevangelie.jpg)
The book contains the
four Gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
and some other texts, so is a true gospel book rather than an
evangeliary
The Evangeliary or Book of the Gospels is a liturgical book containing only those portions of the four gospels which are read during Mass or in other public offices of the Church. The corresponding terms in Latin are and .
The Evangeliary develo ...
, but there are markings showing which passages were to be read in the
liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
, as well as a list at the end of the book. The
bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...
of red leather over wooden boards is original, but the elements of a metalwork
treasure binding
A treasure binding or jewelled bookbinding is a luxurious book cover using metalwork in gold or silver, jewels, or ivory, perhaps in addition to more usual bookbinding material for book-covers such as leather, velvet, or other cloth. The actua ...
probably decorated with gold, gems and pearls on top of this have disappeared. The nail holes where these were fixed on are evident, but it would not have covered all the binding, even on the front, as the leather is stamped with patterns and a
griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...
.
The last gathering, with ff. 276–284, is a later insertion with a smaller page size, containing a
menology
Menologium (), also written menology, and menologe, is a service-book used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite.
From its derivation from Greek , ''menológion'', from μήν ''m ...
or liturgical calendar of
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
s and the appropriate gospel readings for them, and a
synaxaria or calendar listing saint's feast days. There is also a short guide on studying the scriptures. Before this, at the end of the original book on f. 273v, is a
magic square
In recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. The 'order' of the magic square is the number ...
of a grid with 625 squares containing letters, in which the name of the book, as "Io Alexander Tsarya Tetravaggel" is spelled out several times, a unique feature in such a manuscript. The centre square contains the "Iῶ" from which all readings begin. Folio 74, which probably contained a miniature illustrating the
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
, has been cut and stolen in modern times.
Miniatures
The gospels are very heavily illuminated by the standards of the West European Late Middle Ages, following Byzantine traditions, going back to Early Byzantine luxury manuscripts of the scriptures such as the
Vienna Genesis
The Vienna Genesis (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. theol. gr. 31), designated by siglum L (Ralphs), is an illuminated manuscript, probably produced in Syria in the first half of the 6th century. It is the oldest well-preserved, ...
. Most pages have small "frieze" images in a landscape format taking the width of the written page. These are interspersed in the text, with between none and three per page, the number and placement in the text depending on the story at that particular point. Other images are near-squares, with the text wrapping round them, and there are larger or whole page miniatures at a few key points.
Several scenes are shown more than once as they appear in the different gospels. Many images contain more than one scene side by side, or sometimes one above the other. The images probably follow closely a lost Greek model, perhaps of the 11th or 12th century. The miniatures are mostly very close to those in a Greek manuscript made in the 11th century in the
Monastery of Stoudios
The Monastery of Stoudios, more fully Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner "at Stoudios" ( grc-gre, Μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Προδρόμου εν τοις Στουδίου, Monē tou Hagiou Iōannē tou Prodromou en to ...
, the largest in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
(now in Paris as
BnF, cod grec 74), and were probably very largely copied from this or another Byzantine exemplar in the same tradition.
The colophon, unusually, refers to but does not name the artists (in the plural) who worked on the book, and the hands of three main masters can be detected, as well as other less competent stretches which were probably the work of less experienced trainees. All would probably have been monks. The main master, responsible for the royal portrait and other major scenes on a larger scale, has been claimed to be very innovative in his technique, while a second master partly followed his style, and the third was more conservative. However non-Bulgarian historians regard the style as a somewhat conservative one which "adhered closely to Byzantine models". According to
Robin Milner-Gulland
Robert Rainsford "Robin" Milner-Gulland, FBA, FSA, (born Mill Hill, 24 February 1936) is a British scholar of Russian and Byzantine literature, culture, and art.
His main areas of expertise are Russian modern & medieval cultural history, modern ...
, "All the painters use saturated colours, relish picturesque details and confidently handle a linear, basically twelfth-century Byzantine manner that is distinctly archaic by the standards of the fourteenth century."
File:TetraevangeliaOfIvanAlexanderFol9.jpg, Folio 9
Matthew 2:3-7
Herod takes advice, and calls the Three Magi
The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the G ...
to him
File:TetraevangeliaOfIvanAlexanderFol45.jpg, Folio 45
Matthew 14:15-31
the Feeding of the Five Thousand
In Christianity, the feeding the multitude is two separate miracles of Jesus reported in the Gospels.
The first miracle, the "Feeding of the 5,000", is the only miracle—aside from the resurrection—recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13 ...
and Jesus Walking on the Water
Jesus walking on the water, or on the sea, is depicted as one of the miracles of Jesus recounted in the New Testament. There are accounts of this event in three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and John—but it is not included in the Gospel of Luke. This ...
File:TetraevangeliaOfIvanAlexanderFol212v.jpg, Folio 212v; the end of Luke, with the Tsar and the (barefoot) evangelist
File:TetraevangeliaOfIvanAlexanderFol10detail.jpg, Folio 10, detail - Nativity, with the Magi appearing twice
The royal portraits
![Constantine KeraThamara Keratsa Desislava Tetraevangelia Ivan Alexander](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Constantine_KeraThamara_Keratsa_Desislava_Tetraevangelia_Ivan_Alexander.jpg)
Folios 2v and 3r have a famous double spread miniature of the Tsar, his second wife, and his five children from both marriages, with his son-in-law on the far left, all identified by inscriptions. All wear crowns, have
halos, and carry
sceptre
A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty.
Antiquity
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The ''Was'' and other ...
s, and above the Tsar and his wife a double
Hand of God emerges from the cloud to bless them. But only the tsar and his eldest son, standing to the left of him, wear a form of the ''
loros
The ''loros'' ( gr, λῶρος, lōros) was a long, narrow and embroidered cloth, which was wrapped around the torso and dropped over the left hand. It was one of the most important and distinctive parts of the most formal and ceremonial type o ...
'', the cloth strip embroidered with
gold thread
Goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads. It is particularly prized for the way light plays on it. The term "goldwork" is used even when the threads are imitation gold, silver, or copper. The metal wires used to make the threads hav ...
and studded with gems that was a key part of the imperial insignia of Byzantine emperors. From the previous century this had begun to be shown in imperial portraits of other Orthodox rulers, such those of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, ...
. The face of the tsar is very carefully painted and clearly attempts a realistic likeness.
There are a number of other portraits of the tsar; at the end of each gospel he is shown at small size in an arcade with the evangelist, and he appears in a large scene of the
Last Judgement
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
. In the Paris Greek gospel book with similar images (see above) the equivalent images at the end of each gospel show the evangelist with the abbot.
History
The text of the manuscript was all written by a monk named Simeon in 1355–1356 on the orders of Ivan Alexander, probably for use in his private chapel. Simeon gives his name in the
colophon on f. 275. It is not certain whether Simeon also illuminated the Tetraevangelia or simply was a scribe and
calligrapher
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
, or indeed whether he devised the magic square. Probably at least three different artists worked on the miniatures, but as was usual no names are given. The handwriting of the manuscript shows definite similarity with that of the
Manasses Chronicle
Constantine Manasses ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Μανασσῆς; c. 1130 - c. 1187) was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine chronicler who flourished in the 12th century during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180). He was the author of a chr ...
(1344–1345), a product of the
Tarnovo Literary School
The Tarnovo Literary School ( bg, Търновска книжовна школа) of the late 14th and 15th century was a major medieval Bulgarian cultural academy with important contribution to the Medieval Bulgarian literature established in the ...
of the time.
After the fall of
Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province.
Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...
to the
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
in 1393, the manuscript was transported to
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
possibly by a Bulgarian fugitive, marking the last time for nearly half a millennium it would be in its native Bulgaria. It spent a number of years there and was later bought on the orders and with the resources of
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
Alexander I of Moldavia
Alexander the Good ( ro, Alexandru cel Bun or ''Alexandru I Mușat''; c. 1375 – 1 January 1432) was a Voivode (Lord) of Moldavia, reigning between 1400 and 1432, son of Roman I Mușat. He succeeded Iuga to the throne, and, as a ruler, init ...
(also a "John Alexander"), which is evidenced by a red-ink marginal note on folio 5. The later fate of the manuscript until its arrival in
monastery of Agiou Pavlou (
St Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
) on
Mount Athos
Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...
is uncertain, but the document was recorded as part of the monastery's collection in the 17th century.
![Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander - inscription f](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Tetraevangelia_of_Ivan_Alexander_-_inscription_f._5.r..jpg)
The English traveller and collector
Robert Curzon (later 14th
Baron Zouche
Baron Zouche is a title which has been created three times, all in the Peerage of England.
Genealogy
The la Zouche family descended from Alan la Zouche (d. 1190), lord of the manor of North Molton in North Devon, England, originally called ...
, 1810-1873), who visited the monastery in 1837, was given the Tetraevangelia as a present by the abbot. This was to his surprise and delight, according to his own account;
Milner-Gulland describes it as "shamelessly cadged" from the abbot. This probably saved the manuscript from being destroyed by the fire that burnt down the monastery library in 1905. Curzon released an inventory of his collection of manuscripts in 1849, the first time the Tetraevangelia was presented to the academic world. Direct work with the original was, however, impossible, which caused speculation, supposition and rumours related to the manuscript. His son placed his collection on permanent loan in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in 1876, and after her death, his entire collection was given to the museum in 1917 by his daughter Darea, 16th Baroness Zouche (1860–1917), which enabled more detailed examination of the book. When the British Library was created in 1973, the manuscript was transferred to the British Library.
In 2017 the manuscript has been added to UNESCO's
Memory of the World
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
register as a world heritage document.
See also
*
Sofia Psalter
The Sofia Psalter ( bg, Софийски песнивец, ''Sofiyski pesnivets''), also known as Ivan Alexander's Psalter or the Kuklen Psalter, is a 14th-century Bulgarian illuminated psalter. It was produced in 1337 and belonged to the royal fam ...
, 1337
*
Tomić Psalter
The Tomić Psalter ( bg, Томичов псалтир, ''Tomichov psaltir'') is a 14th-century Bulgarian illuminated psalter. Produced around 1360, during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander, it is regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Tarnov ...
, c. 1360
References
Sources
*Dimitrova, Ekaterina, ''The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander'', 1994, British Library,
*
Evans, Helen C. (ed.), ''Byzantium, Faith and Power (1261–1557)'', # 27, 2004, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press,
Fully online from the Metropolitan Museum of Art(and see McKendrick)
*McKendrick, Scot, in Evans, Helen C. (ed.), ''Byzantium, Faith and Power (1261–1557)'', # 27, 2004, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press,
Fully online from the Metropolitan Museum of Art*
Milner-Gulland, R.R. "Review of ''The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander'' by Ekaterina Dimitrova", ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Vol. 74, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 302–304, Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies
JSTOR*
*
British Library Manuscripts Catalogue entry and fully digitized with 579 images
External links
{{Authority control
Christianity in Bulgaria
Medieval Bulgarian literature
Athos manuscripts
14th-century biblical manuscripts
14th-century illuminated manuscripts
British Library additional manuscripts
Bulgarian art
Middle Bulgarian language
Agiou Pavlou Monastery