Viennese Genesis
The Vienna Genesis ( Vienna , Austrian National Library , Cod. Theol. Gr. 31) is an illuminated manuscript that was probably made in Syria in the first half of the 6th century. It is one of the oldest well-preserved illustrated biblical codes .
The text is a fragment of the Book of Genesis in the Greek Septuagint translation. The text is abbreviated repeatedly. 24 sheets with a total of 48 full miniatures, each below the text (partly in two rows), have been preserved. It is believed that there were originally around 96 sheets with 192 illustrations . The codex is written in silver ink in uncial script on veal parchment dyed with purple . Nomina sacra are written in gold ink. Purple dye was also used to dye the imperial robes.
The illustrations are kept in a naturalistic style, which is typical of the Roman painting of this time. The format of the illustrations is a transition between the small, unframed individual images, as they were common in scrolls , and the later images of the codices. There are both framed and unframed illustrations. The illustrations contain incidents and people that do not appear in the biblical text. These probably come from popular embellishments of history or from Jewish paraphrases of the text.
The Vienna Genesis could have been made in the same period and in the same place as the Codex Sinopensis and the Codex Rossanensis .
literature
- The Vienna Genesis , ed. by Wilhelm von Hartel and Franz Wickhoff , in: Yearbook of the Art History Collections of the Very Highest Imperial House, 15/16, 1895; Neudr. Graz 1970
- Karl Clausberg: The Vienna Genesis. An art history picture story , Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1984
- Barbara Zimmermann: The Vienna Genesis in the context of ancient book illumination. Iconography, representation, illustration process and statement intention , Reichert, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89500-319-0
- Christian hosts , Christa Hofmann, Barbara Zimmermann: The Vienna Genesis. Cod. Theol. gr. 31, Austrian National Library Vienna. Commentary on the facsimile edition . Lucerne: Quaternio Verlag Luzern 2019. ISBN 978-3-905924-67-1 .
- Christa Hofmann: The Vienna Genesis. Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2020 ISBN 978-3-205-21058-0 ( digitally accessible )
Web links
- Digitized version of the manuscript
- Description of the manuscript in the online catalog of the Austrian National Library (with further links)
- derstandard.at
