Create an Amazon Business Account


Join Amazon Prime - Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime - Start Free Trial Now


Illustrations depicting 9th Century Carolingian Soldiers from

Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram
Saint Emmeram Gospels

A detail of Charles the Bald in the Saint Emmeram Gospels, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 1400 folio 5v.

Karl II. der Kahle thront zwischen zwei Waffenträgern und den weiblichen Personifikatione der Länder Francia und Gotia Miniatur Reims um 870, Codex Aureus von St. Emmeram, heute München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 1400 fol 5v

Charles II the Bald, enthroned between two arms bearers and the female personifications of the countries Francia and Gotia Miniature Reims c.870, Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, now Munich, Bavarian State Library, Cod. Lat. 1400 fol 5v

The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14000) is a 9th-century illuminated Gospel Book. It is named after Emmeram of Regensburg and lavishly illuminated. The cover of the codex is decorated with gems and relief figures in gold, and can be precisely dated to 870, and is an important example of Carolingian art, as well of one of very few surviving treasure bindings of this date. The upper cover of the Lindau Gospels is probably a product of the same workshop, though there are differences of style. This workshop is associated with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles II (the Bald), and often called his "Palace School". Its location (if it had a fixed one) remains uncertain and much discussed, but Saint-Denis Abbey outside Paris is one leading possibility. The Arnulf Ciborium (a miniature architectural ciborium rather than the vessel for hosts), now in the Munich Residenz, is the third major work in the group, along with the frame of an antique serpentine dish in the Louvre. Recent scholars tend to group the Lindau Gospels and the Arnulf Ciborium in closer relation to each other than the Codex Aureus to either.