Hidda Codex
The Hidda Codex , also Gerresheimer Gospels called, is a late Ottonian magnificent manuscript based on 1020 / 1030 dated. The manuscript was named after the founder, which can be found in an entry on page 120v of the Codex. The codex comes from the Gerresheim women's community and is now owned by the Catholic parish of St. Margareta in Düsseldorf-Gerresheim .
The Gerresheimer Hidda Codex has a circumference of 274 parchment leaves with a format of 27.3 cm by 20.0 cm. It is written in one column and is protected by two slightly protruding 12 by 13 mm thick oak wood lids with a straight cut. The stitching was carried out on five carved double frets made of ala-tanned leather. Especially the medieval part with the Gospels is written in Latin and Carolingian minuscules . The Codex contains a Gospel Book, a book with the four Gospels required for Christian liturgy and worship . The writing space of the Gospel was laid out in one column, each with twenty lines in the format of 166 by 102 mm. Between the Gospels of Mark and Luke there is a copy of a deed of donation from the Essen abbess Theophanu (* around 997 ; † March 5, 1058 in Essen ). From 1039 until her death she was abbess of Essen Abbey and also abbess of Gerresheim Abbey . In it, the abbess increases the budget of the Gerresheimer canons for clothing by two solidi , which means that she contributes no less than a quarter of the new total budget. In addition, it provides the Gerresheimer Sanctimonials with an additional portion of fish every Sunday during Lent. Supplements in the Gospels are u. a. two treasure registers (sacristy contents) from the 13th and 14th centuries and an abbess oath of Richardis von der Schleiden, from the 14th century. In the 17th century a creed as well as the oaths for canons, pastors, canons and vicars of the monastery were entered in the gospels. The chronologically last formula of the oath dates from the 18th century and is attached to the codex as a loose sheet. The newer texts are partly also written in Latin letters and in German.
The codex is assigned to the Cologne School of Illumination. The ornamentation is shown in canon pages, initials, incipit pages, four evangelist images and a crucifixion image . The crucifixion picture is larger than the evangelist pictures, probably to give the representation a higher weight. The evangelists are shown without their symbols. This is also an argument for Cologne as the place of origin of the Gospel. Symbols in the pictures of the evangelists are common in the southwest, but not in the Cologne School of Illumination. Unusual: Luke's lower body, shown in the front, is depicted as a pillow and heart-shaped. In the corners of the crucifixion picture the evangelist symbols are still shown. Fol.210v. contains the dedication of a pious woman, called "Hidda", who gives the Gospel to God and St. Hippolytus , the patron saint of the Gerresheimer Stift; Fol.211r. is empty. Whether this “Hidda” is identical to the “Hitda” of the Darmstadt Hitda Codex is controversial, as the latter manuscript is dated fifty years earlier. Hidda can possibly be identified with Ida (* before 1025; † April 7 or 8, 1060 ), the sister of Theophanu and later abbess of the Cologne women's community St. Maria im Kapitol .
literature
- Hatto Küffner: The Ottonian Gospels. In: Hugo Weidenhaupt (Ed.): Gerresheim 870–1970. Contributions to local and art history. Düsseldorf 1970, pp. 149-156.
- Gerhard Weilandt: Who donated the Hitda Codex (Darmstadt, Hess. State and University Library, Cod. 1640)? A contribution to the development of the Ottonian Cologne illumination. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine 190 (1987), pp. 49–83.
- Klaus Gereon Beuckers , Beate Johlen-Budnik (ed.): The Gerresheimer Evangeliar. A late Tonic manuscript as a historical source (= research on art, history and literature of the Middle Ages. Vol. 1). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2016, ISBN 3-412-50392-4 .
Web links
- The Gerresheimer Gospels in the Codices Electronici Ecclesiae Coloniensis .
- Andreas Fasel: Jesus wears a middle part. welt.de, June 12, 2016 online