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# 85 NOVEMBER 21 , 2016
# 85 November 21 2016
read more about #Italian Art
ITALIAN ART:
Codex Purpureus Rossanensis
By Enrico de Iulis
Central Institute of Restoration, the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis has been returned to the Diocesan Museum Citizen,
expressly rearranged and redesigned
for the occasion.
The Codex, known just by a small enclave of people passionate of bibliophile, is
a sixth-century after Christ artifact so important that UNESCO has listed it in the
Memory of the World Register in 2015.
It is a book entirely composed of pages
of purple parchment written in Greek capital letters that tell part of the Gospel
(only that of Matthew and much of that
of Mark), and some letters. A Gospels
then, but with a particular characteristic:
it is completely written in gold and silver and not with usual inks of the time or
with the original binding of the '700.
This masterpiece was accidentally discovered in 1846 in the sacristy of the cathedral of Rossano, but only thirty years
later it was extensively studied by two
German scholars, who revealed it to the
scientific community. After an unfortunate restoration immediately after the
First World War, the community started
asking questions about the document.
Who created it? Where was it made?
Who was the client, and why with just
two gospels?
Italy has a network of museums that has
been recently highlighted by the tourist
guides, little known even by the most
frequent art visitors: it is the great and
diverse proposal of Diocesan Museums.
Maybe because they are associated with
an idea of monotonous repetition of sacred pieces, or because of very little pu-
blicity by the dioceses, these museums
continue to hide true beauty and art rarities, staged in modern and sometimes
also historical facilities.
The latest good news comes from Rossano, on the Ionian coast of Calabria where, after three years of treatment at the
Confronting it with similar findings preserved in Vienna and Paris, the almost
unanimous conclusion was to date it
from the sixth century AD, being Syria
the area where it was created.
The preciousness of the materials used
22 | WE THE ITALIANS
WE THE ITALIANS | 23
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