Codex Aureus of Echternach

Golden Gospels of Echternach

This Gospel book is a work of inconceivable magnificence, extravagant in its wealth of visual motifs, handsome ornamentation, and splendidly colored scenes depictions of biblical events. The size of the parchment pages (31 x 44 cm) already betrays the significance of this book as an object of prestige. The Echternach school of painting reveals the full bloom of its unique mastery in 64 full-page miniatures and canon tables and hundreds of precious initials. The dignified impression of the manuscript is elevated by silver tones and imperial purple. The name of the Codex Aureus originates from its extravagant use of gold on nearly every page.

Echternach Monastery and Saint Willibrord

The Benedictine Abbey of Echternach in Luxemburg was founded by Saint Willibrord (ca. 658–739), an Anglo-Saxon itinerant monk from Northumbria. When he died at Echternach at the age of 81, he had long since laid the groundwork for Echternach to host one of the most important imperial scriptoria on the continent, and arguably the most important. In the 11th century, the ruling Salian dynasty named it their court atelier. An estimated 100 magnificent and golden illustrated manuscripts were made in Echternach during this century: the Echternach Sacramentary, Echternach Evangeliary, Pericopes of Henry III, the Salian Imperial Evangeliary…none, however, is as beautiful and as famous as the Golden Gospel Book - the Codex Aureus Epternacensis.

Gorgeous Text

The parchment pages, on which the text of the Gospels is written down in pure gold, the symbol of light and enlightenment, are particularly gorgeous. The text itself appears in two columns; it is animated with small golden initials or larger initials, which are interspersed with wickerwork. Human figures, birds, and columns often serve as ornaments. To emphasize individual passages, initials were painted that extend over an entire column.

A Glimpse of Everyday Life

The great picture cycle of the New Testament appears in four parts, which appear at the beginning of the respective Gospel texts. In them, the biblical events are depicted with a wealth of lively details. On sixteen pages, more than a hundred individual representations are subdivided into three zones. Each of the four parts covers a period of Christ’s life on earth. The fidelity to the biblical text has been preserved down to the smallest detail. All the pictures are a mirror of the Middle Ages. Thus the Codex Aureus represents an inexhaustible source for the study of everyday medieval life.