Vienna Genesis Research Articles

The Vienna Genesis: An Example of Late Antique Purple Parchment.

The investigation and conservation of the Vienna Genesis, a Late Antique manuscript on purple parchment, included the study of parchment production and purple dyeing in the sixth century. The process of parchment making and of purple dyeing was recreated and compared with the Vienna Genesis and other manuscripts from the sixth and eighth centuries. Parchment made from the hides of young lambs and dyed with orchil resembled the folios of the Vienna Genesis. The results of material analysis and the study of parchment technology influenced decisions for the conservation and storage of the manuscript. Fragile areas of ink and parchment were stabilised with strips of adhesive coated Japanese tissue paper. The single folios are stored in folders of Japanese paper and museum matboard within a sink mat.

Non-Invasive Study on the Sinope Gospels

The 6th century Codex Sinopensis or Sinope Gospels (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France) is one of the most precious purple codices that survive from the Late Antique period. Together with the Vienna Genesis (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) and the Rossano Gospels (Rossano Calabro, Museo Diocesano), it has an unusually rich decorative apparatus with scenes representing biblical episodes. It can be, therefore, considered one of the most important preserved artistic productions of the early medieval era. The manuscript has been subjected to a non-invasive diagnostic campaign to evaluate the quality of the colourants used in its decoration, to understand how the parchment was coloured, and to carry out a comparison with the Vienna Genesis and the Rossano Gospels. The techniques used were UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optical fibres (FORS), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), spectrofluorimetry, and optical microscopy. Analyses highlighted the presence of ultramarine blue, which, besides the use of pure gold for the ink and paint, certifies the high value of the manuscript. In addition, this must be seen as one of the earliest examples of its use in paintings. The purple colour of the parchment was identified as orchil, a dye extracted from lichens, similar to the results of analytical investigations carried out on other purple codices, and not the expected Tyrian purple dye.

Erken Bizans Dönemi Resimli Dini El Yazmaları

The subject of this study is the Early Byzantine Period Illuminated Theological Manuscripts. The primary aim of this study is to identify and classify the themes of Early Byzantine Period illuminated theological manuscripts, analyzing and comparing their styles accordingly, presenting the production materials and determining their place of production. During the museum and library research the Quedlinburg Itala (Ms. Theol. Lat. fol. 485 / LDAB 8476), Ashburnham Pentateuch (Ashburnham Pentateuch MS nouv. acq. lat. 2334 / LDAB 8110), Rabbula Gospel (Rabbula Gospels Cod. Plut. I,56 / LDAB 115232), Paris Syrian Bible (The Syriac Bible of Paris Cod. syr. 341 / LDAB 115270), St. Augustus Gospel (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 286 / LDAB 7481), British Library Cannon Tables (London, British Library Add MS 5111 / LDAB 7151) and Cotton Genesis (Lond.Cotton Otho B.IV / LDAB 3242) were analyzed at the outset under the title of Early Byzantine Period Illuminated Theological Manuscripts. The Rossano Gospels (Codex Purpureus Rossanensis / LDAB 2990), Sinope Gospel (Codex Purpureus Sinopensis Paris, Suppl. Gr. 1226 / LDAB 2902) and Vienna Genesis (Vindob. Theol. gr. 31 / LDAB 3078) were addressed separately under the title of Early Byzantine Period Purpura Codices. Analyses revealed that presence of the biblical illuminations in Orthodox Byzantine, and even the depiction of the Old Testament scenes without referring to the New Testament as in the Vienna Genesis manuscript samples, is of high importance in terms of the relationship developed between a belief that has just been institutionalized and tradition. The fact that Jewish art bearing traces of Hellenistic culture caused the Old Testament plots to be used in Christian themes contains some scientific data with regards to the fact that it shows how geographically, and historically different cultures are articulated.

First analytical evidences of precious colourants on Mediterranean illuminated manuscripts

Two Byzantine VI century manuscripts known as Vienna Dioskurides and Vienna Genesis, held in the Austrian National Library at Vienna, were analysed with in situ non-invasive techniques. Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry were used to characterise the palette of these early Middle Ages manuscripts. The analytical study was performed to have a better knowledge on the colourants used by ancient miniature painters, a subject known more on the basis of traditional sources (i.e. medieval treatises) than of analytical evidences. Indeed these illuminated manuscripts are, to the authors’ knowledge, among the oldest ever being analysed, so that the colourants found in them can be considered among the oldest evidences of their use. The main feature of Vienna Dioskurides and Vienna Genesis palettes is their richness, exemplified by the simultaneous presence of gold and ultramarine blue; in Vienna Dioskurides cinnabar is also present. Information regarding ultramarine blue is surprising, being the analytical evidence of the use of this precious pigment at least three centuries before its use in Western manuscripts, a feature justified by the fact that the Byzantine Empire was the dominant culture in early Middle Ages in the Mediterranean World. Other colourants include azurite and indigo, red lead, orpiment, red and yellow ochres, while a mixture of blue and yellow colourants, known as vergaut, was used to render green hues. Organic colourants were also used, such as madder and Tyrian purple, the latter employed to dye the parchment of Vienna Genesis.

Concerning the Cotton Genesis and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of Genesis

This article seeks to open up discussion of the Cotton Genesis by questioning its use as a paradigm for narrative illustration in the early period. The approach is not via the usual iconographic connections, but through consideration of the other essential characteristic of the manuscript: the isolation within a single volume of the text of Genesis alone. A survey of Byzantine and Western material--notably the Vienna Genesis, Bodl. Junius 11, the "Millstatt Genesis," Vienna 2721, and the "Egerton Genesis"--emphasizes the un-usual nature of the Cotton Genesis. No evidence is found that special Genesis manuscripts (with or without illustration) other than the Cotton Genesis and the Vienna Genesis were produced in East or West during the early medieval period, or later. Referring to the Western vernacular paraphrases as "Genesis manuscripts" is inaccurate and tendentious. Both the Cotton Genesis and the Vienna Genesis find a context in the special interest in Genesis characteristic of late antiquity. The Cotton manuscript is best considered a remarkable experiment with the possibilities of book illustration, not as normative. A new reconstruction of a single opening of the Cotton Genesis (Appendix) seeks to clarify the precise relationship between the surviving fragments and the original appearance of the book.

Some Jewish Sources for the Vienna Genesis

When the Vienna Genesis was published by Wickhoff in 1895, by Gerstinger in 1931, and by Buberl in 1937,1 the problem of a possible connection between its iconography and that of Jewish illustrated manuscripts was not yet recognized. Only after the discovery of the frescoes in the synagogue at Dura Europos, during the 1930′s, was the assumption of the existence of relevant Jewish manuscript illustration reinforced. This discovery led scholars to investigate the relation between Jewish sources and Christian illustrated manuscripts in general. In this short essay I would like to suggest some examples of the penetration of Jewish legends into the iconography of the Vienna Genesis.

Some Jewish Sources for the Vienna Genesis

Some Jewish Sources for the Vienna Genesis