LIBRI AUREi Studies Published by the

Nordisk Tidskriftför Bok- och Biblioteksväsen

on the Occasion of

THE EXHIBITION OF

ILLUl\1INATED l\iANUSCRIPTS

Held at the National Museums in Copenhagen and Stockholm

from April to September 1952

UPPSALA AND STOCKHOLM

A lmqvist &: TV£ksells Boktryckeri AB

A NOTE ON THE STOCl{HOLM CODEX AUREUS

BY

CARL NORDENF ALK, Stockholm

THE Royal Library in Stockholm has the privilege of owning one of the outstanding products of English illumination in the eighfü century: the Codex Aureus, signed A. 135. Together with a closely related Psalter in London (British Museum, Cotton MS Vespasian A. 1) it has been claimed by E. H. ZIMMERMANN in the corpus Vorkarolingische Miniaturen as a work of the Canterbury school. This view, accepted as probable by leading scholars in the field, such as KöHLER,1 HASELOFF,2 BOECKLER,3 BR0NDSTED,4 KENDRICK,5 and others, has been confirmed as far as palaeography is concerned by E. A. Lows, who in his "Codices laiini antiquiores"6 judges the Cotton Psalter to be "written in England, probably at St. Augustine's, Canterbury", saec. VIII. Recently, however, this result has been challenged." An American scholar,

Mr SHERMAN M. KUHN, has made it an object of an extensive study, in his paper, From Canterbury to Lichfield, published in. Speculum, XXIII, 1948, pp. 591-629. · He takes as his point of departure Zimmermann's demonstration that three somewhat later manuscripts: London Brit. Mus.

1 Art. "Malerei" in J. Hoor-s, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde III, Strass- burg 1916, coll. 179-80.

2 Die vorkarolingische Buchmalerei im Lichte der grossen Veröffentlichung des Deutschen Vereins (Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft XLII 1920, p. 212).

3 A. BoECKLER, Abendländische Miniaturen (Tabulae in usum scholarum, ed. J. Lietz- mann, Berlin-Leipzig 1930), p. 21.

4 J. BR0NDSTED, Early English Ornaments, Copenhagen & London 1924, p. 99 f. 5 T. D. KENDRICK, Anglo-Saxon art to A. D. 900, London 1938, p. 159. 8 Part II, No. 193. 7 See also F. MASAI, Essai sur les origines de la miniature dite irlandaise, Bruxelles 1947,

p. 125, n. 217, where author advances the tentative theory. that the Stockholm Codex, together with the Cotton Psalter, may have originated in York, since one of the books which Alcuin brought from York to Tours and used there as a model was, as Koehler has shown, a biblical manuscript from the same atelier as the Codex Aureus.

1-513294 Libri Aurei Särtryck ur NTBB, 4, 1951

2 CARL NORDENFALK

Royal I. E. 6 (a large size MS of the Gospels, once being a part of a Bible in two volumes); London, Brit. Mus. Cotton Tiberius C. II (Bede, Ecclesiastical history) and Cambridge, University Library L 1. I. 10 (a Prayer-book of JEthelwald the Bishop, also called the Book of Cerne) are stylistically related to the Stockholm Codex and the London Psalter, and he shares the general opinion that they all belong to the same school. This school, according to Mr Kuhn, was not Canterbury, but some Mercian centre, probably Lichfield. By a detailed examination in which linguistic analysis of the glosses, mostly added by later hands, predominates, he tries to prove his thesis. Since the Stockholm Codex Aureus and the London Gospels Royal I. E. 6 both contain purple leaves and are magnificently adorned with gold, Mr Kuhn associates them with Royal commissions. In the second half of the eighth century, in which the books, according to Mr Kuhn (here following Zimmermann) were written, the kingdom of Kent had lost much of its independence to Mercia. Here the powerful reign of Offa (757-96) would provide the proper background to the appearance of the two luxury codices. A direct connection with Mercia and Lichfield is also given by the acrostic of the Book of Cerne which most probably refers to Bishop JEthelwald of Lichfield (818-830).

This is not the place for a thorough discussion of Mr Kuhn's thesis as a whole. I think his paper is a striking example of how dangerous it can be for an historian to have to prove a thesis - it makes him easily prejudiced in favour of all arguments working for his thesis and prejudiced against all pointing in the opposite direction. A striking example of this is Mr Kuhn's endeavour to bring discredit on the generally accepted identi- fication of the Cotton Psalter with a manuscript carefully described by Thomas of Elmham as being in the Canterbury library at the beginning of the fifteenth century.t If it were permissible to regard old sources of in- formation in such a sceptical way, all other manuscripts whose dating depends on such information would also be called into question. Even when the evidence is less explicit, as in the earlier history of the

Stockholm Codex Aureus, the interpretation of Mr Kuhn does not seem more convincing than that formerly accepted. Admitted that the Danes who in the third quarter of the ninth century ceded the book to the Saxon earl JElfred, need not necessarily have looted it in Canterbury, it does

1 Op. cit., p. 592-94.

A NOTE ON THE STOCKHOLM CODEX AUREUS 3

not follow that they had put their hands on it elsewhere. We can not take for granted that the religious institutions of Kent escaped heathen invasions in the ninth century, although there is no evidence to the contrary; certainly only a small part of the ravages of the Vikings were recorded. That the heathen warriors should have brought the Codex with them on their ships, like modern book dealers, discovering in one place and selling them at another, seems rather' unlikely. It is, after all, more probable that they made use of the Holy Book to bring pressure to bear upon the Christian earl they wanted to ransom. If the inscription concerning this transaction is a weak argument for the origin of the Codex Aureus in Canterbury, it is a still weaker argument for its origin elsewhere.

Be this as it may, there are enough arguments left making Canterbury a more likely place of origin than Lichfield, not only for the Codex Aureus, but for the whole group of related manuscripts, especially if we take into account their dependence upon a still older Canterbury tradition, represented by the Gospels of St. Augustine in Cambridge C. C. C. 286 of the sixth/seventh century.v If we take away from Canterbury the five manuscripts discussed by Mr Kuhn, practically nothing of importance remains for the spiritual centre of the Roman mission, so important for the whole British renaissance movement. That of all the fine books preserved practically none should prove to be a product of the Canterbury scriptorium seems as much against all statistic rules, as if among the Lombard manuscripts of the fourteenth century there should be no Milanese, or among the Dutch of the fifteenth century none executed in Utrecht.

Another problem intimately connected with the localization of the manuscripts is that of their dates. It seems far from definitely proved that the Stockholm Codex Aureus really was written during the reign of

V king Offa, i. e. post A. D. 7 57. Its nearest relative, the Cotton Psalter, was long dated by outstanding palaeographers as early as about or shortly after A. D. 700.2 Lowe evidently expresses himself with great discretion, dating the Psalter "saec. VIII" without further delimitation. 3 It is, how-

1 The forthcoming edition of this important manuscript by FRANCIS WoRMALD will certainly throw new light on the question.

2 Catalogue of ancient manuscripts in the British Museum, 2, London 1884, p. 8 f. E. M. THOMPSON, English illuminated manuscripts, London 1895, p. 10 f.; G. F. WARNER, Illuminated manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1903, p. 3.

3 CLA, No. 193.

4 CARL NORDENFALJ(

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 1-2, 8-9, 11-12: Carmina figurata by P. Optatianus Porfyrius (from Paris, Bibi. Nat. !at. 2421) Fig. 3-7, 10, 13: Parts of text pages from the Codex Aureus in Stockholm, Royal Library A 135.

Fig. 3. Fig. 4.

ever, a matter of some importance whether this manuscript belongs to the first or the second half of the century.

As far as I can see, there is only one characteristic which might give a terminus ante quem. It is the adornment of the arcade, framing the picture of David and his musicians, with an eagle in the capital and two affronted dogs or lions in the base. Brendsted was first to draw attention to the fact that this decoration has its counterpart in the frame- work of the Merovingian Sacramentarium Gelasianum, Vatican Reg. lat. 316, fol. 3.1 The agreement between the two MSS. is, indeed, so striking that either the English miniaturist must have borrowed the motive from a Frank- ish model or vice versa. Brnndsted, trusting the dates proposed by Zim- mermann, concluded that France played the role of giver and Eng- land that of receiver. 2 But since the English animals are much closer to nature, i. e. to their Oriental classical prototypes, this explanation be- comes extremely difficult to accept. It forces us to assume first a trans- formation of the Oriental-Byzantine animals into the flat ornaments in the French sacramentary and then a reversion of these flattened ornaments

1 J. Bn0NDSTED, Early English ornament, Copenhagen & London 1924, p. 103-04. 2 Op. cit., p. 109.

A NOTE ON THE STOCKHOLM CODEX AUREUS 5

JOOCOI

6 CARL NORDENFALK

Fig. 10. Fig. 11.

tury.1 It follows, if the premisses are correct, that the Cotton Psalter is rather to be dated before than around 7 50.

The critical attitude of Mr Kuhn has, however, the merit of stressing how vague and fragmentary our knowledge of illumination in the South of England still is. The only thing we can do to stretch our investigations a little further is to re-examine the documents in the hope of discovering some small new traces of useful evidence. The main object of this paper is to draw attention to one such fact which might have some bearing on the date and the localization of the Stockholm Codex.

One of the characteristics of Irish-Northumbrian illumination lies in the development of ornamental initials in which the ornaments have be- come visually more important than the letter they decorate, tending almost to overgrow and even eclipse the alphabetic form or the letter itself. 2

\,

1 E. A. LOWE, The Vatican MS of the Gelasian Socramentanj and its Supplement al Paris (Journ. of Tlieol. studies, 27, 1925/26, p. 357-73); A. vVrLMART, Codices Reginenses laiini, 2, Cittä del Vaticano 1945, p. 200-04.

2 H. JANTZEN has in his important paper Das Wort als Bild in der frühmiltelallerlichen Buchmalerei (Historisches Jahrbuch, 1940, p. 507 f. and reprinted in H. JANTZEN, Über den gotischen Kirchenraum und andere Aufsätze, Berlin 1951, p. 53-60) drawn the atten- tion to the fact that in these Irish-Northumbrian initial-pages the word assumes, as it were, the value of a picture. Compare also the elucidatory analysis by PETER MEYER in his introduction to the facsimile edition of the Book of Kells, Evangeliorum qualiuor Codex Cenannensis, Vol. 1, Bernae Helvetiorum 1950, p. 27 f.

A NOTE ON THE STOCKHOLM CODEX AUREUS 7

Fig. 12. Fig. 13.

This tendency also occurs in the Stockholm Codex on the page beginning with the words XPI autem generatio etc. (Matt. I, 18). But ifwe compare this page to the corresponding compositions in the Northern manuscripts, we find that the letters do not associate themselves with the ornaments in the same intimate and intricate way. The text maintains its character of block-letters and the ornaments are chiefly used as the background decor between the golden letters. This reluctance to accept the Anglo-Irish system of decoration becomes

. quite dominant, if we turn to the opening pages of the Gospels. That of St. Mark starts with no ornamental initial whatsoever, and the other three Gospels have only the first line developed into a row of decorative letters, of which usually the first has been shaped as an initial of rather modest size and decoration. The best analogy is offered by the fragment of an uncial manuscript of the Gospels bound together with the Utrecht Psalter (University Library cod. 484).1 It is an "Italy-Saxon" work from the be- ginning of the eighth century, closely related to the Codex Amiatinus.

The restraint in the ornamentation of the opening pages in the Codex Aureus is, however, as it were, compensated by a decorative trend at a lower level throughout. It consists of a continuous system of coloristic

1 Overlooked by Zimmermann, but reproduced in the first facsimile edition of the Utrecht Psalter, Lalin Psalter in the University Library of Utrecht, London 1875.

8 CARL NORDENFALK

variation in the text itself. The Codex Aureus has also been called a Codex Purpureus. Yet this epithet is only half correct. \Vhereas the preliminary matters are always written on white vellum, the text of the Holy Gospels is on alternate white and purple leaves, giving to the book an effect some- what resembling polychrome intarsia. Still less is the title Codex "Aureus" to be taken quite literally. On the white pages as a rule black ink is used for the script and on the purple pages we get an alternation of gold and white, mostly white ink on the recto and gold on the verso. Silver ink also occurs, chiefly in the reference to the Eusebian sections added in the margins. On the pages written with white script on purple vellum the Nomina Sacra are mostly set off in gold and on the golden pages in silver. So are also the smaller initials of new chapters. The polychrome treatment of the pages is further complicated by· the

introduction of various geometrical line patterns in the text itself. On some pages (fol. 46v, 187 a. o.) the letters form square blocks of alternate white and gold script, . giving to the whole column or a part of it a chess- board structure. On other pages (fol. 18, e. g.) the alternate use of gold and white divides the column. into vertical· strips. Often dividing lines are introduced which split the scriptura continua of the text into vertical and horizontal compartments. Sometimes a system of geometrical orna- ments runs, as it were, under the script by the introduction of verti- cal, horizontal and diagonal lines of white or white and red dots (fig. 3). The most striking patterns added to the text are, however, those found

on foll. 16, 73, 91v, 144v and 161 (fi~. 5-7, 10, 13). Here the figures consists of Greek or Latin crosses, on fol. 161 combined with a pair of coupled rings. The letters enclosed within these patterns are written in another colour than those outside. Mostly the cross patterns are confined within the space of one column. But on fol. 91 v a single large cross embracing both columns almost does away with the columnar division of the text by uniting the terminal letters of the lines in the left column with the first letters of those in the right (fig. 10). The use of polychrome parchment and of inks in five different colours

(gold, silver, white, black and red) with or without linear patterns gives to the pages of the manuscript a strange effect of an almost heraldic diversity. Everything is done to break the structural unity of the scriptura

A NOTE ON THE STOCKHOLM CODEX AUREUS 9

continua which still constitutes the uniting principle of the big uncial letters. A spirit of playfulness, even of whimsicality governs the composition of the pages, and we would call it childish, if it were not evidently a solemn game for the purpose of enhancing the holiness of the sacred text.

As far as I know, this principle of polychrome "heraldic" pattering of the whole text does not occur in other manuscripts of the Gospels. Yet it is possible to indicate the source of inspiration. Handwriting in two colours arranged according to geometrical patterns is characteristic also of a certain type of figure poems carmina figurala, which were composed in the fourth century by Publilius Optatianus Porfyrius. Porfyrius was a court poet of Constantine the Great and his speciality

a sort of cross word poem, containing within the main text smaller in- dependent verses enclosed in lines running diagonally or vertically or in patterns.1 In the luxury editions of his poems written for the Emperor on purple parchment he had the inlaid verses brought into relief by putting their letters in silver whereas the poem as · a whole was in gold ( or vice versa) and the outlines of the figures painted in with colour.

Ostra tota nitens, argento auroque coruscis Scripta notis picto limite dicta notans. (I, 3-4.)

\Vhen Constantine, before the decisive battle against Licinius, wanted to win the sympathies of the Christian population, Porfyrius did not imme- diately follow the new deal of his patron. He had to pay heavily for his disobedience, he was exiled and lost the opportunity of having his poetry published in luxury editions. In order to regain the Emperor's favour he composed a new cycle of carmina figurala in which he paid regard to Constantine's pro-Christian policy by weaving into some of his poems the Christian ChiRho monogram and even the name JESUS. These new poems poor Porfyrius had to write with black and red ink on ordinary parchment instead of as in the happy old days, with gold and silver on purple:

Pallida nunc, atro chartam suffusa colore, Paupere vix minio carmina dissocians. (I, 7-8.)

1 P. Optatiani Porfyrii carmina rec, E. KLUGE, Lipsiae 1926; E. KLUGE, Studien zu Publilius Optalianus Porlurius (Münchener Museum für Philologie des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, 4, 1924, p. 322-348).

10 CARL NORDENFALK

According to St. Jerome1, the poet was pardoned; he returned from his exile, and a few years later we find him as praefectus urbis of Rome. 2 The poems survived in at least one manuscript which was copied several times in the Middle Ages, especially in the ninth century, and became a source of inspiration for later Latin writers from Venantius Fortunatus to the Carolingian court poets. 3

If we put a ninth century copy of Porfyrius beside the ornamented texts of the Codex Aureus (fig. 1-13), we are at once struck by the connection. The intarsia principle of the scriptura figurata is in both cases the same, although the patterns themselves are not identical. Instead of the ChiRho monogram which we find in Porfyrius, the Codex Aureus makes use of different types of crosses. 4 And whereas the patterns in the Con- stantinian poems have the function of isolating distinct sentences, those in the Gospels do not fill any "literary" function at all, since the text did not lend itself to cross-word-combinations of the letters into new words. The English scriptorium simply enjoyed the patterns for their own sakes, as a sort of visual punning.

That a copy of the poems by Porfyrius was available in England in the pre-Carolingian period is attested in contemporary documents. Bede mentions them in his Ars metrica5, though he does not make clear whether he saw a copy himself. More important is a letter from Bishop Milret of Worchester to Lullus, the follower of St. Boniface on the archbishop's chair in Mayence, saying: Librum pyrpyri [Porfyri] metri ideo non misi, quia Gutbertus episcopus adhuc reddere distulit. 6 Gutbertus episcopus can only be identified with Cuthberth, Archbishop of Canterbury c. 740-760. 7

1 Cbronica ad annum Constantini XX, 3 (HELM, p. 232). 2 Mentioned in the Calendar of A. D. 354 ad annum 329. 3 KLUGE, op. cit., p. 328 f. M. MANITrus, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittel-

alters I (Handbuch der klassischen Altertums-Wissenschaft IX:2:1) München 1911, p. 75, 295, et passim.

4 The crosses should be compared with those in the ornamental pages of the Books of Lindisfarne and of St. Chad (ZIMMERMANN, Vorkarolingische Miniaturen, Taf. 234-38, 246. It is interesting to observe that these are inlaid in the animal patterns much in the same way as those in the Codex Aureus are inlaid in the writing.

5 Gram. lat., 7, 25820• KLUGE, op. cit., p. 329. 11 E. KYLIE, The English correspondence of Saint Boniface, London 1911, p. 209. 7 W. LEVISOHN, England and the continent in the eighth century, Oxford 1946, (Ford

Lectures 1943), p. 145 with further notes on the imitation of Porfyrius in England in the eighth century.

A NOTE 0~ THE STOCKHOLM CODEX AUREUS 11

Consequently, the copy of Porfyrius requested by Lullus was at that time in Canterbury. And since we have found that the Codex Aureus was inspired by a manuscript of Porfyrius the conclusion which can be drawn, not with absolute certainty, but with a high degree of probability is, that the Stock- holm Codex was written in Canterbury in the time of Archbishop Cuthberth. It would be interesting to know, whether the Porfyrius manuscript, which

might have been a very old model, perhaps even dating from the poet's own time, was a fairly simple edition of the type with which Porfyrius had to be satisfied during his exile or if it was a more costly transcription made after his reinstatement and thus possibly a purple edition with gold and silver script. The use of these materials in the leaves of the Stock- holm Codex most evidently inspired by the Late Roman model seems rather in favour of the latter alternative.

Half a century later the Porfyrius manuscri]?t, requested by Lullus, was available in Germany. Here it was used as a model by Rhabanus Maurus for his picture poem De laudibus sancti crucis.1 Of this Carolingian poem several contemporary copies subsist, one of which (Vatican, Reg. lat. 124) is written with gold and silver script on purple parchment. This, too, makes it possible that the model itself really was a luxury edition.

1 J. v. SCHLOSSER, Eine Fuldaer Miniaturhandschrift der k. k. Hofbibliothek (Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen der a/lerh. Kaiserhauses, 13, 1892, p. lf.).