Shahnama Project : Shahnama

Firdausi

Shahnama Project

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The codex is bound in a modern Persian black leather binding with blind-pressed floral designs in gilt and colours. The outer cover has a large medallion with two pendants above and below, and matching corner angles; the outside of the flap has a similar design. The doublures are of red leather, with an elongated gold medallion, pendants and corner angles, cut out and embellished with filigree work over a green background (Simsar; see fig. facing p. 82).</p><p>The ms. was paginated by Ch. Melville, November 2008, leading to some corrections of the pagination given by Simsar, especially for paintings nos. 15-18 (one too high). There is no Preface. The poem starts on f. 1v under an unvan. Some folios are missing (cut out) between f. 2 and 3.The early folios have been remargined. Most of the rubrics are left out in the final parts of the book, which has clearly been left unfinished, see e.g. ff. 277v-278r. A space for a painting is left blank, on f. 321r. Some of the folios seem to be disturbed; the catchwords often do not match, and are usually absent anyway.</p><p>The paper is glazed, with an ivory finish, and quite thick. Rubrics are in gold, red or blue, as are the marginal rulings.</p><p>Simsar describes the 21 miniature paintings as being of high quality, in the style of Riza &apos;Abbasi. The pictures are clearly the work of different artists.</p><p>The colophon is hard to decipher; a small part has been erased, and the year after 1000 is missing, so that the date given is a terminus post quem.</p><p>See the catalogue by Simsar, pp. 82-3.</p></p>