The New York Public Library today opened the Polonsky Exhibition of the Library's Treasures, which features a rotating selection of items from its extensive research collections. The free exhibition is located in Gottesman Hall, a 6,400-square-foot exhibition space on the main floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

One of the objects on display is a splendidly decorated Altar Gospel prepared by command of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (r. 1762-1796). It was likely a benefaction to the Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.

In every Orthodox church, the Altar Gospel Book, also referred to as Altar Gospel/Naprestol’noe Evangelie, is kept on the altar. During the Divine Liturgy, a Great Entrance is made by the priest by lifting up the Altar Gospel in procession counterclockwise around the altar table, and out through the Deacon’s door. It is then elevated towards the worshipers and returned to the altar through the center or Royal Doors/Tsarskie Vrata of the iconostasis. Afterwards, the priest carries it through the Royal Doors to the front of the iconostasis and holds it aloft before the gospel reading in order for it to be seen by the entire congregation. After the gospel reading, the priest lifts it again and while holding it aloft, he blesses his congregation by making the sign of the cross with it.

This Altar Gospel, which is in an almost-perfect state of preservation, was published for the glory of the holy, consubstantial, life-giving, and indivisible Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was created by the command of Autocratic, Pious Empress of All Russia Catherine and. with the blessing of the Most Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church. Catherine’s son Grand Duke Paul (1754-1801) and his second wife Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna I (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, 1759-1828) were also mentioned prominently on the title page. The Gospel was printed in Moscow in the year from the creation of the world 7300 [1791].

The Gospels were printed in Church Slavonic, the liturgical language used by Eastern Christian Churches. The book measures 51 centimeters and consists of 248 folio leaves with gilt, gauffered edges, and 4 plates. The title, printed on both sides of the leaf, was placed within ornamental borders like the entire text of the Gospel. Four plates found in the book carry full-page copper engravings of the Evangelists: one each by Vasilii Ikonnikov and Semen Nazarov, both after Petr Popov; one by Aleksei Andreev after Ivan Fedorov and one by Stepan Efimov after Semen Vtorov. They are all dated 1766.

The Gospel is covered with ornate silver gilt binding and elaborate repousée decoration. The front cover carries five painted porcelain plaques (drobnitsy) framed by green stones. The central medallion on the cover depicts Christ in Majesty vested in the sakkos and mitre of an Orthodox bishop. The other four plaques, surrounded by green stones, depict Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—the Evangelists responsible for writing the four gospels found in the New Testament. The back of the binding is worked with a floral scroll and the traditional symbols of the Crucifixion, with the Kremlin for background, with the Theotokos (Mother of God) to the left and St. John to the right. St. Peter is behind the cross and God the Father is above it. Four heavy props, set into this cover, near the corners, protect the book. Saints Peter and Paul are represented on the clasps.

The front of the binding provides information about its age and origin. Тhe silversmith mark "ѲA" indicates that the binding was done by silversmith Fedor Alekseev who was known in Moscow since 1740. A depiction of St. George slaying the dragon indicates that the binding was executed in Moscow. The work was actually executed in 1795, as indicated by the date next to the "АТ" mark used by Andrei Titov, Moscow Master silver Assayer from 1786 to 1798. The front of the binding also bears the heart-shaped brand mark "АОП," which is the brand mark of an unknown Alderman, that is, a master silversmith of Moscow.

As soon as the Gospel was donated to the library, it was noted from an authoritative source that, "…the craftsmanship of the volume could have been produced only by a silversmith who had learnt his trade in the workshop of Germain." François-Thomas Germain (1726–1791) was a French silversmith who at age 22 was named "sculptor-silversmith to the king" by Louis XV (r. 1715-1774). He was often commissioned by European royalty, including a large order in 1756 from Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (r. 1741-1762). Some claim that he actually traveled to Russia during the reign of Empress Catherine II.   

The Catherine’s Altar Gospel was gifted to the Library in 1938 by Gabriel Wells (1861-1946), an important antiquarian bookseller in America and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. His book business was at one point located on Fifth Avenue, opposite what is now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Wells, whose birth name was Weiss, was born in Balassa-Gyarmath in the Austrian Empire, a town that is now called Balassagyarmat and is located in northern Hungary on the border with Slovakia. After immigrating in 1894 and settling in Boston, he changed his surname to Wells. He made many gifts to The New York Public Library during his years in trade and made sure to include the Library in his will.

The acquisition of the Gospel by The New York Public Library was announced by Robert James Charles Lingel, then Chief of the Library's Acquisition Division. The New York Times reported that "the volume was taken out of Russia by one of the officers of the Russian Army of the Kerensky revolution, who went to Germany after the peace treaty and later gave it to his physician as a souvenir. The physician brought the book with him when he came to this country." While no names were given and this story cannot be verified, the Gospel is a rare survivor of the post-revolutionary period in Soviet Russia. Following the Revolution, many confiscated objet d’art were stripped of their jewels and metal ornamentation, which were melted down into ingots.

Bibliography

• “Catharine’s Dazzling Benefaction”, Russia Engages the World Exhibition, 2003-2004. Curators: Edward Kasinec, Robert H. Davis, Jr., and Cynthia Hyla Whittaker.
• Davis, Robert, comp., Materials in Vernacular Slavic and Baltic Languages, and Works, Regardless of Language, Printed on Territories Traditionally Populated by Slavic and Baltic Peoples, to 1825 [manuscript], no. 1204.
•  “Gabriel Wells, 85, Book Dealer, Dies,” New York Times Nov 7, 1946, p. 31.
• “Gift of a Russian Binding,” Bulletin of The New York Public Library 42, no. 7 (1938): 561.
• “Altar Gospels, Gilt Binding from the Reign of Catherine the Great”, Three Faiths Online Exhibition 2011, Curators and advisors: H. George Fletcher, Edward Kasinec, F. E. Peters, Patrick J. Ryan, S.J. Priscilla Soucek, Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Michael Terry, and David Wachtel.
• “Germain”, in The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, v. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006): 418.
• Kasinec, Edward, “Maurice Laserson (M. J. Larsons): A Note on His Diary and Pictures at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives,” Slavic & East European Information Resources 21, no. 3/4 (2020): 289-301.
• Mathiesen, Robert, “Church Slavonic Books in The New York Public Library,” Bulletin of Research in the Humanities 87, no. 4 (1986/87): 417, no. 57.
• New York Public Library. Rare Book Division, Dictionary Catalog of the Rare Book Division v. 2 (Boston, G. K. Hall, 1971): 685-686.
• New York Public Library. Slavonic Division, Dictionary Catalog of the Slavonic Collection v. 4 (Boston, G. K. Hall, 1974): 436.
• Postnikova-Loseva, M.M., N.G. Platonova, and B.L. Ulianova, Zolotoe i serebriannoe delo XV-XX vv.: territoriia Rossii, SNG i blizhnego zarubezhia (Sankt-Peterburg: Izd-vo “Kometa-2”, 2003): p. 203, no. 1997; p. 205, no. 2094; p. 209; p. 230, no. 3004.
• “Rare Russian Book Given to Library,” New York Times May 30, 1938, p. 9.
• Rovinskii, D.A., Podrobnyi slovarʹ russkikh graverov XVI-XIX vv. (Sanktpeterburg: Tip. Imp. Akademii nauk, 1895), v. 1., column 15-16, 307-308, 406-408; v. 2, column 690.
• Zernova, A.S. and T.N. Kameneva, comp., Svodnyi katalog russkoi knigi kirillovskoi pechati XVIII veka (Moskva: [s.n.], 1968): 396, no. 1140.

Articles from the New York Times accessed via ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index.

The author is grateful for the information provided by Sergei S. Levin, fund keeper of orders and medals of the Russian Empire, USSR, Russian Federation, and foreign countries of the State Historical Museum in Moscow and a member of the Russian Federation Presidential Heraldic Council (received via Dmitrii Pakhov), as well as for editorial input from Edward Kasinec, Curator Emeritus of the Slavic and Baltic Division, NYPL.