Liesborn Gospels

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The Liesborn Gospel Book is a gospel book from the Ottonian times . Until 1803, when it was sold in the course of secularization , it was an item of equipment for Liesborn Abbey . The manuscript first came to the Münster University Library with other holdings from the abundant library of the monastery . From 1830 to 1872 it was part of the famous collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps , then owned by the Fenwick family in Cheltenham . In the United States , the Codex since the 1930s, first in Philadelphia , then in Camarillo , most recently in the library of St. John's Seminary of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles . In 1987 the auction took place at Christie's . In 2017, the Warendorf district was able to buy it back from an American art collector for an amount of 3 million euros. The excellently preserved gospel book is considered an art treasure of national importance.

description

The completely preserved Liesborn Gospels were made in the early Middle Ages around the year 980 by a deacon named Gerwardus. It can therefore be assigned to Ottonian book illumination . The dedication poem contained in the codex shows that the client was Berthildis, abbess of what was then the women's monastery in Liesborn . The individual sheets in the format of 30 by 24 cm are made of parchment , for which the skin of 85 cattle was required. The book contains the texts of the four Gospels , the creed and 13 pages of canon tables on 169 folia , which are described in one column with 24 lines . The leaves are bound in an elaborately designed binding from the 15th century, which shows a crucifixion scene and the four evangelist symbols on the lid . It was made in Liesborn.

The Gospels were exhibited in September 1994 in Oslo during an international librarian's conference and from 30 March to 11 May 2003 in the Museum Abtei Liesborn , then from 24 May to 17 August in the Dortmund Museum for Art and Cultural History .

Replacement

In the 1980s, the district of Warendorf had already started thinking about the replacement of the Liesborn Gospel. At that time, Martin Olsen Schøyen from Oslo bought the Gospel Book at Christie's in London for 1.14 million Deutschmarks for his Schøyen Collection . At that time, Warendorf District Administrator Wolfgang Kirsch thought this amount was too high. Already handed over from the collection in July 2008, the Gospels were offered in Maastricht in 2015 at the TEFAF , which is considered the world's most important art fair, for around 6 million euros. Two years later, on March 11, 2017, District Administrator Olaf Gericke was able to reach an agreement with the previous owner, the American art collector and expert Sandra Hindman, to buy the book. The district council approved the acquisition on March 24, 2017. In April 2017, the Gospel Book was returned to its original location for a payment of 3 million euros. It is planned to exhibit the Gospels in the Museum Abtei Liesborn .

The sponsors were the Sparkasse Münsterland Ost , the SVWL , the Federal Ministry of Culture , the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation , the State Cultural Foundation , the Art Foundation NRW , the Rudolf-August Oetker-Foundation , the Diocese of Münster and the association of friends and sponsors of the Museum Abtei Liesborn eV on the replacement of the art object. The purchase met with criticism from the Ahlen Free Voting Association ; local politicians feared that this would mean that fewer funds would be available to support other projects.

literature

  • Benny Hugh Priddy, Eef Overgaauw : The Liesborn Gospel. The Schøyen Collection, Oslo, London, Ms 40; with facsimiles of 12 pages and the cover of the Gospel; March 30 - May 11, 2003 . Wadersloh-Liesborn 2003 (exhibition catalog).
  • Helmut Müller: The cannon convent and Benedictine monastery Liesborn . (= Germania Sacra , NF, The Dioceses of the Church Province of Cologne, Vol. 23; The Diocese of Münster, Vol. 5). De Gruyter, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-11-011002-4 , pp. 40, 340–342 (liturgical manuscripts), on the library pp. 47–57. ( Digitized version )
  • The Liesborn Gospels. The million dollar thing or the story of a dream . [Ed .: District Warendorf, Der Oberkreisdirektor] (1988)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Müller: The canonical monastery and Benedictine monastery Liesborn . Pp. 40-41 and 47-57.
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Hinke: “The monastery library does not deserve a mention!” The liquidation of the Liesborn book treasures under the sign of secularization 200 years ago . In: Unser Westfalen , 2004, pp. 61–62.
  3. ^ The Liesborn Gospels. Provenance .
  4. ↑ Press release from the Warendorf district of March 13, 2017
  5. ↑ Register of persons of the Germania Sacra
  6. ^ Helmut Müller: The canonical monastery and Benedictine monastery Liesborn . Pp. 40 and 341.
  7. ↑ a b Allgemeine Zeitung Coesfeld, print edition of March 15, 2017: A magnificent volume made of parchment
  8. ↑ a b Art Prize Yearbook. German and international auction results , vol. 42 (1987), edition 2, p. 494.
  9. ^ The Liesborn Gospels. Binding
  10. ^ The Liesborn Gospels. Exhibited
  11. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of March 13, 2015: Art treasure before returning
  12. ↑ a b The bell of March 15, 2017: FWG Ahlen criticizes the acquisition of the Gospel
  13. ^ The Liesborn Gospels. Provenance.
  14. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of March 12, 2015: Gospels for six million for sale
  15. ↑ Gospel book purchase decided in Warendorf. WDR, March 24, 2017.
  16. ^ Warendorf district (ed.): The Liesborner Evangeliar. From Westphalia into the world - and back! 1st edition. Warendorf 2017, p. 14 .
  17. ^ Andreas Rossmann : Liesborner Evangeliar. Handwriting back in Westphalia. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of March 17, 2017, p. 11.
  18. ↑ Proof at the DNB