Armenian Julfa Gospels and Concordance - Illuminated

This 1635 Gospel concordance in Armenian was written, illuminated, and bound at the Holy Savior's Monastery in Nor Jugha (now called Julfa), the Armenian quarter of Isfahan (in present-day Iran). Isfahan was at that time the capital of Safavid Persia. The book is finely illuminated with four portraits of the evangelists, along with vignettes, headpieces, and decorated initials that are either zoomorphic or anthropomorphic in form. The miniatures on the first seven pages are later additions by a different hand. The manuscript is one of the highlights of the collection of 128 Armenian manuscripts held by the Berlin State Library–Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin. (World Digital Library)