Nikolje Gospels

Unknown

Nikolje Gospels written on parchment in Old Church Slavonic in a Bosnian Cyrillic script with influence from the Raska School, made in Bosnia in the late 14th or early 15th century and probably a product of Royal Scriptorium of Tvrtko I (r. 1377–1391). Each of the four gospels is introduced by a miniature of the Evangelical symbol rather than a portrait of the author: winged man for Matthew (f.ii v), lion for Mark (f.46v), ox for Luke (f.79v) and eagle for John (f.136v). A headpiece (zastavki) with geometrical and vegetal ornament decorates the first page of text of each gospel, with a tail piece at the end of both Matthew and Luke. The headpieces for the gospels of Matthew and Mark include the Bosnian crown. Decorated initials are found on ff. 4v, 5r, 117r, 126r, 135r, 151v, 155r and 164v.