Wenceslas Bible
The Wenceslas Bible is a magnificent manuscript written in Prague between 1390 and 1400 . This German-language Bible was written and painted for King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia . It contains one of the oldest translations of the Old Testament into German.
construction
The Wenceslas Bible is now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna and is kept there under the shelf marks Cod. 2759 to Cod. 2764. In its current state it comprises six volumes with a total of 1214 parchment leaves, whereby the work was bound in its present form in 1790. Each page is described by two 36-line columns with a header above each column. The 654 miniatures, some of which are inlaid with gold, are particularly valuable . The Wenceslas Bible is often referred to as the full Bible, but remained unfinished: The twelve Little Prophets , the First and Second Maccabees and the New Testament are missing .
Font and miniatures
The handwriting is in the so-called Textura , a Gothic script , written on the highest calligraphic level. Typical of the time, there are no punctuation marks except for the point; Capital letters are only used at the beginning of the line. The names of the writers have not been passed down, but it is assumed that at least three writers were busy with the text and that other specialists were responsible for the miniatures, the chapter count, etc. The seven or more illuminators from this Wenceslas workshop , mostly unknown or not known with certainty, are named by art historians, for example, after the parts they illustrate with emergency names such as “ Balaam master ” or “ Ruth master ”; it is also believed that a large part of the work was done by a painter named Frana (Frantisek) .
Emergence
It is true that in the 14th century, in view of pre- and early Reformation movements such as the Lollards John Wyclifs in England , the Roman Church made sure that the Bible could not be spread uncontrollably in the vernacular, and Emperor Charles IV also reaffirmed the ban on translation for his territory in 1369 Vulgate . Karl's son and successor Wenzel, however, disregarded this and commissioned the magnificent manuscript in German in 1385, with Martin Rotlev, a wealthy merchant with close ties to the Luxembourg court, taking over the financing. However, who did the translation himself is still unknown. With the deposition of Wenceslas in 1400, work on the Bible was interrupted until further notice. Not until 1441, under the Habsburg Frederick III. the work continued without coming to an end. A total of 607 calf skins were used in the Bible.
Ownership history
The pages were bound for the first time in 1447, with the Habsburg motto AEIOU being added to today's 5th volume . Around 1500 the Bible was brought to the Innsbruck Hofburg . Around 1580 it was owned by Archduke Ferdinand , who kept it at Ambras Castle.
When the Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs died out in 1665, the Ambras library was combined with the Viennese holdings in the court library in Vienna. In 1790 the new binding took place in six volumes; In 1803 the plant was brought to Hungary shortly before the onslaught of Napoleonic troops.
Since 1936 the Wenceslas Bible has been owned by the Austrian National Library as Codices vindobonenses No. 2759–2764. It is only accessible to the research community in the form of facsimiles. The complete facsimile edition of the Wenceslas Bible has been published by the Academic Printing and Publishing Institute in Graz.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Schmidt: Painting until 1450. In: Karl M. Swoboda (Hrsg.): Gotik in Böhmen. Prestel, Munich 1969, pp. 167-321. Another name was given by Josef Krasa, for example: The manuscripts of King Wenzels IV. Forum-Verlag, Vienna 1971. See also Marcel Thomas, Gerhard Schmidt: The Bible of King Wenzel. Academic Printing and Publishing Institute, Graz 1989.
literature
- Julius von Schlosser : The Illuminated Manuscripts of King Wenzel I. In: Yearbook of the Art History Collections of the Most High Imperial House. Volume XIV, 1893, pp. 214–251, 266–269 ( digitized version )
- Josef Krasa: The manuscripts of King Wenceslas IV . Forum Publishing House, Prague 1971.
- Franz Josef Andorf: The Wenceslas Bible. A study of the history of language. Dissertation, Freiburg im Breisgau 1983.
- Klaus Priptsch: Medieval book illumination using the example of the Wenceslas Bible in facsimile . Without publisher, Duisburg 1988.
- Marcel Thomas, Gerhard Schmidt: The Bible of King Wenceslas . ADEVA, Graz 1989, ISBN 3-201-01490-7 .
- Horst Appuhn: Wenzelsbibel: King Wenzel's superb manuscript of the German Bible . Harenberg, Dortmund 1990, ISBN 3-611-02001-X .
- Katharina Hranitzky: The most beautiful pictures from the Wenceslas Bible . ADEVA, Graz 1998, ISBN 3-201-01700-0 .
- Ulrike Jenni , Maria Theisen: Central European Schools. IV (approx. 1380–1400): King Wenceslas IV's court workshops and their surroundings (= memoranda of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, phil.-hist. Class. Volume 458 ( Publications on the writing and book system of the Middle Ages. Volume I, 13) 2 volumes, Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2014, text volume p. 158–212 (No. 5), table and register volume Fig. 144–192 ( text volume online , table and register volume online ).
- Rudolf Hopmann: King without an Imperial Crown or A Bible for the Pope - The (pictorial) language of the Wenceslas Bible. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-89870-876-0 .
