Gospels of Henry the Lion

The Gospels of Henry the Lion

One of the most magnificent and most elaborately decorated books of the Middle Ages originated from approximately between 1175 and 1188 from the German Benedictine abbey of Helmarshausen. Duke Henry the Lion commissioned the literate monks of the abbey to create a evangeliary for Mary’s altar in St. Blaise’s parish church in Brunswick. This beautiful work is the main piece of the Romanesque illumination of the 12th century in northern Germany. The evangeliary contains the four gospels and reveals the history of Christianity in moving miniatures. Overall, the manuscript is 226 pages long with fifty full page miniatures, seventeen canon boards, four pictures of the evangelists, nine ornamental pages and twenty portrayals. The entire text includes approximately 1,500 small, 77 big, and seven large richly decorated initials.

On Commission of the Duke

Henry the Lion was one of the greatest rulers from the House of Guelph. Between 1142 and 1180 he was the Duke of Saxony as well as the Duke of Bavaria from 1156 to 1180. The foundation of today’s state capital Munich can be traced back to Henry. In his role as Duke of Saxony he had decisive part in the coronation of his cousin Fredrick Barbarossa. They had a good political relationship with each other until they fell out in 1176. The duke refused to pledge his military support to the king. This means that Henry has been seen for a long time as the most important protagonist of the Staufer-Guelph opposition. The religious duke was one of the richest and most powerful men of the twelfth century and was regarded as a great patron of art and literature. Among his numerous donations of liturgical manuscripts to churches and monasteries, the evangeliary for St. Blaise’s church is the most distinguished and most famous.

A Dramatic History

The much detailed but still unexplained history of the manuscript leads from Brunswick to Prague, where it lay for hundreds of years in the library of St. Vitus’ Cathedral. In 1861, the manuscript succeeded to be recovered on the order of King George V through Hannover from Prague to Lower Saxony. In 1866 however, it went with the then powerless Guelphs in exile to Austria. From 1933 to 1983 the whereabouts of the manuscript was unknown. It first returned to public view at auction in London in 1983. Since then, the interest in the manuscript has been unbroken. One of the creators of the work has signed the book at the front with: liber labor est Herimanni – Monk Hermann made this book.

Fantastic Picture Decorations

The spellbinding evangeliary has impressed readers for many hundreds of years with its amazing book decorations. The numerous valuable pictures show a wide range of intense colors and are abundantly adorned with gold. The hand-painted scenes, which engage every reader, belong among the highest-quality illuminations of the Middle Ages. As well as depictions of Christian history there are also scenes that are dedicated to the customer of the valuable manuscript. One especially nice hand-painted full-page image depicts the coronation scene of Henry and his wife Mathilda, a daughter of King Henry II of England. Another scene shows the reigning couple being guided to an enthroned Maria and Henry offering her the evangeliary. The moving images enable their audience to dream and invite them on a journey into the spiritual world of the greatest rulers of gothic times.