6. Serbic Church Slavonic tetra-evangelary. 1600s

Nothing is known for certain about the provenance of the parchment manuscript New Royal Collection 1867, folio - apart from the fact that it must originate from Serbic territory, probably in the 1600s, and that it was acquired in Berlin 'in July 1922', as stated in the accessions register of the Department of Manuscripts.

It contains the four gospels in the correct order: Matthew, Marcus, Luke and John with tables of contents for the last three. The Gospel of Matthew's first pages are richly decorated and look like a front page, so there may not have been a table of contents for the first of the four texts. The cover has disappeared altogether. The Royal Library only owns one other Slavonic tetra-evangelary.

The Library acquired some very important material in Germany after the First World War at auctions and from antiquarian bookshops. The War and the subsequent inflation meant that many rarities began to circulate. How a book to be used in Serbic orthodox church liturgy ever ended up in Berlin, one can only surmise. The Balkan Wars 1913-15 and the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918 leave everything to the imagination. Was the cover particularly embellished and was it sold separately?