Subject of this article is the copy of Four Gospels preserved at the Church Institute in Sofia (gr. 949), which was displayed in the Brilliance of Byzantium Exhibition organized during the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies (August 22 - 27, 2011) and which we assumed to have been produced by the hand of one of the most famous scribes at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century, i.e. Theodore Hagiopetrites. The type of the script employed in the Four Gospels at the Church Institute (CHAI gr. 949) is in the so-called by L. Politis unique ‘Hagiopetrites Style’. Although the manuscript does not contain a colophon, comparison to the manuscripts of Theodore Hagiopetrites known to us and especially to Cod. D. gr. 29 (Olim. Kos. 35) at the Ivan Dujčev Centre - an autograph of the scribe of 1307, as well as to another manuscript from Saint Petersburg, Cod. gr. of ASUSSR, No 10/667 of the 14th century, provides good reasons to assume that the Four Gospels manuscript (CHAI gr. 949) was also produced by Theodore Hagiopetrites. Our certainty was further substantiated after we had studied in situ the Four Gospels from Academician N. P. Likhachev’s archive published by Igor Medvedev in the collection ‘ In Memoriam Ivan Dujčev’ of 1988 which is currently kept under No 10/667 in the Archive of the Leningrad Section of the Institute of History at the Russian Academy of Science. Having compared the illumination and the specifics of motif stylization, as well as the specific colouring, we could assert that the two manuscripts manifest pronounced similarities. Thereby, the 27 manuscripts by T. Hagiopetrites published by R. Nelson should also be supplemented by the Four Gospels at the Church Institute (CHAI gr. 949) in addition to the Apostle Lectionary of 1307, autograph of Theodore Hagiopetrites at the Dujčev Centre, Cod. D. gr. 29 (Olim. Kos. 35), which R. Nelson briefly mentioned in his preface, and the Saint Petersburg Four Gospels, published by I. Medvedev.
Apostle Lectionary (Aprakos), archaic minuscule, Four Gospels, Hagiopetrites style, initials, portico-type headpieces, Theodore Hagiopetrites, архаизиращ минускул, заставки тип портик, Изборeн апостол, инициали, Теодор Хагиопетрит, Хагиопетритов стил, Четвероевангелие
