Elias Cretensis, Commentarius in S. Gregorii Nazianzeni orationes
This is a Byzantine illuminated manuscript of Elias Cretensis's commentary on the orations of Gregory Nazianzen, dated around 1250, held by a Swiss library and made for scholarly readers of Greek theology. The pages show bishops in liturgical vestments standing under painted arches before domed church buildings, with gold haloes and red-and-gold ornamental borders. A designer could take the flat, layered architecture, the Greek inscriptions set beside the figures, and the restrained red, ochre and blue palette.
