Evangeliary

Generally included at the beginning or end of the book containing the whole gospels, these lists indicated the days on which the various extracts or pericopes were to be read.

The apologist St. Justin Martyr tells how in his day, when the Christians met together, they read the Memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets (Apol., I, lxvii).

Tertullian, Cyprian and other writers bear witness to the same custom; and in the West the clerical minor order of lector existed as early as the 3rd century.

From the 10th century onwards there are the Gospel lessons, together with the Epistles and prayers, united in a new liturgical book, called the Missal.

[2] They have even exercised an unfortunate influence on the more recent manuscripts of the Gospels; certain additions of a liturgical nature (e.g., in illo tempore; dixit Dominus) which were set at the beginning or end of a reading, have found their way into the text itself.

From an artistic point of view the distinction between Evangeliaria strictly so called and Gospel manuscripts is of little importance and is generally disregarded.

The copying of the Gospels influenced largely the writings of Irish and Anglo-Saxon scribes, and effected the spread of these characters over the European continent and the development of the Caroline minuscule and the semi-uncial of the school of Tours.

The copyists of the Gospels made great use of other helps to beautify their penmanship, such as the use of purple parchment, liquid gold and silver and various coloured inks.

Illuminated initial letters differed according to the various schools of writing; the Irish scribes used artistic knots and loops, the Merovingian and Lombard writers preferred animal forms, especially fish.

Frequently it is the figure of the Evangelist that stands at the head of his Gospel; the donor, or rather a sketch showing the donation of the book, is often found in miniatures from the days of Charlemagne to the end of the Middle Ages.

The prince is shown receiving from the hands of the abbot the Evangeliarium he will use whenever he assists at the holy offices in the abbey church (e.g. the picture of Charles the Bald in the Vivien Bible, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).

But in the 10th and 11th centuries the prince is shown offering the precious manuscript to Christ or to the patron saint of the church or abbey (cf.