OLD SLAVONIC GOSPELS

Extremely rare and very attractive Lviv edition of this illustrated Old Slavonic Naprestolnoe, i.e. liturgical Tetraevangelia or Altar Gospel Book, intended for readings during the divine liturgy and throughout the church year, the binding preserving fragments of a contemporary engraved silver Gospel book cover, incontrovertibly from the same Slavonic context and most likely recovered from the book’s original boards. 
The book contains readings from the Gospels, Acts, and, at the end, an Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar and table of contents. Liturgical Tetraevangelia were the most common sort of printed Gospel books. The first printed edition of the Old Slavonic Gospels was at Tárgovişte, Romania in 1512, derived from a centuries-old manuscript legacy beginning with the C9th missions of Cyril and Methodius, who translated the Gospels and liturgical texts from Greek. Between 1512 and the C18th there were over one hundred printed editions of Cyrillic liturgical Tetraevangelia. Broadly these can be divided into two groups that follow the regional ‘recensions’ in the manuscript tradition, which were introduced during the medieval period: the South Slavonic group, in the Middle Bulgarian and Serbian recension of Church Slavonic, and the East Slavonic group, influenced by the Russian recension and the Ostrog and Moscow printing traditions, into which this Gospel book falls. Sliozka’s two editions, of 1644 and 1665, have very distinctive subscriptions, i.e. closing formulae at the end of each Gospel, which set them apart from other Lviv Gospels (Jerzy Ostapczuk, ‘The Application of Titutlus Finalis, Subscriptions, Total Stichometry in the Textual Classification of Early Printed Cyrillic Liturgical Tetraevangelia’ in The Biblical Anals, 15.3 (2025), p. 602), possibly evidence of a local Lviv-based or broader Ruthenian textual tradition.

The wonderful title-page depicts Saints Peter and Paul, Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Pentecost, the Resurrection, Nativity and Ascension, the woodcut to verso showing the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene at the Tomb and with Christ in the Garden, and Christ’s appearances to the Disciples. The splendid woodcut illustrations depict the four Evangelists, with two full-page woodcuts depicting Luke and John, the latter including two vignettes from his life, the first depicting John being boiled in oil by Domitian and the second showing his Dormition in a cruciate grave. The cycle of Gospel illustrations depicts the Annunciation, Christ’s Baptism, the Parables of the Prodigal Son and the Pharisee and Tax Collector, Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, Crucifixion and Ascension. The three charming miniature woodcuts depict Christ taken in the Garden, brought before Pilate, and beaten. There are also cuts depicting two scenes from Acts, Pentecost and the Martyrdom of St. Stephen.

Gospel book covers with protective and symbolic metal covers were common in the early Christian tradition, dating back to the Carolingian and Byzantine churches, one of the earliest surviving examples being the C9th Codex Aureus of Saint Emmeram in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and often followed the pattern of a central image of Christ surrounded by the Four Evangelists. Frequently panels were reused to cover earlier books, though in this case the panels seem to be contemporary with the text, suggesting they are from the original binding; surviving and intact examples are distinctly uncommon, partly because the metal was stripped off for reuse or melting down, and partly because such liturgical books were subject to almost continual handling as well as persecution. Our binding fragments are charming but relatively modest and the engraving rather naïve, likely the work of a provincial workshop, mainly Lviv; compare, for instance, the more sophisticated Moscow 1685 Gospel book with original coverings offered at Christie’s sale of the R. Eden Martin Collection, 2018, lot 1.