Reims Gospel
Encyclopedia
Reims Gospel is a richly illustrated manuscript of ancient Slavic
origin which became part of the Reims Cathedral
treasury. Henry III of France and several of his successors including Louis XIV
took their oath on it.
(as a fragment) and 31 sheets in the Glagolitic alphabet
. The book used to be richly decorated and embellished with gold, precious stones, and relics, among them a fragment of the True Cross
. The precious stones and the relics probably disappeared from the book cover during the French Revolution
. It features six beautiful illuminations in the Glagolitic part and several ornamental letters.
to the Feast of the Annunciation
following the Roman Catholic rite. In a special postscript a Bohemia
n monk noted: "The Year of Our Lord 1395. These Gospels and Epistles were written in the Slavic language ... the other part was written by the hand of St. Procopius
, abbot, and this text was offered by Charles IV, Emperor of the Romans
, to the Slavic monastery, in honor of Saint Jerome
and Saint Procopius, God, please give him eternal rest. Amen."
, or in a monastery in Bohemia
, Ukraine
, or Russia.
It was first recorded in the last half of the 14th century, in the time of Charles IV
, who gave it to the just-founded Emmaus monastery
in Prague
, where the Slavonic liturgy was to be celebrated (the church of the monastery was dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius
, St. Vojtěch
, St. Procopius
, and St. Jerome
, who was considered to have translated the Gospels from Greek to the Old Slavonic language). The text was believed to have been written by the hand of St. Procopius, abbot of Sázava Monastery. It was probably lost from Prague in the time of the Hussite Wars
; after some time (1451) it appeared in Istanbul
, where the books by St. Jerome were said to be kept. In 1574, it was bought by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine
(from the Patriarch of Constantinople, whom he knew from the Council of Trent
), and donated to Reims Cathedral
. Because the book was nicely decorated and it was believed it had been scribed by St. Jerome, the manuscript began to be used in the coronation ceremony of French kings
, who took the oath of the Order of the Holy Spirit
by touching the book.
In 1717, Russian Tsar Peter the Great visited Reims
and, upon seeing the manuscript, noticed the Cyrillic alphabet.
During the French Revolution
the manuscript disappeared and was not found until the 1830s, when it was discovered in the Reims library by the city librarian, Louis Paris, after a request by a Slovene
linguist
Jernej Bartol Kopitar
who was an administrator at the Vienna
Court Library at that time. Mr. Paris asked a Russian counsellor and archeologist Sergey Stroieff (or Turgenev?) for help with recognizing the text. It was found with neither the gold nor the precious stones in the cover. The discovery brought a revival of interest, especially in Slavic countries. The first fascimile was created by Reims librarian Louis Paris and it was analyzed in detail by Polish paleographer Korwin Jan Jastrzębski (1805–1852). Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy
made a lithographic copy of the manuscript and gave it to Russian Tsar Nicholas I
. Nicholas then financed another using intaglio printing (1843) and let Jernej Kopitar write his comment arguing that all of the manuscript comes from 14th century. In 1846 Czech
philologist
Václav Hanka
made his edition, which was available to the general public, and received for that act of merit the cross of the Order of St. Anna
from the Tsar and a brilliant ring from Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I
.
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
origin which became part of the Reims Cathedral
Reims Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in AD 496. That original...
treasury. Henry III of France and several of his successors including Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
took their oath on it.
Description
Out of a total of 47 double-sided sheets, 16 sheets are written in the Cyrillic alphabetCyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
(as a fragment) and 31 sheets in the Glagolitic alphabet
Glagolitic alphabet
The Glagolitic alphabet , also known as Glagolitsa, is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. The name was not coined until many centuries after its creation, and comes from the Old Slavic glagolъ "utterance" . The verb glagoliti means "to speak"...
. The book used to be richly decorated and embellished with gold, precious stones, and relics, among them a fragment of the True Cross
True Cross
The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...
. The precious stones and the relics probably disappeared from the book cover during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. It features six beautiful illuminations in the Glagolitic part and several ornamental letters.
Content
The Cyrillic part includes a pericope from to following the Greek Catholic rite. The Glagolitic part covers pericopes from Palm SundayPalm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
to the Feast of the Annunciation
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
following the Roman Catholic rite. In a special postscript a Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n monk noted: "The Year of Our Lord 1395. These Gospels and Epistles were written in the Slavic language ... the other part was written by the hand of St. Procopius
Procopius of Sázava
Saint Procopius of Sázava was a Czech saint. He studied at Prague where he was also ordained. He was a canon and a hermit and then became the founding abbot of Sázava near Prague. He is an alleged author of the Reims Gospel....
, abbot, and this text was offered by Charles IV, Emperor of the Romans
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....
, to the Slavic monastery, in honor of Saint Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
and Saint Procopius, God, please give him eternal rest. Amen."
History
The origin of the manuscript is not certain. The older part was probably written in calligraphy on the island of KrkKrk
Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....
, or in a monastery in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, or Russia.
It was first recorded in the last half of the 14th century, in the time of Charles IV
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....
, who gave it to the just-founded Emmaus monastery
Emmaus monastery
The Emmaus monastery is an Benedictine abbey established in 1347 in Prague....
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, where the Slavonic liturgy was to be celebrated (the church of the monastery was dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
, St. Vojtěch
Adalbert of Prague
This article is about St Adalbert of Prague. For other uses, see Adalbert .Saint Adalbert, Czech: ; , , Czech Roman Catholic saint, a Bishop of Prague and a missionary, was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He evangelized Poles and Hungarians. St...
, St. Procopius
Procopius of Sázava
Saint Procopius of Sázava was a Czech saint. He studied at Prague where he was also ordained. He was a canon and a hermit and then became the founding abbot of Sázava near Prague. He is an alleged author of the Reims Gospel....
, and St. Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, who was considered to have translated the Gospels from Greek to the Old Slavonic language). The text was believed to have been written by the hand of St. Procopius, abbot of Sázava Monastery. It was probably lost from Prague in the time of the Hussite Wars
Hussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...
; after some time (1451) it appeared in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, where the books by St. Jerome were said to be kept. In 1574, it was bought by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine
Charles de Lorraine , Duke of Chevreuse, was a French Cardinal, a member of the powerful House of Guise. He was known at first as the Cardinal of Guise, and then as the second Cardinal of Lorraine, after the death of his uncle, John, Cardinal of Lorraine . He was the protector of Rabelais and...
(from the Patriarch of Constantinople, whom he knew from the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
), and donated to Reims Cathedral
Reims Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in AD 496. That original...
. Because the book was nicely decorated and it was believed it had been scribed by St. Jerome, the manuscript began to be used in the coronation ceremony of French kings
Coronation of the French monarch
The accession of the King of France was legitimated by coronation ceremony performed with the Crown of Charlemagne at Notre-Dame de Reims. However, the person did not need to be crowned in order to be recognized as French monarch; the new king ascended the throne when the coffin of the previous...
, who took the oath of the Order of the Holy Spirit
Order of the Holy Spirit
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
by touching the book.
In 1717, Russian Tsar Peter the Great visited Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
and, upon seeing the manuscript, noticed the Cyrillic alphabet.
During the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
the manuscript disappeared and was not found until the 1830s, when it was discovered in the Reims library by the city librarian, Louis Paris, after a request by a Slovene
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
Jernej Bartol Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
who was an administrator at the Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
Court Library at that time. Mr. Paris asked a Russian counsellor and archeologist Sergey Stroieff (or Turgenev?) for help with recognizing the text. It was found with neither the gold nor the precious stones in the cover. The discovery brought a revival of interest, especially in Slavic countries. The first fascimile was created by Reims librarian Louis Paris and it was analyzed in detail by Polish paleographer Korwin Jan Jastrzębski (1805–1852). Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy
Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy
Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy was a French journalist. The son of Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy , he was for 20 years the editor of the Journal des Débats, also contributing critical work to it. He became a curator at the Bibliothèque Mazarine in 1836 and became its administrator in 1848...
made a lithographic copy of the manuscript and gave it to Russian Tsar Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
. Nicholas then financed another using intaglio printing (1843) and let Jernej Kopitar write his comment arguing that all of the manuscript comes from 14th century. In 1846 Czech
Czech literature
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other...
philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
Václav Hanka
Václav Hanka
Wenceslaus Hanka Czech: Václav Hanka was a Czech philologist.-Biography:He was born at Hořiněves near Hradec Králové . He was sent in 1807 to school at Hradec Králové, to escape the conscription, then to the University of Prague, where he founded a society for the cultivation of the Czech language...
made his edition, which was available to the general public, and received for that act of merit the cross of the Order of St. Anna
Order of St. Anna
The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
from the Tsar and a brilliant ring from Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Austria
Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria, President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary and Bohemia , as well as associated dominions from the death of his father, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, until his abdication after the Revolutions of 1848.He married Maria Anna of Savoy, the sixth child...
.