The lacking labels, especially for Christ and the Virgin Mary, would have been troubling to a Byzantine viewer. In Eastern Orthodox art, name and scene labels signaled to the viewer that these were representations of the holy figures and not the actual holy figures themselves. Arabic labels above the figures, which Kraus dated between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, provide names for all the saints, but interestingly do not provide names for the two main scenes or the figures contained therein. The frontal poses of the saints and layouts of the two narrative scenes correspond with typical Eastern Orthodox iconography. This sequencing of saints indicates that these were likely copied from or intended for a lectionary, the Orthodox liturgical book that structures the year’s biblical readings, or for a calendar icon which features all the saints celebrated in a given month. The figures correspond with the Orthodox liturgical calendar’s feast days for December on the large sheet and March on the small sheet. The small sheet contains Zacharias the Hospitable … Gabriel the Archangel Matrona of Salonica and Stephen the Wonder-worker.” Ann (the Conception of the Virgin) Menas, the Sweet-voiced, Hermogenes and Eugraphus, martyrs Daniel and Luke, the Stylites (middle row) Eustratius and his companion martyrs Lucius, martyr Eleutherius, bishop and martyr the prophet Hagia the prophet Daniel Sebastian, martyr Boniface, martyr Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (bottom row) Juliana, virgin and martyr Anastasia, martyr Theodulus and the ten martyrs of Crete Eugenia, virgin and martyr 20,000 martyrs of Nicomedia Abraham and the Holy Innocents Anisia, virgin and martyr and Melania, righteous matron. “(top row) the prophet Nahum the prophet Habakkah the prophet Zephaniah Barbara, the Great Martyr Saba the Sanctified, founder of the Great Lavra Ambrose, Bishop of Milan Patapius St. As translated by Kenneth Snipes, the holy figures include They contain thirty outlined drawings of saints along with two narrative scenes – the Annunciation to Mary and Christ’s descent into limbo, also known as the Anastasis.

Bed sheets manuscript