The Mstislav Gospel

The Mstislav Gospel is an Old Russian manuscript in a precious cover, created in the early 12th century, no later than 1117. It was commissioned by Prince Mstislav of Novgorod, son of Vladimir Monomakh, for the stone Church of the Annunciation at Gorodishche near Novgorod. It is an aprakos: the Gospel text is arranged not in canonical order but according to the church calendar of readings.

The text was copied by Alexa, son of the priest Lazar, and the gold titles were written by the gold-scribe Zhaden. According to the museum, it is the oldest copy of the “Russian redaction” of the Gospels, from which most Russian Gospel books of the 12th–14th centuries descend, and its four miniatures of the Evangelists go back to the same model as those of the Ostromir Gospel. Under Ivan the Terrible the book was taken to Moscow, to the Cathedral of the Archangel in the Kremlin; it entered the Historical Museum in 1919.

The original cover, made in Constantinople, has not survived. The present cover of the upper board was made in 1551, when the Gospel was renewed in Novgorod: 13 Byzantine and Old Russian enamels of different periods are set on gilded silver with filigree, among them the earliest enamel images of Saints Boris and Gleb. The cover is adorned with pearls, amethysts, sapphires, garnets, spinel and turquoise.