Images of Christ Emmanuel and Christus Victor in British Library Add. 19548

This article is a close study of the manuscript London, British Library, Add. 19548 from codicological, art-historical and liturgiological perspectives. The manuscript in question is an incomplete maštoc‛ (the principal ritual book of the Armenian Church), which contains two canons for performing the rites of the Priest's Ordination and the Blessing of Water. The analysis of the manuscript's heretofore unpublished illustrations suggests a strong connection with the artistic traditions of the Cilician Skewra monastery and its adjacent scriptoria, which flourished in the last quarter of the twelfth century under the patronage of the influential Lambron family. After presenting the archaeology and history of Add. 19548 and identifying the artistic milieu in which it was possibly created, the article continues with discussions of the images of Christ Emmanuel and Christus Victor, depicted in the Canon of a Priest's Ordination and the Canon of the Blessing of Water, respectively.