Düsseldorf, University and State Library, B. 113
University and State Library, B. 113 is the signature of a collective manuscript from the University and State Library of Düsseldorf . Two pen drawings in the style of the Utrecht Psalter are particularly significant , for which reason the volume is considered to be one of the main works of Carolingian book illumination .
description
The handwriting measures 27 cm high and 19.5 cm wide. It is integrated into a wooden lid that was restored in 1987 and is covered with light pigskin and has two clasps. The manuscript comprises 114 sheets of parchment in 15 layers . The layers are mostly quaternions , consisting of four folded parchment sheets, one inside the other, that make eight sheets (= 16 pages). The manuscript comprises two parts. Part I, in which the pen drawings are located, is a fragment of the Evangelistary , which has no context with Part II. Part II contains the writings “De institutione clericorum” and “Poenitentiale ad Otgarium” by Hrabanus Maurus , the “Ordo ad dandam poenitentiam” by Halitgarius , theological tables and instructions as well as a glossary of the various ranks of the clergy. The two parts were already put together in the middle of the 10th century, and a little later an oratorio and a hymn in honor of St. Florinus were added. The writing space of Part I measures 18.9 cm × 13.4 cm and is filled with 24 lines from a single source. The writing space of Part II measures 20.5 cm × 13 cm. The text is written in partly 25, partly 26 lines by three hands. The font is Carolingian minuscule throughout , in part two headings and rubrics are red in Capitalis rustica , partly also red uncial . The hymn in honor of Florin is provided with neumes . With the exception of the two pen drawings, the book decoration is limited to simple initials , some of which are filled with red. On fol. 5r is a summary of the contents, on fol. 6r an ex-libris from the 17th century.
history
part One
The pen drawings in Part I on fol. 5r show the healing of a leper by Jesus and 5v show the healing of a withered hand, originated in the 9th century. They are similar in style to the Utrecht Psalter, which is why it is concluded that they were made in Reims or based on a Reims model. The parchment layer with the drawings, which have a sketch-like character, were then described in the scriptorium of the women's monastery in Essen with an incomplete evangelist; the same hand also inscribed the drawings. The text includes the pericopes from the second Sunday after Epiphany to the feast of Saint Agnes . It cannot be clarified whether further folia of the Evangelistary existed. Typeface, ink color and page design already show elements that are typical of the Essen scriptorium after the pen fire in 947, so that it is conceivable that work on the Evangelistary was ended by the pen fire.
Part II
The second part of the composite manuscript was created in the third quarter of the 9th century in a scriptorium that was located on the Middle or Lower Rhine, an exact classification is not possible. The Hrabanus text also has peculiarities in terms of content that are only known from Rhenish scriptoria. It is questionable whether the manuscript was in Essen before the Essen Stiftsbrand. Due to its content, a training book for priests, it was presumably used to check the male clergy who exercised parish rights of the monastery but were subordinate to the abbess.
Composite manuscript
The composite manuscript was probably bound together after the pen fire of 946 in Essen by binding the Evangelistar fragment in front of the penitential book. The two texts in honor of Florin were then registered in Essen. Since the veneration of Florinus, who came from Chur, began in Essen under Abbess Mathilde , who was wealthy through her mother Ida in Chur, this entry can be dated to the last quarter of the 10th century. The manuscript remained in Essen until the secularization in 1803, which is reflected in the table of contents of the so-called "library hand B", which organized the Essen book collection at the beginning of the 13th century, and the ex-libris as bibliothecm DD. Canonicorum Essendiensium of the library of the Essen collegiate canons. Through secularization, the manuscript became the property of the Kingdom of Prussia . It received its signature from Theodor Joseph Lacomblet when it was already in Prussian possession.
literature
- Katrinette Bodarwé: Sanctimoniales litteratae. Written form and education in the Ottonian women's communities Gandersheim, Essen and Quedlinburg . Aschendorff'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-402-06249-6 .
- Gold before Black - The Essen Cathedral Treasure at Zollverein, edited by Birgitta Falk , catalog for the exhibition, Klartext Verlag Essen 2008. ISBN 978-3-8375-0050-9 , cat. No. 83.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The codicological description follows Bodarwé p. 387f.
- ↑ The location scheme according to Bodarwé is part I: (IV-3), part II: (IV-1) + 3 IV + (IV-1) + 4 IV + (III + 2) + 2 IV + (II + 3)
- ↑ Bodarwé p. 116