"O" is for Orthodox Christianity

     The Eastern Orthodox Church, mainly concentrated in Russia, Eastern Europe and Greece, is the second largest Christian communion in the world (after Roman Catholicism).  Among the holdings of the OCHF Library is a unique hand-painted scholar's rendition of an important Orthodox manuscript, (click for larger image).

     The Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or "The Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander", is a 14th century illuminated manuscript in Middle Bulgarian, prepared and illustrated during the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331-71) in the Second Bulgarian Empire.  the manuscript is regarded as one of the most important literary treasures of the medieval Bulgarian culture and agreeably the one with the greatest artistic value.
     The original manuscript, currently housed in the British Library (Add. MS 396270), contains the text of the Four Gospels illustrated with 366 (or 252, depending on the grouping) miniatures (hand-painted illustrations) and consists of 286 parchment folios, 33 by 24.3 cm in size, later paginated with pencil.  Folio 74, most likely the one where the miniature illustrating the Judgment Day scene was, has been cut out and stolen in modern times (no, we don't have it!).
     The page displayed above has been identified by Milan Graba, Lead Curator of Southeast European Studies at the British Libray, and by his colleagues at the Bulgarian Academy, as a scholar's manuscript copy of unknown age of one of the hand-painted illustrations (f.84) from the Gospels of Tsar Alexander, with text in a different Gospel redaction from Matthew 27:33-38.  No one has yet identified that redaction (if you know, please let us know).

     Also of interest, among the OCHF Library holdings is this leaf from an old liturical chant book.  Notice that the musical notes are written without lines, as were the notes in music in the Roman Catholic Church at ab early time.  The technical name is Znamenny Notation with Shaidurov Symbols, late 17th Century Russian.  Znamenny chant was the principal music of the Russian Orthodox Church from the time Christianity was imported from Byzantium to the late 17th century.  In the mid-17th century the Novgorod master Ivan Shaidurov invented a system of auxiliary red letters to be placed alongside the znamenny notation above the text of the chant.  Each of these letters corresponded to a particular note in the church scale, increasing accuracy of the musical score.  By the late 18th century znamenny chant had retreated into obscurity, the only keepers of it being the "Old Believers" sect.  (For larger image, click the photo.)

 

 

     The OCHF Library also has a fine copy of a Russian Orthodox New Testament, printed in Moscow, dated 1767, image below (click for larger image).

 

 

     The dedicatory page of this Bible, as translated by Inna Pikulenko, reads as follows:  "In honor of the single and inseparable Trinity--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--with the permission of the Imperial Empress Catherine of all Russia in the presence of her heir, the faithful prince and great count Paul Petrovitch with the blessing of the ancient ruling synod.  This holy book of the New Testament is being printed in the great city of Moscow in the year of cration of the world by the Word of God (1767)...."

     Notice that the order of the books in this New Testament is not the same as in the Bibles of the western tradition:

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

James

I Peter

II Peter

I John

II John

III John

Jude

Romans

I Corinthians

II Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

I Thessalonians

II Thessalonians

I Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

Hebrews

Calendar of Saints (Sept.-Aug.)

Lectionary Readings

Saturday and Sunday liturgies

Special prayers to saints

Prayer for the dead (and readings for funeral services)

Prayers for the needy

Prayer for the Empress

The Apocalypse

 

     There is a hand-written notation inside the back cover that states "from Smolensk".  There are many churches and monasteries in Smolensk.