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Walters Ms. W.7, Reichenau Gospels

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Shelf mark

W.7


Manuscript

Reichenau Gospels


Text title
Gospel Book

Abstract

This Gospel Book is believed to come from the Abbey of Reichenau, on Lake Constance, on the basis of its script and illumination. The decoration of the manuscript places it in the so-called Luithar school of Reichenau. Its ornamental motifs compare very closely with those in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm. 4453, and its palette is nearly identical to that in the Reichenau manuscripts of the Bamberg Cathedral Treasury. Gold uncials begin each paragraph as well as the introductory words of each chapter; they are a distinct mark of Reichenau manufacture. The manuscript's text is written in Caroline minuscule. It is paleographically related to Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek Mss. Bibl. 76 and Bibl. 22, and also Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm. 4454. As a whole, it is an excellent example of Ottonian book illumination.


Date

Middle of the 11th century CE


Origin

Reichenau Abbey, Lake Constance, Germany


Form

Book


Genre

Scriptural


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.


Support material

Parchment

Thick, white, unpolished parchment


Extent

Foliation: i+202

Three sets of numbers present: nineteenth-century ink over pencil pagination in upper right corners, foliation in upper centers, and modern pencil foliation in upper right corners (followed here)


Collation

Formula: i, 1(8), 2(6), 3-8(8), 9(4), 10-13(8), 14(2), 15(6), 16-21(8), 22(6), 23-27(8), 28(2)

Catchwords: None

Signatures: Numbered consecutively (i-xxviii) on versos, bottom center; may not be contemporary with original manuscript

Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 9(2), 15(3), 23(4), 31(5), 39(6), 47(7), 55(8), 63(9), 67(10), 75(11), 83(12), 91(13), 99(14), 101(15), 107(16), 115(17), 123(18), 131(19), 139(20), 147(21), 155(22), 161(23), 169(24), 177(25), 185(26), 193(27), 201(28)


Dimensions

16.6 cm wide by 23.1 cm high


Written surface

fols. 1r - 202v: 10.2 cm wide by 15.0 cm high

fols. 1r - 8v: 11.5 cm wide by 17.0 cm high


Layout
fols. 1r - 202v:
  1. Columns: 1
  2. Ruled lines: 20
  3. Light brown ink ruling lines in canon tables only; text folios stylus-ruled on hair side; full-page miniatures on unruled folios
fols. 1r - 8v:
  1. Measurements for fols. 1r-8v refer to the average height and width of the framing arches of the canon tables

Contents:
fols. 1r - 202v:
  1. Title: Gospel Book
  2. Hand note: Written in Caroline minuscule script; headings and opening lines of text divisions in majuscule scripts; three different hands evident (according to Dorothy Miner): Hand A: fols. 10r-14r, 68v-122v, and 162v-184v; Hand B: fols. 16v-66r and 123r-136r; Hand C: fols. 136v-160r and 185r-220v
  3. Decoration note: Sixteen illuminated canon tables; one full-page dedication miniature; openings of full-page Evangelist portraits facing large decorated initials beginning each Gospel; marginal initials in gold introducing each paragraph; first lines of chapters beginning with gold uncials; ornamental branching initials of gold outlined in minium and filled with green and blue at the heads of prologues and on a grander scale at the beginnings of Gospels; text in brown ink; Ammonian numbers in brown in margins (incomplete)
fols. 1r - 8v:
  1. Title: Canon tables
  2. Rubric: Canon I in quo IIII
  3. Text note: Eusebian canon tables I-X
  4. Decoration note: Eusebian numbers divided into columns of three or four by gold framing arches and columns topped with stylized classical capitals; upper arch single or double, indicating whether all of the items on the page are mutually related or if they are two separate groups; inner arches varying from one to four; Evangelist symbols inhabiting inner arches, placed appropriately above their respective canon numbers against fields of modulating colors of green, pink, blue, and yellow; columns of a variety of colored designs in yellow, mauve, green, blue, and pink separating chapter numbers; chapter numbers written in red
fols. 9v - 202v:
  1. Title: Gospels
  2. Contents: Contents: fol. 10r-v: Prologue to Matthew (Matheus ex Judea sicut [Stegmüller 590]); fols. 11r-14r: 29 chapter list to Matthew (Nativitas Christi magi cum muneribus); fols. 16r-64r: Matthew (Initium sancti Evangelii secundum Matheum); fol. 64r-v: Prologue to Mark (Marcus Evangelista Dei et Petri [Stegmüller 607]); fols. 64v-66r: 13 chapter list to Mark (De Iohanne Baptista et victu); fols. 68r-99v: Mark; fol. 101r-v: Prologue to Luke (Lucas syrus antiocensis arte medicus [Stegmüller 620]); fols. 102r-106v: 22 chapter list to Luke (Zacharias uiso angelo quia); fols. 108r-159r: Luke; fols. 159v-160r: Prologue to John (Hic est Iohannes Evangelista unus ex discipulus [Stegmüller 624]); fol. 160r-v: 13 chapter list to John (Phariseorum levitae interrogant); fols. 162-202v: John
  3. Decoration note: Full-page dedication image fol. 9v; full-page Evangelist portraits at the beginning of each Gospel, fols. 15v, 67v, 107v, and 161v

Decoration:

fol. 1r:

  1. W.7, fol. 1r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon I

fol. 1v:

  1. W.7, fol. 1v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon I

fol. 2r:

  1. W.7, fol. 2r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon I

fol. 2v:

  1. W.7, fol. 2v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon II

fol. 3r:

  1. W.7, fol. 3r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon II

fol. 3v:

  1. W.7, fol. 3v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon II

fol. 4r:

  1. W.7, fol. 4r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon II

fol. 4v:

  1. W.7, fol. 4v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Eusebian canon III

fol. 5r:

  1. W.7, fol. 5r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Eusebian canon IV

fol. 5v:

  1. W.7, fol. 5v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon V

fol. 6r:

  1. W.7, fol. 6r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon V

fol. 6v:

  1. W.7, fol. 6v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Eusebian canon VI

fol. 7r:

  1. W.7, fol. 7r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Eusebian canons VII and VIII

fol. 7v:

  1. W.7, fol. 7v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Eusebian canon IX and part of canon X

fol. 8r:

  1. W.7, fol. 8r
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Part of Eusebian canon X

fol. 8v:

  1. W.7, fol. 8v
  2. Title: Canon table
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: End of Eusebian canon X

fol. 9v:

  1. W.7, fol. 9v
  2. Title: An abbot presents the book to St. Peter
  3. Form: Full-page miniature; dedication minature
  4. Text: Prologue to Matthew

fol. 15v:

  1. W.7, fol. 15v
  2. Title: Portrait of the Evangelist Matthew
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. Matthew

fol. 67v:

  1. W.7, fol. 67v
  2. Title: Portrait of the Evangelist Mark
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. Mark

fol. 107v:

  1. W.7, fol. 107v
  2. Title: Portrait of the Evangelist Luke
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. Luke

fol. 161v:

  1. W.7, fol. 161v
  2. Title: Portrait of the Evangelist John
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. John

Binding

The binding is not original.

Cream parchment over pasteboard, inscribed on spine EVANGELIAIRE Xe SIECLE; book rebound after 1913 by Gruel, as the dimensions are smaller than those in the 1908 Brooke catalog and do not match the 1913 Sotheby's catalog description as "newly bound in niger morocco, covered with rich gilt interlaced circles and dotted ornaments by K[atherine]. A[dams].; some remnants of Katherine Adams' binding remain (endbands and four cords); front cover guard and flyleaf not original but have been with the manuscript for some time as evinced by the leaf numbering and the note in a nineteenth-century German hand


Provenance

Abbey of Reichenau, Lake Constance, Germany, mid eleventh century

German library, nineteenth century (front flyleaf contains a German inscription written in a nineteenth-century hand that assigns the manuscript the number 203)

Sir Thomas Brooke, Armitage Bridge House near Huddersfield, Yorkshire; acquired from the dealer G. I. Ellis after 1854

Ingraham Brooke, Sotheby's March 7, 1913, lot 8

Leon Gruel, after 1913 (bookplate on front pastedown)

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel before 1931


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Bibliography

Ellis, G. I. A Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Printed Books Collected by Thomas Brooke. Vol. 1. London: Ellis and Elvey, 1891, p. 196.

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 767, no. 2289.

Miner, Dorothy E. A Late Reichenau Evangeliary in the Walters Gallery Library. Art Bulletin 18 (1936): 168-185.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Arts of the Middle Ages. Boston: Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1940, no. 14, pl. 17.

Walters Art Gallery. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949, cat. no. 12, pl. VII.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1953, no. 7.

Faye, C. U., and W. H. Bond. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1962, p. 195, no. 64.

Wixom, W. "Twelve Masterpieces of Medieval and Renaissance Book Illumination: A Catalogue to the Exhibition: March 17-May 17, 1964." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51 (1964): 45.

Walters Art Gallery. 2,000 Years of Calligraphy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1965, pp. 28, 30-31, no. 13.

Randall, Lilian M. C. Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1984, pl. 6.

Siede, Irmgard. Zur Rezeption ottonischer Buchmalerei in Italien im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert. St. Ottilien, Germany: EOS, 1997, pp. 75, 77-78, 269-270.


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Archibald, Elizabeth; Bockrath, Diane; Davis, Lisa Fagin; Dutschke, Consuelo; Emery, Doug; Hamburger, Jeffrey; Noel, William; Sciacca, Christine; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.