The Golden Codex of Echternach (Codex Aureus Epternacensis) is an illuminated gospel book made at the abbey of Echternach circa 1030-50. (The abbey is now located at the extreme west of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, barely a third of a mile from the German border; for a sense of historical perspective, it was founded in 700, more than two-and-a-half centuries before the fort that eventually became the duchy.) The word “golden” in its name refers not just to the extremely high quality of the decorations and images, but also, and indeed primarily, to the fact that the text is written out in gold ink. It is now kept at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, and may be viewed at the following link in full: https://dlib.gnm.de/item/Hs156142
Usually, when I write about manuscripts of this sort, I give a selection of the images, but this one is so rich and beautiful that I am going to be much more comprehensive, and consequently, divide it into three posts; the first will cover all the prefatory materials, the second, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and the third, Luke and John. The cover was made about 50 years before the codex for a different manuscript, and has an ivory image of the Crucifixion mounted into the center of it, of uncertain age and origin. It is now displayed separate from the manuscript.
The first image in the manuscript is of Christ in majesty, surrounded by
the symbols of the four Evangelists, and the four major prophets. The style here is very characteristic of the Ottonian period, which turned away to a large degree from the Carolingian interest in naturalistic art; the figures are stylized and essentially weightless.
A dedicatory inscription held up on a plaque by two angels, with representations of the four cardinal virtues in the middle of each side of the border.
The title page for St Jerome’s first preface to the Gospels...
and the opening words, “Beato Papae Damaso Hieronymus” (Jerome to the blessed Pope Damasus).
A second preface commonly included in Gospel manuscripts, and falsely attributed to Jerome.
The text, and the title of another preface. (It is common for high-quality medieval Gospel books to include a great deal of prefatory material of this sort.)
The title of an epistle of Eusebius of Caesarea, addressed to a man named Carpian (otherwise unknown) in which explains the system of the Gospel concordances which he devised known as the Eusebian canons, based on the work of an early scholar called Ammonius of Alexandria.
A poem which explains how the canon tables relate to each other.
In Eusebius’ system, each Gospel is divided into a very large number of small sections, far more than the modern chapter system (basically one event per.) These are coordinated by a group of tables called the canons, which show which material is common to all four Gospels, which to three, which to two, and which are found in only one. The illuminators of the manuscript were particularly inventive in the different styles and colors of the decorative columns that separate the different parts of each canon. Note also that the section numbers are written on parchment which has been colored purple, an extraordinarily expensive process.
