1 Revised nomination Nomination form International Memory of the World Register 1.0 Checklist Nominees may find the following checklist useful before sending the nomination form to the International Memory of the World Secretariat. The information provided in italics on the form is there for guidance only and should be deleted once the sections have been completed. Summary completed (section 1) Nomination and contact details completed (section 2) Declaration of Authority signed and dated (section 2) If this is a joint nomination, section 2 appropriately modified, and all Declarations of Authority obtained Documentary heritage identified (sections 3.1 – 3.3) History/provenance completed (section 3.4) Bibliography completed (section 3.5) Names, qualifications and contact details of up to three independent people or organizations recorded (section 3.6) Details of owner completed (section 4.1) Details of custodian – if different from owner – completed (section 4.2) Details of legal status completed (section 4.3) Details of accessibility completed (section 4.4) Details of copyright status completed (section 4.5) Evidence presented to support fulfilment of the criteria (section 5) Additional information provided (section 6) Details of consultation with stakeholders completed (section 7) Assessment of risk completed (section 8) Summary of Preservation and Access Management Plan completed. If there is no formal Plan attach details about current and/or planned access, storage and custody arrangements (section 9) Any other information provided – if applicable (section 10) Suitable reproduction quality photographs identified to illustrate the documentary heritage. (300dpi, jpg format, full-colour preferred). Copyright permissions forms signed and attached. Agreement to propose item(s) for inclusion on the World Digital Library if inscribed 1 2 Nomination form International Memory of the World Register THE GOSPELS OF TSAR IVAN ALEXANDER ID Code [2016-37] 1.0 Summary (max 200 words) The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331–1371), also known as London Gospel/s, famous with its rich illumination, is regarded as a Bulgarian national treasure and is recognized as one of the treasures of the world known collections of the British Library. The royal portraits in the manuscript are a unique expression of the King’s political ideology, personal piety and patronage in arts. They make the manuscript an outstanding document not only of artistic achievement but of ideology in the realm of Byzantine civilization in the turbulent years before the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The miniatures, which are the first known copies of those in the eleven-century Byzantine Gospels BnF cod. Paris. gr. 74, have inspired directly and indirectly a series of luxury copies commissioned by princely and ecclesiastical persons in Wallachia and Moldavia (present day Rumania). As a key element in transmitting of Byzantine legacy through the centuries and different countries, the Gospels are a rare witness of a process concerning the medieval and modern South European culture. The later history of the codex, brought from Mount Athos by Lord Robert Curzon and donated to the British Library by his heirs, focuses European cultural, political and religious values. 2.0 Nominator 2.1 Name of nominator (person or organization) St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library – Bulgaria The British Library - UK 2.2 Relationship to the nominated documentary heritage St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library is the leading nominator; the British Library is the owner of the document and is the second nominator. 2.3 Contact person(s) (to provide information on nomination) Prof. DSc. Boryana Hristova, Ass. Prof. Dr Elissaveta Moussakova; Dr Scot McKendrick 2.4 Contact details Name Address Boryana Hristova, Director, St. St. 88 Vasil Levski Blvd, 1037 Sofia, Bulgaria Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria Elissaveta Moussakova, Archivist, Manuscripts and Old Printed Books Department, St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria Scot McKendrick, Head of 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB, UK Western Heritage Collections, The British Library 2 3 Telephones Facsimile [email protected] ++ 359 2 9183 101 ++ 359 2 8435495 ++ 359 2 9881600; ++359 2 9183 165 [email protected] +44 (0)20 7412 7507 [email protected] 3.0 Identity and description of the documentary heritage 3.1 Name and identification details of the items being nominated If inscribed, the exact title and institution(s) to appear on the certificate should be given The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Add. MS 39627, kept in the British Library, are written in Slavonic, with Cyrillic uncial script by the hand of monk Simeon in 1356. His extensive colophon is on ff. 274–275. Also known as the London Gospel/s, the codex contains the text of the Four Gospels, each preceded by a list of chapters. About 367 miniatures with gold ornate and executed by at least three leading painters, illustrate the text, opening it with the portrait of the Bulgarian royal family on ff. 2v–3r. Other portraits of Tsar Ivan Alexander with an image of the Evangelist are painted at the end of each Gospel on ff. 86v, 88v, 212v, and 272v, and also on f. 124r, where the King is represented among the righteous in the Garden of Eden. On f. 273v is a magic square (or labyrinth of letters) encoding the name of Tsar Ivan Alexander as owner of the book. A menology and a synaxaria have been added at the end in the fifteenth century. Before the original text, on f. 1r is a Table of miniatures by Henry Omont. 3.4 History/provenance The place of origin is uncertain even though Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, is regarded as the most probable. Apparently taken into Moldavia after the Ottoman conquest and redeemed from pledge by Ivan Alexander, Voivode of Moldavia (to be identified with Alexander the Good, r. 1402–1432): Slavonic note (f. 5r): ‘The son of Voivode Stefan, Ivan Alexander, in Christ God faithful Voivode and ruler of the whole land of Moldavia, bought the Gospels which had been deposited in pledge. Let God have mercy upon him and grant him eternal life as well as long life here’ (Dimitrova 1994, p. 21). In the 17th century the manuscript was already in the monastery of St Paul, Mt Athos, Greece: inscription (f. 286v); presented to Robert Curzon in 1837. Robert Curzon (1810-1873), 14th Baron Zouche of Harringworth, traveller and collector of manuscripts, recorded that the manuscript was given to him: 'If you do not care what book it is that you are so good as to give me, let me take one which pleases me: and so saying I took down the illuminated folio of the Bulgarian gospels, and I could hardly believe I was awake when the agoumenos [superior of the monastery] gave it into my hands' (Robert Curzon, Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant, 2nd edn. (London: John Murray, 1849), p. 386). Robert Curzon, 15th Baron Zouche (1851-1914) deposited his father's collection of 218 manuscripts and 69 printed books on permanent loan to the British Museum in 1876. Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1917 by the 14th Baron's daughter, Darea, 16th Baroness Zouche (1860–1917). 4.0 Legal information 4.1 Owner of the documentary heritage (name and contact details) The British Library Address 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB Telephone Facsimile Email 4.2 Custodian of the documentary heritage (name and contact details if different from the owner) 3 4 The British Library Address 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB Telephone Facsimile Email 4.3 Legal status British Library Act 1972 The British Library Board was established under the British Library Act 1972 to manage the Library as “a national centre for reference, study, and bibliographic and other information services, in relation both to scientific and technological matters and to the humanities”. Please see the attached copy of the act or visit http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/governance/blact/index.html Please also find attached our statement of public task or visit http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/pubsect-info- regulations/faq/bl_psi_public_task_statement.pdf 4.4 Accessibility The Gospels of Ivan Alexander are described in the British Library’s online catalogue ‘Explore Archives and Manuscripts’ at http://searcharchives.bl.uk/. The manuscript has been digitised in full and has been available online on the British Library’s website at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_39627&index=0 since 2012 when it was publicised on the Library’s successful Medieval Manuscripts blog http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/09/the-gospels- of-tsar- ivan- alexander.html. The manuscript is regularly displayed at the British Library, most recently in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery at the beginning of 2007, to mark the entry of Bulgaria into the European Union, and in 2012-13 to coincide with the publication of the full digital version of the manuscript by the British Library. It was also displayed later in 2007 in the British Library’s major temporary exhibition, ‘Sacred. Books of the Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam’. The manuscript has been loaned for display at several major exhibitions in the UK, Europe and the United States since the 1970s, including: ‘Slavonic Manuscripts from the British Library’, Sofia, 1977; “The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander”, Sofia, 1981; ‘Bulgaria: Tradition and Beauty’, Liverpool, 1989; ‘Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture from British Collections’, London, 1994; ‘Tsar Ivan Alexander’, Sofia, 1996; ‘Byzantium: Faith and Power’, New York 2004; ‘Byzantium’, London, 2008. All access restrictions should be explicitly stated below: In order to ensure the preservation of the Gospels of Ivan Alexander for the very long term, access to the original manuscript is restricted. These restrictions are similarly applied to other medieval manuscripts of comparable outstanding cultural and artistic value.