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).