The DBBE team wishes you all joyful Christmas holidays and many heart-warming moments with your loved ones! 🎄🎅
Some time ago, we shared the illuminations – and their accompanying verses – of Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension of Christ and Pentecost from the 14th-century Gospel Athos, Mone Batopediou 937. (If you missed them, have a look in our “epigrams from the picture” album!) But there are more amazing images to be found in this codex, e.g. this one on f. 15v, which depicts the Nativity of Christ. As usual, it is captioned by a pair of verses:
✒️ Ὅραμα φρικτὸν φρῖξον ὧδε πᾶς βλέπων·
Χριστὸς βροτωθεὶς ἐν φάτνῃ κεῖται βρέφος.
📖 Jeder, der du hier den schaudervollen Anblick siehst, erschaudere!
Christus, sterblich geworden, liegt als Kind in der Krippe.
🌐 https://www.dbbe.ugent.be/occurrences/20357
📸 A. Rhoby, 2018, Ausgewählte Byzantinische Epigramme in Illuminierten Handschriften. Wien: 642
