Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day. UNESCO
The deeds are written in dotless Arabic on both sides of the paper, in various calligraphic styles. They are written in characteristic legal terminology, recording in detail the subject of the deed, the eligibility of those involved, all witnesses, monies due and the date. The longest of the deeds is 40 metres in length and its width ranges from 34 to 45 centimetres.
Inscribed 2003
What are they
A dispersed set of ten manuscripts, dating from c.965 to 1020, produced during the Ottonian period in Germany. The illuminations in the Reichenau manuscripts feature miniatures of the life of Christ and portraits of emperors.
Why were they inscribed
The manuscripts are magnificent examples of Ottonian art and represent the climax of medieval German manuscript illumination. They were written and decorated for the emperor or high representatives of the church at a time when the Reichenau scriptorium flourished.
Where are they
Libraries in Munich, Bamberg, Darmstadt, Trier and Paris, the cathedral treasury at Aachen and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale at Friuli
After the decline of the Carolingian Empire at the end of the 9th century, political consolidation, the renewal of the idea of the Holy Roman Empire under Ottonian rule and the reform of the church all contributed to a period of cultural revival. With sponsorship from the emperor and influential imperial bishops, the great churches of the empire were provided with priceless equipment and choice manuscripts. The intense intellectual, cultural and religious climate inspired artistic masterpieces as demonstrated by these illuminated manuscripts. The illustrations reflect the spirituality of the time, and their ambitions can be inferred from the models on which the new art was based: paintings from Late Antiquity, the Carolingian period and Byzantium. Yet their intention was not imitation, but creative new design.
Pages from the Book of Pericopes of Emperor Heinrich II. The illuminated manuscripts created at the Reichenau monastery by Lake Constance in the 10th century are supreme examples of German medieval artistry.
The elaborate binding of the Book of Pericopes of Emperor Heinrich II containing an ivory panel dominated by Christ’s crucifixion.
The ten selected manuscripts were produced in the scriptorium of the Benedictine monastery of Reichenau (Lake Constance) between c.965 and 1020. While three of the manuscripts represent the earlier period, the other manuscripts selected were produced during the high period of the workshop and are the most outstanding examples of the Ottonian art of illumination. The iconographic tradition developed here formed the basis of the medieval Romanesque manuscript illumination.
Their history is closely connected with the coronation church at Aachen and the bishoprics of Bamberg, Cologne and Trier which received the books for liturgical use. The full-page portrait of Emperor Otto III (983–1002) is the artistic highlight of his Book of the Gospels; the miniature has been interpreted as a representation of Otto’s political agenda, which was based on the revival of Rome as the centre of the Roman Empire. As the son of the German Emperor Otto II and the Greek princess Theophanu, Otto III embodied the merging of Western and Eastern traditions which are reflected in the manuscript’s treatment of classical and Byzantine art. Emperor Heinrich II (1002–1024), who is shown together with his wife in a coronation scene in his Book of Pericopes, endowed his newly founded bishopric at Bamberg (1007) with several manuscripts (including the so-called Bamberg Apocalypse). The books thus symbolize the view of the ruler as protector of the church who was installed by God himself. By adding the ruler’s portrait to the book, both his support of the church and his inclusion into prayer are captured visually.
Pages from the Book of the Gospels of Emperor Otto III.
The manuscripts contain different versions of Jerome’s Latin translation of the Gospels, a text at the very centre of Western medieval culture. From the time of its standardization under Charlemagne (768-814) until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Latin Book of Gospels formed an integral part of the Roman Catholic Mass. The full text of the four Gospels is shown in three manuscripts whereas five manuscripts present only those passages from the Gospels which are read during Mass (pericopes) following the order of the Church year. One further manuscript contains three books from the Old Testament and another manuscript, the Psalter, while one of the volumes of pericopes also contains the full text of the Revelation of St John (the Apocalypse). In addition to portraits of the emperors, clerical sponsors and the four evangelists, they contain the earliest examples of a narrative pictorial cycle based on the four Gospels and the most splendid rendering of the apocalypse in Western medieval art.
Pages from the Book of the Gospels of Emperor Otto III
The jewel-encrusted binding of the Book of the Gospels of Emperor Otto III
Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century
Inscribed 2011
What is it
A fragment of thirty-nine parchment folios, forming the oldest extant Slavonic copy of the Acts and Epistles of the New Testament.
Why was it inscribed
The fragments contain one of the oldest forms of Cyrillic script that is evidence of the crucial change in the history of the Slavonian conversion to Christianity. The Enina Apostolos has unique historical significance as testimony of the old Cyrillic script, in the region from which it emerged.
Where is it
SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia, Bulgaria
The 11th-century Enina Apostolos is the most ancient extant Slavonic copy of the Acts and Epistles. Written on parchment, the fragment represents one of the oldest forms of the Cyrillic script. It is important in the history of Slavonic literacy and in particular, of the translations from Greek made by St Cyril and St Methodius and their disciples. The translations were transmitted in East Bulgaria at the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century.
Enina Apostolos is akin to other ancient Old Bulgarian manuscripts, but has several very distinctive features. The script is archaic Cyrillic ustav (uncial), sloping to right and hanging from the ruling line, 3–3.5 mm high. The illumination is represented by two headpieces, of the band- or strip-type, and several initials preceding each reading. Their ornament is prevailingly geometric with early elements of the Slavonic teratological style. A peculiar feature of the decoration is the giant initial on f. 1v, comparable to those in two Glagolitic manuscripts – Codex Zographensis and Codex Marianus, both datable to the 10th century.
St Cyril and St Methodius
Even though the greatest part of the copy is missing, the extant leaves form a unity, the synaxarion comprising the readings from the Acts and Epistles provided for the services between the thirty-fifth week after Pentecost and Holy Saturday, and the menologion comprising readings for the period between 1 September (the beginning of the indiction) and 3 October, the commemoration of St. Dionysius Areopagites.
SS.