Carolingian illumination refers to the illuminated manuscripts produced in the Frankish Empire from the late 8th to the late 9th century. While the preceding Merovingian illumination was purely monastic in character, Carolingian illumination originated from the courts of the Frankish kings and the residences of prominent bishops.
The starting point was the court school of Charlemagne at the Aachen Palace, to which the manuscripts of the Ada group are assigned. At the same time, and probably in the same location, there existed the palace school, whose artists were influenced by Byzantine illumination. The codices of this school are also known, after their leading manuscript, as the group of the Vienna Coronation Gospels. Despite all stylistic differences, both painting schools share a direct engagement with the formal language of late antique illumination and an effort toward a clarity of page design unprecedented until then. After Charlemagne's death, the center of illumination shifted to Reims, Tours, and Metz. While the court school dominated during Charlemagne's time, the works of the palace school were more strongly received in the later centers of book art.
The heyday of Carolingian illumination ended in the late 9th century. In the late Carolingian period, a Franco-Saxon school developed, which again increasingly adopted forms of the older Insular illumination, before a new era began with Ottonian illumination from the end of the 10th century.
Foundations of Carolingian illumination
Temporal and geographical framework The classification of Carolingian art into an era is inconsistent: sometimes it is considered a distinct art epoch, more often it is summarized with other styles from the 5th to 11th centuries as early medieval art or with Ottonian art as Pre-Romanesque, and occasionally already included in the Romanesque era as early Romanesque. Carolingian art was strongly tied to the respective ruling house and limited to the domain of the Carolingians, thus to the Frankish Empire. Art regions outside this area are not counted as Carolingian art. An exception is the Lombard Kingdom, which Charlemagne was able to conquer in 773/774, but which continued its own cultural traditions that strongly influenced Carolingian art. Conversely, the impulses of the Carolingian Renaissance also affected Italy, especially Rome.
The election of Pepin the Short in 751 as king of the Franks marks the beginning of the Carolingian royal dynasty, but an independent Carolingian art only began under Charlemagne, who was sole ruler of the Frankish Empire from 771 and was crowned emperor in 800. The first luxury manuscript commissioned by Charlemagne between 781 and 783 was the Godescalc Evangelistary. After the death of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's successor, the empire was divided in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun into the three parts of West, East Francia, and Lotharingia. Lotharingia experienced several further divisions in the following decades, in which some areas fell to West and East Francia, while others became independent kingdoms and duchies in Lorraine, Burgundy, and Italy.
With the death of Louis the Child in 911, the line of the East Frankish Carolingians died out. The new king was Conrad the Younger from the Conradine family. After his death, the nobles of Franconia and the Duchy of Saxony elected Henry I in 919 as East Frankish king. With the transfer of royal dignity to the Saxon Liudolfings, later called Ottonians, the focus of art production also shifted to East Francia, where Ottonian art developed a pronounced independent character. In West Francia, royal dignity passed after the death of Louis the Lazy in 987 to Hugh Capet and thus to the Capetian dynasty. However, the heyday of Carolingian art had already ended throughout the Frankish region by the end of the 9th century; the later sparse and less significant works mostly reverted to older traditions.
Artists and patrons
In Merovingian times, only monasteries were responsible for book production, but the Carolingian Renaissance originated from Charlemagne's court. The Godescalc Evangelistary, the Dagulf Psalter, and a plain manuscriptRome, Vallicelliana. attest to Charlemagne as patron in dedication poems and colophons. Under Charlemagne's successors, short-lived workshops were also tied to the courts of the Carolingian emperors and kings or to prominent bishops closely connected to the royal court. Only the monastery of Tours remained productive for decades until its destruction in 853.
Most liturgical books were intended for the royal court. Some of the most precious codices served as gifts of honor; thus, the Dagulf Psalter was planned as a gift from Charlemagne to Pope Hadrian I, although it did not come to a handover due to Hadrian's death. A third group of manuscripts was produced for the empire's most important monasteries to carry the religious and cultural impulses emanating from the imperial court into the empire. Thus, the Saint-Riquier Gospels was intended for Charlemagne's son-in-law Angilbert, the lay abbot of Saint-Riquier, and in 827, Louis the Pious donated a gospel book (Soissons Gospels) from Charlemagne's court school to the church of Saint-Médard in Soissons. Conversely, the Touronian monastery under Abbot Vivian gave Charles the Bald the Vivian Bible in 846, which he probably donated to Metz Cathedral in 869/870.
Few early medieval illuminators are known by name. In an illustrated Terence manuscript, perhaps from Aachen, one of the three painters, Adelricus, hid his name in the gable ornament of a miniature.Rome, Vaticana, Vat. lat. 3868. Literature: 799. Kunst und Kultur der Karolingerzeit, Volume 2, pp. 719–722. According to his own statements, the learned Fulda monk Brun Candidus, who had spent some time at the Aachen court school under Einhard, painted the west apse of the Ratgar Basilica consecrated in 819 above the Boniface sarcophagus in Fulda Abbey.Vita Aegil II c. 17, 131–137 This might have given him an important role in the Fulda painting school of the first half of the 9th century. It is hypothetical but not unlikely that he also worked as an illuminator and illustrated the vita of Abbot Eigil written by himself.Christine Ineichen-Eder, Künstlerische und literarische Tätigkeit des Candidus-Brun von Fulda. In: Fuldaer Geschichtsblätter 56, 1980, pp. 201–217, here p. 201; pp. 209f.; cf. the critical edition by Gereon Becht-Jördens, pp. XXIX-XL; the illustrations ibid. p. 31; p. 39; p. 42. The only manuscript, after which the Jesuit Christoph Brouwer edited the text in his Sidera illustrium et sanctorum virorum published in Mainz in 1616 and from which he published copperplate reproductions of three illustrations in his Antiquitatum Fuldensium libri IV published in Antwerp in 1612, was probably lost during the Thirty Years' War with the Fulda library.
More often than the painters, the scribe of a manuscript named himself in a dedication poem or in the colophon. The Godescalc Evangelistary and the Dagulf Psalter received their names after the scribes of the manuscripts. Both describe themselves as chaplains, suggesting that the scriptorium of Charlemagne's court school was connected to the chancery.Fillitz, p. 25. In the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, the monks Liuthard and Beringer name themselves as scribes.Walther/Wolf, p. 98. The smaller a scriptorium was and the lower the demand for illumination, the more likely it was that the scribe also executed the illumination.Jakobi-Mirwald, pp. 149f.
The book in Carolingian times and its transmission
The books, produced in a labor-intensive process with expensive materials, were an extremely precious luxury item. All Carolingian manuscripts are written on parchment; the cheaper paper only reached Europe in the course of the 13th century. Particularly representative luxury manuscripts, such as the Godescalc Evangelistary, the Soissons Gospels, the Coronation Gospels, the Lorsch Gospels, and the Bible of St. Paul were written with gold and silver ink on purple-dyed parchment. Their book covers were decorated with ivory carving panels framed by goldsmith works studded with gems. In the miniatures, gouache painting dominated; rarer was the – usually colored – pen drawing.
Around 8000 manuscripts from the 8th and 9th centuries survive.Pierre Riché: Die Welt der Karolinger, p. 249. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981. The number is based on the state of knowledge in the 1960s. How great the book losses are due to Viking invasions, wars, iconoclastic storms, fires, and other violent causes, due to disregard or reuse of parchment as raw material, is hardly estimable. Surviving library catalogs provide information on the extent of some of the largest libraries. Thus, the book stock of St. Gallen Monastery rose in Carolingian times from 284 to 428,Pierre Riché: Die Welt der Karolinger, pp. 251ff. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981. Lorsch Abbey owned 590 in the 9th century,Lexikon der Buchkunst und der Bibliophilie, ed. by Karl Klaus Walther, p. 47. Weltbild, Munich 1995. and the monastery library in Murbach 335 manuscripts. Wills provide an idea of the extent of private libraries. The 200 codices that Angilbert bequeathed to his monastery Saint-RiquierPierre Riché: Die Karolinger, p. 393. dtv, Munich 1991. and among which was also the Saint-Riquier Gospels, was probably one of the largest libraries. Eccard of Mâcon bequeathed about twenty books to his heirs. How large Charlemagne's library was, which was sold after his death according to his testamentary provisions, is unknown. In the Aachen library, all essential available works and numerous illustrated manuscripts were gathered, including many Roman, Greek, and Byzantine books.Grimme, p. 34.
Most manuscripts were not illuminated at all, or only a small part was modestly illuminated. As a rule, only the few major works of Carolingian illumination enter art historical literature. Valuable luxury manuscripts – especially if they were liturgical books – always enjoyed preferential treatment. The most exclusive codices were not utility literature but belonged as liturgical equipment to the church treasure or served primarily representative purposes, as the often minimal signs of use suggest.Jakobi-Mirwald, pp. 215ff. Illustrations on the very durable parchment are also well protected from external influences in a closed book, and the codices were long stored not in open shelves but in chests, rarely in lockable cabinets. Thus, the illustrated manuscripts from Carolingian times have survived in relatively large numbers, and many miniatures have survived for about twelve centuries in very good condition. Most surviving illustrated manuscripts are completely preserved; fragmentary transmission is rare. That, nevertheless, a considerable number of lost illuminated manuscripts must be reckoned with is proven by later illustrations that are aftereffects of non-preserved image templates.Mütherich 1999, p. 564. In some cases, no longer existing illuminated codices are attested: thus a “golden psalter” of Queen Hildegard from the early days of Carolingian illumination.Mütherich 1999, p. 561.