In a video message on his Instagram profile, Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković stated that Miroslav’s Gospel is on display at the National Museum to mark 20 years since the oldest preserved Serbian Cyrillic manuscript book was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World list.
Created in the 1180s, Miroslav’s Gospel was written on parchment, contains 181 leaves and 296 miniatures drawn with a quill, later coloured with a brush and decorated with gold. An inscription on the last leaf of the Gospel confirms that it was commissioned by Miroslav, the Prince of Hum and brother of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja. It is believed that the scribe or miniaturist of the Gospel was a monk named Gligorije, whose signature appears on the last written page.
Miroslav’s Gospel is written in Old Church Slavonic, in the Serbian recension and the Raška orthography. Structurally, it is an evangeliary – a liturgical book containing selected passages from the four Gospels. Due to its exceptional significance and value, Miroslav’s Gospel was declared a cultural property of exceptional importance in 1979, and since June 2005 it has been listed by UNESCO as part of the Memory of the World register, for which the National Museum in Belgrade received a certificate.
As an evangeliary, the book contains Gospel readings arranged according to the order in which they are read throughout the liturgical year. In addition to the Gospel text, there are alleluias written before each reading. The Gospel text is written in two columns with a quill, using dark brown and black ink, while most titles are in red. The book includes 296 miniatures drawn in ink and then coloured with a brush using red, green, yellow and white pigments, and decorated with gold. The leather binding is not original, likely dating from the 14th century, and is thought to have been taken from another manuscript.
The National Library of Serbia, as the institution responsible for the protection of old and rare books, has established a special regime under which Miroslav’s Gospel may be exhibited for no more than ten days per year, with approval from the Ministry of Culture and Information and the consent of the National Library.
(RTS, 30.07.2025)