Saint-Johanner Codex
The Saint-Johanner Codex is an important document of Protestant German heritage in Jánossomorja, Hungary. Even about a hundred years ago, this book was still to be found in almost every Protestant German household, containing the prayers of the family. It can be considered as a 17th/18th century linguistic monument.
Saint-Johanner Codex
The Saint-Johanner Codex of Jánossomorja, Hungary is a remarkable 19th century codex from the Protestant German minority of Hungary. It could already be a surprise for many people, specifically in the US, that there is a significant number of Protestants living in Hungary, not to mention the fact that many of them belong to German speaking minorities. I’m sure that people will also be surprised to hear that at the end of the 16th century, 80–90% of the inhabitants of historic Hungary were Protestant. Hungary was not alone in the region: Poland, now the most Catholic country in the area, was solidly Protestant as well. The written heritage of the German population of Jánossomorja is part of the cultural heritage of the Moson region. The Saint-Johanner Codex is a very significant handwritten codex that was written for everyday use by families. Fathers would read from the book to the children and to the family on Sundays. It contains prayers and songs, notes referring to important events in the family, secular tales and even recipes. The prayer book that this codex was based on could still have been found in every Protestant German household about a hundred years ago. Its genre is closest to the so-called Biblia pauperum (“Paupers’ Bible”) a tradition of picture Bibles from the later medieval period.
The writer and illustrator
The Saint-Johanner Codex is the work of Johann Anton Lang, it was written and illustrated in 1809, and is considered to be the most beautifully decorated and most precious example of its kind. The illustrations were created with paints mixed with egg white, which enables them to shine with very vivid colors. It was bounded in wood and leather and contains 569 pages decorated with 51 illustrations. The images are not only beautiful but tell a lot about the life of the people, their dress, and their day-to-day activities, raising the importance of the codex as a source of local history.
Codicology
- Alternative Titles
- Sankt-Johanner Codex
Mosonszentjanosi Codex - Type
- Manuscript on paper
- Size / Format
- 624 pages / 30.0 × 23.0 cm
- Origin
- Hungary
- Date
- 1809
- Epochs
- Style
- Genre
- Language
- Illustrations
- 51 illustrations
- Artist / School
- Johann Anton Lang
Saint-Johanner Codex
Madonna and Child
Flanked by angels, framed by multicolored clouds, and having the radiant sun at their back, the common image of Madonna and Child has been adapted to depict them as a queen and prince. Both wear crowns and the Virgin Mary also wears a green and red brocade robe while holding a scepter in her hand. The concept of God as ruler of the world was often expressed by the image of Christ in Majesty, but this image establishes a royal lineage through Mary to King David according to the Gospel of Luke.

Saint-Johanner Codex
Noah’s Ark
After forty days and nights of rain, God remembers Noah and all that were with him in the Ark, causing the rains to stop: “And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. (Gen 8:3-4)
Symbols related to the Great Flood are condensed in this image: the dove with an olive branch, the first sign of dry land, along with the rainbow that God sends as a sign of his new covenant with man and all living creatures. The receding waters are depicted draining from the mountain where the ark has come to rest, which is relatively small to make it look far away.

#1 Sankt-Johanner Codex
Languages: German, Hungarian
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