New Testament Manuscripts at Dumbarton Oaks

The beginning of Matthew
in Dumbarton Oaks MS 5
(GA 678)

            In Washington, D.C., just a 15-minute drive from the Museum of the Bible, there is a place called Dumbarton Oaks.  Besides having a beautiful garden and a very impressive collection of antiquities of all sorts (especially Byzantine objects, some of which are displayed in a gallery), Dumbarton Oaks – founded by Robert and Mildred Bliss, and now affiliated with Harvard University – is home to several Greek New Testament manuscripts:

            ● Dumbarton Oaks MS 1 (Gospel Lectionary) is also known as GA Lect 2139.  It contains readings from the Gospels as they were arranged for public reading in church-services throughout the year.  This manuscript can be dated precisely to a specific place and time, thanks to an inscription stating that it was presented by Empress Catherine Camnene to the Holy Trinity Monastery of Chalki in the year 6571 (i.e., 1063).  After the first 42 folios, the format of the text shifts to a cruciform shape.  In addition to this rare feature, the manuscript features many small illustrations, often related to the subject of the excerpts they accompany.  Page-by-page views of the entire manuscript can be downloaded for free, and can also be viewed online.  

           

            ● Dumbarton Oaks MS 2 is not one of the Greek manuscripts I mentioned.  It was written in Georgian sometime around the year 1000.  It is a Menaion, a liturgical book, providing the accounts of saints’ lives to read on their annual feast-days; this Menaeon includes the saints’ testimonies for December, January, and February.

            ● Dumbarton Oaks MS 3, also known as GA 1521, contains the Psalms (with Odes), the four Gospels, Acts, the General Epistles, the Epistles of Paul, and an assortment of prayers.  Like MS 1, this manuscript can be viewed online page-by-page, and it can be downloaded in its entirety.  The book of Psalms begins on fol. 6, with a headpiece picturing David composing songs.  Illustrations sporadically appear, and at about page 150 they begin to occur more frequently.  A portrait of Christ appears on fol. 39r.  Page 168 features an unusual illustration which combines the Annunciation with a picture of Mary contemplating the Scriptures, accompanying the text of the Magnificat.   Some pages feature cruciform text, such as 82r and 85r.  Eusebius’ letter Ad Carpianus begins on 88r, followed by simple red Canon-tables. 

            A rather full lectionary-apparatus accompanies the Gospels-text throughout (and continued through Acts and the Epistles).  Titloi appear in the upper margins, at the appropriate places, written in gold or gold-like pigment.

            The text of the Gospel of Matthew begins on page 197, with a large headpiece depicting the evangelist (framed in blue), an elaborate initial, and marginal illustrations. 

            Mark begins similarly, and with a similar format, on page 265.  Luke begins on page 309, and ends on fol. 186v.  The opening pages of John are not present; according to a digitally added note they are extant in the Tretjakov Gallery in Moscow as #2580.  The text of John begins on page 385 in John 1:26.  On 192r, John 5:4 is included in the text.  On 19v, John 7:53 follows 7:52, with a red “Jump ahead” symbol in between; the pericope adulterae is in the text; verses 3-11 are accompanied by red “>” marks in the outer margin.  A “Resume here” symbol appears in the margin beside 8:12.  John ends on 213v.  

            On 214r there is a list of the New Testament books in the rest of the manuscript:  Acts, the General Epistles, and the Epistles of Paul (Hebrews is listed between the letters to the Thessalonians and the letters to Timothy).  On 214v the summary of the book of Acts appears in a cruciform format.

            Acts begins on 215v; Luke and his readers are depicted in a headpiece, framed in blue.

            James begins on 250r; in the headpiece James sits below a canopy, or baldachin.

            On fol. 253v the summary of Peter’s epistles is formatted in cruciform text beginning with an initial E depicting Saint Luke; in the online images one can zoom in to see its artistic details.  A digital note then informs readers that the next folio of the manuscript resides at the Cleveland Museum of Art where it has accession number 50.154.

            On 255r the text resumes in First Peter 1:21.  Second Peter begins (after a book-summary) on 258r.  (Peter appears in the initial.)  First John begins on 261r, with John depicted in a headpiece (framed in green); John also appears within the initial.  (First John 4:7, without the Comma Johanneum, is in the text on 264r.)    Second John begins on 264v.  Third John begins and ends on 265v.  266r contains the summary of the Epistle of Jude, in cruciform format.  Jude begins on 266v; Jude is depicted in a headpiece, framed in leafy green.  Jesus Christ and Saint James make cameos in the margin.  A few pages are then used to introduce Paul and the book of Romans before the text of Romans begins on 269v.  The headpiece is exceptional; it features Paul in the act of writing while two companions (Phoebe and Timothy?) look on.  Each epistle is preface by its summary, each of which has its own title.

            First Corinthians begins on 282v.  As at the beginning of Romans, the initial “Π” has been turned into a picture of Jesus Christ teaching Paul; small red titles have survived to identify the figures.

In Dumbarton Oaks MS 3,
the initial "Pi" at the start of
each Pauline Epistle depicts
Jesus Christ and Saint Paul.

            Second Corinthians begins on 294v; again the initial is a depiction of Christ teaching Paul. 

            Galatians begins on 303r.

            Ephesians begins on 307r.

            Philippians begins on 311v.  The initial, which previous consisted of Jesus teaching Paul, is here a depiction of Jesus teaching Paul and Timothy.

            Colossians begins on 315r.

            First Thessalonians begins on 318r.

            Second Thessalonians begins on 321.

            First Timothy begins on 323r.  

            Second Timothy begins on 326v.

            Titus begins on 329r.

            Philemon begins on 330v.

            Hebrews begins on 331v.  At the center of the bottom of the page, a small group of individuals is pictured, representing the Hebrews.

            On 341r, there is a distinct change in the handwriting; a different scribe has written Hebrews 13:20b to the end of the book.

            After the conclusion of Hebrews, there are several pages of lectionary-related lists and other materials. 

            The Easter-tables in this manuscript begin with the year 1084, and it may be deduced that the manuscript was made around that time.

            ● Dumbarton Oaks MS 4, also known as GA 706, contains the Gospels of Luke and John, on 254 leaves.  Like Dumbarton Oaks MSS 1 and 3, this manuscript can be viewed online and the entire manuscript can be downloaded.  Compared to MS 3, the text of MS 4 is rather plainly presented.  There are full-page miniatures of Luke (on 4v) and John (on 150v), but these might be secondary.  There is no lectionary apparatus (other than some sporadic notes by a later hand); headpieces are in plain red; initials are also in red.  There are no titloi, even the Eusebian Canon-numbers and Section-numbers are absent.  John 5:4 is on 170v.  On 190v, John 7:53 follows 7:52 (και απηλθεν εκαστος . . .) and the rest of the pericope adulterae is included before 8:12.

           

          ● Dumbarton Oaks MS 5, known as GA 678, formerly known as Phillips MS 3886, is a well-executed Gospels-manuscript, written on single-column pages of 20 lines each.  In 2016, in Volume 70 of Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann described this manuscript very thoroughly in the article A Newly Acquired Gospel Manuscript at Dumbarton Oaks (DO MS 5): Codicological and Paleographic Description and Analysis.  This article is available at Academia.edu .
            This manuscript from the 1000s has 327 leaves; each page contains 20 lines of text in single columns.  The decorations for the Eusebian Canons are so ornate that one might think an Armenian artist was involved in their production.  After ten pages of spectacularly embellished Canon-tables, Ad Carpianus, the kephalaia (chapters-list) for Matthew, followed by a full-page picture of Christ enthroned (somewhat damaged, perhaps by kisses), and a full-page picture of Matthew.

            The text of the Gospel of Matthew begins on 14r, with a sumptuously ornate headpiece.  Titloi appear at the tops of pages, and a lectionary-apparatus (in red) appears above that, supplemented by notes, symbols and other markings in the text and margins.  Occasionally the lectionary apparatus appears at the foot of the page.  Section-numbers and Canon-numbers appear in the side-margins (always on the left of the text).  There are a few corrections to the text.  On 99r, a lozenge-dot symbol (⁘) accompanies the beginning of Matthew 28:8 in the text, probably to signify the beginning of a Resurrection Morning reading.

            Mark’s text begins (with an elaborate headpiece) on 103r.  Another ⁘ appears midway through Mark 1:13, denoting a lection-break, and again at 3:28.  On 126v, an asterisk-like mark (like ※ but empty in the center) appears at the beginning of chapter 8; there appears to have been another asterisk to the left of the text too, but it has been smudged.  On 129r, the scribe somehow wrote και μετα παρρησια in Mark 8:21b; a later correction appears in the margin, introduced by the symbol ⁜ which also appears in the text where the supplies words should be added. 

            The ⁘ symbol appears at Mark 9:10 (on 130v), at Mark 9:28 (on 132r), in Mark 9:34 (on 132v), in 10:11 (on 134v), 10:31 (at the first line on 136v), in 12:44 (on 144r), at 12:40 (on 144v), in 14:1 (on 147v), in 14:27 (on 149v), in 14:38 (on 150v), at 14:43 and 14:44 (both on 151r; the second ⁘ is accompanied by another ⁘ in the left margin), at 14:57 (on 152r), in 15:1 (on the last line of 153r), at 15:2 (with another ⁘ in the side-margin) and at 15:7 (both on 153v), at 15:12 and 15:14 (on 154r), in 15:20 and 15:23 and 15:24 (on 154v), etc., etc.  (I trust that future researchers will avoid assuming, if they see a ⁘ before Mark 16:9, that this signifies anything other than a lection-break or the beginning of a chapter.)     

            After Luke’s kephalaia and full-page portrait, the text of Luke begins on 162r. On 210v, asterisk-like marks (like ※ but empty in the center), one in the margin and one in the text, precede 12:16.  Luke 22:43-44 is in the text, on 244v.  The text of Luke ends on 254v.

            After John’s kephalaia and full-page portrait, the text of John begins on 257r.  On 282r, an asterisk-like mark (like ※ but empty in the center) precedes John 7:37, the lection for Pentecost-day.  On 283r, John 7:53 follows 7:52, with a “Jump ahead” symbol (ϒΠ) in between.  The pericope adulterae is in the text (και απηλθεν εκαστος . . . and with μη προσποιούμενος in verse 6 and προτος in verse 7 and κατακρινω in verse 11); in verse 11 απο του νυν (“from now on”) is added above the line. 

            A large asterisk-like mark (like ※ but empty in the center) appears in the margin on 302r, and another such mark appears in the text, before 13:1.  This is the beginning of an Easter-time sequence of lections for Good Friday.  In 19:11, on 308v, the scribe did not write the word ουδεμιαν; it is supplied in the side-margin, accompanied by ⁒ which appears in the margin and in the text.  John’s text ends on 326r.

           

            ● GA 669, known as the Benton Gospels, now also known as Dumbarton Oaks MS 6, is assigned to the 900s.  It is missing almost all of the Gospel of Matthew, but most of Mark (which begins with an interesting illustration – the title of the Gospel of Mark sits like a king under a baldachin – serving as a headpiece), Luke, and John have survived.  Digital photographs of the pages of this manuscript can be accessed at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.  This manuscript has traveled quite far; after being brought to the United States in 1844, it eventually found a home in Texas in the collection of Charles C. Ryrie, until Dumbarton Oaks purchased it in 2016.

            It is not every day that one can come into the possession of a digital replica of a Greek New Testament manuscript – and the stewards of Dumbarton Oaks have provided us with the means to view and download four of them!  Thank you, Gudrun Bühl, James Carder, Jan Ziolkowski, Susan Boyd, John Duffy, and the many others who had a role in making these resources available.  May these resources reap a harvest of new and revived interest in the text of the New Testament on the part of everyone who studies them.   

            Here are some additional links to acquaint readers with the multi-faceted blessings a Dumbarton Oaks:

            The Byzantine Collection

            The Pre-Columbian Collection

            Byzantine Seals

            Museum

            The Riha Hoard

            Church of the Holy Apostles

            Spheres of Influence:  Medieval Byzantine Art

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is the copyright holder for the manuscripts’ page-views and derivatives of them.

Readers are invited to double-check the data in this post.

Cruciform Lectionaries and the True Cross

Cruciform text from Luke 1
in minuscule 15
(at the National Library of France)

            In a few witnesses to the text of the Gospels – specifically, in Lectionary 233, Lectionary 1635 (known as the New York Cruciform Lectionary, at the Morgan Library), Lectionary 2139, and a lectionary at the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos which currently has no identification-number, and in uncial 047 and minuscule 15 and minuscule 2902 – the text is arranged in a cruciform shape – sometimes on every page.  What motivated the producers of these manuscripts, in the late 900s and 1000s, to abandon the traditional format of the text, and to take this impractical and inefficient step?

Fol. 42r in Lectionary 233
(at the British Library)

            It is possible that cruciform-text arrangement began as a spontaneous expression of some copyists’ Christ-centered piety.  And, occasionally, a copyist may have arranged a page’s text in a cruciform format because he wanted to artistically fill the entire page but did not have quite enough text to do so in the normal format.  (That seems to be what happened in Lectionary 150 on fol. 248v, and in several other manuscripts and lectionaries.)  However, the intriguing possibility exists that the pages of these manuscripts may have initially existed, or were intended to exist – when combined with special covers – as not only books, but as staurothekes – containers of pieces of the True Cross.

            It is not my intention here to vindicate or debunk the various legends about the True Cross; instead I will only summarize some of those stories, describe some staurothekes, and suggest how these objects may be related to the cruciform-text lectionaries.  

Lectionary 2139
(at Dumbarton Oaks) 

            The tale of the discovery of the True Cross begins with Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the early 300s.  Helena, who had become a Christian around the year 313 (about the same time when her son legalized Christianity), made a pilgrimage to prominent cities of the eastern Roman Empire, arriving in Jerusalem in 326.  She stayed there for some time, not only arranging the improvements of church-buildings there (and nearby in Bethlehem) but also using her considerable wealth to help the poor and needy residents. 

047, from the 700s

             In response to a vision, Helena arranged for an excavation to be undertaken in the area of Jerusalem where it was thought that the tomb of Christ had been.  Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, received a letter from Constantine instructing him to assist in the search for Christ’s cross, and as a result, not just one, but three crosses, were found in a cistern, along with a plaque that read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  Clearly these crosses had once held Jesus, Gestas (the unrepentant thief), and Dismas (the penitent thief), but which was which?  In order to determine which cross had held the Savior, each cross was presented to a severely ill woman, under the assumption that the touch of the true cross would cure her.  Nothing happened when the first two crosses touched her but at the touch of the third one, she was healed.  Helena, convinced that she had discovered the cross of  Christ, arranged for part of it to be sent to Constantinople, and another part to Rome, while the rest remained in Jerusalem, where Helena arranged the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.                

Lectionary 150,
fol. 248v.

          That is the gist of the story as told in 402 by Rufinus in Book 10 of his Church History.  Rufinus got his information from an earlier composition by Gelasius of Caesarea.  Cyril of Jerusalem (Gelasius’ uncle), in his 4th and 13th Catechetical Lectures, composed in the mid-300s, states (without mentioning Helena) that “the wood of the cross” was discovered in Jerusalem and “was afterwards distributed piecemeal from here to all the world.”  In 351 (in a Letter to Emperor Constantius II) Cyril specifies that “In the days of your imperial father, Constantine of blessed memory, the saving wood of the cross was found in Jerusalem.”  The story of Helena’s discovery of the cross of Christ is told by Ambrose of Milan in 395 (in his Oration on the Death of Emperor Theodosius), and by Paulinus of Nola, in 403 (in his Epistle 31, to Sulpicius Severus).  (In Paulinus’ version of the story, contact with the True Cross brings a dead woman back to life.)

A page from
Lectionary 1635

            A very similar story is told in the Doctrine of Addai, a composite work of the early 400s.  The author of Doctrine of Addai, however, instead of attributing the discovery of the True Cross to Helena in the 330’s, states that the cross was found by Protonice, the wife of Emperor Claudius, in the year 51.  He also says that after Protonice experienced this proof of Christianity, she wrote a letter telling her husband all about it, which is supposed to be why Claudius, perturbed by the Jews’ rejection of their own Messiah, banished them from Rome.

            What seems to have happened is that when someone in Syria heard the story about Helena discovering the cross, he confused Helena the mother of Constantine with Queen Helena of Adiabene (a region which on a modern map would be in eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northwest Iran).  According to Josephus (in Book 20 of Antiquities of the Jews), Helena of Adiabene also visited Jerusalem, and under her supervision, impressive monuments (including a tomb) were built in the city (which Josephus mentions repeatedly in Book Five of Wars of the Jews).  The Syriac story-teller adjusted and embellished the story to make it fit the first century, and explained Claudius’ expulsion of the Jews from Rome (mentioned in Acts 18:2) in the process.

            According to Ambrose, the nails which held Christ to the cross were also discovered by Helena, who sent two of them to Constantine, in settings that formed a jeweled crown and a horse-bridle; Ambrose explains this as a fulfillment of the pattern for the leader of God’s people in Psalm 21:4 (“You set a crown of pure gold upon his head”).  Theodoret, writing in the 440’s, explained the horse-bridle as an attempt to fulfill the prophetic pattern in Zechariah 14:20 (“In that day, ‘Holiness to the Lord’ shall be engraved on the horses’ bells”).

The Iron Crown of Lombardy

            Other writers state that Helena sent two nails to Constantine, and he had them fashioned into a helmet and horse-bridle.  (What about the third nail?  Some reports say that it was thrown into the sea, like Jonah, to calm a storm; others say that it was kept at Jerusalem in a silver case, and indeed such a case is still there.)

The covers of the Gospels of Theodelinda.

              According to one tradition, centuries later, Gregory the Great gave the nail-crown to Queen Theodelinda of Lombardy, expressing gratitude for her role in the conversion of her subjects.  Known as the Iron Crown of Lombardy, this relic still exists at the Duomo of Monza near Milan, Italy.  (The metal band in the interior of the crown is silver, however, not iron).  The covers of Theodelinda’s Gospels are also there; its pages, unfortunately, are not extant.

The fragment of the True Cross
in the Vatican.  Photo credit:
Ku.Ra Communicazione/AP Photo

            Paulinus of Nola mentions in his Epistle 32 (another letter to Sulpicius Severus) that he donated a tiny fragment of the True Cross to a church-altar at Primuliacum (adding it to a collection of relics), having received it from Melania, who, in the previous century, had become a resident of Jerusalem in the 360’s before she departed from there in 402 and went to Italy, where she gave the fragment to Paulinus.  The veneration of small pieces of the True Cross was very popular in medieval Christendom, especially in Europe.  Apparently very many people received cross-shavings as tokens of gratitude from church-leaders. 

            Although the story of Helena’s discovery of the True Cross was extremely well-known in medieval Christendom – the event had its own feast-day, September 14, in the Byzantine lectionary-cycle – the same cannot be said about the backgrounds of most wooden fragments that have been presented as pieces of the True Cross.  Few pieces of the True Cross have an ancient, traceable history.  Since at least the time of Leo I in the 400s, ancient fragments have been kept at Rome, where they are presently encased within a metal cross.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem also has a fragment (far smaller than the piece that was captured by Saladin in 1187 at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin). 

Fragments of the True Cross
on display in Jerusalem.

            On Cyprus, a silver staurotheke is viewable at the Stavrovouni Monastery.  The ornately carved Cong Cross (presently housed in Dublin, Ireland) was made as a reliquary for a fragment of the True Cross that was sent to Turlough O’Conor by Callistus II in 1123; the small wooden strip is no longer in the reliquary but the Cong Cross remains an artistic and cultural treasure.  (The basic design of the Folded Cross that was discovered in 2009 as part of the Staffordshire Hoard is reminiscent of the Cong Cross in some respects, and may have served a similar purpose.)

A Serbian staurotheke at Pienza
(Photographs by Gabriele Fattorini)

            A Serbian staurotheke at Pienza (in central Italy), also shaped like a cross, similarly has a round rock crystal at the intersection of its beams, but unlike the Cong Cross, it still contains the small wooden relic.  A monastery in Spain is said to possess a substantial piece of the True Cross.  A test on the wood of the fragment at the Santo Toribio Monastery has shown that it is cypress-wood, not black pine.  Other respectably ancient fragments are housed at the Olesnicki Chapel in Poland, in the Guelph Cross, in the Hildesheim Cross, etc.

The relatively large piece
of the True Cross at the
Santo Toribio Monastery

            As the Middle Ages commenced, a highly embellished form of the story of the True Cross was incorporated into a collection of stories known as The Golden Legend (Book 3).  To those who embraced this form of the story, if the wood in one fragment of the True Cross was different from another fragment, this only showed that the True Cross had been made of different kinds of wood.  Isaiah 60:13 was recruited into the service of this idea:  “The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet glorious.”  The phrase “the place of My feet” was interpreted by those who venerated fragments of the Holy Cross as a reference to the small bar which sometimes was placed under the feet of victims of Roman crucifixion.

            The expanded version of the story is the basis for the medallion-illustrations of Constantine and Helena in the Stavelot Triptych, a staurotheke which can be viewed in fine detail at the website of the Morgan Library.  

The Stavelot Triptych, an exquisite
relic at the Morgan Library.

            After the city of Constantinople was thoroughly looted by Crusaders in 1204, relics and fake relics virtually poured into Europe.  In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council passed a regulation prohibiting the sale of relics, but this was far from successful.  As relics became more commonplace, they tended to be regarded as common items; relic-pendants, even those supposed to contain splinters of the True Cross, were treated like jewelry.  In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner candidly admits that many of the relics he encourages people to venerate and purchase are forgeries; likewise John Calvin and other leading writers in the Reformation-period ridiculed the proliferation of fragments of the True Cross.

The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke -
outer cover and inner compartment.

The Staurotheke
of Paschal I.

            A hundred years before the Sack of Constantinople, though, the possession of a fragment of the True Cross was still a rare privilege, and the relic was considered worthy of a special display.  Reliquaries were specially designed to hold the fragment.  Typically, the rectangular box had an outer cover, decorated with a picture of Christ’s crucifixion as described in John 19:26-27:  John and Mary stand below the cross as Christ says to Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” and to John, “Behold your mother.”  Within the box, a cruciform compartment held the slightly smaller cruciform container of the fragment itself.  The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke is a good example of this design, and the Staurotheke of Paschal I (817-824) shows some of the same artistic style, as does the Mosan Reliquary.

The Mondsee Gospels
at the Walters Art Museum

            Reliquary-crosses were designed to be used in processions; the bishop or priest could raise the cross as a banner.  On stationary display, the cross-shaped staurotheke often featured a round shield of rock crystal at its center.  Rock crystal was a particularly useful stone for reliquary-makers; not only could it be delicately carved, but when shaped into a round hemisphere or similar shape, it acted as a lens, magnifying whatever was underneath the rock crystal.     

A Gospels-cover at
the Victoria & Albert
Museum, London

            I propose that the format of the text in cruciform lectionaries was an experiment by copyists who intended for the pages to be bound within covers that served as staurothekes.  Such a book is mentioned by John Rufus in his biography of his mentor, Peter of Iberia (411-491).  Writing before 518, John Rufus states that Peter and his companions, as they traveled to Jerusalem, carried with them some relics, and “Besides this, they carried only the little book of John the Evangelist, in which was fastened a part of the wood of the holy, precious, and saving cross, by which they were guarded.” (See page 47 of  The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus, by Cornelia Horn and Robert Phenix, Jr., © 2008 by the Society of Biblical Literature.)  

The St-Denis rock crystal
probably was made to be
placed in front of a fragment
of the True Cross. 

            Several extant Gospels-covers feature a cruciform design, with a round piece of rock crystal in the center.  Others lack the rock crystal itself but seem to have been designed to hold one.  The purpose of the rock crystal on these covers would have been to secure a fragment of the True Cross as part of the cover, and to magnify its appearance.  See, for example, the use of rock crystal in the Mondsee Gospels Cover, the Pax of Ariberto, the Shrine of the Stowe Missal, and the empty sockets in the cover of the Trier Gospels-Lectionary of Roger of Helmarshausen.           

The design in the St-Denis rock
crystal is very similar to this
Byzantine staurotheke-cover.

            The pages of cruciform lectionaries, and 047, were probably produced with the intention that they would be combined with a cover that featured a cruciform decoration which, at its center, contained a fragment of the True Cross housed under a protective round shield made of rock crystal.  (Or, if they were not, their producers were aware of such manuscripts, at any rate.)  This experiment was short-lived, but the few surviving examples of it may remind us, whatever we think of the value of relics, that when readers and listeners receive the words of the Gospels with thankful hearts and receptive minds, they can come into contact with Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross, and hear His invitation:  “Take up your cross, and follow Me.”