What is "evangeliary"

The Evangeliary or Book of the Gospels is a liturgical book containing only those portions of the four gospels which are read during Mass or in other public offices of the Church. The corresponding terms in Latin are Evangeliarium and Librum evangeliorum.

The Evangeliary developed from marginal notes in manuscripts of the Gospels and from lists of gospel readings (capitularia evangeliorum). Generally included at the beginning or end of the book containing the whole gospels, these lists indicated the days on which the various extracts or pericopes were to be read. They developed into books in which they were accompanied by the texts to which they referred, with the passages arranged in accordance with the liturgical year rather than in their order within the gospels themselves, and omitting passages not used in the liturgy.