UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4964
Description
None. Textblock sewn and intact, but some quires loose. Many pages torn, some repaired. Traditional Armenian structure evident. Textblock is somewhat distorted at spine. Spine lined with beige cloth. Endban tie-downs through spine lining from primary sewing extant. Herringbone stitch used on four cord supports; four V-notches. Poor state of preservation. Folios missing at beginning and end of the book; also lacunae between fols. 8 and 9, 30 and 31, 32 and 33, 35 and 36, 38 and 39, 58 and 59, 80 and 81, 109 and 110, 122 and 123, 134 and 135, 147 and 148, 156 and 157, 158 and 159, 170 and 171, 182 and 183. Moreover, the entire codex has suffered damage from fire. Fol. 147 has been partially torn off, and some marginal ornaments are partially cut off. Many leaves have been repaired. The illustrations of the codex consist of one full-page miniature (fol. 46v), four headpieces with illuminated incipit initials and marginal palmettes (fols. 30, 47, 174, 190v), and a fifth headpiece with a marginal tempietto (fol. 125). There are also, throughout the codex, 79 marginal palmettes and 72 tubular and bird-form initials marking the major divisions of the manuscript.Two hands seem to be represented in the decorative illumination of this codex. The unsteady initials and marginalia on fols. 31-35v are drawn in brick red and occasionally picked out in green. They lack the fuller modeling of the headpieces and other initials, all of which are executed with a softer, surer line in red with accents of blue.The full-page miniature, representing the Three Marys at the Empty Tomb, would appear to be the work of a third artist, in whom ambition overreached skill, particularly in the handling of color. The composition is familiar; it is an advanced stage in the series of ever more crowded compositions based ultimately on Sargis Pitsak’s Gospel of A.D. 1357 at Aght’amar (Matenadaran MS 5332). The Myrophores are crushed against the left margin. Only the first of them has a body; the other two are represented by heads peering over Mary’s shoulder. Their hands, gesturing in inquiry, slip behind the angel, who sits on the slab fallen from the tomb. His wings are splayed, the right one lifted up over the tomb, as in the prototype, but here they are virtually wedged between the Holy Women and the empty tomb. The angel gestures, with two left hands, toward the shroud. Below him, three sleeping guards are shown as three heads perched on a bundle of drapery. Above, the sky is filled with drapery and stray bits of architecture. The sense of crowding is enhanced by compulsive overpainting. No area, save the blue ground behind the shroud, carries less than two colors. The faces are tinted with a light orange, lined with a darker shade of the same pigment, over which the features are outlined in black and dark blue. The effect is more of a war paint than of modeling. Text in small bolorgir, written in one column of 22 lines. Subtitles in red bolorgir, and initials in red erkat’agir. Fols. 31-35 written in bolorgir by a different hand. Musical notations throughout the codex.Because folios are missing at the beginning and end of the book and there are many lacunae throughout the codex, the total number of quires and of the leaves in the gatherings cannot be determined. Only the following folios have quire numbers; quire 6 on fol. 33v; quire 7 on fol. 34; quire 14 on fol. 93v; first page of quire 15 on fol. 94; last page of quire 15 on fol. 109v; quire 16 on fol. 122v. These quires are numbered with the letters of the Armenian alphabet written in bolorgir in the lower margin of the page. Fol. 29v. Written by the scribe.Fol. 190. Written by the scribe.Later Inscription:Fol. 124v. In lower half of the page in notragir.Fol. 124v. In the left margin.Fol. 149. In crude notragir.
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