View source for Rabbula Gospels

{{Short description|6th-century illuminated Syriac Gospel Book}}
{{Infobox manuscript
<!----------Name---------->
| name                  = Rabbula Gospels
| location              = [[Laurentian Library|Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana]], Plut. I, 56
<!----------Image---------->
| image                 = Rabbula Gospels (9v & 10r; Four Evangelists).jpg
| width                 = 300px
| caption               = Folios 9v and 10r of the Rabbula Gospels, [[Eusebian Canons|canon tables]] with portraits of the [[Four Evangelists]], from left to right: [[John the Evangelist|John]], [[Matthew the Apostle|Matthew]], [[Luke the Evangelist|Luke]], and [[Mark the Evangelist|Mark]].
<!----------General---------->
| Type                  = [[Gospel Book]]
| Date                  = 586
| Place of origin       = Monastery of St. John of Zagba, [[Upper Mesopotamia|Northern Mesopotamia]] or Syria
| Language(s)           = [[Syriac language|Syriac]]
| Scribe(s)             = Rabbula
<!----------Form and content---------->
| Material              = 
| Size                  = 34 cm × 27 cm
| Script                = [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]]
| Contents              = [[Gospel#Canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John|Four Canonical Gospels]] ([[Peshitta]] version)
}}

[[File:Vangeli di Rabbula, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Cod. Plut. I, 56, fol. 13v.jpg|thumb|301x301px|Folio 13v of the Rabbula Gospels contains a miniature of the [[Ascension of Jesus Christ|Ascension]].]]
The '''Rabbula Gospels''', or '''Rabula Gospels''' (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, cod. Plut. I, 56), is a 6th-century [[illuminated manuscript|illuminated]] [[Syriac language|Syriac]] [[Gospel Book]]. One of the finest Byzantine works produced in [[West Asia]], and one of the earliest Christian manuscripts with large miniatures, it is distinguished by the miniaturist's predilection for bright colours, movement, drama, and [[expressionism]]. Created during a period from which little art survived, it nevertheless saw great development in Christian [[iconography]]. The manuscript has a significant place in art history, and is very often referred to.

Recent scholarship has suggested that the manuscript, completed in 586 AD, was later partly overpainted by restorers and bound together with miniatures from other sources in the 15th or 16th century.<ref name="G.Peers"/>

== Description ==
[[File:Vangeli di Rabbula, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Cod. Plut. I, 56, fol. 13r.jpg|left|thumb|The earliest crucifixion in an [[illuminated manuscript]], from the Rabbula Gospels.]]
The Gospel was completed in 586 at Monastery of St. John of Zagba (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܒܝܬ ܙܓܒܐ}}, {{Transliteration|syr|Bēṯ Zaḡbā}}), which, although traditionally thought to have been in Northern Mesopotamia, is now thought to have been in the hinterland between [[Antioch]] and [[Apamea (Syria)|Apamea]] in modern [[Syria]]. It was signed by its scribe, Rabbula ({{lang|syr|ܪܒܘܠܐ}}, {{Transliteration|syr|Rabbulā}}) about whom nothing else is known. In their current condition the folios are 34&nbsp;cm (13.4&nbsp;in) by 27&nbsp;cm (10.6&nbsp;in). Their original size is unknown because they were trimmed during previous rebindings. The text is written in black or dark brown ink in two columns of a variable number of lines. There are footnotes written in red ink at the bottom of many of the columns. The text is the [[Peshitta]] version of the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] translation of the Gospels.

The manuscript is illuminated, with the text framed in elaborate floral and architectural motifs. The Gospel canons are set in [[arcade (architecture)|arcade]]s ornamented with flowers and birds. The miniaturist obviously drew some of his inspiration from [[Hellenistic art]] (draped figures), but relied mainly on the [[Persian art|ornamental traditions of Persia]]. The miniatures of the Rabbula Gospels, notably those representing the [[Crucifixion]], the [[Ascension of Jesus Christ|Ascension]] and [[Pentecost]], are full-page pictures with a decorative frame formed of [[zigzag]]s, [[curve]]s, [[rainbow]]s and so forth. The scene of the Crucifixion is the earliest to survive in an illuminated manuscript, and shows the Eastern form of the image at the time.  There is a miniature of the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostle]]s choosing a new twelfth member (after the loss of [[Judas Iscariot|Judas]]); this is not an event found in the [[Canonical Gospels]] (though it is mentioned in [[Acts 1|Chapter 1]] of [[Acts]]) and is almost never seen in later art.  The artist was trained in the classical illusionist tradition, and is a competent and practiced hand rather than an outstanding talent; but surviving images from this period are so rare that his are extremely valuable for showing the style and [[iconography]] of his age.
[[File:Rabbula Gospel Folio 4v.jpg|thumb|Folio 4v of the Rabbula Gospels showing the [[canon tables]], harmonization of the four gospels, with marginal miniatures.]]

The French Orientalist Edgard Blochet (1870–1937) argued that some of the folios of the manuscript, including the pictorial series, were an interpolation no earlier than the 10th or 11th century. Since the original [[Photo caption|caption]] accompanying the miniatures is of the same paleographic character as the main text of the manuscript, this theory was rejected by Giuseppe Furlani and by Carlo Cecchelli in the commentary of the facsimile edition of the miniatures published in 1959.<ref>[http://sor.cua.edu/Bible/RabbulaMs.html Miniatures from the Rabbula Gospels ms.]</ref>  But doubts as to the original unity of the contents continued.<ref>Wright, David H. "The Date and Arrangement of the Illustrations in the Rabbula Gospels." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 27 (1973): 197-208. Web., [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291340 JSTOR]</ref>  More recently, scholars have proposed that the text of 586 was only bound up together with the miniatures in the 15th century, and that the miniatures themselves were taken from at least one other original manuscript, and come from two different campaigns of work.<ref name="G.Peers">Peers, Glenn, [https://www.academia.edu/285889/Review_of_Il_Tetravangelo_di_Rabbula._Firenze_Biblioteca_Medicea_Laurenziana_Plut._1.56._L_illustrazione_del_Nuovo_Testamento_nella_Siria_del_VI_secolo_ed._M._Bernab%C3%B2_Rome_2008 Review of Bernabò] (see Further reading)</ref>

The history of the manuscript after it was written is vague until the 11th century when it was at [[Byblos|Maipuc-Byblos]], [[Lebanon]].  In the late 13th or early 14th century it came to [[Kadisha Valley#The Qannubin Monastery|Quannubin]].  In the late 15th or early 16th century, the manuscript was taken by the [[Maronite]] Patriarch to the [[Laurentian Library]] in [[Florence]], where it is today.

The manuscript has served during Medieval Age as register of Maronites Patriarches (Elias Kattar).<ref>{{cite web|title=Holy Spirit University of Kaslik {{!}} لبنان الوسيط عهد السلاطين المماليك|url=http://www.usek.edu.lb/en/publications/phoenix/loubnan-waseet|website=www.usek.edu.lb|access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref>

== Large miniatures ==
*fol. 1a [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928075431/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/Bildkommentare/Bild17.html Election of the Apostle Mathias by the Eleven]
*fol. 1b [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928074543/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/Bildkommentare/Bild18.html Theotokos (Virgin Mary) with the infant Jesus]
*fol. 2a Christ receives a book from two monks (dedication) / [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928074559/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/Bildkommentare/Bild19.html The saints Eusebius of Caesarea and Ammonius of Alexandria]
*fol. 3b-12b The [[Eusebian Canons|canon tables of Eusebius]] with smaller marginal miniatures
*fol. 9b [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928074614/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/Bildkommentare/Bild20.html Matthew and John]
*fol. 13a ''Crucifixion of Christ'' / ''Three Marys at the tomb''
*fol. 14a ''Ascension of Christ'' / [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928075425/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/Bildkommentare/Bild22.html Christ with four monks]
*fol. 14b ''Gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost''

== See also ==
{{Portal|Bible}}
* [[Syriac versions of the Bible]]
* [[Codex Phillipps 1388]]
* [[Garima Gospels]]
* [[Nestorian Evangelion]]
* [[Syriac Bible of Paris]]
* [[Depiction of Jesus]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bernabò, Massimo, ed., ''Il Tetravangelo di Rabbula. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, plut. 1.56: L'illustrazione del Nuovo Testamento nella Siria del VI secolo'', Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2008.
* [[Kurt Weitzmann|Weitzmann, Kurt]], ed., ''[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/156533 Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century]'', no. 445, 1979, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York, {{ISBN|9780870991790}}; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
*{{citation|last1=Walther|first1=Ingo F.|first2=Norbert|last2=Wolf|title=Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600|location=Köln|publisher=Taschen|year=2005}}.
*{{citation|first=Kurt|last=Weitzmann|title=Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination|location=New York|publisher=George Braziller|year=1977}}.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Rabbula Gospels}}
* [http://teca.bmlonline.it/ImageViewer/servlet/ImageViewer?idr=TECA0000025956&keyworks=Plut.01.56#page/1/mode/1up The manuscript page-by-page online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190426/http://teca.bmlonline.it/ImageViewer/servlet/ImageViewer?idr=TECA0000025956&keyworks=Plut.01.56#page/1/mode/1up |date=2016-03-04 }}
*[https://hmmlorientalia.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/rabbula-gospels-online/ Blog with up-to-date bibliography]
*[http://www.artnet.de/library/07/0704/T070485.ASP Grove Dictionary of Art (Rabbula Gospels)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928074505/http://adventskalender.bistum-speyer.de/ Homepage des Bistums Speyer (mit Kommentaren zu einzelnen Bildern)]

{{Syriac manuscripts}}

[[Category:Gospel Books]]
[[Category:Peshitta manuscripts]]
[[Category:Byzantine illuminated manuscripts]]
[[Category:6th-century biblical manuscripts]]
[[Category:6th-century illuminated manuscripts]]
[[Category:Maronite Church]]
[[Category:Syriac Christianity]]