Frontispiece for the Gospel of Saint John from the Corvey Gospel

This manuscript consists of four folios from a Gospel Book that was likely made at the monastery of Corvey in Western Germany during the third quarter of the tenth century. Dating to the reign of Otto I, these pages are a magnificent example of early Ottonian manuscript illumination. The heavily ornamented pages, which introduce the Gospels of Luke and John, shine with gold and jewel-like colors against dyed purple grounds. These pages combine monumental classicizing square capitals on purple grounds with rich and complex interlace. This fragment contains the opening pages of Luke (fols. 93-94) and John (fols. 137-138) that were originally part of Rheims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 10, a Gospel Book originally owned by the Chapter Library of the Cathedral of Rheims until it was confiscated, along with the rest of the cathedral's manuscripts, during the French Revolution. Related manuscripts include Pierpont Morgan Library Ms. M. 755 and New York Public Library Ms. 1.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Written in the Monastery of Corvey on the Weser River in Germany ca. 940-975, during the reign of Otto I [based on style and paleography]; [Originally part of a Gospel Book belonging to the Chapter Library of the Cathedral of Rheims until the French Revolution, now Ms. 10 in the Rheims Municipal Library]; Sir Thomas Phillips, London, ca. 1855 [mode of acquisition unknown] [Ms. 14122, noted on bottom of fol. 1r]; A. Chester Beatty, December 1920, acquired privately from Phillips collection; Walters Art Museum, October 1952, by purchase [from Mrs. Chester Beatty through Maggs Brothers].