Mugni Gospels

The Mughni Gospels, also Mugni Gospels, is a custom-built in the 11th century gospel book in the form of an Armenian illuminated book, which is archived in the collection of the Matenadaran in the Armenian capital Yerevan under the number MS 7736. The manuscript was written by a scribe named Yovhannes shortly after the middle of the 11th century in northwestern Armenia and illustrated and preserved to the present day in the 13th- century Church of St. George of Mughni in Tbilisi.

The name of the Gospels has nothing to do north of Yerevan to the village of Mughni, another 1498 -built Gospel Book is revered, which is also one in which George Monastery on the holdings of the Matenadaran.

Form

Manuscripts enjoy an enormous esteem among the Armenians since the introduction of Armenian script in the 4th century. In early Christian times the Bible, liturgical instructions and texts of the early church fathers were recorded in ancient Armenian script and preserved in book form. Who copied one of those considered miraculous manuscripts or recasting donated to religious merit acquired. An essential part of Armenian manuscripts is attached at the end of the colophon (Armenian hischatakaran, "memory" ), in which the writer detailed talks about his living conditions, operation and customer. A colophon has the oldest extant Armenian manuscript, the 877 dated Lazarian Gospels, present in most Armenian manuscripts. In Mughni Gospels the colophon is missing, so nothing is known about the location and the exact time of manufacture.

The Mughni Gospels is preserved in excellent condition. It consists of 383 leaves in the format 42 × 32.5 inches, which were 1679 bound between two covers to the book block obtained today to form a code. The wooden lid are covered with red velvet and decorated with silver and gilt embossing plates. Inside are ten canon tables, eleven miniature paintings and four author images. The people in the entire sheet format -filling thumbnails appear before a realistic landscape in the background or in front of a building backdrop. The colors are mainly yellow-brown, blue and green. Trees and birds as they often occur in Armenian manuscripts, symbolize the garden where Mary Magdalene met the resurrected Jesus Christ, whom she considers to be a gardener. Between flowers and animals realistically rendered various mythical creatures come before, which probably should leave the earthly garden at the same time appear as a heavenly garden of paradise. A total of 34 real and fantastic animals were counted in Mughni Gospels.

The panels begin with an initial left under a transversely across the sheet running trim. The initial is ornamentally decorated by the animal symbol of the evangelist. In the miniatures of the life of Christ is told in chronological order according to the iconographic tradition in a typical Armenian book art of the 11th century form of representation in individual scenes. A close precursor is 989 in Bgheno - Noravank ( Syunik ) Echmiadzin Gospels produced. Later, on the respect Mughni Gospels participating manuscripts are the king of Gospels Gagiks of Kars, originated 1045-1054, and only partially preserved manuscript from the year 1053 ( Matenadaran 3593 ).

Content

In the 10th and 11th century gospel books were produced in Armenia in substantial numbers. The Mughni Gospels contains a complete cycle of the life of Christ, as it is based on the twelve major celebrations of the Orthodox churches. Among others, these include the Annunciation ( the angel Gabriel announces the birth of her son Jesus Maria on ), the scene of Christ's birth with the manger, Jesus' baptism, the advent of Jesus into Jerusalem on a donkey, the Last Supper of Jesus and the Crucifixion of Christ. A special feature of this manuscript is that the Resurrection and the Descent into Hell missing.

The scenes depicted in the illustrations are due to the Byzantine iconography and also to the Greek, Egyptian and Persian motifs. In the early Armenian manuscripts about the Egyptian fishing scene was popular on the Nile in flood, with boats, crocodiles, fish and lotus flowers. While this scene is still portrayed vividly and understanding in the Gospel Book of Queen Mlke of 862, it appears in the Gospels Mughni paler and further from the original direct intuition.

The birth of baby Jesus is represented in sheet 12 on an unusually strict and almost pitiless nature. Instead of kneeling before the camp of her son and embraced him with the arms, Maria is located next to a bed and looks in a different direction. The child is not a bed in the usual crib, but is increased lying on a table, the center of the scene in the cave, falls vertically into the top of a hard light beam. An ox and a donkey belong to the present day, of course, to the scene, even though they do not occur in the Gospels. Their presence is due to a prophecy of Isaiah and was further refined by the early Christians as a symbol that Jesus even the lowest of creatures welcoming at all times. The birth scene in the center is above the other connected externally in three levels with the visit of the Magi and the story of the Annunciation of the Lord. The figures appear in separate groups extensively and red against a blue background throughout; a certain plasticity is achieved through dark folds in the clothes. The areas in the foreground are filled with a dark green.

Bottom right sits an old woman with Jesus on her lap. Above her head, the name Eva is written. Obviously, the painter drew on an apocryphal tale, according to which Joseph was in search of a midwife, when he met the woman on the street. She imagined him as Eve before and said she was here to help Mary when she was born.

With the introduction of Jesus in the Temple ( Presentation of the Lord ) right opposite the figures are arranged symmetrically on both sides of the altar in sheet 13 is suspended above the lamp. Instead of the usual Exedra a ciborium is constructed in the background, which is connected on both sides of building with masonry and windows. The Son of God and bearer of a new religion submits before the old law. Not only the composition is strict, even the figures appear motionless and petrified.