page_title: Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Slavonic note: „✝ The son of Voivod Stefan, ✝ Ivan Alexander, in Christ God faithful Voivod 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.” Română: Inscripție slavonă: „✝ Fiul lui Ștefan Voevod ✝ Ioan Alexandru întru Hristos Dumnezeu credinciosul voevod și domn a toată Țara Moldovei a răscumpărat acest tetraevanghel ce a fost în zălog. Dumnezeu să-l ierte și să-i dăruiască viața vecinică. Și aici viață îndelungată.”
context_page_description: The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander is an illuminated manuscript Gospel Book, written and illustrated in 1355–1356 for Tsar Ivan Alexander of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The manuscript is regarded as one of the most important manuscripts of medieval Bulgarian culture, and has been described as "the most celebrated work of art produced in Bulgaria before it fell to the Turks in 1393".
  The manuscript, now in the British Library, contains the text of the Four Gospels illustrated with 366 miniatures and consists of 286 parchment folios, 33 by 24.3 cm in size, later paginated with pencil. The language of the text is variously described as Bulgarian, Middle Bulgarian, Slavonic, and Church Slavonic.
context_section_description: The text of the manuscript was all written by a monk named Simeon in 1355–1356 on the orders of Ivan Alexander, probably for use in his private chapel. Simeon gives his name in the colophon on f. 275.  It is not certain whether Simeon also illuminated the Tetraevangelia or simply was a scribe and calligrapher, or indeed whether he devised the magic square. Probably at least three different artists worked on the miniatures, but as was usual no names are given. The handwriting of the manuscript shows definite similarity with that of the Manasses Chronicle (1344–1345), a product of the Tarnovo Literary School of the time. 
  After the fall of Tarnovo to the Ottomans in 1393, the manuscript was transported to Moldavia possibly by a Bulgarian fugitive, marking the last time for nearly half a millennium it would be in its native Bulgaria. It spent a number of years there and was later bought on the orders and with the resources of Prince Alexander I of Moldavia (also a "John Alexander"), which is evidenced by a red-ink marginal note on folio 5.  The later fate of the manuscript until its arrival in monastery of Agiou Pavlou (St Paul) on Mount Athos is uncertain, but the document was recorded as part of the monastery's collection in the 17th century. 
  The English traveller and collector Robert Curzon (later 14th Baron Zouche, 1810-1873), who visited the monastery in 1837, was given the Tetraevangelia as a present by the abbot. This was to his surprise and delight, according to his own account; Milner-Gulland describes it as "shamelessly cadged" from the abbot. This probably saved the manuscript from being destroyed by the fire that burnt down the monastery library in 1905.  Curzon released an inventory of his collection of manuscripts in 1849, the first time the Tetraevangelia was presented to the academic world. Direct work with the original was, however, impossible, which caused speculation, supposition and rumours related to the manuscript. His son placed his collection on permanent loan in the British Museum in 1876, and after her death, his entire collection was given to the museum in 1917 by his daughter Darea, 16th Baroness Zouche (1860–1917), which enabled more detailed examination of the book. When the British Library was created in 1973, the manuscript was transferred to the British Library.
  In 2017 the manuscript has been added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register as a world heritage document.
caption: Inscription on f. 5.r., recording the purchase by Prince Alexander in Moldavia
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