The Khitrovo Gospels is a Russian

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * Illuminated (song), "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also

Gospel Book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels ( Greek: , ) 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 Nazareth and the roo ...

from the late 14th or early 15th century. The book has numerous similarities to the Koshka Gospels, Kiev Psalter of 1397, and other East Slavic manuscripts of the 1390s. It contains eight full page miniatures; four

Evangelist portrait Evangelist portraits are a specific type of miniature included in ancient and mediaeval illuminated manuscript Gospel Books, and later in Bibles and other books, as well as other media. Each Gospel of the Four Evangelists, the books of Matthew, ...

s and four pictures of their symbols (the eagle, angel, lion, and bull), the latter the earliest known Russian full-page examples. The angel is attributed to

Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublev (, ; ) was a Russian artist considered to be one of the greatest medieval Russian painters of Orthodox Christian icons and frescoes. He is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his feast day is 29 January. Ear ...

, and is the only illumination usually attributed to him, although some art historians incline to attribute at least all the full-pages miniatures to him. All the initials are painted in colour and gold, and many pages are richly ornamented. The style is elegant with light colours and expressive faces.Popova, Olga, ''Russian Illuminated Manuscripts'', Thames & Hudson, London (or Braziller NY), 1984, nos 36-39 The gospel takes its name from Bogdan Khitrovo, a powerful boyar who obtained the manuscript from Tsar Fyodor III. Khitrovo bequeathed the gospel to the Trinity Monastery near

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where Andrey Rublev used to be a monk. After the nationalisation of the monastic library the Khitrovo Gospel was incorporated in the holdings of the

Russian State Library The Russian State Library () is one of the three national libraries of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest library in the country, second largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Its holdings crossed over 47 million ...

in Moscow.

References

An online view and a short description
Treasure no. 4 of Rossiiskaya Gosudarstvennaya Biblioteka (Russian-Moscow National Library) *Th

at

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Memory of the World Register UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...

. {{Commonscat 1390s books Old East Slavic manuscripts Gospel Books Memory of the World Register in Russia National Library of Russia collection Cyrillic manuscripts