CRUCIFIXION, miniature on a leaf from a Gospels, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern Mediterranean, 12th century and ?France first half of 20th century] 215 x 170mm. Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist in a quatrefoil at the centre of a patterned carpet-page, the ground of gold with circles and tendrils of white/grey and pink and blue leaf forms bounded by rope fillets and an outer border of quatrefoils with foliate infills on a brown ground, two leopards at the upper corners and a tree with perched bird at bottom left (some rubbing and a few pinprick-sized holes, a few spots, stains and mould marks); on the recto 25 lines in a regular script, title in red (all erased). Framed. We are grateful to Professor John Lowden for identifying this as one of the missing leaves from the manuscript of the Four Gospels that is now Duke University Greek Ms 84 (Sotheby's, 22 June 1982, lot 38). Professor Lowden had pointed out for the Sotheby's catalogue that the 7 miniatures on detached leaves that were still with the manuscript were copied from the plates in H. Omont, Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grècs de la Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris 1929. The same is true of the present leaf, which relies on pl.CVI of Omont and replicates the Crucifixion from the double frontispiece of the Homilies of St Gregory of Nazianus (BnF Ms gr.550, f.3v). It was suggested in the Sotheby's catalogue that the original intention was 'to market the leaves separately but by chance they have been preserved with their parent manuscript'. The present miniature appears to show that at least one miniature was successfully sold. The Homilies was not the only manuscript that the 'forger' doctored. He was also responsible for four miniatures in the Archimedes Palimpsest (Christie's New York, 29 October 1998) that Professor Lowden has also identified as copied from Omont's 1929 publication. As part of the same pattern of modification, the history of the present leaf may well have a significant role to play in establishing the 20th-century provenance of the manuscript that has unique importance for the history of science in being the only source for two of Archimedes treatises: (see archimedespalimpsest.org).
CRUCIFIXION, miniature on a leaf from a Gospels, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [eastern Mediterranean, 12th century and ?France first half of 20th century] 215 x 170mm. Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist in a quatrefoil at the centre of a patterned carpet-page, the ground of gold with circles and tendrils of white/grey and pink and blue leaf forms bounded by rope fillets and an outer border of quatrefoils with foliate infills on a brown ground, two leopards at the upper corners and a tree with perched bird at bottom left (some rubbing and a few pinprick-sized holes, a few spots, stains and mould marks); on the recto 25 lines in a regular script, title in red (all erased). Framed. We are grateful to Professor John Lowden for identifying this as one of the missing leaves from the manuscript of the Four Gospels that is now Duke University Greek Ms 84 (Sotheby's, 22 June 1982, lot 38). Professor Lowden had pointed out for the Sotheby's catalogue that the 7 miniatures on detached leaves that were still with the manuscript were copied from the plates in H. Omont, Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grècs de la Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris 1929. The same is true of the present leaf, which relies on pl.CVI of Omont and replicates the Crucifixion from the double frontispiece of the Homilies of St Gregory of Nazianus (BnF Ms gr.550, f.3v). It was suggested in the Sotheby's catalogue that the original intention was 'to market the leaves separately but by chance they have been preserved with their parent manuscript'. The present miniature appears to show that at least one miniature was successfully sold. The Homilies was not the only manuscript that the 'forger' doctored. He was also responsible for four miniatures in the Archimedes Palimpsest (Christie's New York, 29 October 1998) that Professor Lowden has also identified as copied from Omont's 1929 publication. As part of the same pattern of modification, the history of the present leaf may well have a significant role to play in establishing the 20th-century provenance of the manuscript that has unique importance for the history of science in being the only source for two of Archimedes treatises: (see archimedespalimpsest.org).
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