Ostromir Gospels

The Ostromir Gospels, written in Church Slavonic with many spellings reflecting the East Slavic recension, is famous for its brilliant miniatures. The opening of the Gospel of Saint John, with his Evangelist portrait.

The Ostromir Gospels (Russian: Остромирово Евангелие) is the oldest dated book of Kievan Rus'. Archeologists have dated the Novgorod Codex, a wax writing tablet with excerpts from the Psalms, discovered in 2000, to an earlier time range, but unlike the Ostromir Gospels, it does not contain an explicit date. It is currently held in the National Library of Russia.[1]

The Ostromir Gospels was created in 1056 or 1057 (the year 6564 in the Byzantine calendar) by the deacon Gregory for his patron Ostromir, the posadnik of Novgorod, probably as a gift for a monastery.

  1. ^ Stam, David H. (November 2001). International Dictionary of Library Histories. Routledge. p. 561. ISBN 978-1-136-77785-1.