Incense in the space between Heaven and Earth – the inscriptions and images on the Gozbert Censer in the cathedral trasury of Trier

Abstract

The Gozbert Censer in the Cathedral Treasury of Trier, made in Cologne towards the end of the twelfth century, is one of the most conceptually rich medieval works ever cast in bronze. This article offers a close reading of the micro-architecture of the censer and its numerous inscriptions. The miniature building comprises topical elements relative to the representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, including cosmological allusions. The architecture, built on a cruciform ground plan, is crowded with Old Testament characters and scenes presaging the coming of the Messiah and prefiguring the Eucharist. The chain holder shows Christ sitting on a throne; thus, this functional part of the vessel becomes the ultimate summit of the composition. The censer’s inscriptions in leonine hexameters refer to and interpret the figural representations. They thereby link the different pictorial levels of the complex organism, while creating their own spatial and temporal relationship between the Old and the New Testament, as well as within the miniature architecture, which is in itself a symbolical space. The inscription on the lowest rim of the censer invokes the onlookers' prayers for the eternal life of the donor, Gozbertus, and epitomises the function of the liturgical vessel: incense rising as prayer before the Deity – within the liturgical space of the liturgy, as well as inside the church building.