Gisela von Kerssenbrock

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Codex Gisle, f70r.

Gisela von Kerssenbrock (* around 1250 ; † January 10, 1300 or 1301 ) was a Cistercian nun in the Rulle monastery . She worked there as an illuminator , calligrapher and choir master.

Around the year 1300 she worked on the Codex Gisle , a richly decorated Latin manuscript with over 50 initial miniatures and other images. This Gothic-style gradual also includes self-portraits (labeled Gisle ) as well as pictures of other nuns. This makes her miniatures one of the oldest portraits of women in the Western European Middle Ages.

According to the written form, the following note was probably inserted at the beginning of the Codex in the 15th century:

“Istud egregium librum scripsit, illuminavit, notavit, impaginavit, aureis litteris et pulchris imaginibus decoravit venerabilis ac devota virgo Gysela de Kerzenbroeck in sui memoriam Anno Mccc cuius anima requiescat in sancta pace. Amen."

“This outstanding book wrote, illustrated, commented, paginated and decorated with golden letters and pretty pictures the venerable and pious virgin Gisela von Kerssenbrock in her memory in the year 1300, her mind rest in holy peace. Amen."

In medieval parlance, scripsit could mean both “she wrote” and “she let write”. Gisela von Kerssenbrock was presumably the founder and client, organizer and controller of the work on the Codex Gisle. Perhaps she also worked as a writer. The original manuscript of the codex is now in the diocese archive in Osnabrück , where it came from the estate of Osnabrück Auxiliary Bishop Karl Klemens von Gruben (1764–1827).

Gisela is likely to be a member of the Westphalian knight family Kerssenbrock (in documents Kerzenbroeck or Kersenbroich ), which played an essential role in the history of Osnabrück from the 12th to the 20th century .

literature

  • Beate Braun-Niehr, Fabian Kolb, Hermann Queckenstedt, Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck : The Codex Gisle. Ma 101, Diocese archive Osnabrück. Commentary on the facsimile edition . Lucerne: Quaternio Verlag Luzern 2015, ISBN 978-3-905924-20-6 .
  • Ursula Koehler-Lutterbeck; Monika Siedentopf: Lexicon of 1000 women , Bonn 2000, p. 179. ISBN 3-8012-0276-3 .
  • Jo Catling: A History of Women's Writing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland . Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-5216-5628-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Memories book of the monastery Rulle anno 1714 , p. 6.
  2. ↑ Hartmut Hoffmann: Book Art and Kings in the Ottonian and Early Salian Empire , Stuttgart 1986, here in particular pp. 42–46 and 59–62.
  3. ↑ Beate Braun-Niehr: The Codex Gisle as a gradual for the Cistercian convent Rulle near Osnabrück . In: Quaternio Verlag (Ed.): Der Codex Gisle, Commentary on the Facsimile Edition , Lucerne 2015, pp. 9–21, here p. 18.
  4. ↑ Beate Braun-Niehr: Observations on the exterior of the Codex Gisle . In: Quaternio Verlag (ed.): Der Codex Gisle, Commentary on the Facsimile Edition , Lucerne 2015, pp. 23–30, here p. 29.

Web links

Commons : Codex Gisle  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Gisela von Kerssenbrock
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Cistercian and illuminator
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 1300 or 1301