Vivian Bible

Folio 423 r: Charles the Bald receives the book from the hands of Abbot Vivien

Folio 3v: Scenes from the Life of St. Jerome

The Vivian Bible or First Bible of Charles the Bald is a Carolingian illuminated manuscript that was created in 845/846 in the monastery of St. Martin in Tours .

history

The manuscript was created by the monks under Abbot Vivian (844–851) and given to the King and later Emperor Charles the Bald . He probably donated it to Metz Cathedral in 869/870 . In 1675 it came into the possession of the Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and after his death in 1683 it came into the royal library. Today it is in the Paris Bibliothèque nationale (Ms. lat. 1).

Content and design

The large-format codex (495 x 345 mm) with 423 parchment leaves contains a full Bible and is illuminated with eight full-page miniatures, four canon tables and 87 initials .

The eight illuminations show scenes from the life of Saint Jerome (fol. 3v.), From Genesis (fol. 10v.), Exodus (fol. 27v.), The Psalms with King David (fol. 215v .), One Majestas Domini (fol. 329v), the conversion of Paul (fol. 386v), the Apocalypse (fol. 415v °) and the dedication of the manuscript to Charles the Bald.

The Vivian Bible contains the earliest European illustration of a lyre called Rotta with a fingerboard.

literature

• Florentine Mütherich , Joachim E. Gaehde: Carolingian book painting . Prestel, Munich 1979, pp. 75-81, ISBN 3-7913-0395-3
• Ingo F. Walther, Norbert Wolf: Masterpieces of book illumination . Taschen, Cologne et al. 2005, pp. 96–97, ISBN 3-8228-4747-X

Web links

• Digitized on Gallica

Remarks

1. ↑ Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 26. De Gruyter, Berlin 2004, p. 162