Codex Egberti
Reichenau (Southern Germany), late tenth century
Carolingian minuscule
Stadtbibliothek, Trier (Germany)
Ms. 24
Date of Publication of the (partial) Facsimile: 1983
Publisher: L. Reichert, Wiesbaden (Germany)
This evangeliary, that is, a lectionary containing the Gospel readings for the liturgical
year, is associated with the important abbey of Reichenau, which was located on an
island of Lake Constance. While full-page elaborate detailed scenes were usual, some
artists of the ottonian period had a special fondness for representing scenes from the
life of Jesus almost in cartoon form, as in
this depiction of some of the events on
the night before he died.
Partial facsimiles such as this one provide ready access to the illuminated folios of
a manuscript, but this is at the expense of the text, and therefore of the context of
these illustrations.