Codex Aureus of Echternach

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Lazarus and Dives
Text page (Mt 4:22–5:16)

The Codex Aureus of Echternach (Codex aureus Epternacensis) is an illuminated Gospel Book, created in the approximate period 1030–1050,[1] with a re-used front cover from around the 980s.[2] It is now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.[3]

The manuscript contains the

canon tables,[4] and is a major example of Ottonian illumination, though the manuscript, as opposed to the cover, probably falls just outside the end of rule by the Ottonian dynasty. It was produced at the Abbey of Echternach
under the direction of Abbot Humbert.

The manuscript has 136 folios which measure 446 mm by 310 mm. It is one of the most lavishly illuminated Ottonian manuscripts. It contains over 60 decorative pages including 16 full page miniatures, 9 full page initials, 5 evangelist portraits, 10 decorated pages of canon tables, and 16 half-page initials. In addition there are 503 smaller initials, and pages painted to resemble textiles. The entire text is written in gold ink.[5]

Text and miniatures

Each gospel is preceded by the following: two pages summarizing the gospel, two pages imitating textiles, four pages of narrative scenes laid out in three registers per page, a full-page evangelist portrait, two pages of decorative text, before a full-page initial, which begins the actual text. As one art historian put it, the planner of the book "was in no hurry to bring his reader to the text".

Augustine Gospels, the scenes are arranged to cover the life and ministry of Jesus without concern for whether a particular scene is covered in the gospel it precedes.[8]

Labourers in the vineyard

The pages before Matthew take the story from the

Parable of the great banquet and the Rich man and Lazarus. The pages preceding John cover the final period, from the Passion of Jesus to his Ascension and Pentecost.[9]

Most of the miniatures are attributed to two artists, known as the "workshop master" and another presumed to be a pupil. A third, cruder, painter contributed some of the narrative scenes, and perhaps other elements which are harder to attribute. For example, the last three pages of the final narrative scenes preceding John are attributed to the master (so from the

Sainte-Chapelle Gospels are degraded into decorative garrulity, and there is so little weight and structure under the draperies that they might be covering mere inanimate cushions."[11]

A run of four pages preceding Matthew

These come after the two textile pages and the four pages of narrative images.

  • Evangelist portrait (Matthew), folio 20 verso
    Evangelist portrait (Matthew), folio 20 verso
  • Angel holding "tablet", folio 21 recto, with text "Ye men, believe the word of the man Matthew, so that He of Whom he speaks, the Man Jesus, may reward ye".[12]
    Angel holding "tablet", folio 21 recto, with text "Ye men, believe the word of the man Matthew, so that He of Whom he speaks, the Man Jesus, may reward ye".[12]
  • "Incipit" page *"Here begins the Gospel of Matthew", folio 21 verso
    "Incipit" page *"Here begins the Gospel of Matthew", folio 21 verso
  • Initial page "Liber", the first word of the Vulgate text
    Initial page "Liber", the first word of the Vulgate text

Cover

The front cover

The front cover of the manuscript is an Ottonian

Egbert, Archbishop of Trier. It centres on an ivory plaque showing the Crucifixion of Jesus, which is stylistically different from the other elements, and whose origin has been the subject of much discussion.[13] The plaque has traces of blue paint on the cross and green paint highlighting some parts of the composition.[14]

Surrounding the ivory plaque are panels, now rather battered, with figures in

consecration.[14] The general arrangement of the cover may be compared to others of the period – for example, that of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram of about 870, which probably forms part of the same tradition descending from the school of Reims in Carolingian art, as shown by the style of the relief figures.[15]

As in other treasure bindings, the gems do not merely create an impression of richness. They offer a foretaste of the bejeweled nature of the

The reliefs show the

monastery's order.[17] The figures are produced in an elegant, elongated style which contrasts strongly with the forceful and slightly squat figures of the ivory.[18]

It is sometimes thought that the cover was made for the Trier manuscript in Paris known as the Sainte-Chapelle Gospels, illustrated by the

Henry the Quarrelsome as successor to Otto II, rather than his young son Otto III, in 983–984. At a later point the imperial family would then have passed the manuscript on to Echternach.[20] A highly plausible suggestion however[21] has been made by Gunther Wolf, namely that the front cover was commissioned really for Echternach (to Archbishop Egbert, while meeting him at Christmas 988 in Cologne) by Empress Theophanu (and Otto III) out of religious gratitude for her recovering of the illness that struck her at the end of the summer of 988 at Lake Constance; her adoration for Saint Willibrord, as shown by former gifts to Echternach, in that case was an additional motive in the perspective of the 250th anniversary of his death (November 7, 739 AD).[22]

History

Detail of the cover, with Theophanu in the lower right

It is thought that this is the manuscript shown to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor when he visited Echternach with his mother Gisela of Swabia (d. 1043), which so impressed him that he commissioned similar works from the abbey, notably the Golden Gospels of Henry III, which he presented in 1046 to Speyer Cathedral, the burial-place of his dynasty.[23]

The manuscript was at the

It remained in the collection of the

German Federal government and the provinces or Länder contributed the funds jointly, with Bavaria in the lead, as its new home was to be the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, where it remains.[26]

Notes

  1. ^ Metz, 55 and preceding pages, followed by Lasko, 98 prefer "between 1053 and 1056" (Lasko), but do not seem to have convinced later scholars.
  2. ^ Lasko, 98 "the cover must date between Otto III's royal coronation of 983 and Theophanu's death in 991", followed by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, who add "perhaps 985–987".
  3. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Hs. 156142.
  4. Letter of Eusebius
    , all often found prefacing medieval Gospel books. Metz, 64–65
  5. ^ Walther, 128; Metz has full details
  6. College Art Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn, 1958), p. 86, JSTOR
  7. ^ Dodwell, 144; all are illustrated and described in Metz, see list of plates
  8. ^ Metz, 68
  9. ^ Metz, plates and the notes on them; all pages are illustrated.
  10. ^ Walther, 130
  11. ^ Dodwell, 144
  12. ^ Metz, 70
  13. ^ Metz, 60 sees it as contemporary with the rest of the cover, Lasko, 98 as from 1053–56 (like the text in his view); Beckwith, 133–136 attributes it and other pieces to a workshop active "possibly at Tier in the last twenty years of the tenth century".
  14. ^ a b c Metz, 60
  15. ^ Ferber, 14
  16. ^ Metz, 26-30
  17. ^ Lasko, 98; Beckwith, 133; Metz, 59, who astonishingly omits to mention the Evangelists
  18. ^ Ferber, 14; Beckwith, 133-136
  19. BnF
    MS lat. 8851: Dodwell, 144; Beckwith, 133
  20. ^ Head, 76
  21. ^ Westermann-Angerhausen, 217-218
  22. ^ Wolf, 147-151
  23. ^ Beckwith, 122-123
  24. ^ Literally 'woods', in reference to the Ardennes.
  25. ^ Metz, 11
  26. ^ Metz, 11-12

References

Further reading

External links