The story of this decorative cover is narrated in a memento on its interior: “we took it down from the monastery to take to Wallachia and cover it in silver, and then return it to the monastery...” The cover construction was financed by the Prince of Moldavia Ieremias Movilă and his family, who are acknowledged in the dedicatory inscription around the ruler’s coat of arms. The iconographic themes decorating this cover naturally included subjects associated with the sanctity of the Sinai site: on the back-side we find the scene of the Transfiguration, and over it, a miniature scene of the Mother of God as the Bush between Moses and Saint Catherine.
