Codex aureus Epternacensis
The Gospel Book of Echternach ( Latin Codex aureus Epternacensis or Codex Gothanus ) is a work of Ottonian book illumination . The Gospels were created between 1030 and 1050 in the Benedictine abbey of Echternach . Today it is kept in the library of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg under the sign. Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Hs. 2 ° 156 142 and KG 1138 (book cover).
description
The very richly furnished codex , a so-called chrysograph (book with gold script), consists of 136 sheets of calf parchment measuring 445 × 310 mm . It contains the four Gospels in Latin. The text is written throughout with gold ink in Carolingian minuscule and has gold wickerwork - initials and capital letters in uncial script . The client for this book could have been Abbot Humbert von Echternach (* 1028; † 1051).
Furnishing
The manuscript has over 60 pomp and decorative pages, 16 full-page miniatures , 4 evangelist images, 10 canon tables, 9 full-page and 16 half-page and 503 smaller initials . All miniature pages are framed, they stand on a purple background and are set off from this by a white stripe.
At the beginning of the manuscript there is an image of Christ, the right raised in blessing, with the left holding an open book (f. -1r). The sheet was originally glued to the inside of the book cover. A Majestas Domini representation (f. 2v) serves as the opening for the entire manuscript .
The evangelist pictures before the beginning of each Gospel text show the figure sitting in an interior space under arcades with books, writing desk and writing utensils. Its associated symbol is located in the bezel . Each Gospel text is preceded by four picture pages with scenic representations. They are divided into three horizontal stripes of equal size, each showing one or two scenes. There is a framed gold lettering above each picture strip and the entire picture surface is framed with a gold strip. The pictorial program includes 1. The childhood of Christ until the calling of some apostles, before the Gospel of Matthew, 2. The public ministry of Christ, before the Gospel of Mark, 3. The parables, before the Gospel of Luke, 4. The Passion of Christ until Pentecost miracle, before the Gospel of John.
Scene: Parable of the rich Prasser and poor Lazarus (f. 78r)
Scene: The killed winemakers (f. 77r, median strip)
Jewelry side (f. 2v)
Text page (f. 24v)
cover
The splendidly furnished original binding was probably made in Trier between 985 and 991 and was made in the workshops that worked for Archbishop Egbert von Trier . This binding was a donation from Empress Theophanu and her son Otto III. The splendid binding, which had remained without a fixed book block until then , was probably connected to the parchment pages of the Echternach Gospels soon after the Echternach monastery buildings were consecrated on October 19, 1031.
The 43.5 cm high front gold cover of the binding is decorated with precious stones, pearls, filigree, small enamel tablets and flat embossed gold reliefs. In the middle he carries an ivory plaque by an Echternach master that shows a crucifixion scene. The ivory tablet is surrounded by an inner and an outer frame, which are alternately set with enamel tablets, stone-set filigree plates and almandine hearts. Four straight and four narrower diagonal stripes connect the two frames and divide the gold surface into eight fields. The gold reliefs above and below show the four personified rivers of Paradise with the evangelist symbols assigned to them, left and right Saint Mary and the Apostle Peter as the oldest patron saint of the Echternach Abbey, Saint Willibrord as the founder of the Echternach Monastery and the founder of the Benedictine order , Benedict , the missionary and pupils of Willibrord's Bonifatius and the missionary Liudger , and among them the founders: Otto III. and his mother Empress Theophanu. The ivory plaque in the center of the book cover is 19.2 × 11.8 mm and shows the crucifixion of Christ with Longinus . The Suppedaneum is supported by the figure of Terra . The table was probably made between 985 and 987.
The back of the cover is covered with green silk, the back cover of the book with a previously reddish, but now faded silk. In addition, gold-plated copper fittings are attached to the back cover of the book. The binding originally had two silver clasps, only one of which has survived today.
The splendid binding was separated from the manuscript in 1955 and is also in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. In the years 1962/63 the parchment book block was newly bound and since then has had a wooden cover that is covered with goatskin and is closed with two clasps.
history
The codex was created for use in the Echternach monastery and was there until the French Revolution .
After the monastery was closed around 1795/1796, the book reached Erfurt via Mainz. In 1801 Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg bought the codex. The manuscript became part of the library at Friedenstein Castle in Gotha . In the course of the dispute over the expropriation of the princes , ownership was transferred to the Duke of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha Foundation for Art and Science in 1928. The gospel book is one of the works of art that the ducal family brought to Coburg in 1945 .
On May 9, 1955, the House of Coburg-Gotha sold it to the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg for DM 1.1 million for financial reasons .
literature
facsimile
- Rainer Kahsnitz (Ed.): The Golden Book of Gospels from Echternach. Facsimile edition of the manuscript 156142 from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. (2 volumes) Frankfurt am Main & Stuttgart 1982.
- Johannes Pommeranz (arrangement): The Golden Book of the Gospels of Echternach: partial facsimile edition of twelve pages with 22 carat gold plating from the manuscript 156142 from the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. (2 volumes) Berlin & Stuttgart 2015.
Secondary literature
- Peter Metz: The Golden Book of Gospels from Echternach in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg . Munich 1956.
- Egon Verheyen: The golden book of the Gospels from Echternach (= library of the Germanic National Museum Nuremberg for German art and cultural history. Volume 22). Munich 1963.
- Rainer Kahsnitz , Ursula Mende, Elisabeth Rücker (eds.): The golden book of Gospels from Echternach. A splendid 11th century manuscript. (on the occasion of the exhibition Codex Aureus Epternacensis, the golden book of Gospels from Echternach, a medieval manuscript and its facsimile in the Theodor-Heuss-Bau of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg from July 10th to August 29th 1982) Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-10- 757813-4 .
- Hardo Hilg: The manuscripts of the Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg. The Latin Medieval Manuscripts: Part 2. Hs. 22922-198390, Appendix. Wiesbaden 1986, ISBN 3-447-02600-6 , pp. 123-126.
- Denise Collard-Lommel: Codex Aureus Epternacensis - Images open up the Bible . Echternach, 2003.
- Katharina Bierbrauer : Codex Aureus Epternacensis . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Volume 2, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-59057-2 , Sp. 2200-2201.
- Anja Grebe: Codex Aureus. The golden book of the Gospels from Echternach. Official catalog for the exhibition in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum from November 22, 2007 to February 24, 2008. Darmstadt 2007 (special edition 2011, reduced reprint of the 2nd edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-89678-724-8 ).
Web links
- Digitized
- Official manuscript description
- Description of the binding in the object catalog and picture of the binding
- Anke Dörrzapf: Your Highness let them wrap up . In: art , July 2003. How the Gospels from Gotha got into the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Remarks
- ^ Digitized version of the Codex Aureus Epternacensis of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum .
- ↑ Online object catalog KG 1138 .
- ↑ Anke Dörrzapf: Your Highness let it be packed . plan17.de