Book of the World: The Saxon World Chronicle

The Saxon World Chronicle depicts the most important historical events of the Christian world in an admirable symbiosis of text and illustration. Initiated with the story of Cain and Abel, the creation of the world, and the sequential stories of the Old and New Testaments, the Saxon World Chronicle relates history from antiquity to the barbarian migrations and the Investiture Controvery between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope. No harrowing detail of Christian history was left out.

Scholarship that is open to the Laity

World chronicles that were created in the early Christian period were completely Bible-oriented. Great early-medieval writers such as St. Jerome and Eusebius created a new variety that interpreted events in world history. These great thinkers nevertheless penned their writings in Latin, the universal language of the educated. In order to make the works of the learned accessible to general population, it was decided in the 13th century to create a German-language chronicle of world history.

A Book as Rich in History as its Content

The Saxon World Chronicle was first created in the magnificent Gothaer Codex. Brilliant writer and illuminators worked on this codex together, which was stored in Wittenberg until the 17th century, before it was brought to Gotha. The codex was thought to have been lost after the Soviet occupation, taken as a spoil of war back to St. Petersburg. However it was returned to Gotha a short time thereafter.

A Perfect Interaction of Text and Illustration

The miniatures of this codex, which is counted as being among the most excellent illuminated manuscripts in all of European art, depicts in astounding exactness and detail the events which are related in the text. For example, the seven days of the week were assigned seven Roman gods and for the embellishment of this association, the following pages told of the seven fabled kings of Rome. The splendidly designed color illustrations are ordered so that they are found directly next to the corresponding text. Consequently, the most important moments of the narrative enter the imagination of the reader with the aid of the magnificently colored illustrations.