Hortus Deliciarum

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Self-portrait of Herrad von Landsberg from the Hortus Deliciarum

The Hortus Deliciarum is written in the late 12th century Encyclopedia of Herrad of Landsberg (also: Herrad of Hohenburg, Herradis Landsbergensis, Abbess of Hohenburg Herrad of Landsperg, * is between 1125 and 1130 ; † 25. July 1195 in the Mont Sainte Odile in Alsace ) .

history

Copy after the original of the Hortus Deliciarum before its destruction, made by A. Straub
- Coll. Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg
Colored facsimile of the pictorial allegory : " Philosophy is enthroned in the midst of the seven liberal arts "

The Hortus Deliciarum (German: Garden of Delicacies), the first verifiably written encyclopedia by a woman, comes from Herrad von Landsberg, who was abbess of the Hohenburg monastery on Mount Odilien (Alsace) between 1167 and 1195 . She created the unique and extremely valuable manuscript around 1175 or soon afterwards.

The encyclopedic work, illustrated with 344 miniatures in Latin, summarized the theological and profane knowledge of the time for teaching the nuns. The manuscript consisted of 324 parchment sheets, 255 in a large folio and 69 in a smaller format, and is according to the testimony of a calendar board contained therein and that of Pope Lucius III. led Pope List has not, but probably not very long after completed before the 1175th

The precious manuscript was carefully kept in Hohenburg Abbey. After the great fire of 1546, which almost completely destroyed the monastery buildings, the last abbess Agnes von Oberkirch handed over ownership of the monastery to the bishop of Strasbourg, and so the Hortus Deliciarum came into the episcopal archive in Zabern . The manuscript was later located in the Carthusian monastery in Molsheim , where a copy of the text was made in the 17th century. During the French Revolution , the manuscript came into the Strasbourg district library.

The original burned on the night of August 24th to 25th 1870 during the siege of Strasbourg during the Franco-Prussian War in the University Library of Strasbourg , where it was kept during that time. Only replicas, including a facsimile made by Christian Moritz Engelhart from 1818 (see literature ), which is now almost as valuable and which even attracted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's attention, have been preserved. However, through tireless scholarly work, based on existing copies and copies, a large part of the miniatures and the accompanying Latin text have been restored in such a way that it is still possible today to gain a vivid impression of this unique testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history from Alsace .

Most important for the restoration of the manuscript were the copies kept in the French National Library in Paris from the estate of the French art historian Auguste de Bastard d'Estang (Jean-François-Auguste, comte de Bastard d'Estang; 1792–1883). He had borrowed the manuscript for several years in 1830 and during this time made not only a copy of the text, but also meticulous reproductions of many miniatures, some in color, some in outline. On the basis of this work it was possible to restore 254 of the 344 miniatures of the Hortus Deliciarum , many at least in outline drawings. In 1879, the Society for the Preservation of the Historical Monuments of Alsace commissioned the Strasbourg canon and archaeologist A. Straub with the publication, which was completed in 1899 by G. Keller and comprises 113 plates in a large folio.

This fundamental publication finds a very valuable and informative supplement through the work of the librarian and Schlettstadt archive director Joseph Walter from 1952, which is supported by the same society (see literature ). It offers a selection of 50 partly multicolored picture panels with introductory text and iconographic explanations. A list of the original 344 miniatures is also included. It is particularly valuable that Joseph Walter succeeded in many years of research to identify most of the excerpts from the works of church writers contained in the manuscript and thus to gain a deeper insight into the basic theological ideas of the entire work.

content

The creation of angels
The creation of Eve and the prohibition on eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
The virtue ladder
Representation of the church ("Regina Ecclesia") with the believers

The Hortus Deliciarum is not only an encyclopedia, a summary of the entire knowledge of the time, but also a collection of excerpts from the Bible and church literature intended for monastic teaching . However, it is by no means a mere string of knowledge. The intention is nothing less than a representation of the universal Church and the ideas of God's salvation realized in it, beginning with the creation of the world, right through the history of the Old Testament with its mysterious foreshadowing of the Christ event up to the appearance of Jesus Christ himself. Christ is the focus of all Considerations, he is the source of true life, the giver of all spiritual gifts, and even if the church on earth is never completed and perfect, but remains exposed to many struggles and temptations, it nevertheless points beyond itself to the heavenly Jerusalem , the shining goal of the divine history of salvation .

In this context, the title of the work is also understandable: Herrad's favorite writer Honorius Augustodunensis in his work Speculum ecclesiae describes paradise as Hortus Deliciarum, as the garden of spiritual delights, and sees this paradise, which has been rediscovered by Christ, represented in the church as the house of God with all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge, summarized in Jesus Christ, who will lead the church as his bride to eternal perfection. Herrad's pupils are allowed to venture into this paradise garden and collect the food of life in it.

The illuminated manuscript begins with the creation of the angels and Lucifer's glory and fall, with the creation of the world and the fall of man . It shows the path of human misery in fratricide , the flood and the building of the tower of Babel and points to the attempts of humanity before Christ to straighten up on their own. In this context, science appears in the form of the Seven Liberal Arts , the representatives of the philosophy of antiquity , Socrates and Plato . But it is also warned against the seductive powers of idolatry and superstition . The divine decree of salvation begins with the calling of Abraham , it goes on to legislation on Sinai . Christ's priesthood is represented in Old Testament worship . The bloody sacrifices of the Old Covenant are contrasted with the spiritual sacrifices of the New Testament , which consist in the denial of self-love and self-will, in the joyful offering of thanks and praise, in prayer and confession. The King Solomon appears as "figura salvatoris " (savior figure) and the Queen of Sheba , asking for his wisdom, which is summoned from the pagan nations as a type of "ecclesia gentium". The new covenant of grace begins with Jesus Christ. His birth , the adoration of the wise men from the east , his life from baptism in the Jordan to his passion are presented in detail. The miracles and parables of the New Testament are also carefully interpreted in words and pictures. There are numerous illustrations of the Passion and the apparitions of the risen Lord - the latter have unfortunately all been lost. With the sending of the apostles, a new phase of salvation history begins, the church is gathered from the peoples and brought to Christ. How this church and every single Christian has to struggle with the temptations of the world is shown in the detailed description of the struggle of virtues with vices , a whole Christian ethic following the psychomachia of the early church poet Prudentius . The ladder of virtue shows how the ascent to the highest can only be achieved by self-forgotten love. The church is represented as a two-story building adorned with towers and battlements. Below is the lay world , which includes knights and women, farmers and craftsmen as well as the unlearned monks and hermits . The upper floor represents the teaching church, and there, in addition to apostles and popes, bishops and abbots, appear some women in the same robe in which Herrad presented herself as "abbatissa Hohenburgensis", as she is with a scroll in her hand Virgin Mary and the disciple John as the patron saint of consecrated virgins approaches. She is fully aware of the dignity of her church teaching position in the monastic community. It lives in the world of manifold symbolic relationships, as the spirit of the Middle Ages loved it, and it is the very real reference to the mystery of God's revelation in Jesus Christ that gives this art the power to make the biblical witness alive and at the same time present to direct the foreboding gaze of the beholder to a supernatural reality. This is especially true of the great show of the last things that Herrad shares with her contemporary Hildegard von Bingen , the abbess of Rupertsberg .

The last part of the Hortus Deliciarum begins with the seductive appearance of the Antichrist , his presumptuous glory and his fall. Two large colored leaves show the whore Babylon and the bride of Christ , of whom the Book of Revelation speaks . This is followed by a full-figured depiction of the Last Judgment , the procession of the blessed and the damned, hell with its places of punishment, the bliss of the elect and the new heaven and the new earth, which is completely covered with spring flowers.

The final sheets of the Hortus Deliciarum are dedicated to the history and then present of the Hohenburg monastery. You can see the Franconian Duke Eticho handing the key of the monastery to his daughter Odilia and her canons, the abbess Relindis, who restored the monastery after a period of decline, and finally Herrad himself with 47 nuns and 13 novices , their names are specified.

Text example

The building of the church ("Regina Ecclesia") with the believers, excerpt
Illustration with text excerpt from "Hortus Deliciarum", see the following table
Transcription of the text translation
Prelati in ecclesia sunt apostoli episcopi abbates et presbyteri qui lavacro regenerationis et salutari doctrina predicationis spiritales filios cottidie in templo Domini id est ecclesia generant The rulers ( prelates ) in the church are the apostles , the bishops , the abbots and the priests , who through the bath of renewal (rebirth) and the salutary teaching of the preaching are daily spiritual sons in the temple of the Lord, that is the church, bring forth.
Subjecti in ecclesia sunt clerici monachi inclusi heremite milites et omnes laici viri et femine qui in templo Domini per obedientiam in suis ordinibus cottidie laborant et adventum Sponsi negociantes expectant The subordinates in the Church are the clergy, the monks, the inclusions , the hermits , the soldiers and all lay people , men and women, who work daily in the temple of the Lord by obedience in their stand and laboriously await the arrival of the bridegroom .
Papa portat frigium ex albo serica ceteri episcopi portant infulas The Pope wears the papal crown made of white silk, the other bishops wear the mitres .

Pictorial representations

In many of its pictorial representations, the Hortus Deliciarum draws on a centuries-old tradition of church illumination . Iconographic research reveals various connections to Byzantine art , which in the 12th century had a great influence on the West through Sicily . Relations with the Italian south were particularly lively during the Hohenstaufen era , and yet the work also has a great freshness and originality. While Christ and his angels, the apostles and prophets appear in the traditional, solemn garb of early Christian art , the other figures of biblical history wear contemporary clothing, and so the Hortus Deliciarum is an invaluable testimony to clothing and furnishings, weapons, implements and tools of the 12th century. The kings and their sword-bearers , the noble women appear in courtly garb of the Hohenstaufen era, the warriors in knightly armor with mailers , swords and shields and also the allegorical figures of virtues and vices wear chain armor over their long women's robes . To illustrate the vanity of the world that the preacher Solomon speaks of, Herrad draws the wheel of fortune and a delightful puppet show . Explanatory pictures are also attached to the speeches and parables of Jesus . There is poor Lazarus in front of the rich man's door, there the good Samaritan carefully lifts the wounded man onto his horse, and when in the parable of the royal wedding one of the invited guests apologizes: "I have married and therefore cannot come." ( Lk 14.20  EU ), this becomes the occasion to insert the image of a girl adorned with a bride in the text.

As far as the pictorial technique is concerned, the outlines of the figures were drawn with a pen, then the local colors , lights and shadows were applied and finally the outlines were traced with black or brown ink. Vibrant colors, red, light blue, light green, maroon and gold were preferred. While the perspective is often poor, the good drawing of the robes and the noble, natural posture of the figures are surprising. A side piece related to the complete works is not known. There is not enough contemporary book illumination from Alsace to be able to speak of a landscape-related style of the miniatures. However, the relationship between some of the stained glass windows in the Romanesque part of the Strasbourg Cathedral and the miniatures of the Hortus Deliciarum is remarkable .

Miniatures gallery

See also

literature

  • Christian Moritz Engelhardt: Herrad von Landsperg, Abbess of Hohenburg, or St. Odilien, in Alsace, in the twelfth century and her work Hortus deliciarum. A contribution to the history of science, literature, art, clothing, weapons and customs of the Middle Ages. JG Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1818.
  • Otto Gillen : Iconographic studies on the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad von Landsberg (= art studies. Volume 9). German Art Publishing House, Berlin 1931.
  • Rosalie Green, Michael Evans, Christine Bischoff, Michael Curschmann (eds.): Herrad of Hohenbourg, Hortus deliciarum (= Studies of the Warburg Institute. 36). Vol. 1-2, Leiden 1979.
  • Maria Heinsius: Herrad von Landsberg's paradise garden. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, DNB 456969195 .
  • Heinrich Reumont: The German glosses in the Hortus Deliciarum of the Herrad von Landsberg. Reumont, Metz 1900
  • Hans-Georg Rott, Georg Wild (ed.): Hortus deliciarum. Herrad von Landsberg's "Wonnen-Garten". An Alsatian illuminated manuscript from the 12th century. Braun, Mühlhausen / Alsace 1944.
  • Joseph Walter: Herrade de Landsberg. Hortus deliciarum. Strasbourg, Paris 1952.
  • Heike Willeke: Ordo and Ethos in the Hortus Deliciarum. The picture-text program of the Hohenburger Codex between contemplative-speculative worldview and concrete-pragmatic action orientation. Dissertation, University of Hamburg 2004 ( urn : nbn: de: gbv: 18-29639 , full text)

Web links

Commons : Figures from the Hortus Deliciarum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, pp. 17-18.
  2. Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, p. 5.
  3. Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, p. 10 f.
  4. Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, p. 12 f.
  5. Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, p. 15.
  6. In Lk 10.34  EU undefined κτῆνος : mount, but certainly not a horse; here adapted to the 12th century
  7. Maria Heinsius: The paradise garden of Herrad von Landsberg. A testimony to medieval cultural and intellectual history in Alsace. Alsatia Verlag, Colmar / Paris / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968, p. 13.