Codex Gisle

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Nun Gisle (Codex Gisle, f. 70r)

The Codex Gisle is a gradual that was created shortly after 1300 for the Cistercian monastery Rulle near Osnabrück and contains the chants that the nuns sang in the services . The codex owes its name to an illumination for Christmas , in which a nun known as Gisle is shown as the lead singer. A nun Gisle is also shown in an initial for Easter Sunday . The name Gisle could refer to Gisela von Kerssenbrock which is associated with all works except the binding of the manuscript in a memorial entry from the 15th century on a flyleaf of the Codex.

story

The codex was created in several scriptoria that apparently worked closely together. It was completed after 1302 and has remained in the Rulle monastery for centuries. In the early 19th century the codex came to the Osnabrück auxiliary bishop Freiherr Karl Klemens von Gruben . After his death in 1827, his library, including the Codex Gisle, was bequeathed to the Carolinum grammar school adjacent to the cathedral and the seminary in Osnabrück for joint ownership. Today the manuscript is in the diocesan archive in Osnabrück under the signature Ma 101.

description

The Codex

Codex Gisle, Easter side

The codex comprises 172 sheets of parchment measuring 355 × 260 mm (edges trimmed). In the 14th position a sheet is missing (text gap) and also the former last sheet. The dimensions of the writing space are approx. 275 × 180 mm. Three writers can be distinguished: hand 1 (Christmas and Easter circles with 10 staves per page), hand 3 (sequentials with 14 staves per page) and hand 2 (everything else with 10, 12 or 15 staves per page). All three hands use the book font Textualis . The melodies of the chants are recorded in Gothic horseshoe notation, which was often used in manuscripts from Cistercian convents in the 13th and 14th centuries, especially in northern Germany. The manuscript contains approx. 670 chants a and 52 figuratively decorated initials .

The Codex Gisle shares with other liturgical books the internal organization according to the church year . The own texts for the weekly and Sundays of the annual cycle are summarized in the Proprium de Tempore (Temporale), those holy festivals that are always celebrated on the same day in the Proprium de Sanctis ( Sanctorale ) and in the Commune Sanctorum for days of remembrance of saints that have little or no property of their own. This is followed by event-related texts, e.g. B. Processional chants and a short kyrial . The conclusion is formed by a sequential, possibly added later, with a total of 33  sequences , even though the Cistercians actually rejected sequences as superfluous ornamentation. The sequence Ecce arbor salutaris for the cross festivals (May 3rd and September 14th exaltation of the cross ) is particularly important . In the Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi , the collection of medieval Latin poetry, the Codex Gisle is cited as the oldest source for this rather rare sequence .

The codex shows signs of use, but is otherwise relatively well preserved. There are few comments from later centuries. However, there are minor irregularities. For example, parchment was sometimes used with a hole or one with a tear that was sewn together.

The blue-red color change in the initials was not strictly adhered to and some initials are missing; incorrect texts were not shaved off but crossed out; sometimes there was not enough space, so that, for example on p. 306, additional staves had to be added in the margin, etc.

aIf one also counts the chants, which are only contained in abbreviated form in the Codex Gisle , one comes to a total of around 1500 chants.

Book decorations

The gradual contains a total of 52 historicized initials , b an astonishingly large number. c The festive days of Christmas (9 initials) and Easter up to Pentecost (23 initials) are particularly rich with historicized initials, whereas the initials of Lent and Passion (6 initials) and the Sanctorale (6 initials) are simpler. As usual, only the opening introit of the mass chants , which was sung at the entrance of the priest and his fellow celebrants to the altar, has a historicized initial. Only at Easter are other chants emphasized in this way to a greater extent.

Usually the letters of the historicized initials are those with internal fields, which are therefore well suited for the inclusion of picture elements. Dragon bodies occasionally replace parts of the letter. The larger initials also have runners in the edge area, which can be found regularly next to the initial, but also across the entire page, and with medallions form locations that can be image carriers for their own subjects. Together with the gold ground, blue and pink in various shades dominate the colourfulness of the handwriting. In addition to orange-red and red, there is also green in particular as a garment color and for picture objects, as well as various ocher, brown and gray tones, for example for hair design.

In addition to the large historicized initials, there are also simpler, one to two-line initials with fleuronné , which could have been inserted in the Ruller scriptorium. The larger initials, which reach up to three lines in height and are designed in the colors gold and blue with rich fleuronné, are likely to have been made by a professional book illuminator .

The unadorned initials of the mass chants Introit - Graduale - Offertorium - Communio or the verses of the tropics, hymns and sequences, which are usually written in regular alternation of blue and red, are also to be assigned to the book decoration. Some of the high festival texts were written in gold on a red or blue background. d

b In addition, an L decorated with a spring rose on p. 85.
cWhen looking at facsimiles and digital copies, the number may not seem unusual, but in reality most graduals contain no or very few illuminations. (Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Eva Schlotheuber, Susan Marti, Margot Fassler: Liturgical Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300–1425. Münster 2016, Aschendorff, Volume 1, p. 171.)
dSee e.g. B. the illustration of the page for Easter.

cover

It is not known what the original cover of the Codex Gisle looked like. It is possible that the manuscript was rebound in the 2nd half of the 15th century. f The Codex received its present binding after the first facsimile in 1925. The Oldenbourg bookbinding made use of a binding from the late 15th century, which came from southern Germany and whose wooden cover is covered with light brown leather and shows an all-over blind embossing. Corner fittings and clasps are made of brass. The high-quality stamps show, among other things, a heart leaf palmette , a griffin, a lying deer in a teardrop-shaped frame, a stylized lily and a writing evangelist.

f This could be indicated by the double sheets bound before and after the book block today, with imprints of the initials at the beginning and end of the codex as well as traces of rust from the fittings of an earlier binding.

Facsimiles

A first facsimile of the Codex Gisle was published in 1926:

Christian Dolfen: Codex Gisle / On behalf of the high cathedral chapter in Osnabrück with the support of the Landtag of the Province of Hanover with the participation of Martin Wackernagel and other scholars ed. Berlin 1926, Buchenau & Reichert. G

In 2015 Quaternio Verlag published a new facsimile of the Codex Gisle .

  • Web link to the facsimile of the Codex Gisle
  • Quaternio Verlag, Ed .: The Codex Gisle, Commentary on the Facsimile Edition . Lucerne 2015, Quaternio. ISBN 978-3-905924-20-6 (cited as comment ).
  • Quaternio Verlag, Ed .: Sing like angels. An introduction to the Codex Gisle and its chants . Lucerne 2015, Quaternio. ISBN 978-3-905924-27-5 . (Quoted as singing like the angels ).
G With 41 collotype plates.

literature

  • Beate Braun-Niehr : Observations on the exterior of the Codex Gisle, on its creation and history as well as on the current binding of the manuscript. In: Commentary, pp. 23-30. (cited as observations )
  • Eberhard König : Codex Gisle. In: Helmut Engelhart , even if: Lexicon for book illumination. Stuttgart 2009, Hiersemann, 1st half volume, p. 109.
  • Renate Kroos : The Codex Gisle - I. Research report and dating . In: Low German Contributions to Art History 12 (1973), 117-134.
  • Udo Kühne , Bernhard Tönnies , Anette Haucap: Manuscripts in Osnabrück. Episcopal Archive, High School Carolinum, Episcopal General Vicariate, Museum of Cultural History, Lower Saxony State Archives, Diocesan Museum, Parish Archives St. Johann (Medieval Manuscripts in Lower Saxony. Short Catalog 2) , Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-447-03456-4 , pp. 139-140 with six SW panels. ( Digitized at Manuscripta Mediaevalia, at that time still in the Episcopal Vicariate General without signature)
  • Judith H. Oliver : Singing with Angels. Liturgy, music, and art in the gradual of Gisela von Kerssenbrock. Turnhout 1962, Brepols, ISBN 978-2-503-51680-6 . (Quoted as Oliver )
  • Günther Pabst: The Codex Gisle - A development . Neustadt am Main 2021, CHOROS. ISBN 978-3-933512-31-4 (cited as cataloging )
  • Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck : On the origin and art-historical classification of the Codex Gisle . In: Commentary, pp. 93-101.
  • Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck: Art-historical description and consideration of the Codex Gisle . In: Commentary , pp. 37-92.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beate Braun-Niehr: Observations , p. 28f.
  2. ^ Judith H. Oliver: Codicological description of the manuscript . In: Oliver . S. 215-220 .
  3. ↑ Fabian Kolb: Music, Liturgy and Spirituality in the Gradual of Gisela von Kerssenbrock . In: Comment . S. 103-144, here p. 108 .
  4. ^ Günther Pabst: Development , pp. 116–128.
  5. ↑ Beate Braun-Niehr: Overview of the content of the Codex Gisle . In: Comment . S. 31-36 .
  6. ↑ Clemens Blume: Liturgical Prosen of the Transitional Style and the Second Epoch , Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi vol. 54, p. 199f, no. 127.
  7. ^ Judith H. Oliver: Codicological description of the manuscript . In: Oliver . S. 215-220 .
  8. ↑ Wolter von dem Knesebeck: Art-historical description and consideration of the Codex Gisle . In: Comment . S. 37–92, here p. 43 f .
  9. ↑ Harald Wolter von dem Knesebeck: The Codex Gisle . In: Sing like angels . S. 11-12 .
  10. ↑ Beate Braun Niehr: Observations , p. 26f.
  11. ↑ Beate Braun Niehr: Observations , p. 28.

Web links

Commons : Codex Gisle  - collection of images, videos and audio files