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Antique and Mediaeval Gems on Bookcovers at Utrecht

1932; College Art Association; Volume: 14; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00043079.1932.11408942

1559-6478

G. A. S. Snijder,

Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books

From the earliest times the Christian Church strove to possess and to hand down the Gospels in a form the outward appearance of which harmonized with their sublime contents.1 Even before the Christian creed became state religion, carefully written and illuminated book rolls or codices were probably used among the faithful and certainly formed part of the church library. With the official recognition of Christianity a stream of new, partly wealthy proselytes, who hitherto had found their religion in the old, pagan civilization, poured into the Church, and soon a change may be noticed. Well might Hieronymus gibe at those who preferred their old pagan codices, gorgeously written on purple vellum with golden or silver characters, above the simple Christian pamphlets he published himself, but we should go far astray if we should infer from his words that Christian books were simple in appearance. Chrysostomus, blaming the rich, who owned copies of the Holy Scripture (without reading it!) as sumptuous and costly as any pagan édition de luxe, clearly proves that even with the laymen magnificent manuscripts of the Gospels were no exception. They were to be found in the churches as well, and soon these works of art were numbered among the most welcome presents with which an emperor or a prominent individual could honor the Church. In the beginning the codices, either simply bound or in sheets, were probably kept in more or less ornate boxes, but soon the Gospels also appear bound in a costly binding, decorated with gold, ivory, and gems. Nor is this to be wondered at. The Holy Scripture takes the highest place in the Church. At the Councils it was often exhibited, to inspire the assembly and to exhort it to judge righteously of the questions in hand. At the Ephesian Council the Bible was even placed on a holy throne in the middle of the assembly and seems to have been considered as the incarnation of Christ himself, a witness and leader of the discussions. The custom of our law courts to take the oath on the Bible is founded on the same conception and still continues the “eternal” law of Justinian, by which he decreed that the Book should be available in all court rooms. The part which falls to the Gospels from times immemorial during the consecration of a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, where they equally symbolize Christ and the Holy Ghost; their importance in the administration of baptism, the esteem in which they were held in the churches and their veneration by the laity, which placed the Gospels almost above a relic—all this involved that they were continually foremost in the liturgy, and so it goes without saying that the need was felt of an appropriate covering of the Holy Scripture, a binding in harmony with its contents.