New Testament, Binding, Walters Manuscript W.525, Lower board outside

Early twentieth-century binding by Léon Gruel, Paris; brown morocco with gilt silver studs along the edges, small gilt silver corner bosses of cherubim, blind-stamped symbols of the Evangelists in neo-Gothic style on both covers, two gilt silver clasps (lower one now missing), spine with five raised bands and the name “Gruel” stamped in gold at the bottom, two paper flyleaves on each side (watermarked with a Britannia inside an oval) This small, densely written volume was evidently made for personal reading. It represents high-level manuscript production in the first decades of the late Byzantine period. By 1628, it is known to have been in the Chilandari Monastery, or one of its dependencies, on Mount Athos.