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) 825-4957
Description
Traditional Armenian binding. Damaged, loose binding, lower cover detached. Brown damaged leather over horizontally cut wooden boards; horizontal portion of head and tail missing at upper board and at head of detached lower board. Very worn blind-tolling. Spine leather wanting; white spine lining cloth visible. No flap. Holes on boards (three on front and perhaps three pairs on back) indicate previous existence of clasps. Endbands wanting. Red, white, and brown flower-printed cloth lines lower board, now partially obscured by added paper pastedowns. Edges are uncolored. Three loop board attachments clearly visible on inside front board. There is a small piece of twisted black cloth placed below the spine lining and reaching out at the head (perhaps once a page marker?). Poor state of preservation. Because of the condition of the binding, the leaves are loose, there are also many lacunae. Many leaves have been damaged by fire and dampness. The codex is illustrated with two small headpieces (fols. 10 and 59v) accompanied by marginal palmettes and decorative initials, and by 11 illuminated initials with 9 corresponding marginal birds and palmettes.The modest illumination of this book is conservative in concept and unsteady in execution, leaving the impression of an amateur artist whose carefulness could not compensate for his lack of familiarity with his materials and his hesitant draftsmanship. The illumination on fol. 10, with its headpiece, marginal palmette, and illuminated incipit, is typical. The two interlocking rows of three-lobed bud motifs forming the headpiece are traditional forms with which the artist has taken some pains. They are hesitantly traced in black and tinted in blue and red. The background is a red wash. As a final touch, the junctures of the buds are marked with large, erratically spaced dots of black ink, which disrupt the pattern.The birds which form the initials A and Ts are equally traditional, and also tinted blue and red with poorly controlled black accents. Here the artist’s uncertainty is clearly evidenced in pentimenti: the birds were sketched in a very pale red line, repositioned rather drastically, and then outlined in an uneven black line. Fol. 59, Fol. 96, Fol. 175, Fol. 203.
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