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 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. But doubts as to the original unity of the contents continued. 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.

The history of the manuscript after it was written is vague until the 11th century when it was at Maipuc-Byblos, Lebanon. In the late 13th or early 14th century it came to 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).

Large miniatures

  • fol. 1a Election of the Apostle Mathias by the Eleven
  • fol. 1b Theotokos (Virgin Mary) with the infant Jesus
  • fol. 2a Christ receives a book from two monks (dedication) / The saints Eusebius of Caesarea and Ammonius of Alexandria
  • fol. 3b-12b The canon tables of Eusebius with smaller marginal miniatures
  • fol. 9b Matthew and John
  • fol. 13a Crucifixion of Christ / Three Marys at the tomb
  • fol. 14a Ascension of Christ / Christ with four monks
  • fol. 14b Gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

See also

  • Syriac versions of the Bible
  • Codex Phillipps 1388
  • Garima Gospels
  • Nestorian Evangelion
  • Syriac Bible of Paris
  • Depiction of Jesus

References

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.
  • Weitzmann, Kurt, ed., Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, no. 445, 1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
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  • The manuscript page-by-page online
  • Blog with up-to-date bibliography
  • Grove Dictionary of Art (Rabbula Gospels)
  • Homepage des Bistums Speyer (mit Kommentaren zu einzelnen Bildern)