Book of sermons of the 15th century from the Monastery of St. Egidien: the author, a scriber, and a reader

• Main Author: Okhrimenko Oleksandr Sviatoslavovych
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine 2018-01-01
• Series: Рукописна та книжкова спадщина України
• Subjects: sermon, Henry of Gulpen, Nurnberg, Monastery of St. Egidien, codex, late Middle Ages, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Institute of Manuscript.
• Online Access: http://nbuv.gov.ua/j-pdf/rks_2018_22_21.pdf

The article is dedicated to so-called Lections of Church Fathers from the collection of the Institute of Manuscript of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (Fund 1, Unit 4783) from the point of the interactions of the author, a scriber, and a reader. We state that the author of the Latin book of sermons was Henry of Gulpen (Heinrich von Gulpen), the Abbot of St. Egidien Monastery of Nurnberg in 1429-1435, who compiled them in different time. He was a well-educated person, doctor of theology, took part in the Councils of Constance and of Basel. Nevertheless, almost all the works by Henry of Gulpen were lost, and this book of sermons may help bring attention back to the scholar’s name. A scriber of the texts made codification of the texts in this monastery before 1472, having created the system of the book usage with initials and rubrics. We did not find a name of the scriber, but other manuscripts from the St. Egidien Monastery of the same period include several names. The manuscript consists of 232 sermons for 26 feasts from St. Andrew until Corpus Christi. The fi rst sermon of the feast starts with the puzzled initial, which combines several colors. Each next initial is either red or blue. Historical initial of the fi rst folium shows a scriber or a reader of the codex. We suppose this is a “portrait” of the author of the sermons - Henry of Gulpen, whose portrait was on the stained glass of the St. Egidien Monastery of Nurnberg and was done in the same style as others miniatures from Nurnberg of the 1470s. We distinguish three readers, who made systematic marginal notes in the codex. The fi rst one was a reviser of the text and made most important corrections of the text and the owner inscriptions. The second one did the marks with red, the third - with light brown. The readers also made formatting of the sermons, introduced new rubrics, schemes, number and sign marks, etc. The article also has examples of marginal notes of other readers, but they are not regular.