The Giant Bible of Echternach is an illustrated giant bible [es] that was made for Abbot Regimbert of the abbey of Echternach between 1051 and 1081. Today, it is kept in the National Library of Luxembourg as manuscript MS 264. Prior to its acquisition by Luxembourg in 1951, it was in the Ducal Library of Gotha [de].
The bible contains 414 folios measuring 600 by 400 millimetres (24 in × 16 in). Three folios are missing. The written area of the page is 480 by 300 millimetres (19 in × 12 in). The writing, in two columns, is by a single hand. The scribe was a monk of Echternach named Ruotpert who left no other known work. Large decorated initials in red, green and purple with extensive interlace are found at the start of each biblical book and smaller ones elsewhere. The bible is bound in hardwood covered in calfskin.
In 1940, the bible was unbound in order to be photographed and then rebound. The original parchment pastedown was set aside, only to be identified in 2001 as an abacus board of the kind introduced by Gerbert of Aurillac (died 1003). It was probably copied much earlier than the bible, since it was considered scrap by the time the bible was bound.
References
- Max Schmitz (1 November 2024). "The Echternach Scriptorium". Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ Nancy Marie Brown (2010). The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages. Basic Books. pp. 79–80.
- ^ Charles Burnett (2002). "The Abacus at Echternach in ca. 1000 AD" (PDF). Sciamvs. 3: 91–108.
- ^ J. Leclercq (1953). "Un nouveau manuscrit d'Echternach à Luxembourg". Scriptorium. 7 (2): 219–225.
Further reading
- Weicherding-Goergen, Blanche (1968). Les manuscrits à peintures de la Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg. Luxembourg. pp. 24–27.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)