Miroslav Gospel (Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje) is the oldest and the most important preserved Serbian manuscript book, since 2005 listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World. It was commissioned in 1180 by Duke Miroslav, the brother of Stefan Nemanja, Grand Duke of the medieval Raška. 

The 850-year-old manuscript is the monument of early literacy in Serbia, written on parchment in ancient Cyrillic script. Illuminated 362 pages are decorated with approximately 296 stylized miniatures with golden ornaments, in a particular style and iconography representing the fusion of Italian and Byzantine elements. For more than 170 years, Serbia is waiting for Russia to return the 166th page, stolen by an Orthodox monk and stored at the Russian National Library ever since. 

For seven centuries, it was kept in the Library of Hilandar, a Serbian monastery on Mount Athos, in Greece. In 1896, the book was donated to Serbian King Aleksandar Obrenovic. During the First World War, it was carried across the Albanian mountains with the retreating Serbian army and returned to Belgrade at the end of the war.

At the end of November 2024, digitalized version was presented at the Danish Royal Library „Black Diamond“, in coordination with the Ministry of Culture, SANU and the National Museum of Serbia.

The Miroslav Gospel facsimile