Liuthar Gospels

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Image of the throne of Emperor Otto III. (fol.16r)

The Liuthar Gospels , also Gospels of Otto III. or Ottonian Gospels , is one of the main works of Ottonian book illumination . The manuscript named after a monk Liuthar was probably created around the year 1000 on behalf of Otto III. in the Reichenau monastery and is eponymous for the so-called Liuthar group of the Reichenauer book painting , which also the Munich Gospel Book of Otto III. , the Pericope Book of Henry II and the Bamberg Apocalypse are included. An epochal innovation in occidental illumination is the representation of all pictures on a gold background .

Today the Gospels are in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury (Inv.No. 25) and, in addition to the Treasury Gospels from Carolingian times, represents one of the two particularly significant and valuable medieval manuscripts exhibited here. Together with nine other works from the Reichenau School the manuscript was included in the list of world heritage documents by UNESCO in 2003.

history

Numerous evidence announce that the well in 1000 with the founding of the Aachener coronation pin donated liuthar gospels centuries as oath Gospels for winning in Aachen Roman-German kings , as canons were included in the Aachen pin section, and for the Aachener canons himself served.

After the French Revolution , the manuscript came into private ownership in Aachen and was repurchased in 1848.

description

Handwriting

Content and design

The 256 sheets, the texts of the four Gospels based on the Vulgate of St. Jerome's comprehensive manuscript with a format of 29.8 × 21.5 cm is written in one column in Carolingian minuscule with black ink on parchment ; The titles and headings are in golden Capitalis rustica and the marginal numbers are in gold. In addition to the Gospel texts , the code also contains the respective prefaces , called arguments , a list of pericopes , 31 full-page miniatures - including one depiction of the four evangelists , four initial pages , 21 illustrations with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ , a dedication sheet by the monk Liuthar with a depiction the apotheosis of Otto III. - as well as twelve canon sheets .

Apotheosis of Otto III.

The double-sided dedication picture preceding the Gospel section is of great importance. On the left side is in a set at an angle quatrefoil the monk Liuthar -square with a Gospel book in hands to the enthroned on the opposite side of Otto III. turned towards. The dedication inscription in a Leonine hexameter , affixed above and below in golden capitalis on a purple ground , reads: HOC AUGUSTE LIBRO TIBI COR D [EU] S INDUAT OTTO QUEM DE LIUTHARIO TE SUSCEPISSE MEMENTO - “With this book may God let you, Emperor Otto Clothe heart. Remember that you received it from Liuthar. "

The opposite picture shows Otto in the manner of the Roman emperor with a tunic and chlamys in front of a gold background on a throne carried by Tellus as the personification of the earth. Otto is - as an example of the medieval iconography of rulers - encompassed by a mandorla otherwise reserved for Christ . Here it is expressed that Otto, in the sense of the medieval idea of ​​rulership, became Christ, the anointed, through the coronation himself. This is confirmed by the hand of God appearing in a blue nimbus over a cross , which crowns the emperor, who in turn has spread his arms in the posture of the crucified. The right holds the orb , while the left is stretched out to receive the gospel donated by Liuthar. The four symbols of the evangelists hold the white gospels rotulus in front of the emperor's chest and, as it were, cover his heart with them. The scene is framed by a purple arcade; the color - actually a privilege of the Eastern Roman emperor - indicates Otto's imperial dignity . On both sides of the throne are two pays homage kings with Lehnsfahnen on their lances. They wanted to see Bolesław I and Stephan I , who was made king by Otto in 1000. In the lower register, two secular dignitaries with helmets, lances and shields approach from the left. Coming from the right are two clergy dignitaries in the form of archbishops clad in alb , chasuble and pallium , who have brought writing implements with them.

This apotheosis depiction is a unique Byzantine- influenced modification of the topos of the Majestas Domini . Emperor Otto III. appears as an earthly Christ crowned by God, carried by the earth, the heart filled with the gospel to which the mighty of the world pay homage.

Aachen fragment

In 1886, the Aachen collegiate bandmaster Heinrich Böckeler found the so-called Aachen fragment in the Liuthar Gospels, which , according to the script, dates back to the 14th or 15th century: It is the beginning of the oldest Christmas carol in the German-speaking world, known as the Aachen Christmas carol . The melody recorded in square notation is underlaid with the words: Syt willekomen heirre kirst you want our alre here bis - translated: "Be welcome, Lord Christ, who are Lord of all of us".

cover

Until 1870 a silver book cover from around 1170/80 formed the back cover of the Carolingian Treasury Gospel , until it was attached to the Liuthar Gospel as the front part. In 1972 the book cover was removed and the gospel book was reinserted.

The book cover measures 30.8 × 23.7 cm and consists of a wooden core, sheet silver and Byzantine ivory panels from the middle of the tenth century. The latter show half-length figures of the four saints John the Evangelist , John the Baptist , Theodor and George and form the center of the lid. The four writing evangelists are arranged around them in arched fields ; On the side, portraits of two archangels adorn the work. The ivory panels, as folding altar wings, belong to the ivory relief of the golden book cover of the Treasury Gospel and show no relation to the evangelists and angels worked in silver.

For the Ottonian binding that may have been used previously → Golden book cover .

classification

For the first time in all of medieval book art , miniatures were consistently laid out in portrait format on the 21 pages with scenes from the life of Jesus, partly in two registers one above the other . Despite its small size, these scenes monumental acting figures of kapitellbekrönten arcades framed, all behind captured by a gold ground - another first for the pan-European book art history. The representations are to be seen as a compilation of late antique , middle Byzantine and Trier models. Ernst Günther Grimme says: "The reality of the eternal determines the appearance".

Research history

In the history of research, the question of identifying the ruler depicted was controversial for a long time. So this u. a. by Percy Ernst Schramm initially for Otto II. maintained, however, he of which in a 1983 posthumous collaboration with Florentine Mütherich Scripture in favor of an interpretation as Otto III. distanced. Ultimately, the current interpretation has prevailed for stylistic reasons - a supposedly obvious, but controversial argument at this point may be the beardlessness and the youthfulness of the portrayed. Furthermore, it is still problematic whether, in addition to a timeless staging conceived in the otherworldly rapture, it is also a representation of a concrete profane event and here in particular the coronation of the emperor on May 21, 996, on the occasion of which the Gospel Foundation was founded possibly would have happened.

See also

literature

  • Ernst Günther Grimme (text), Ann Münchow (recordings): The Aachen Cathedral Treasure (= Aachener Kunstblätter. Vol. 42). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1973, No. 25, pp. 31-36.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme (text), Ann Münchow (recordings): The Gospels of Emperor Otto III. in Aachen Cathedral Treasury. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. (Et al.) 1984, ISBN 3-451-20071-6 .
  • Clemens MM Bayer: Investigations into the Ottonian Gospels of the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. In: Aachener Kunstblätter . Vol. 54/55, Thouet, Aachen 1986/87, pp. 33-46.
  • Johannes Fried : Otto III. and Boleslaw Chrobry. The dedication image of the Aachen Gospel, the "Act of Gniezno" and the early Polish and Hungarian royalty. An image analysis and its historical consequences. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-515-05381-6
  • Ulrich Kuder: Liuthar Gospels. In: Michael Brandt, Arne Eggebrecht (ed.): Bernward von Hildesheim and the age of the Ottonians. Exhibition catalog Hildesheim 1993, Mainz 1993, vol. 2, pp. 84–87.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme: The golden cathedral of the Ottonians. Einhard-Verlag, Aachen 2001, ISBN 3-930701-90-1 , pp. 23-43.
  • Josef Els: The Aachen Liuthar Gospels. On the importance of the Aachen Gospel writer Otto III. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Vol. 48, 2011, pp. 181-194.
  • Rainer Kahsnitz: Unusual scenes in the Aachen Liuthar Gospels. A contribution to the problem of the Christological cycle of Reichenau illumination. In: Book Treasures of the Middle Ages. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2011, pp. 63–91.
  • Walter Maas, Pit Siebigs: The Aachen Cathedral. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7954-2445-9 , pp. 148–151.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Herta Lepie , Georg Minkenberg : The treasury of the Aachen cathedral. Aachen 1995, p. 60.
  2. ^ Heinrich Böckeler: The melody of the Aachen Christmas carol. In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein 11, 1887, pp. 176-184.
  3. ↑ August Brecher: Music in Aachen Cathedral in Twelve Centuries. Aachen 1998, p. 31.
  4. ↑ Percy Ernst Schramm, Florentine Mütherich : The German emperors and kings in pictures of their time 751–1190. Munich 1983, pp. 78 and 204.
  5. ↑ In detail on this Benjamin Bussmann: The historicization of the images of rulers approx. 1000-1200. Cologne 2006, pp. 37–45.