The Beginning of the Four Gospels

This luxurious Gospel manuscript was created in Bohemia in the first quarter of the 15th century. The 14 surviving folios with the beginnings of the four Gospels are magnificently illuminated and were evidently strongly influenced by the famous and widely celebrated book illumination in the international court workshop of Emperor Wenceslas IV. The biblical texts are each introduced by a full-page miniature. Here the evangelists appear as divinely inspired authors together with their symbols - angel, lion, bull and eagle - set against luminous backgrounds of polished and punched gold leaf. Opposite, the calligraphically consummate Gospels begin with elegant gold leaf initials on a delicately ornamented ground. Meanwhile, artful foliage tendrils twine in the margins, which are just as colorful as the miniatures. They are the habitat of dozens of small drôleries. A precious fragment of Gothic book illumination!