Hamburg Bible
The Hamburg Bible , also known as the Bertoldus Bible , is a three-volume, large-format, richly illustrated Vulgate manuscript that was produced in 1255 for the Hamburg cathedral chapter . It is located in the Royal Library in Copenhagen (MS, GKS 4 2 °, vol. I-III). As a testimony to medieval book culture, it has been part of the UNESCO World Document Heritage since 2011 .
The three volumes have late medieval bindings and together weigh almost 40 kg. The size of the pages and the volume of the volumes vary somewhat:
tape | leaves | Height (cm) | Width (cm) | content |
---|---|---|---|---|
I. | 242 | 52 | 32.5 | Genesis to 2nd book of the chronicles |
II | 230 | 55.7 | 39 | Ezra to Malachi |
III | 218 | 45 | 31 | First book of the Maccabees to Revelation of John |
Lore
An otherwise unknown scribe Carolus made the Vulgate copy in 1255 on behalf of the Hamburg cathedral dean Bertoldus. This emerges from the subscriptio , held in verse form , which is contained in all three volumes. It is not known who created the illustrations.
In 1784 the entire inventory of the Hamburg Cathedral Library was auctioned off. The auction catalog of this historical collection comprised 4798 numbers. “Among the manuscripts was a Bible in 3 folio volumes based on the Hieronymus version, written on parchment in 1255.” At this auction, the Danish Royal Library acquired the three-volume Latin Bible for 63 Mark Courant; since then she has been in Copenhagen.
Image program
There are a total of 89 initials , which can be assigned to two groups: illustration of the Bible text and representation of the various steps in book production. It is rare in medieval book illumination that the book makes its own origins its theme. The illustrations show the church father Jerome or the apostle Paul doing these manual and artistic activities:
tape | page | Actor | activity |
---|---|---|---|
I. | 137vb | Jerome | Setting up and lining a page |
II | 38va | Jerome | Proofreading a finished page |
II | 183ra | Jerome | Purchasing from the parchment manufacturer |
II | 195ra | Jerome | Crop the page |
III | 125ra | Paul | Paperwork with lined sheets |
III | 133vb | Paul | Paperwork with pen, knife and ink horn |
III | 142vb | Paul, Timothy | While Paul is writing, Timothy prepares the next page. |
III | 165rb | Paul | Preparation for the paperwork, with lined paper, pen, knife and ink horn |
The various author pictures, which are a common theme in book illumination and are not unique to the Hamburg Bible, have been omitted from this overview. The realism with which the production steps of the book production were put into the picture is unusual.
accessibility
The Hamburg Bible has been shown to a larger audience at various special exhibitions in and outside Denmark. For research, it can be viewed in the high-security reading room of the Royal Library. The digitization of the manuscript is complex because of the size and volume of the Bible and was announced in 2011 for the coming years, with priority for the pages illuminated by illumination.
Web links
- Catalog entry
- MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER: MS. GKS 4 2 °, vol. I-III, Biblia Latina. Commonly called "the Hamburg Bible", or "the Bible of Bertoldus" (Denmark)
literature
- Erik Petersen: The Hamburg Bible - 1255 . In: Uwe M. Schneede (Ed.): Goldgrund und Himmelslicht. The art of the Middle Ages in Hamburg , catalog for the exhibition of the Hamburger Kunsthalle in cooperation with the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte ... from November 19, 1999 to March 5, 2000. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3933374480 , pp. 270-271 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans-Walter Stork: Hamburg book auctions in the 18th century . In: Johann Anselm Steiger, Sandra Richter (Ed.): Hamburg: A Metropolitan Region Between Early Modern Times and Enlightenment . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 271 .
- ^ Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer: View of the cathedral in Hamburg . Hamburg 1804, p. 90 .
- ^ FL Hoffmann: Manuscripts, which are listed in catalogs of publicly sold libraries . In: Serapeum, Journal of Library Science . No. 22 . Leipzig November 30, 1857, p. 337-342 .