Golden Book of Pfäfers

Golden Book of Pfäfers

Since 1838, the Abbey Archives in St. Gall have preserved the Golden Book of Pfäfers, an extremely remarkable document of medieval art and cultural history in several respects. The importance and economic strength of Pfäfers Abbey, which since its founding from Reichenau Abbey ca. 740 had grown into a spiritual center of enormous charisma, become clear in the exquisite decoration of the Evangeliary. In its present form, the manuscript combines three different parts:
Part 1 (fol. Iv-28v) contains an Evangeliary with later entries concerning rents (from the early 14th century). The book decoration includes four full-page Evangelist portraits and numerous gold initials. Date of origin: last quarter of the 11th century. Attributable to the close circle of Reichenau book illumination.
Part 2 (fol. 29r-40v) contains a list of the abbots of Pfäfers, property records, and legal texts. Colored pen and ink drawings throughout. Date of origin: ca. 1400, Pfäfers.
Part 3 (fol. 41r-52v) contains the German translation of the Latin religious and legal texts that were added in the Evangelist section. Date of origin: ca. 1450, Pfäfers.

A Magnificent Jewel in Gold and Purple

Four full-page Evangelist portraits, framed like panel paintings and underlaid with precious marbled purple backgrounds, mark the beginning of each of the Gospels. Formally and stylistically, these miniatures, with their architectural backdrops, stylized vegetal ornamentation of the elaborate framing, and the head type and physiognomy of the figures, are still entirely in the tradition of the famous Reichenau Abbey school. In addition, the carefully executed initials of the 31 selected Gospel texts used as liturgical readings serve both a structuring and decorative function. Colored backgrounds and contours increase the luminosity of the golden, vegetal overgrown letter shafts.

Unique in More Ways Than One

The two-column layout of the text is a rarity in type history. It is not found in any other known Ottonian-Salian gospel altarpiece. The dominant formal design element of the second section is the double arcades, in whose arched openings the text is inscribed. Above them appear the historical figures of high ecclesiastical dignitaries. These colored pen drawings clearly show characteristics of the International Soft Style, which makes the Liber Aureus one of the very rare testimonies of this style in book art. The art historian will appreciate the presence of two different stylistic periods – the Ottonian-Salian and the International Soft Style – in the Liber Aureus, the liturgical scholar will emphasize the Gospel texts of St. John, St. Luke, St. Mark and St. Matthew in a rare sequence, historians and legal historians will appreciate the informative entries on the organization and administration as well as the ownership and legal relations of Pfäfers Abbey.

Treasure from Pfäfers Abbey

The significance of the Golden Book, however, goes far beyond such individual considerations. In the connection of the various texts concerning their spiritual and material livelihood, the codex spans, as it were, the existence of the monks of Pfäfers. Together with the Liber Viventium, the Liber Aureus forms a corpus that is one of the most important memorial books of the Middle Ages. The so-called Golden Book owes its name on the one hand to the very elaborate gold decoration of the miniatures and initials, and on the other hand to the gilded silver fittings of its magnificent Renaissance binding: created ca. 1590, the finely chiseled reliefs on red velvet attest to the great religious and political importance that Pfäfers Abbey still possessed at that time.