Hamburg Bible

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Jerome and the parchment maker

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

Paperwork with lined paper, pen, knife and ink horn

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

Commons : Hamburger Bibel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

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

  1. ^ 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 .
  2. ^ Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer: View of the cathedral in Hamburg . Hamburg 1804, p. 90 .
  3. ^ 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 .