The Uta Codex: art, philosophy, and reform in eleventh-century Germany

Abstract

Created at the behest of an early 11th-century abbess names Uta, the is not only one of the most beautiful of Ottoman manuscripts but also one of the most complex. The Uta Codex is a luxury Gospel lectionary, produced for the Niedermunster convent in Regensburg (Bavaria). This collection of liturgical readings is preceded by four full-page frontispieces illustrating the Hand of God, dedicating the codex to the Virgin and Child, a Symbolic Crucifixion, and Saint Erhard (patron saint of the convent) celebrating the Mass. Four evangelist portraits accompany the readings from each Gospel. The lavish miniatures, among the most elaborate pictures of the Middle ages, are non-narrative illuminations that carefully manipulate images, ornament, Latin tituli and geometric schemata to produce complex statements of visual exegesis. This volume situates the manuscript in the monastic context of Regensburg and methodically explicates each of its pictures and considers questions of programme, patronage, the relationship betwen text and image, and the function of the book. The emerges as a sophisticated memorial of abess Uta's reforming efforts. The Uta Codex provides an examination of the miniatures as well as a broader investigation of the place of the manuscript within the structures of patronage and spirituality in early 11th-century Germany. It should be of interest to scholars of mediaeval art, as well as those exploring questions of monastic culture, intellectual life and women in the Middle Ages.