The Herzog August Bibliothek’s Cod. Guelf. 35 Helmst. was the very first manuscript to be digitized for this project back in March 2019. Nine months and nearly 150 manuscripts later, this 15th-century missal is still one of the loveliest in our online collection. This post, excerpted from the HAB’s own blog, details some of its most interesting features.
Since the HAB began work on this project in December 2018, over 60 manuscripts from different monasteries in Lower Saxony have been digitized. One remarkable example is Cod. Guelf. 35 Helmst. – a missal from the Lüchtenhof, house of Brethren of the Common Life in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony.
This medieval service book from the year 1462 was made for personal use by the Brethren at the Lüchtenhof, as an entry on the inside of the front cover shows.
The high costs for this parchment manuscript were probably donated by Henning von Reden and his wife Ilse Barner, whose kneeling figures next to the coat of arms are shown beneath the canon picture. The von Reden family belonged to the ancient nobility of Lower Saxony and their members played an important role in the Diocese of Hildesheim.
Cod. Guelf. 35 Helmst., fol. 127v, canon picture.
In addition to eleven initials, elaborately decorated with miniatures and gold leaf, this canon picture on fol. 127v is the most artistically demanding page in the codex. It shows Mary and John standing next to the Cross of Christ and the frame is decorated with roundels displaying the symbols of the four evangelists. The picture leads up to the Eucharistic Prayer with which the priest brings to mind the sacrificial death of Christ in the mass. The beginning of the text on the opposite page is decorated with an initial depicting a story from the Book Exodus: Moses attaches a bronze snake to a pole in the form of the tree-shaped T-initial in order to protect the people of Israel in the desert from the bites of poisonous snakes. In the medieval interpretation of the Bible this was read as a prophetic hint at the redeeming power of the cross.
In addition to this T, the manuscript contains ten other initials decorated with miniatures and gold leaf, in addition to more understated red and blue initials and pen-flourished decoration.
The Missal is currently on display at an exhibition in the Dommuseum Hildesheim.
Christian Heitzmann is head of the HAB’s manuscript department and coordinates cataloguing and digitizing of medieval manuscripts at the HAB.