Four Gospels1307-1331.armIlluminated manuscript on parchment of the four Gospels. Contains (1) Eusebius' Letter to Carpianus, ff. 2v-3r; (2) Canon Tables I-X, ff. 3v-11r; (3) Gospel of Matthew, including index, concordance, and portrait, ff. 12r-96v; (4) Gospel of Mark, including index, preface, and portrait, ff. 97r-149v; (5) Gospel of Luke, including index, preface, and portrait, ff. 150r-233v; (6) Gospel of John, including index, preface, and portrait of John and Prochoros, ff. 234v-297v; (7) reading on the woman taken in adultery, ff. 297v-298r; (8) principal colophon, ff. 298v-299vIn Armenian.Layout: two columns of 19 lines. Section numbers in margins against text, and concordance numbers in lower margins.Script: bolorgir.Decoration: miniatures and illuminations by Tʻoros Taronacʻi, some signed. Full-page portraits of the Evangelists. Ornate frames, headpieces, marginal decorations. Zoomorphic letters, ornate initials.Binding: leather over boards. Front cover has metal cross and other ornaments; rear cover is stamped. Patterned linen doublures on inside covers.Colophon (fols. 298v-299v) indicates the manuscript was written for Ovanē Ōrpēli (also Awrpēli), a member of the Ōrbelean family which held extensive domains in the same province. Codex was executed at the monastery of Noravank' by the scribe Momik, who was assisted by the vardapet Pawłos. These two scribes completed the greater part of the writing by AE 756 (=AD 1307), when Momik had serious trouble with his eyes. Manuscript was completed by another scribe, Yohanēs or Yovhannēs. Momik recovered his sight in AE 780 (=AD 1331) and wrote the colophon in which he gives interesting information concerning the copy of the manuscript and the feudal lords of Siwnikʻ. The book then passed into the possession of Archbishop Step'anos-Tarsayič, also a member of the Ōrbelean family. In AD 1331 Archbishop Step'anos-Tarsayič had the manuscript "adorned with gold and silver" by order of prince Biwrt'ēl, the head of the Ōrbelean family. Since replaced by current leather binding.In AE 855 (=AD 1406) the manuscript belonged to a priest named Sēt' (fol. 235r). Later inscriptions indicate that the manuscript was acquired by the craftsman Awēt and his brothers and sons, who in turn offered it to the church of Surb Yakob (St. James) in the town of Cʻałman (fol. 235v); a second indicates the manuscript subsequently belonged to an individual named And[r]ēas and his sons (fol. 236r).