Carolingian Bible, Tobit, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [southern Germany (most probably Lorsch), c.800]

provenance

(1) The imperial abbey of Lorsch in Hesse, founded in 764 by the Frankish count, Cancor, and his mother Williswinda. They gave the abbacy to Cancor's nephew Chrodegang (later archbishop of Metz and author of the Rule for clergy which bears his name). Chrodegang obtained the body of the early Roman saint, Nazarius, from Pope Paul I (d.767), and the main church at Lorsch was reconsecrated in favour of the saint in 774 in the presence of Charlemagne. The library of the community was rich in both classical and Christian texts (note the catalogues edited by Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, 1885-87, pp.82-125, which descend from a catalogue compiled c.830 under Abbot Adelung; and cf. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word, 1989, pp.185-191, and Bischoff, Die Abtei Lorsch), and included such lavish volumes as the celebrated Lorsch Gospels (Vatican, Pal.lat.50, and Romania, Alba Iulia, Biblioteca Documenta Batthyaneum). Lorsch was destroyed during the 30 Years' War, and a large part of the library ended up in the Palatine collection in the Vatican.

(2) Hauswedell, Hamburg, cat.212 (1976), no.491; to Bernard Rosenthal; Quaritch, Bookhands V, cat.1147 (1991), no.1; Schøyen MS 617.

text

A handful of centres other than Tours also responded to Charlemagne's call for corrected biblical books. The present leaf was identified by Bernhard Bischoff as the last surviving remnant of a volume with the books of Solomon, Job, Tobit, Judith, Ezra and other Old Testament texts "in uno codice", once in the library there. Rosamund McKitterick observes that in view of its large format, it may have been part of an otherwise unrecorded Lorsch pandect. As she notes, this leaf is our earliest evidence for bible production in this important imperial scriptorium.

The text here includes Tobit, 2:13-4:19.

literature