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Schuttern Gospels

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious texts

   Folio 19r of the Schuttern Gospels has large initials marking the
   beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. Note the decorated Chi Rho monogram
   bleeding through from the other side of the page.
   Enlarge
   Folio 19r of the Schuttern Gospels has large initials marking the
   beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. Note the decorated Chi Rho monogram
   bleeding through from the other side of the page.

   The Schuttern Gospels (British Library, Add. MS 47673) is an early 9th
   century illuminated Gospel Book that was produced at the Schuttern
   monastery in Baden. According to a colophon on folio 206v, the
   manuscript was written by the deacon Liutharius, at the order of is
   Abbot, Bertricus.

Codicology

   The vellum codex has 211 folios that are 300 by 215 mm. The text is
   written is a space that is 232 by l55 mm. The folios are gathered into
   quires of most of which have eight leaves each. The first and the next
   to last quires have only six leaves. The eleventh quire has seven
   leaves excised. The majority of the folios were ruled using a hard
   point. They were ruled two bifolios at a time, before the bifolio were
   folded. The manuscript has a mid-19th century binding of purple
   leather.

Text and Script

   The manuscript contains the text of the four Gospels in Latin along
   with the Eusebian canon tables, prefaces, summaries and capitulary. The
   text is written in two columns of twenty-five lines each in a
   Carolingian minuscule that has some Merovingian characteristics. The
   texts of the canon table, the chapter tables and the colophon are in
   the same hand.

Decoration

   The manuscript has arcaded canon tables and chapter tables. There are
   large initials which are decorated interlace, and beast and bird
   motifs, similar to those found in Insular manuscripts. Folio 19v has a
   large decorated Chi Rho monogram to mark the text of Matthew 1:18. The
   manuscript does not have miniatures of evangelist portraits or
   evangelist symbols. In their place, there are purple and indigo
   rectangular panels with borders on which are quotations from the Book
   of Psalms written in uncials with white ink. The panel for the Gospel
   of Matthew has Psalm 67, verses 27 and 29 and Psalm 31 verses 1 and 2.
   The panel for the Gospel of Mark has Psalm 33 verses 12-15. Luke's
   panel has Psalm 33, verses 9 and 10. The panel for the Gospel of John
   is missing.

Provenance

   The colophon on folio 202v reads: Ego Liutharius diaconus hunc biblum
   scripsi ob iussu bertrici abbatis, ad salutem querentibus anime vel
   legentibus…. The names Liutharius and Abbot Bertricus can be found on a
   list of monks of Schuttern Abbey from the early 9th century which is
   preserved at the monastery of Reichenau. The manuscript was still at
   Schuttern Abbey in the 13th century when a charter dated 1269 for the
   Abbey and the Abbot, Hermannus, was recorded on folio 211. It was
   acquired by Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester (died 1759) and included in
   his library at Holkham Hall. Folio ii has the bookplate of Thomas
   William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham. The manuscript was
   acquired by the British Library, along with 11 other manuscripts from
   Holkham Hall.
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