Codex Einsidlensis 629

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Codex Einsidlensis 629
Repository Einsiedeln Abbey Library
origin Southern Germany
material parchment
Page number 564
format 305 × 215 mm
Time of origin 1288
language Latin

The Codex Einsidlensis 629 from the year 1288 contains the third-oldest surviving copy of the Golden Legend , a collection of legends of saints in Latin, which the Genoese Jacobus a Voragine wrote to the 1264th The origin of the manuscript and its path to Einsiedeln monastery are unclear; It gains its special value from the fact that, in addition to the Legenda aurea, it contains the oldest known so-called “Provincia appendix”, an extension with legends on special saints from southern Germany.

Example of a Fleuronnée initial, F. 256r

Description of the codex

The codex has a total of 564 parchment pages in the format 305 × 215 mm. A few sheets are missing at the beginning and at the end of the manuscript; the pages are all set up uniformly with two columns of 36 lines each. The font is a regular and carefully executed Gothic minuscule in black ink, with abbreviations often used for individual words. Handwriting is the work of a single scribe. With regard to special book decorations, the Codex does not stand out; Titles and headings were categorized . The initials at the beginning of each chapter are alternately red and blue; some have additional flower and tendril-like decorations, so-called fleuronnés . The binding, consisting of two wooden covers bound in white leather and fitted with leather and metal clasps, dates from the 13th century and is therefore probably still the original from the time the codex was created.

content

The text of the Legenda aurea takes up the greater part of the manuscript with over 500 pages and is a meticulous copy. The extremely great popularity of the Legenda aurea quickly led to the stories of other saints with more local significance in the actual work, depending on the region were added - a corresponding example is the "Provincia Appendix", which is documented here for the first time, which extends over 49 pages and is also found in later manuscripts of the Legenda aurea from southern Germany. Based on the selection of saints made in this appendix, it is possible both to geographically limit the area where the Codex was created to the southern German area around Constance and to localize the writer in the vicinity of the Augustinian order.

History of the Codex

At the end of the work, the scribe left a year, which gives the year 1288 as the time of writing. Some authors assume the Rheinau monastery as the place of origin, but this cannot be substantiated with firm arguments; perhaps the codex was kept in this Benedictine abbey for a certain time without necessarily being written there. How the manuscript finally got to Einsiedeln and when it happened is not known; An entry by the Einsiedeln librarian Gall Morel shows that it was part of the Einsiedeln Abbey Library as early as the 19th century.

literature

  • Konrad Kunze (Ed.): The Alsatian "Legenda aurea", Vol. 2: The special property (texts and text history; Vol. 10). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1983, ISBN 3-484-36010-0 , pp. XXXIX – XLVI (information on the Codex).
  • Barbara Fleith: Studies on the transmission history of the Latin Legenda aurea. In: Subsidia hagiographica , Vol. 72 (1991), ISSN  0777-8112 , p. 107. (Information on the Codex)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de/description/sbe/0629 (January 7, 2014)
  2. ↑ Legenda aurea . In: Der Literatur-Brockhaus in eight volumes , No. 5, 1995, p. 124.
  3. ↑ K. Kunze (ed.): The Alsatian "Legenda aurea" II. The special property. Tübingen 1983, XXXIX-XLVI.
  4. ↑ K. Kunze (ed.): The Alsatian "Legenda aurea" II. The special property. Tübingen 1983, XL; B. Fleith: Studies on the transmission history of the Latin Legenda aurea. In: Subsidia hagiographica 72, Brussels 1991, 107.
  5. ↑ http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de/description/sbe/0629 (January 7, 2014)