Image: Bible Persian Manuscript (14th century)
Description: Gospel of Matthew in Persian (Copied by Mas'ud ibn Ibrahim 1312) This, the first Persian manuscript to enter the Vatican Library, may well have been acquired by the Chaldean metropolitan Mar Yosef, who came from Malabar to Rome in 1568 to clear himself of the charge of Nestorianism. Written in the cursive "naskhi" script typical of the Middle East, it is one of the earliest surviving Persian manuscripts of any part of the Scriptures--none are known to be earlier than the fourteenth century. The rarity of the manuscript was quickly appreciated. The Persian scholar Giovanni Battista Vecchietti consulted it when he was in Rome in 1598 and foliated it. It was also read and copied by Tumagen, an Armenian from Aleppo who probably arrived in Rome in the train of Leonardo Abel after his mission to Syria in 1586. The page displayed here includes the opening of the text of the Gospel of Matthew.
Title: Bible Persian Manuscript (14th century)
Credit: Library of Congress website (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/orient.html)
Author: Vatican Library
Permission: PD-ART; PD-ART-LIFE-70; PD-OLD-70.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No
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