Lorsch Gospels

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Evangelist Luke
Typical writing side
Ivory tablet from the Lorsch Gospel, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum , London

The Lorsch Gospels are a gospel that was probably created in the court school of Charlemagne . The Latin name is Codex Aureus Laureshamensis . Its origin is dated to around 810.

The text of the valuable and artistically designed book mainly contains the four Gospels. The manuscript was named after the Lorsch Abbey , where it was kept from the 9th century until the abbey was abolished in 1556. The manuscript, which is important for the development of book illumination , is now in two parts in the Vatican Library and in the branch of the Romanian National Library in Alba Iulia . The ivory tablets belonging to the book cover are in the Vatican Museums and in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

description

The manuscript measures 37.4 × 27 cm and originally comprised 474 pages. The writing area measures 27 × 17.5 cm. The best veal parchment was used . The pages are written and categorized in two columns, each with 31 lines in uncials . The lettering pages and rubrics are in capitalis , capitulars are set off by Carolingian minuscules . The consistent use of gold ink is striking . The individual columns on the writing pages are framed by a variety of tendrils, writing pages are partly written in purple on a gold background. Gold and silver colors were also used for the miniatures , four evangelists and a Majestas Domini .

The ivory panels of the binding showed a representation of Mary and Christ.

The manuscript contained the four Gospels based on a good text template, two letters from Jerome , twelve canon tables , four prefaces to the Gospels and a capitular .

history

The gospel book was probably written at the court of Charlemagne. The use of the finest materials, such as gold and purple inks , as well as the excellently crafted ivory panels on the binding, already distinguished the manuscript as a splendid manuscript for special occasions at the time of its creation. Despite their eventful fate, the individual parts of the manuscript show hardly any signs of use.

The manuscript is mentioned for the first time in a library catalog of the Lorsch Monastery around 860 as euangelium pictum, cum auro scriptum, habens tabulas eburneas (illustrated gospel, written in gold, with ivory tablets ). The manuscript was newly bound in Lorsch in 1479, and it was probably divided into two volumes.

In 1556, Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate abolished the Lorsch Abbey and brought its library with the Lorsch Gospels to his own library, the Bibliotheca Palatina . Both parts of the book remained there until 1622, when Protestant Heidelberg was occupied by Catholic troops during the Thirty Years' War . The Bibliotheca Palatina was confiscated in favor of the Pope, the Latin parts of the Palatina still form an important individual collection in the Vatican Library. The 124-page volume at the back of the Lorsch Gospel with the Gospels of Luke and John belongs with the signature Pal. Lat. 50 to this stock. The ivory panel associated with this part has been detached and is now in the Vatican Museums.

The second part, however, had a more adventurous fate. Leone Allacci , the papal envoy commissioned with the transport from Heidelberg to Rome, branched off twelve boxes of books from the transport for himself, the second part of which probably belonged to these books. Allacci later bequeathed his books to the Greek College in Rome. The Collegium Graecum later sold parts of its library, around 1711 the volume was considered lost. The ivory panel originally associated with the part was separated from the book before 1785. In that year the Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Anton von Migazzi sold parts of his library, including the front part of the Lorsch Gospel, to Ignác Batthyány, the Bishop of Transylvania . With the library later donated by this library, the Batthyaneum, the sub-volume changed hands several times: first the Grand Duchy of Transylvania, then the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918, then the Kingdom of Romania, which became the People's Republic from 1945. In 1961 the Batthyaneum became a branch of the Romanian National Library. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989 , the whereabouts of the Lorsch Gospel Fragment was temporarily unclear, as the library no longer answered inquiries. It was not until 1992 that it became known that this part of the Gospel had also remained intact. In 1999 this part could be exhibited in the Lorsch Abbey. The ivory tablet, which had been separated from this part of the book before 1785, entered the art market in 1853 with the collection of a Russian nobleman and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. No. 138–1866).

Art historical importance

Charlemagne had the religious liturgy reorganized, in this context numerous manuscripts were created, including the Lorsch Gospels. The illustration of the manuscripts required a new imagery, which was developed at Charles's court from unknown models. For the canon tables and the evangelists, unknown Byzantine or Italic models were probably used. In these writing schools, jewelry initials were not in use, so that for these on insular models were used. In the Lorsch Gospels, the ornamental letters have already been reduced, in the ornaments there is a clear tendency towards greater plasticity.

With its writing style, the Lorsch Gospels influenced the writing style of the Lorsch scriptorium , which began around 820 , its book illuminations significantly influenced the later book illumination, for example of the Reichenau monastery , as demonstrated for example in the Majestas Domini of the Gero Codex .

literature

  • Wolfgang Braunfels (ed.): The Lorsch Gospels. Facsimile of the Aachen edition around 810, Prestel, Munich 1967.
  • Ulrike Surmann: Lorscher Gospels . In: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana - Liturgy and Devotion in the Middle Ages. Catalog of the exhibition Cologne 1992–1993, Belser Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-7630-5780-3 .
  • Hermann Schefers (Ed.): The Lorsch Gospels. A celebratory book art of the occidental early Middle Ages. (= Work of the Hessian Historical Commission - New Series. Vol. 18). Historical Commission for Hesse, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-88443-039-4 .
  • Stefanie Westphal: Lorscher Gospels. In: Peter van den Brink, Sarvenaz Ayooghi (ed.): Charlemagne - Charlemagne. Karl's art. Catalog of the special exhibition Karls Kunst from June 20 to September 21, 2014 in the Center Charlemagne , Aachen. Sandstein, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-093-2 , pp. 232-235 (with lit.).
  • Rainer Kahsnitz : Binding of the Lorsch Gospels. In: Peter van den Brink, Sarvenaz Ayooghi (ed.): Charlemagne - Charlemagne. Karl's art. Catalog of the special exhibition Karls Kunst from June 20 to September 21, 2014 in the Center Charlemagne , Aachen. Sandstein, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-093-2 , pp. 180-185 (with lit.).

Web links

Commons : Codex Aureus von Lorsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files