Book excerpt: "The Pozzi Gospels, completed by Hakob Jughayets'i, includes an extraordinary series of portraits, narrative miniatures and marginal figures. Copied and illuminated under the protection of a church in the city of Keghi (modern Kigi, fifty miles south-west of Erzurum), Hakob's sparkling, vibrant palette, expressive wide-eyed figures, and iconographic inventiveness are at their most distinctive in this early work." "This is the first monograph to trace Hakob's development from his beginnings in Armenia in the 1580s to his later works in Safavid Persia, at Isfahan, in 1607 and 1610. The study constructs Hakob's biography, explores his artistic development, and evaluates his career within the context of late 16th-century Armenian politics, culture and devotion. Illustrated with reproductions of miniatures produced at every stage of his career, it reveals the singular artistic vision of Hakob himself and the dynamism of contemporary Armenian illumination."--BOOK JACKET.