Lindau Gospels

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Book cover of the Lindau Gospels (back)

The Lindauer Gospels is in the second half of the 9th century in the monastery of St. Gall Resulting Gospels , whose elaborate splendor cover the outstanding gold work of the early Middle Ages belongs. The book was originally in the possession of the women's monastery “Our Lady under the Linden” in Lindau on Lake Constance and is now, under the signature Ms. M. 1, in the holdings of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York .

description

The Lindau Gospel book block consists of 224 pages made of vellum , a fine parchment made of thin calf skin. The pages have a format of 320 × 253 millimeters and are written in one column with 21 lines each in Carolingian minuscule . The text is written in Latin . The decoration consists of four titles and four incipitia in gold on purple colored parchment as well as 12 canon tables in gold and silver on a purple background, as well as two decorative pages.

Book cover

The cover has a format of 344 × 262  mm . The book covers are made of precious metal and are set with more than 350 precious stones , gemstones and pearls . The current version of the binding goes back to work from several centuries. The magnificent lids made of precious metal are each attached to a wooden board. The front cover mirror with the attachment are covered with patterned Byzantine silk , the rear cover mirror with the attachment are covered with Islamic silk from the 8th to 10th centuries.

Front cover

The front cover was made around 870 AD, probably in a West Franconian workshop near the court of Charles the Bald . It was created by at least three different goldsmiths. It consists of embossed gold sheet , with filigree overlays, as well as numerous gemstone and pearl inlays. The central element is an isosceles and straight-arm crucifix with a frontal, beardless depiction of Christ , above whose head is a square plaque with the Latin inscription Hic est rex Judeorum , above it are two mourning people in a crouching position. The edge of the cross is delimited by a narrow bridge studded with precious stones. The free fields between the arms of the cross are adorned with medallions made of large precious stones in the middle , which are framed by smaller precious stones and pearls. Floating angels are depicted in the fields above and below . The edge strips of the lid are adorned with three rows of set gemstones and pearls. With its extensive and splendid furnishings, this book cover is one of the most important goldsmiths in the book cover art of the early Middle Ages.

Back cover

The back cover was made around AD 750 to 800, presumably in an Alemannic workshop in the Salzburg region. This is very different in style from the front cover. The lid is made of gold-plated , engraved silver , with enamel inlays made of precious stones and enamel . The book cover originally formed the cover of an older book and was only used as a back cover on the smaller Lindau Gospels, for which the cover had to be adjusted in size. In the 16th century it was supplemented by further mine melt deposits. The central design element of the back is a paw cross , the arms of which extend to the edge strips. The cross beams are filled with ornaments in the form of stylized four-legged animals and birds and show four half-length portraits of saints made of white and blue enamel at the crossing points of the arms . The center of the cross is adorned with a square field, divided into a diamond shape, with a central gemstone. The acronyms IHS , XPS , DNS and NOS are placed in the four corners of the square . The free fields between the arms of the cross are filled with plaited ribbon ornaments in the Germanic animal style . The evangelists inserted in the four corners were only installed in 1594 in place of the original ornamental decorations. The edge strips of the lid are adorned with floral decorations and stylized depictions of animals.

history

The Lindau Gospels were written, illuminated and also bound in the St. Gallen monastery in the 880s to 890s . An artist named Folchard is believed to be the writer and illustrator. It is unclear when the book came into the possession of the women's monastery in Lindau, which was founded between 817 and 822. The first reliable evidence comes from the 16th century. In the course of secularization , the Lindau Gospels went to Baroness Antoinette von Enzberg in 1803 . After her death, her heirs sold it to Joseph von Laßberg , who in 1846 sold it to Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham, through the middle man Henry G. Bohn. This sold it in 1901 through the mediation of Junius S. Morgan for the equivalent of 200,000 marks to John Pierpont Morgan ; so it became part of the Pierpont Morgan Library.

See also

literature

  • Günther Haseloff : The silver cup from the Regnitz near Pettstadt . In: Annual report of the Bavarian soil monument preservation . No. 17/18 (1976/1977) , pp. 158 ff .
  • Günther Haseloff : Art of the Migration Period . Ed .: Helmut Roth . tape 4 . Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main 1979, p. 309 , plate 297 .
  • Ulrike Sander: The older Lindau book cover in its original components . University of Bonn, 2007, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 5-10583 ( ulb.uni-bonn.de [accessed on January 22, 2016] dissertation).

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