The 16 Manuscripts of the Idda Collection
Liesborn Gospels
c. 980-1000
Gospel Books throughout the Middle Ages were
considered the physical embodiment of the word of
God, and included the complete biblical text of each
of the four Gospels. Sacred books were kept in the
church treasury and carried ceremoniously to the
altar during Mass. Written during the time of the
Vikings and one of few surviving manuscripts from
the ninth century in Northwestern Germany, at more
than 1,000 years old, the Liesborn Gospels are
remarkable for their age and astonishing condition.
Gospel Lectionary
c. 1040-60
A Gospel Lectionary includes the Gospel readings for
the Mass, arranged according to the liturgical
year. Gospel Lectionaries were more practical than
traditional Gospel Books, as they included only the
text of the appropriate pericopes (Mass readings)
arranged in the order of the liturgical year rather than
in the order of the Bible. The Gospel Lectionary
therefore provides a close-up view of worship in the
medieval church. Decorated with wild, spiky vines,
animal heads spouting flames and gorgeous deep
colors, this Lectionary is consistent with illumination
produced in Northern Spain.
Gospel Lectionary
c. 1140-60
Originating in the Iberian Peninsula, this 12th century
Gospel Lectionary can be compared to the
above Lectionary c. 1040-60. The most immediate
difference is how its contents are organized, with the
feasts
of
the
Temporale
and
Sanctorale
clearly separated into two different sections. Also
included are a series of readings for Votive Masses –
that is, Masses for special occasions; here we have
Masses for the Trinity, the Holy Cross, Mary,
Michael, for rain, for a priest, to request the grace of
the Holy Spirit, for a friend, for charity, for a journey
and for the sick.
The Rebdorf Psalter
c. 1130-60
This German manuscript is a Psalter, with the
complete text of the 150 Psalms, accompanied by a
commentary related to the Glossa Ordinaria (the
Ordinary Gloss), an influential biblical commentary in
the Middle Ages. Each page includes not only the
biblical text written in a larger script but also
commentary copied in the margins and between the
lines. This shows how even in the Middle Ages, the
people who knew the Bible best – monks and nuns,
canons, friars and theologians – had a deep
knowledge of how the text was interpreted by earlier
commentators.
The Buxheim Psalter
c. 1220-1240
This South German manuscript is one of the oldest
medieval books ever made for secular use, and
legendary rare-book dealer H.P. Kraus called it one
of the 100 finest illuminated manuscripts he ever
handled. The Psalms were the central text of the
Divine Office, the daily public prayer of the church
given by clerics, monks and nuns, but Psalters also
were copied in the Middle Ages for private devotional
use, and from early in the Middle Ages through the
13th century, they were the primary prayer books
used by the laity.
Bruno’s Correction and Completion of Paterius’
Book of Testimonies
c. 1090-1100
In the middle ages, the Bible was read and studied in
the context of commentaries written by revered
Church fathers. St. Paterius was a church notary and
close associate of Pope Gregory the Great in the late
sixth and early seventh centuries. Paterius searched
through Gregory’s works, extracting comments on
various biblical passages and arranging them in the
order of the Bible but he never completed his Book of
Testimonies or Liber testimoniorum. Bruno, an
otherwise obscure German monk, was one of a
number of authors who completed Paterius’ work.
Unknown Editor’s Adaptation of a Commentary
by Jerome
c. 1125-50
Saint Jerome was a fourth- and fifth-century priest
and theologian best known for his work that formed
the core of the Catholic Church’s Latin translation of
the Bible known as the Vulgate, but he also wrote
two commentaries on the Psalms. One of them
discusses 59 of the 150 Psalms, and this Italian
adaptation for a 12th-century audience includes 30 of
those Psalms. Two texts were added at the end of
the manuscript: a poem praising Saint Jerome and a
hymn honoring Saint Helen.
Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job (Books 1-18)
c. 1150-75
Gregory the Great’s commentary on Job, his greatest
work, ran to 35 books and more than 500,000 words.
It was found in almost every monastic library. This
Italian copy contained roughly the first half of the
commentary. One of Gregory’s gifts was his capacity
to draw on his personal experiences in ways that
enriched his interpretation of the Bible. Plagued by
bad health, he writes in the preface to the Moralia
that his own sufferings helped him understand the
sufferings of Job.
Augustine’s commentary on the Psalms
c. 1150-75
It is said that Martin Luther was reading Saint
Augustine’s commentaries on Psalms 31 and 32
when he came to understand justification by faith,
and this work remains influential today. It ranks with
Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job as one of the
most widely copied and influential commentaries by
the Church fathers. It originated as sermons
Augustine delivered in the late fourth and early fifth
centuries. Hundreds of copies survive, including this
one from Lambach Abbey in Austria.
Origen’s Homilies on Genesis and Exodus,
translated by Rufinus
c. 1150-75
Origen, born in the second century in Alexandria, is
known as the first Christian theologian and the first
Christian thinker to develop a systematic approach to
the study of the Bible. Although some of his ideas
were unorthodox, he had a tremendous influence on
Christian thought. Rufinus, born in Italy in the fourth
century, devoted himself to translating the works of
the Church fathers from the original Greek into Latin.
This copy was produced in Austria in the 12th
century.
Haimo of Auxerre’s Commentary on the Song of
Songs
c. 1175-1200
The Song of Songs, with its erotic nature, presented
special challenges to medieval commentators, who
interpreted the book in a number of different ways,
such as an exploration of the heavenly marriage
between Christ and the Church or of the nature of
divine love between Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Nearly 100 different commentaries on the Song of
Songs were written between the sixth and 15th
centuries, and the most popular one was written by
Haimo, a ninth-century Benedictine monk in Auxerre,
France. This copy was almost certainly made in
Erfurt, Germany.
Hugh of Saint Victor’s Dialogue on the Creation
of the World and Homilies on the Book of
Ecclesiastes
c. 1150-75
With this manuscript, we leave the world of the
monastery and enter the world of the 12 th-century
school. The Abbey of Saint Victor was one of the
most important centers of learning in Paris, attracting
students from across Europe, and Hugh was one of
its most prominent teachers. His writings survive in
an estimated 3,000 manuscripts. His approach to
learning and the study of scripture can be
summarized in his famous words: “Learn everything;
you will see afterwards that nothing is superfluous.”
Book of Job from the Vulgate Bible with the
Glossa Ordinaria
c. 1125-40
The Glossa Ordinaria (or Ordinary Gloss) on the
Bible was one of the great intellectual achievements
of the 12th century, combining the Latin text with
commentaries in one convenient place. The biblical
text was copied in a distinctive, larger script with the
commentaries from authors such as Jerome,
Augustine and Gregory the Great in smaller script on
the same page. This manuscript was produced in
Northern Italy.
Pauline Epistles from the Vulgate Bible with the
Glossa Ordinaria
c. 1140-60
A glossa or gloss refers to notes or commentaries
written on margins or within the text of manuscripts or
printed editions of the Scriptures. This version,
believed to draw from the teachings of Anselm of
Laon, France in the 12th century, is rare because it
was superseded by two later commentaries. The
manuscript was copied in Northern Italy, and was
owned by Franciscan friars in the 13th century – who
apparently passed it from hand to hand – and likely
by a cathedral school or monastery in the 12 th
century.
Gospel of Mark from the Vulgate Bible with the
Glossa Ordinaria
c. 1150-75
This manuscript has been a treasured possession in
the libraries of some of the most important
manuscript collectors of the 19th and 20 centuries,
beginning with a Venetian cleric who purchased
illuminated choir books and liturgical manuscripts
from Napoleonic troops after they looted the Sistine
Chapel in 1798, leading to a career acquiring
medieval manuscripts for London auction rooms. The
text was copied in Northern Italy in the 12th century,
and the chapter numbers that came into use in the
13th century (and are still in use today) were added
later.
The Book of Revelation and the Catholic Epistles
from the Vulgate Bible with the Glossa Ordinaria
c. 1175-1200
This copy of the last books of the Bible likely was
produced in Spain. Revelation (known as Apocalypse
in the Vulgate version of the Bible) was an important
and controversial presence in medieval thought, as it
is today. We do not know the name of the author of
the gloss on Revelation, but it was one of the first
books of the Bible to have such a commentary or
notes, along with Job.