The Mokvi Four Gospels ( ka, მოქვის ოთხთავი) is a 13th-century

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, th ...

of 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 ...

in Georgian, copied in the ''

nuskhuri The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order and are written ...

'' script and richly adorned with miniatures at the Mokvi Cathedral in

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which ...

. The Mokvi Gospels contains 329 pages, each 30 x 23.5 cm in size, and a long cycle of 157 miniatures painted on gold. The manuscript is preserved at the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

. The Mokvi Gospels, dated to 1300, was copied by the certain Ephraim at the behest of Daniel, Archbishop of Mokvi, and donated to the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin at Mokvi. Daniel himself is portrayed in one of the miniatures as praying before the Virgin Mary. Naumann and Belting assume that the author of the miniatures was trained in Constantinople around 1290 and brought the Byzantine style to Georgia. The manuscript was then transported to the

Gelati Monastery Gelati ( ka, გელათის მონასტერი) is a medieval monastic complex near Kutaisi in the Imereti region of western Georgia. One of the first monasteries in Georgia, it was founded in 1106 by King David IV of Georgia as a ...

near

Kutaisi Kutaisi (, ka, ქუთაისი ) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the third-most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated west of Tbili ...

, where it was still kept in the 1880s. It was then brought to a museum in Tbilisi and evacuated to France after the Soviet invasion of Georgia as part of the Georgian museum treasuries in 1921. It was repatriated to then-Soviet Georgia in 1945 and found its abode at the National Center of Manuscripts. As of 2015, efforts were underway for improved conservation and repair of the manuscript.

References

{{Authority control 13th-century illuminated manuscripts Georgian manuscripts 13th-century biblical manuscripts 13th century in the Kingdom of Georgia History of Abkhazia

See also

References