ignificantly, St. Cyril started his translations with the Gospel of John:
"In the beginning was the Word" Gospels, used in the liturgy and placed always in the
Holy of Holies, the Church altar, commanded for this reason the greatest talent as scribes
and illuminators applied their utmost artistic ability to copy and embellish the texts.
Royalty and other aristocracy often commissioned luxury copies of the Four Gospels for
presentation purposes. This type of manuscript usually started with the Gospel of St.
Matthew, followed by the Gospels of St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John.Like the Gospels, a sequence of selected Gospel readings for the primary Church holidays remained in the altar, taken out for processions (Little Entrance) and Gospel readings. This sequence, known as the lectionary, always had rich, liturgically based illustrations, probably to direct the celebrant to the text for the day's reading.
During the 16th century, 80 Gospel manuscripts were produced. In the
following centuries, the production of Gospels decreased. Today, only
220 Gospel books remain in different collections.
Bogdanov, Ivan. Bulgarskata kniga prez vekovete. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta,
1978.
Dzhurova, Axinia. Vuvedenie v Slavyanskata Kodikologia.
Stoyanov, Manyo. Bukvi I Knigi. Sofia, 1978.
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Last Updated: April 29, 2002
