bavarikon4UDescription
This Gospel book from Benediktbeuern, decorated lavishly with gold, silver, and purple, was created in the scriptorium of Tegernsee Abbey in Bavaria. For stylistic reasons, e.g., the rather flat architectural frames and the linear style of the figural drawings, scholars date this manuscript to around 1100. Tegernsee Abbey, first founded in the eighth century, was one of the more important imperial abbeys as early as 817. Having been refounded in 978 during the reign of Otto II, the abbey saw the reconstruction of its library and subsequently a peak of artistic production, especially in the field of book illumination. The manuscript presented here is closely linked to another Gospel book from Tegernsee which was created 60 years earlier and to a manuscript from 1120. The text and other features of these manuscripts (miniatures of the four evangelists as well as the decoration of the initials and canon tables) prove the continuous and long-lasting productivity of the scriptorium in Tegernsee, where mainly Gospel books were created. As marks of ownership prove in some cases, these books were created not only for the abbey's own use, but also for other monasteries, such as Freising or—in this case—Benediktbeuern.