![BIBLE, in Church Slavonic - Sviashchenoe Evangelie [The Holy Gospels]. Moscow: Synodal Press, February 1763.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/CKS/1999_CKS_06125_0051_000(114339).jpg?w=1)
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BIBLE, in Church Slavonic - Sviashchenoe Evangelie [The Holy Gospels]. Moscow: Synodal Press, February 1763.
Large 2 (445 x 292 mm). Four full-page engraved illustrations of the Four Evangelists, four-line woodcut illustration of the Crucifixion on f.212v, woodcut ornaments, head- and tailpieces, and initials, printed in red and black within border of typographical ornament. (Some leaves slightly soiled, some tears and paper flaws, mostly marginal.) Parcel gilt silver binding over wooden boards marked with unrecorded workmaster's initials MI, assay master Kozma Khorkhorin, Uglich, 1767, the upper cover repousse, chased and engraved with the Lord Sabaoth and a Cherubim amid rococco scrolls and shell motives, applied with an oval centrepiece of the Deisis with Christ Enthroned flanked by the Mother of God and Saint John, and with triangular cornerpieces with the Four Evangelists with their attributes in architecural backgrounds, all with borders of rococco shells and scrolls, the lower cover repouss, chased and engraved with the Annunciation with two Cherubin depicted on a cloth suspended from a crown, between two columns, decorated with scrolls and floral motives, with three (of four) stud feet, the spine in seven compartments with cherubin and floral and fruit scrolls, with one (of two) velvet-mounted clasp, the edges gauffered and gilt (some minor wear, lower hinge partially broken). Provenance: Ivan [--]; Vasilii Orlov (Cyrillic signatures on verso of last leaf).
A fine and unusually clean example of the Holy Gospels 'for use on the altar' printed in the second year of the reign of Catherine II the Great. See A.S. Zernova & T.N. Kameneva, Detailed Catalogue of Russian Books in Cyrillic type of XVIII century, (Moscow: 1968), no. 631; S.O. Petrov et al, Slavonic books in Cyrillic type of XV-XVIII century: Catalogue of Books in the State Public Library of the Ukraine, (Kiev: 1958), no. 796; and V.M. Undol'skii, Essay at Slaviano-Russian Bibliography, (Moscow: 1871), no.2374.
The unusually ornate binding made in the provincial centre of Uglich was apparently commissioned for a local church, perhaps for that of the murdered Princely Saint Dmitrii of Uglich, or for a newly consecrated church in the region. M.M. Postnikov-Loseva et al record only three unknown silversmiths in the city in the second half of the 18th century (L'Orfvrerie et la Bijouterie au XV-XX ss, Moscow: 1983, p.254).
Large 2 (445 x 292 mm). Four full-page engraved illustrations of the Four Evangelists, four-line woodcut illustration of the Crucifixion on f.212v, woodcut ornaments, head- and tailpieces, and initials, printed in red and black within border of typographical ornament. (Some leaves slightly soiled, some tears and paper flaws, mostly marginal.) Parcel gilt silver binding over wooden boards marked with unrecorded workmaster's initials MI, assay master Kozma Khorkhorin, Uglich, 1767, the upper cover repousse, chased and engraved with the Lord Sabaoth and a Cherubim amid rococco scrolls and shell motives, applied with an oval centrepiece of the Deisis with Christ Enthroned flanked by the Mother of God and Saint John, and with triangular cornerpieces with the Four Evangelists with their attributes in architecural backgrounds, all with borders of rococco shells and scrolls, the lower cover repouss, chased and engraved with the Annunciation with two Cherubin depicted on a cloth suspended from a crown, between two columns, decorated with scrolls and floral motives, with three (of four) stud feet, the spine in seven compartments with cherubin and floral and fruit scrolls, with one (of two) velvet-mounted clasp, the edges gauffered and gilt (some minor wear, lower hinge partially broken). Provenance: Ivan [--]; Vasilii Orlov (Cyrillic signatures on verso of last leaf).
A fine and unusually clean example of the Holy Gospels 'for use on the altar' printed in the second year of the reign of Catherine II the Great. See A.S. Zernova & T.N. Kameneva, Detailed Catalogue of Russian Books in Cyrillic type of XVIII century, (Moscow: 1968), no. 631; S.O. Petrov et al, Slavonic books in Cyrillic type of XV-XVIII century: Catalogue of Books in the State Public Library of the Ukraine, (Kiev: 1958), no. 796; and V.M. Undol'skii, Essay at Slaviano-Russian Bibliography, (Moscow: 1871), no.2374.
The unusually ornate binding made in the provincial centre of Uglich was apparently commissioned for a local church, perhaps for that of the murdered Princely Saint Dmitrii of Uglich, or for a newly consecrated church in the region. M.M. Postnikov-Loseva et al record only three unknown silversmiths in the city in the second half of the 18th century (L'Orfvrerie et la Bijouterie au XV-XX ss, Moscow: 1983, p.254).