Rupertsberg Giant Code

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rupertsberg Giant Code
One page of the giant codex

The Rupertsberg Giant Codex , also Codex with the Chain or Wiesbaden Codex , is a medieval manuscript of the works of Hildegard von Bingen . In the Code are encyclopedic all their works, with the exception of medical and scientific treatises gathered.

Today the book is kept as manuscript no. 2 in the RheinMain University and State Library and is considered the most valuable book in the collection. The handwriting No.1 , called Scivias manuscript with 35 miniatures, one of the war losses in Dresden.

The name "giant code" refers to the scope of the work. It comprises 481 sheets of parchment , measures approximately 46 cm × 30 cm and weighs approximately 15 kg. Since it has an iron chain with which it was secured, it is also referred to as the "code with the chain".

history

The code was created in the late 12th century in the Rupertsberg monastery near Bingen . The work was probably started while Hildegard, the abbess of the monastery, was still alive. Several writers were involved in the creation of the code, probably around Hildegard's last secretary Wibert von Gembloux and the monk Volmar von Disibodenberg .

In the following centuries the code was kept in Rupertsberg Monastery. Around the 15th or 16th century it was provided with a new binding made of wooden covers with a pigskin cover. The integration probably took place in the Johannisberg monastery in the Rheingau . The chain was also added to secure the code against theft.

During the Thirty Years' War , the work, together with the Eibingen reliquary, was saved from the looting and destruction of the monastery by Swedish troops. With the convent it came in 1641 to the monastery Eibingen , a daughter monastery of Rupertsberg. With the secularization and evacuation of the Eibingen monastery in 1814, the book came into the possession of the Duchy of Nassau . This led it to the Nassau State Library.

Due to transport damage in 1928, the cover of the code had to be repaired. During the Second World War , the plant was relocated to Dresden . In contrast to other manuscripts, however, it was returned to Wiesbaden in 1948.

Today the code is kept in the RheinMain university and state library . For conservation reasons it cannot be viewed normally. In September 2013 it was publicly exhibited for the second time since World War II as part of a special exhibition in Eberbach Monastery. A digital version is also publicly available.

content

The Visions Trilogy:

  • Scivias , (sheet 1–135)
  • Liber vitae meritorum (sheet 135–201)
  • Liber divinorum operum (pages 202–308)

The letter to the Mainz prelates:

  • Ad praelatos Moguntinenses (sheet 308–317)

The biography of Hildegard von Bingen by the monks Gottfried von Disibodenberg and Theoderich von Echternach,

  • Vita Hildegardis (sheet 317–327)

A collection of 282 letters (including to Popes Alexander III and Eugene III , Emperor Friedrich I and Bernhard von Clairvaux )

  • Liber epistolarum et orationum (sheet 328-434)

a fragmentary collection of homilies

  • Expositiones evangeliorum (sheet 434–461)

linguistic-experimental writings

  • Lingua ignota , (sheet 461 v –464 v )
  • Litterae ignotae (sheet 464 v ),

A "letter from the Villarens monks after Hildegard's death" with various theological questions

  • Literae Villarenses (sheet 464-465)

The musical compositions:

Example of a page of musical compositions
  • Symphonia (sheet 466-481)
  • Ordo Virtutum

The codex is the last known surviving manuscript of Hildegard's works that was made during her lifetime. Because of its size, the work achieved little circulation; it has rarely been copied almost completely. Rather, books that contained an extract from her work remained formative for the visionary's fame. Particularly important was the book 'Speculum futurorum temporum', sive 'Pentachronon' sanctae Hildegardis by the Prior Gibo of the Eberbach Monastery , which has been handed down in numerous copies .

literature

  • Gottfried Zedler : Manuscript 2. In: The manuscripts of the Nassauische Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden. Leipzig 1931, pages 3–17 ( online ).
  • Stefan Morent: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179): The Rupertsberger "Riesenkodex", Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek Hs.2 . In: Contributions to Gregorian chant 26, 1998, pp. 81–96.
  • Volkhard Huth: Visionaries in Eberbach . In: Nassau Annals . tape 114 . Verlag des Verein für Nassau antiquity and historical research, 2003, ISSN  0077-2887 , p. 37-46 .
  • Michael Embach: The writings of Hildegard von Bingen. Studies on their transmission and reception in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . Berlin 2003, here pp. 36–65: "The Riesencodex"

Web links

Commons : Giant codex  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Zedler: The manuscripts … pp. 1–3
  2. ↑ Hildegard Schönfeld with the collaboration of Wolfgang Podehl: Scivias: die Miniatur vom Rupertsberg / Hildegard von Bingen , Bingen 1979
  3. ↑ Your life ›Working as Abbess› Wibert von Gembloux (accessed August 27, 2013)
  4. ↑ BENEDICTINE'S ABBEY ST. HILDEGARD (accessed August 28, 2013)
  5. ↑ Giant Codex Hildegard von Bingens (accessed August 27, 2013)