Most extensively illustrated Byzantine manuscript

With more than 400 scenic illustrations and 1,256 portraits, the Sacra Parallela (Parisinus Graecus 923) is the most lavishly illustrated Byzantine manuscript in existence. This priceless manuscript is the only known copy of a collection of extracts and quotes from the Bible (Old and New Testaments) that were originally compiled between c. 675 and c. 749 CE, and is thought to have been copied and illustrated in a Greek monastery (the text is in Greek) in Italy – possibly Rome – in the 9th century.

The text contains three treatises: one on God and the Trinity, one on Man, and a final one on vices and virtues. The very many illustrations are available in a separate book called The Miniatures of the Sacra Parallela.

The Sacra Parallela (Parisinus Graecus 923) is in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.