Stavelot Bible
Encyclopedia
Romanesque art
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in two volumes datable to 1093-1097. It was produced for, but not necessarily in, the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery of Stavelot
Stavelot
Stavelot is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. On January 1, 2006, Stavelot had a total population of 6,671. The total area is 85.07 km² which gives a population density of 78 inhabitants per km².-History:...
, in the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy
Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy
The Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Princely power was exercised by the Benedictine abbot of the imperial double monastery of Stavelot and Malmedy, founded in 651. At , it was the second-smallest territory in the Empire, after the Duchy of Bouillon at...
of modern Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and required four years to complete. It was probably the main liturgical bible of the monastery, kept on the altar of the abbey church or in the sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
, rather than in the library. It is one of the most important Mosan
Mosan art
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling...
manuscripts of the last quarter of the 11th century, and shares some of its scribes and artists with the earlier Lobbes Bible and a manuscript of Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, in all of which a monk called Goderannus was at least a scribe, and possibly the main artist. For many years it was in the Royal Library
Bamberg State Library
The Bamberg State Library is a combined universal, regional and research library with priority given to the humanities. Today it is housed in the New Residence, the former prince-bishop's new palace...
at Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, until it was acquired by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where it is catalogued as Additional Ms 28106 and 28107. The pages measure 581 x 390 mm, and there are 228 and 240 leaves in the two volumes.
Both volumes of the book were written by two Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monks, the calligraphers
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
Brother Ernest (or Ernesto) and Brother Goderannus. Goderannus had the habit, helpful to modern scholars, of adding colophons
Colophon (publishing)
In publishing, a colophon is either:* A brief description of publication or production notes relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the reverse of the title page, but can also sometimes be located at the end of the book, or...
with some detailed information to his manuscripts. In the Stavelot Bible a colophon records that the work took four years, including the illuminations and what was no doubt a magnificent metalwork binding. The task was finished when "Jerusalem was under attack by many peoples", in other words during the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
. Goderannus had written the Lobbes Bible, which another colophon dates to 1084; at that time he was a monk of Lobbes Abbey
Lobbes Abbey
Lobbes Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Lobbes in Hainaut, Belgium. The abbey played an important role in the religious, political and religious life of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, especially around the year 1000.-Foundation:...
, but it is assumed that he had moved to Stavelot in the intervening years, as the Josephus was also made for the abbey there. Many scholars believe that he was also the main artist for the miniatures in both manuscripts, although it is agreed that at least four hands were involved in the miniatures in the Stavelot Bible. In particular, the most famous miniature, the image of Christ in Majesty
Christ in Majesty
Christ in Majesty, or Christ in Glory, in Latin Majestas Domini, is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whose membership changes over time and according to...
(shown to the right) was contributed by a different artist, sometimes termed the "Master of the Holy Majesty", who may have been a layman. It has even been suggested that it is a later addition to the manuscript, considering its advanced technique for the time, although most scholars find this theory unlikely, given that other artists of the region were known to demonstrate similar precocity at the time. A number of other miniatures are also attributed to this artist, including the arcades over the canon tables. In general the artists worked roughly on stretches of books in the Biblical sequence, so that, for example, the Pentateuch initials are all by the same hand.
The Christ in Majesty, which comes at the start of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, is the only full-page miniature; all others are decorated letters and historiated initial
Historiated initial
A historiated initial is an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, which contains a picture. Strictly speaking, an inhabited initial contains figures that are decorative only, without forming a subject, whereas in a historiated initial there is an identifiable...
s in large narrow panels at the start of the books of the Bible. Several of these show large numbers of small figures in different scenes, in particular the "I" of In principio at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, which takes up the whole height of the page, with a total of 33 small scenes within a geometric framework, ranging from the events of Genesis itself to the Last Judgement. They show varied influences, including a strong stylistic one from Mosan metalwork and enamels. The figure style shows the influences of the German tradition from Ottonian
Ottonian art
In pre-romanesque Germany, the prevailing style was what has come to be known as Ottonian art. With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance named for the emperors Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III...
and Carolingian art
Carolingian art
Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about AD 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of...
, as well as Byzantine art
Byzantine art
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
, possibly mediated through Italian works. There is decorative influence from the Anglo-Norman Channel School. The miniatures show both the older technique of pen-drawing relatively lightly coloured-in, and the new style, derived from Italy, of fully painted images using opaque colours. The interlace decoration of the Lobbes Bible has been replaced by foliage forms.
The decorative scheme of the book is typical of large monastic bibles, which during the Romanesque period were the most common books to be lavishly illuminated for display, along with the psalter
Psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
, having taken over this role from the Gospel book
Gospel Book
The Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...
.