Gondarine sensul, St. George slaying the dragon, Walters Manuscript 36.10, fol. 2v

Gondarine sensul, St. George slaying the dragon, Walters Manuscript 36.10, fol. 2v, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

This Ethopian sensul, or "chain" manuscript, was made in the seventeenth century in the Gondarine region. It was created out of a single folded strip of parchment attached to heavy hide "boards" at each end, creating a small book when folded. Comprised solely of inscribed images, this pocket-sized manuscript would have served a devotional function for its owner, who while unidentified, inscribed the first image with a note reminding people under the threat of excommunication not to steal or erase the manuscript. Narrative illuminations, which tell the story of the Virgin Mary, allow for private meditation. The book can also function as something of an icon, for when it is opened to the middle and stood on end, the facing figures of St. George and the Virgin and Child form a small diptych, resembling other icons of this era.

Ethiopian canon tables, Canon table, Walters Manuscript W.838, fol. 1v

Ethiopian canon tables, Canon table, Walters Manuscript W.838, fol. 1v, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

This fragmentary manuscript, comprised of four canon tables spread over one bifolium, would originally have been the introductory pages of a fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century Gospel Book. Written in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia, the pages contain canons I-V, which relate the concordance of the Gospels through a chart in which each number corresponds to a Gospel passage, a system originally created by Eusebius of Caesarea in the early fourth century. The numbers here, in keeping with a long tradition, are placed within an arcade of brightly decorated columns and arches. Common within Ethiopian canon table decoration are the curtains, which hang from the sides of the columns, and the interlace-filled arches adorned with birds. These pages provide an excellent example of Ethiopian canon table illumination from the early Solomonic period.

Glossed copy of Eberhard of Bethune's Graecismus, Initial F, Walters Manuscript W.371, fol. 21v

Glossed copy of Eberhard of Bethune's Graecismus, Initial F, Walters Manuscript W.371, fol. 21v, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

This German manuscript, written on paper ca. 1440, is a copy of Eberhard of Béthune's thirteenth-century grammatical poem Graecismus. The poem is here accompanied by the extensive gloss by Jean-Vincent Metulin, a scholar from Southern France. Having functioned as a textbook, the manuscript's condition suggests it was well-used by students eager to memorize and comprehend Béthune's ideas on the grammatical usage of Greek words.

Vienna book of hours, Entombment, Walters Manuscript W.764, fol. 76v

Vienna book of hours, Entombment, Walters Manuscript W.764, fol. 76v, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

This book of hours was written in German in Vienna, Austria, ca. 1460-65. It is one of a series of manuscripts commissioned at the court of Emperor Frederick III of Austria (1415-1493), some of which were made for his son, Prince Maximilian (1459-1519). The name of the artist is unknown, but due to his connection with these commissions, he is known as the Master of the Maximilian Schoolbooks. Unfortunately, only three of the original sixteen full-page, richly painted miniatures remain in this manuscript, but ten of the missing folios have been identified. Nine cuttings are in the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne, France (inv. nr. 1244-1252), and one cutting is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Dudley P. Allen Fund Accession 1959.40). Other related manuscripts include Vienna, Nationalbibliothek Codicies 2368, 2617, and 2289.

Gospel Lectionary, Readings from the Gospel of Matthew, Walters Manuscript W.520, fol. 50r

Gospel Lectionary, Readings from the Gospel of Matthew, Walters Manuscript W.520, fol. 50r, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

This is an example of a Gospel Lectionary written in the archaic, majuscule form of Greek letters. Liturgical books were inherently conservative and therefore apt to retain such antiquated writing. The scribe, a certain monk Theodore, has recorded his name in a verse at the end of the volume (fol. 179v). A leaf removed from this manuscript ca. 1900 is now in Sofia (National Library of Bulgaria, Greek MS 2).