Gospels of Henry the Lion
The Gospels of Henry the Lion was of Duke Henry the Lion as a foundation for the Lady Altar of the Brunswick Collegiate Church of St. Blasius (also known as Brunswick Cathedral ) determined and was part of the Guelph Treasure. It is considered the masterpiece of Romanesque book illumination of the 12th century in northern Germany.
The Gospel Book was at the Benedictine Helmarshausen. The Brunswick church was built since 1173, dedicated his Lady altar in 1188. The formation is thought by some scholars to 1173-1175 ( early date ), the majority assumes, however, that the work was created only 1188 ( late date ).
The manuscript comprises 226 pages with 50 full-page miniatures, 17 canon tables, four images of the Evangelists, nine decorative sides and 20 themselves. The full text contains about 1,500 smaller, 77 larger and seven large, ornate initials. The dimensions are 34.2 cm height × 25.3 cm width. The Gospel Book contains, usually shortened in banners, the four Gospels and miniatures in the salvation history of Christianity. One of the creator of the work has been immortalized in the beginning in the book itself: liber est laboratory Heri Manni ( monk Hermann has made this book ).
The book was intended for the Lady Altar of the Brunswick cathedral, it was later in the Guelph Treasure. It wandered into the treasury of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague and came 1861 for ten thousand dollars in the possession of the Hanoverian George V, who took it after his abdication in 1866 into exile in Austria. Then again lost his trail. Thieme -Becker named 1923 Ernst August of Hanover as the owner, in 1946 it was in Switzerland, after which it came to England. The book was bought on 6 December 1983 in the London auction house Sotheby's for 32.5 million D- Mark for Germany. Applied to the purchase price as part of a community effort to safeguard national treasures, the German Federal Government, the Federal States of Lower Saxony and Bavaria, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and private donors ( esp. from Braunschweig ). It was up to the acquisition of a manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci ( "Codex Leicester " ) by Bill Gates the most expensive book in the world.
The Gospel Book is completely preserved in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, under the signature Codex Guelf. 105 Noviss. Preserved for 2 ° and issued for conservation reasons only every two years. In several places single facsimile pages or the entire facsimile of this precious manuscript are shown in exhibitions ( edition of 1989, including in Brunswick Cathedral, in Helmarshausen / North Hesse, Herzberg / Harz).
Handwriting
- Gospels of Henry the Lion: complete authorized facsimile of the Codex Guelf. 105 Noviss. 2 °, the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, while CLM 30055 of the Bavarian State Library, Munich. Parchment manuscript from the 12th century. Frankfurt / M. In 1988.