Berthold Sacramentary

Berthold Sacramentary

In 1200, Berthold von Hainburg was elected abbot of Weingarten, a man who was to have a lasting influence on the fortunes of the convent and lead the monastery to the glorious climax of its history. Berthold's greatest achievement was the unrestricted promotion of the artistic activities of his scriptorium, which developed an unprecedented level of productivity after the devastating fire of 1215, in which a large part of the abbey was burned to the ground. During this time, the abbot not only ensured the rapid reconstruction of the monastery, he also commissioned numerous manuscripts of the highest artistic quality. The most magnificent codex among them was the Berthold Sacramentary.

The Scriptorium of Weingarten Abbey

The Benedictine abbey of Weingarten, founded in 1053 on the Martinsberg above Ravensburg, already had an independent, efficient scriptorium around 1100.
The special and unique characteristic of the 12th century Weingarten book illumination lies in the frequent use of Anglo-Saxon and Flemish stylistic elements. This is not surprising, as Judith of Flanders, the wife of Duke Welf IV and sister-in-law of the English king, had donated several codices to her monastery in 1094. The Weingarten scriptorium based its own production on these manuscripts and reached a remarkable artistic level within a few decades.
However, Weingarten's book illumination experienced its heyday in the first decades of the 13th century - and it owes this to a fortunate coincidence: Abbot Berthold, the ambitious, art-loving head of the monastery, and the so-called Berthold Master, an outstanding miniaturist, were two personalities who came together, each of whom needed the other to realize his plans: The abbot demanded exceptional artistic achievements in order to enhance the monastery's reputation, while the illuminator needed the material conditions and extensive freedom to develop his incomparable talent.
This congenial interplay resulted in illuminations that are among the most beautiful of their genre.

The Master of the Berthold Sacramentary

Although only four manuscripts (with a total of 92 miniatures) can be attributed to him with certainty, the Berthold Master is regarded as one of the most independent and important artistic personalities of medieval book illumination.
The miniatures by this anonymous illuminator, who is known as the “Berthold Master” after his patron, are characterized by the vivid dramatic design of the scenic action, a new plasticity achieved through the modelling application of colour and an infinite degree of creativity. In addition, there is an unusually independent approach to outdated traditions. The influences of Anglo-Saxon and Flemish book illumination, which can be explained by the special historical situation of the monastery and its connection with the Guelphs, merely serve as sources of inspiration for the Berthold Master, from which he develops his own very personal style - with an extraordinary mastery of technical and formal means.
In the fusion of content and decorative ornament into a unified whole and in the artist's highly developed sense of style and form, which can be seen on every page of his main work, the Berthold Sacramentary, the Romanesque artistic intention finds its purest expression.

The Journey of the Manuscript to the Pierpont Morgan Library

The Berthold Sacramentary is undisputedly the main work of the Weingarten school and was guarded like a treasure in the abbey for centuries as a “thesaurus”, a precious possession.
It was not until the secularization in 1803 that it had to leave its place of origin. Together with other valuable pieces from the library and the treasury, the manuscript was first sent to Fulda and finally (after the occupation of Fulda by French troops in October 1806) to Paris. There the codex was sold in 1818 by an art dealer to Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall, from whom it passed into the possession of the American banker John Pierpont Morgan Jr. in 1927.
The Berthold Sacramentary has found its (probably final) home in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, where it is one of the most valuable cimelia.

A Manuscript of World Class

There are very few codices in the world that stand out as solitaires from the relatively large medieval production of high-quality manuscripts - the Berthold Sacramentary is one of these few.
The magnificent manuscript, which was probably commissioned by Abbot Berthold immediately after the great fire of 1215, in which, among other things, the monastery library was severely damaged, stands far above most comparable liturgical books of the late Romanesque period in terms of form and material.

Sensational Illumination

21 full-page and 7 smaller miniatures, 6 full-page, 12 half-page and 52 smaller ornamental initials, 18 figurative initials and 12 calendar pages make up the book illumination of the 165 parchment leaves. In addition to the quantity of images, they are of exceptional quality. In them, the unknown miniaturist, who has gone down in art history with the notable name ”Berthold Master”, proves himself to be an artist of the first rank. His importance can be seen in almost all areas of artistic expression: By emphasizing the organic structure and combining the individual parts into a unified whole, he overcame the rigid structure of traditional depictions of human figures; his expressive, modelling brushstrokes and the frequent use of highlights lend the bodies additional sculptural value; the dynamic movements serve to dramatically enliven the scenes and create spatial relationships; the well-considered use of colour enhances the decorative effect.
One of the Berthold Master's greatest achievements, however, lies in the free interpretation of the themes given to him, the independence of his iconographic solutions. Like all artists of this period, he also drew on the rich tradition of biblical topics, especially in Byzantine and - particularly exemplary for Weingarten book illumination - Anglo-Saxon and Flemish manuscripts. Like no other, however, he frees himself from superficial quotations by combining content and form into an inseparable unity. In this, and in the perfection of the painterly realization, the Berthold master has an inestimable merit.

Costly Noble Metals for a Noble Manuscript

In addition to the high artistic status of the Berthold Sacramentary, the lavish use of noble metals adds considerable material value. All the miniatures and most of the initials are backed with gold and silver, which lends the colors a special radiance.
However, anyone who believes that this generous use of metallic colors is already the pinnacle of luxurious decoration will be surprised by a further increase in the Berthold Sacramentary: the gold backgrounds of a total of 32 miniatures and initials are highly polished; in six pictures, the golden backgrounds were additionally decorated with significant reliefs in a technically complex process. The Berthold Master reserved this highest level of decorative splendor - in artistic prudence and self-restraint - for the depictions of the main festivals of the church year and the monastery.
As the greatest treasure of Weingarten Abbey, the Berthold Sacramentary was finally given a sumptuous binding adorned with gilded silver reliefs and filigree decoration and studded with gemstones, whose rich iconographic program establishes a direct link to the monastery and the patron, Abbot Berthold. This binding - and this is another rarity in the history of books - has been preserved in its original state to this day.
Despite all the enthusiasm for the artistic design of the codex, the key role of its content, the liturgical text, should not be overlooked. With the Canon of the Mass, the Temporal, the Sanctoral and numerous votive masses, the manuscript contains the canonical selection of texts for sacramentaries. The calligraphic perfection of the manuscript, written by a total of three scribes, matches the quality of the illumination, which together make up a unique work of art in the history of book illumination.