Silver work

The silverwork artists at Putna Monastery made the famous binding of the 1487 Book of the Four Gospels of Humor, as well as the two rhipidiums of 1497 of Putna Monastery, considered masterpieces of the Romanian goldsmiths’ art of all times. They are the most eloquent proof of the craftsmanship of the local workshops of silverwork during the age of Stephen the Great, but at the time they are far from being the only ones.

As the necropolis of the magnificent Romanian voivode, Putna Monastery must have had an impressive treasury of silverwork. Generous donations were made both by Stephen and by his successors, and by some noblemen and even by common believers. Yet, the vicissitudes of history brought about the destruction of most of these works of art. From the time of Stephen the Great there are at Putna only the censer from 1470, the binding of the 1487 Book of the Four Gospels of Humor, a bound cast of St. Ghenadie’s skull from 1488, the rhipidiums of 1947 and a collection of small objects - hairpins, buttons, earrings - which were found in the princely tombs, when they were opened up in 1856. The other objects - book bindings, cross and icon bindings, censers, incense burners, icon lamps, candlesticks, fonts, chalices and plates for the funeral wheat porridge, all date from later epochs (the 16th - 19th centuries).