Decorated Text Page

A decorative headpiece frames an inscription identifying the following text as the Gospel of Saint Mark. The anonymous scribe wrote the Greek heading in a stylized display script, employing monograms and abbreviations that are visually pleasing but a bit difficult to decipher. Indeed, a reader of the manuscript transcribed the text in the upper margin in a more easily legible script. Following the large letter alpha, the scribe used a minuscule script for the Gospel text.