Resolution

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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Arabic, Arianism, Athens, birds, Bishop of Nyssa, Byzantine, Caesarea, Cappadocia, Christian, commentary, Constantinople, Coptic, Coptic Cross, Council of Constantinople, courtesy, Dr. Aziz S. Atiya, Eastern Orthodox, Egyptian, friendship, Greek, illumination, kindness, law, love, Lower Armenia, lozenges, manuscript, monastery, monastic rule, monks, Mrs. Lola Atiya, naskh, Nicene, Orthodoxy, polished laid paper, Pontus, St Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, translation

“They who sow courtesy reap friendship, and they who plant kindness gather love.” — St Basil the Great

Commentaries
St. Gregory (325?- & St. Basil (329-379)
9th c. AH/15th c. CE

This manuscript, written on polished laid paper, is an Arabic translation from a Greek or Coptic original of writings by St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa. It is written in large naskh script and contains an illumination of the Coptic Cross, surrounded by birds between the texts of the two books of commentary.

Beginning sections of text are marked with red ink for the text, framed by diamond-shaped lozenges in red and black.

Although the manuscript is undated, the motifs and painting style are typical of Egyptian illumination of the early 9th c. AH/15thc. CE.

St. Basil the Great was born in Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia. After he attended school in Constantinople and at Athens he opened an oratory and law practice. Soon afterwards, he established a monastery in Pontus, which he directed for five years. He wrote a monastic rule which would become the longest lasting of those in the Byzantine East, still practiced by monks of the Eastern Orthodox church. St. Basil was one of the giants of the early church. He was responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over Arianism (which denied the divinity of Christ) and the denunciation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381/82.

St. Basil’s brother, Gregory became a Christian in his early twenties. Married, he went on to study for the priesthood. He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372.

Gift of Dr. Aziz and Mrs. Lola Atiya.

Book of the week – Preghiera alla vergine…

02 Monday May 2016

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Antiochia, aristocracy, art, Cappadocia, Christ in Majesty, Christian, church, divine, dragon, Emperoro Diocletian, evangelists, facsimile, faith, folios, fresco, George of Cappadocia, Georgius, Goreme, Gothic rotunda, Gothic semi-Italic, holy, Il Bulino edizion d'arte, illuminated manuscript, illuminations, legends, Margherita, message, miniatures, Modena, monastery, monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena, mother, Olibrio, Pisanello, prayer, prefect, preghiera, rebellion, Roman, Roman Empire, Saint Anastasia, Saint Christopher, Saint George of Cappadocia, Saint Margherita of Antiocha, shepherdess, Syrian, Tiziano, torture, Turkey, vellum, vernacular, Verona, Veronese, Virgin Mary, virgine

Preghiera alla Vergine…
Modena: Il Bulino edizioni d’arte, 2007

Facsimile. This illuminated manuscript belonged to a young woman of the Veronese aristocracy. Produced on vellum in the second half of the thirteenth century, it is illustrated throughout with miniatures and consists of forty-two folios, or eighty-four pages. The first two folios are written in a Gothic semi-italic hand. The text is a prayer to the Virgin Mary and one of the oldest known prayers written in the Veronese vernacular.

The rest of the manuscript consists of the legends of Saint George of Cappadocia and Saint Margherita of Antiochia. The script for the legends is Gothic rotunda. At the end of the manuscript are two full page illuminations: Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four evangelists, and Saint Christopher.

A note of ownership indicates that the manuscript was entrusted to the Monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena in 1350. This monastery thrived between 1200 and 1300 as a harbor for young women.

Graphic miniatures illustrate the story of the tribulations of George of Cappadocia, from the time he declared to the Emperor Diocletian his Christian faith, until, after seven years of torture, he was beheaded for not recanting. The story ends with an illumination for which this legend is best known: St George astride a horse, piercing with a lance a dragon led on a leash by a princess. In 1435 the painter Pisanello used this subject on his fresco in the church of Saint Anastasia in Verona. Georgius (ca. 275-23 April 303), born of a Roman army officer from Cappadocia (present-day Turkey) and a Syrian mother, served as an officer in the Roman army.

The legend of the holy Margherita, a shepherdess of Antiochia, tells the story of the prefect Olibrio, who falls in love with Margherita. Her refusal of his advances was deemed an act of rebellion against the Roman Empire. Margherita was tortured and beheaded. Her story became a favorite subject of Christian art, in both the East (tenth century frescos adorn a church in Goreme, Cappadocia) and in the West, including a painting by Tiziano in 1550.

The manuscript is an exceptional example of early interconnection between text and illustration, as small paintings weave in and out amidst the written word. This interplay of text and image was used as an instrument in helping the viewer, if not the reader, comprehend the divine message.

Book of the Week — Vo Slavu Styia…

29 Monday Feb 2016

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Adriatic Slavs, alphabet, books, Bulgarians, Church Slavic, Deseret Industries, Eastern Orthodox Church, Glagolitic Cyrillic, Greek, Kiev, liturgical, Moldavia, monastery, Monastery of the Caves, monastic, Moscow, Old Bulgarian, Old Church Slavonic, paper mill, printing press, Russia, Saint Cyril, Saint Methodius, schools, Semigradia, Serbs, Slavic, Slavs, Wallachia

“Wisdom! Let us attend!”

VO SLAVU STYIA…
Orthodox Eastern Church
Kiev: v Kievopecherskoi lavre, 170?
BX350 C45 O77 1700z

The Monastery of the Caves was founded in 1015 just outside of Kiev. In 1615, as part of a prestige-building effort, the Abbot raised money to buy a printing press. The oldest known work from the press is dated 1616. Along with mostly liturgical works, the monastic press supplied books for local schools. The monastery built a paper mill and other facilities to produce printed materials.

The editions out of Kiev were models of scholarship and attractive appearance. Orthodox Kiev considered itself the center for Slavic peoples that shared the faith. The press expressed this belief in an introduction in one of its books, saying that the book was intended not only for all of Little and Great Russia, but also for the southern Slavs – Serbs, Bulgarians, the Adriatic Slavs, Moldavia, Wallachia and Semigradia.

While the liturgical works from the Kiev press were reproduced according to Greek printed editions, variations began to develop. Added to the books were new dimensions that reflected the local population. These variants to the traditional Orthodox liturgical output gave the Kiev editions a character all their own.

In Moscow, the Kievan editions came to be regarded with suspicion. Even so, Moscow printers chose Kievans as correctors and advisors for their publications. Kievans knew the Greek language much better than Muscovites. In the end, most Moscow editions were simply transcriptions of the Kievan translations.

This book is a liturgical work in Church Slavic, the language of the Orthodox Church in Russia and the literary language in various parts of the East and West Slavic speaking areas. Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius created the Glagolitic Cyrillic alphabet in the mid-ninth century. Soon after, in the mid-9th century, they began translating the Gospels, probably from a Greek lectionary, into Old Bulgarian, now commonly called Old Church Slavonic.

This copy was printed in red and black and bound in wood and leather – an excellent, albeit worn, example of bookbinding in eighteenth-century Russia. Gift from Deseret Industries.

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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