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Syriac Lectionary

1216–1220
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Men and women, young and old, people of various hair and skin colors gather at Jerusalem’s gates in anticipation of Jesus’s arrival on a donkey. The architecture itself, with its patterned dome, pitched roofs, and colorful crenellation, contributes to the celebratory atmosphere. For the artist who illustrated this grand liturgical book for his community of Syriac Christian monks, it was a point of pride that the population of Jerusalem was so diverse.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Syriac Lectionary
  • Date: 1216–1220
  • Geography: Made in Iraq
  • Medium: Tempera, ink, and gold on paper; 264 folios
  • Dimensions: 17 1/2 × 13 3/4 in. (44.5 × 35 cm)
  • Classification: Manuscripts and Illuminations
  • Credit Line: British Library, London (Add. MS 7170)
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters