Speyer Pericopes

The Speyer Pericopes

A pericope contains readings from the gospels that are organized around church festivals and were recited at religious services. For the readings on feast days at the Speyer Cathedral, a truly unique pericope was produced that is astounding to this day. The Speyer Pericopes consists of 154 pages with 17 full page, intensely colored miniatures. These are divided into 21 individual pictures and depict scenes from the New Testament. Furthermore, it comprises four full-page depictions of the four Evangelists and Christ as well as 70 richly adorned historiated initials. The exceedingly magnificent binding of the codex underlines its importance for the bishopric of Speyer and makes the work one of the most beautiful manuscripts of late German Romanic.

A Successful Collaboration

The Speyer Pericopes was commissioned around 1220 by the late bishop of Speyer, Konrad IV of Tann. He wanted to give birth to a showcase work that was intended for use on feast days. In total eight involved artists can be distinguished. For the script, in which particularly important passages were highlighted with gold, blue, or red-black, five artists were responsible. They probably came from an educated monastic background. The exceptional miniatures and decorative initials were derived from the hands of three fabulously talented masters from Speyer or Trier who set a new standard with their painting.

New Creative Influences

In the early 12th and 13th centuries, German book illuminators came to grips with the artistic achievements of the Mediterranean and Byzantine cultural sphere. This was a result of the Crusades and the Staufer domains in Italy. These new artistic trends strongly influenced occidental art and changed their style and aesthetic permanently. The painters of the Speyer Pericopes also integrated Byzantine impulses in their painting. They carefully paid attention to the individual facial features of their figures, depicting most people in conversation with one another, paid attention to realistic representations of garments, and achieved advancements in the anatomically correct depiction of people. They also included completely new pictorial composition in their work, for example the birth of Jesus was not depicted in a stable but in a hollow. With powerful colors they underscored the liveliness and plasticity of their miniatures. The backgrounds of the pictures are an intense blue for the most part, which create a stark contrast with high-luster polished gold in nearly every depiction.

An Immeasurable Richness of Book Decoration

The initials of the work also exceed the usual decoration of large letters, the 70 initials are miniatures unto themselves. They pictorially depict scenes from selected Bible readings and capture the Byzantine motif of the miniatures in a similar fashion, for example the washing of the Christ child. The costliest element of the Speyer Pericopes is nonetheless its monumental binding. It consists of over 150 individual parts. A gilded silver figure of Christ on his throne is embedded in the middle, which is surrounded by countless relief-like gold ornaments and precious stones. Using the so-called niello technique, small stones were infused in silver. Precious stones from around the world are found in the binding, among them amethyst, lapis lazuli, agates, and pure quartz. Only a few manuscripts from the 13th century still possess their original bindings. The binding was also probably reworked in the 15th century, it was on this occasion that the gilded Jesus figure was applied as a replacement for a previous figure and the work was affixed with a golden frame.