Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:16:20.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - The Latin gospelbook, c. 600–1200

from Part II - Format and Transmission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2012

Richard Marsden
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
E. Ann Matter
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

In the Latin West between 600 and 1200, the four books of the Christian Gospels were copied more often and received more elaborate decoration than any other Christian text, except perhaps for Psalms. The importance given to the production of medieval gospelbooks – manuscripts containing the four Gospels and their associated texts – reflects the importance of the Gospels themselves in narrating the earthly life of Christ and the fact that they are the simplest expression of the ‘good tidings’ of salvation (Mark 1:1, quoting Isa. 61:1). During the medieval period, their texts appeared in many other types of manuscript, too, apart from gospelbooks. These include, obviously, Bible pandects and complete New Testaments, but also, because readings from the Bible were used in most forms of medieval worship, the Gospels were copied into various types of book used in the performance of the liturgy. In the daily round of services throughout the liturgical year, the use of a specific passage (pericope) assigned to each day had replaced the practice of reading the four Gospels sequentially from beginning to end (lectio continua) by the seventh century. Catering for this need were evangelistaries (also called gospel lectionaries or pericope books), volumes containing the full gospel readings for the Mass arranged according to the liturgical year, as well as readings from the Old Testament and the Pauline Epistles, all of which are written out in full for each Mass or Office. They became increasingly popular from the Carolingian period onwards. A few surviving sacramentaries, books setting out the words to be spoken by the priest celebrating Mass, also contain gospel readings.

Gospelbooks are among the most striking manuscripts of the Middle Ages. The texts were usually accompanied by introductory materials such as St Jerome's prologues, Eusebius' canon tables and chapter lists (capitula). The physical characteristics of the manuscripts varied considerably according to where, when and for what purpose they were made. They ranged from simply decorated and quite small pocket Gospels to large and imposing volumes with jewelled bindings. Their shapes evolved quickly from the roughly square codices of Late Antiquity into the rectangular form that remained customary through most of the Middle Ages. Their scripts in turn developed from Roman uncials through a series of permutations to the proto-gothic scripts of the twelfth century. Surveying the contents and uses of gospelbooks involves looking at such characteristics as their sizes, their bindings, the scripts in which they were written, the layout of the pages, the auxiliary texts included and the level of their decoration.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An Early Breton Gospel Book. A Ninth-Century Manuscript from the Collection of H. L. Bradfer-Lawrence, ed. Wormald, F. and Alexander, J. J. G (Cambridge: Roxburghe Club, 1977) [partial facsimile]
[Book of Kells] Evangeliorum quattuor Codex Cenannensis, ed. Alton, E. H and Meyer, P., 3 vols. (Berne: Urs Graf,1950–1)
The Book of Kells, MS 58, Trinity College Library Dublin, ed. Fox, P, 2 vols. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1990)
[Codex Aureus of Canterbury] The Codex Aureus. An Eighth-Century Gospel Book, Stockholm, Kungliga Bibliotek, A. 135, ed. Gameson, R., 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 2001–2)
[Codex Aureus of Echternach] Das goldene Evangelienbuch von Echternach. Codex Aureus Epternacensis Hs. 156 142 aus dem Germanischen Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, ed. Kahsnitz, R., 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1982)
[Codex Aureus of St Emmeram] Der Codex Aureus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek in München, ed. Leidinger, G., 6 vols. (Munich: Hugo Schmidt, 1921–5)
[Durham Gospels] Evangeliorum quattuor Codex Durmachensis, ed. Luce, A. A, 2 vols. (Olten: Urs Graf, 1960)
The Durham Gospels together with Fragments of a Gospel Book in Uncial, ed. Verey, C. D. et al. (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1980)
[Golden Gospels of Henry III or Speyer Gospels] Das goldene Evangelienbuch Heinrichs III, ed. Boeckler, A. (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1933)
[Goslar Gospels] Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis. A Facsimile Edition of an Echternach Gospel-Book of the Eleventh Century, ed. Nordenfalk, C. A. J, 2 vols. (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1971)
[Gospelbook of Henry the Lion] Evangeliarium Heinrici Leonis. Authorisiertes vollständiges Faksimile des Codex Guelf. 105, Noviss. 2° der Herzog August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, und zugleich CLM 30055 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München, ed. Kötzsche, D, 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Insel, 1988–9)
[Gospelbook of Otto] Das Evangeliar Ottos III Clm. 4453 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, ed. Dressler, F., Mütherich, F. and Beumann, H., 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1977–8)
The Gospel Book of St Margaret, Being a Facsimile Reproduction of St Margaret's Copy of the Gospels Preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, ed. Forbes-Leith, W.(Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1896)
[Lindisfarne Gospels] Das Buch von Lindisfarne. Cotton Ms Nero D. iv der British Library, London, ed. Brown, M. P., 3 vols. (Lucerne: Facsimile Verlag, 2002)
[Lindisfarne Gospels] Evangelium quattuor Codex Lindisfarnensis. Musei Britannici Codex Cottonianus Nero D. iv, ed. Kendrick, T. D. et al., 2 vols. (Olten and Lausanne: Urs Graf, 1956–60)
The Lorsch Gospels, ed. Braunfels, W, 2 vols. (New York: Braziller, 1967)
The Stonyhurst Gospel of St John, ed. Brown, T. J. (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1969)
The York Gospels. A Facsimile with Introductory Essays, ed. Barker, N.(London: Roxburghe Club, 1986)
McGurk, P., Latin Gospel Books from A.D. 400 to A.D. 800, Les Publications de Scriptorium 5 (Paris and Brussels: Éditions Érasme, 1961), p. 22Google Scholar
McGurk, P. and Rosenthal, J., ‘The Anglo-Saxon Gospelbooks of Judith, Countess of Flanders. Their Text, Make-Up and Function’, ASE 24 (1995), 251–308, at p. 285Google Scholar
Nees, L., ‘Problems of Form and Function in Early Medieval Illustrated Bibles from Northwest Europe’, in J. Williams (ed.), Imaging the Early Medieval Bible (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp. 121–78, at p. 176Google Scholar
Gameson, R. (ed.), The Early Medieval Bible. Its Production, Decoration, and Use (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994), pp. 24–52, at p. 42Google Scholar
de Hamel, C., A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Phaidon, 1994), pp. 36–7Google Scholar
McKitterick, R., The Carolingians and the Written Word (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1989), p. 162CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. M. H, Europe after Rome. A New Cultural History 500–1000 (OxfordUniversity Press, 2005), pp. 157–8Google Scholar
Marsden, R., ‘Anglo-Saxon Biblical Manuscripts’, in R. Gameson (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. i, (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2011), pp. 406–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. S. C., ‘The History of the Text and Canon of the New Testament to Jerome’, in CHB ii, pp. 27–53, at pp. 38–9
Marsden, R., The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England, CSASE 15 (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1995), pp. 5–11; also Bogaert in this volume, ch. 4. See also the brief overview of Insular textual traditions by P. McGurk, ‘The Gospel Text’, in The Book of Kells, MS 58, Trinity College Library Dublin, ed. P. Fox, 2 vols. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1990), vol. i, pp. 59–152, at pp. 61–2.Google Scholar
Fischer, B., Die lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, 4 vols., VLB 13, 15, 17 and 18 (Freiburg: Herder, 1988–91)Google Scholar
Gryson, R. and Bogaert, P.-M. (eds.), Recherches sur l’histoire de la Bible (Louvain-la-Neuve: Publications de la Faculté de Théologie, 1987), pp. 51–104Google Scholar
, Stegmüller, Repertorium, vol. i
Chapman, J., Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels (Oxford: Clarendon, 1908), pp. 217–53Google Scholar
Evangeliorum quattuor Codex Durmachensis [Durham Gospels], ed. Luce, A. A., 2 vols. (Olten: Urs Graf, 1960), pp. 11–12Google Scholar
Gutwenger, E., ‘The Anti-Marcionite Prologues’, Theological Studies 7 (1946), 393–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordenfalk, C., ‘The Apostolic Canon Tables’, in his Studies in the History of Book Illumination (London: Pindar, 1992), p. 30Google Scholar
Harmon, J. A., Codicology of the Court School of Charlemagne (Frankfurt: Lang, 1984), p. 45Google Scholar
Klauser, T., Das römische Capitulare evangeliorum (Münster: Aschendorff, 1972)Google Scholar
Novum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi latine secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi, ed. Wordsworth, J. and White, H. J., 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1889–1954),Google Scholar
Backhouse, J., The Lindisfarne Gospels (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 7–13Google Scholar
Lowe, E. A., Codices latini antiquiores. a Palaeographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts Prior to the Ninth Century, 11 vols. and suppl. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1934–71; 2nd edn of vol. ii, 1972)Google Scholar
An Early Breton Gospel Book, a Ninth-Century Manuscript from the Collection of H. L. Bradfer-Lawrence, ed. Wormald, F. and Alexander, J. J. G. (Cambridge: Roxburghe Club, 1977), pp. 14–23Google Scholar
Werner, M., ‘On the Origin of Zoanthropomorphic Evangelist Symbols. The Early Christian Background’, Studies in Iconography 10 (1984–6), 1–35Google Scholar
Alexander, J. J. G., Insular Manuscripts from the 6th to the 9th Century, SMIBI 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), p. 9Google Scholar
Wilson, D. M., Anglo-Saxon Art (Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1984), p. 32Google Scholar
Brown, M. P., A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (University of Toronto Press, 1990), p. 49Google Scholar
The Codex Aureus. An Eighth-Century Gospel Book, Stockholm, Kungliga Bibliotek, A. 135, ed. Gameson, R., 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 2001–2)Google Scholar
The Book of Kells, MS 58, Trinity College Library Dublin, ed. Fox, P., 2 vols. (Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1990)Google Scholar
McGurk, P., ‘The Irish Pocket Gospel Book’, Sacris Erudiri 8 (1956), 249–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bischoff, B., Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, trans. M. M. Gorman (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994)Google Scholar
Dodwell, C. R., The Pictorial Arts of the West 800–1200 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993)Google Scholar
Hubert, J., Porcher, J. and Volbach, W. F., The Carolingian Renaissance (New York: Braziller, 1970)Google Scholar
Mayr-Harting, H., Ottonian Book Illumination, 2 vols. (London: Harvey Miller, 1991), vol. i, pp. 232–3Google Scholar
Dodwell, C. R., Anglo-Saxon Art. A New Perspective (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 22Google Scholar
Kauffmann, C. M., Romanesque Manuscripts 1066–1190, SMIBI 3 (London: Harvey Miller, 1975)Google Scholar
Cahn, W., Romanesque Manuscripts. The Twelfth Century, 2 vols., A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1996)Google Scholar
Calkins, R., Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), p. 150.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×