Catherine’s Dazzling Benefaction
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	Evangelie naprestol’noe [Altar Gospels] Moscow, 1791 NYPL, Rare Books Division The hallmarked gilded silver binding of this Altar Gospels – held aloft during the liturgy so it could be seen by the entire congregation – includes enamel medallions (drobnitsy) of Christ, dressed in the saccos and mitre of a bishop, and of the Evangelists, surrounded by green stones. In general, the “Latinized” rendering of the binding suggests the influence of western European aesthetics (in this case, French craftsmen) in 18th-century Russia. In the 1920s and 30s, in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution, countless objects were stripped of their jewels and metal ornamentation, which were melted down into ingots. This rare survivor of the turbulent revolutionary period – possibly a benefaction by Catherine the Great (r. 1762–96) to the Aleksandro-Nevskaia Lavra in St. Petersburg – was a gift to the Library from New York antiquarian book dealer Gabriel Wells (1862–1946).