The Four Gospels BJ 941 from the Jagiellonian Library manuscript collection: social history of the codex

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the study of the history of the Cyrillic Four Gospels BJ 941 from the manuscript section of the Department of Special Collections of the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow. The study defines that the Gospels were rewritten on a paper variety, the identification of its watermarks implies that the book was created in the last third of the 16th century. The analysis of the manuscript margins indicates that the manuscript was rewritten and purchased in Stryi, in the former Przemyśl region. The study of four gift records of the 16th and 17th centuries draws an understanding of how the manuscript has functioned and migrated at the appointed time. First, after the purchase, the codex was donated to the church of Paraskeva Piatnytsa in the Pietniczany village in the Lviv region. In 1641 the codex was gifted over to the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in Rozhysche, Sataniv povit. Between 1649 and 1678 the Gospels were presented to the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin in Vinnytsia. In 1678 the book appeared in the Church of the Intercession in the village of Nekhaiky in the Cherkasy region. In the 19th century, the Gospels belonged to the private library of Stanisław Krzyżanowski, who in 1870 donated the manuscript to the Jagiellonian Library.