Franco-Saxon School

Gospels of the Franco-Saxon School (Northern France, 2nd half of the 9th century).

The Franco-Saxon school is a style of Carolingian book illumination that developed in what is now northern France. The Saint-Amand monastery played a pioneering role , along with the abbeys of St. Vaast in Arras , Saint-Omer and St. Bertin . “Franko-Saxon” means Franconian - Anglo-Saxon and refers to the fact that the style in the Franconian Empire was based on insular book illumination . The book decoration was largely limited to ornamentation, figurative representations are almost completely missing.

An early example of this style is a psalter from Saint-Omer written in the second quarter of the 9th century for Ludwig the German . The Franco-Saxon school gained acceptance from the second half of the ninth century to the same extent that courtly book illumination, which was based on antiquity, experienced its decline. The most important manuscript of this type is the so-called Second Bible of Charles the Bald , which was created between 871 and 873 in the Saint-Amand monastery.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Berlin, State Library, Ms. theol. lat. fol. 58. Literature: Florentine Mütherich, Joachim E. Gaehde: Carolingian book painting , pp. 66–67. Prestel, Munich 1979. ISBN 3-7913-0395-3 .
2. ^ Paris, Bibliothèque nationale , Lat. 2. Literature: Florentine Mütherich , Joachim E. Gaehde: Carolingian book painting , pp. 126–128. Prestel, Munich 1979. ISBN 3-7913-0395-3