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A: Al Qanawat, Damascus, Damascus Governorate, Syria, B: Caesarea, Haifa District, Israel
Detail from page of Sinope Gospel. Please click to see entire image. From C. de Hamel, The Book. A History of The Bible (2001) 54.
The Sinope Gospels, a fragmentary sixth century illuminated Greek Gospel book written on purple vellum, takes its name from Sinop or Sinope in Turkey, where the fragment was discovered in 1899. In layout and illustrations, and because of their production on purple vellum, the Sinope Gospels are stylistically related to the Rossano Gospels.
The Sinope Gospels are thought to have been produced in Syria, Palestine or even possibly in Mesopotamia. Of the 43 leaves that survive, 42 are preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Manuscrits occidentaux (Supplement Grec. 1286).