Gospels ('The Ranshofen Gospels') — 1178 or before; Austria, Salzburg

Title

Gospels ('The Ranshofen Gospels') — 1178 or before; Austria, Salzburg

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 60

Associated place

Italian

Place of origin

Austria, Salzburg

Date

1178 or before

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

i + 137 + ii fols.

Decoration

Important Canon Tables, fols 1v-5r.

Miniatures: full-page evangelist portraits, fols. 14v, 48v, 73v, 109v.

Borders.

Initials. (Pächt and Alexander i.82, pl. VII)

Binding

Fols. 1–3 show marks from two large clasp fittings, each fixed with three nails, from a previous binding, perhaps the lost treasure binding.

18th century, second half, Italian, in M. L. Canonici’s highest grade of binding: pasteboards, covered in full dark-blue leather with gilt roll and tools round edges, gilt spine with two red-leather labels, marbled endleaves. 324 233–235 c. 47–49 (book closed).

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817.

Provenance

Inscription, fol. 136v (transcribed in full in Watson) recording the completion of the binding in 1178 at the expense of Adelbard, provost of the Augustinian priory of Ranshofen, and Liutold, treasurer of Ranshofen, and its gift to the priory. This provides a terminus a quem for the writing and decoration of the manuscript; while a considerable interval between writing, decoration and binding is possible, most recent literature favours a date in the 1170s.

Liutold the treasurer was identified in earlier scholarship with the scribe and artist Liutold of Mondsee, an identification that is no longer accepted. Nevertheless the Ranshofen Gospels are associated on art-historical grounds with the Mondsee Gospels written and partly decorated by Liutold of Mondsee (Vienna, ONB, Cod. 1244), and with other manuscripts in the so-called 'Liutold Group' (notably a breviary-collectar, Munich, BSB, Clm 8271, and a copy of Gratian's Decretum, Munich, BSB, Clm 13004), associated with Salzburg and the Benedictine abbey of St Peter (E. Klemm, Die romanischen Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek I (1980) pp. 165–6); Schmidt attributes the Ranshofen Gospels themselves to St Peter's although Holter favoured a secular workshop (K. Holter, 'Die mittelalterliche Buchkunst der Chorherrenstifte am Inn', repr. in his Buchkunst - Handschriften - Bibliotheken (1996) II.887–913 at 892–3).

Possibly to be identified with the gospel book (‘Matheus’) listed in the mid-fourteenth-century library catalogue of Ranshofen (Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, V.90).

Presumably seen at Ranshofen by Johannes Turmair (Aventinus) between 1519 and 1521: his Chronicon Ranshofense refers to ‘Alhardus, qui integre Adelhardus, evangeliorum vetustum codicem faciundum curavit’ (Johannes Turmair's genannt Aventinus sämmtliche werke I (1881) 68)

Mentioned by Hieronymus Mayor, canon of Ranshofen, in his 1650 Antiquarium Ranshovianum (Schmidt, Ranshofener Evangeliar, 4).

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805, acquired at an uncertain date.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

Gospels ('The Ranshofen Gospels')

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 60

Summary

Fols. 1v-5r. Canon tables

Fols. 7r-8v. Jerome, Prol. to Gospels (Stegmüller 595)

Fols. 8v-10r. Jerome, Prol. to Gospels (Stegmüller 596)

Fol. 10r-v. Prol. to Matthew (Stegmüller 581)

Fols. 10v-11r. Prol. to Matthew (Stegmüller 601)

Fol. 11r-v. Prol. to Matthew (Stegmüller 590)

Fols. 12r-13v. Capitula to Matthew

Fols. 15r-45v. Matthew

Fol. 46r-v. Prol. to Mark (Stegmüller 607)

Fol. 47r-v. Capitula to Mark

Fols. 49r-68r. Mark

Fols. 68v-69r. Prol. to Luke (Stegmüller 620)

Fols. 69v-70r. Capitula to Luke

Fols. 74r-106v. Luke

Fol. 107r-v. Ps.-Bede, In evangelium Johannis (Stegmüller 620), prol.

Fols. 108r-v. Capitula to John

Fols. 110r-135r. John

Date

1178 or before

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume