The Getty Museum acquires a Rare Book from France

The Getty Museum has acquired the Irmengard Codex, a manuscript made for the 11th century noblewoman Irmengard of Nellenburg, a member of the House of Egisheim-Dagsburg in Germany.

The Irmengard Codex was created in Germany in the mid-11th century. A collection of readings for the Mass, the manuscript contains 15 full-page illuminations executed in the otherworldly pinks, blues, and lavenders that characterize painting of the so-called long Ottonian era.

Irmengard of Nellenburg, the codex’s patron, was a member of a powerful local ruling family, the House of Egisheim-Dagsburg. She was related to Pope Leo IX (1002-1054) and was the Ottonian Emperor Henry II’s niece (973-1024).

Based on the script, it is thought that the text of the Irmengard Codex was written around 1030-1050. The full-page miniatures were added shortly after 1053 at the order of Irmengard. The illumination program culminates in an extremely rare dedication image in which Irmengard presents her book in memory of her deceased husband Werner… .

“The Irmengard Codex represents the preeminent center of German illumination of the period, the Reichenau school, in which the powerful and theatrical figures underscore the stateliness of events they enact,” says Elizabeth Morrison, senior curator of manuscripts at the Getty Museum. 1)

Yet where did this book come from? From the Catholic University of Lille, France, which had owned it since 1881 and where it was known as the évangéliaire de Saint-Mihiel. You see, they needed to sell this treasure to finance various construction projects….2)

Sales of art by by Catholic institutions are an ever growing problem in Europe – and here – as religious communities diminish, money needs grow and any remaining reverence for the artistic and spiritual value of such objects evaporates. 3)

1, “Getty Acquires 11th Century Irmengard Codex,“ Fine Books & Collections (3/17/2023).

2. See Le Forum Catholique by “Vexilla Galliae,” (3/19/2023); Derogis, Paul, L’Institut “catholique” de Lille a vendu l’évangéliaire dit de Saint-Mihiel daté de 1040, Médias Presse-Info (3/19/2023)

3. Findeisen, Moritz, Kunstschätze in Gefahr? Von der kulturellen Verantwortung der Klöster, Katholisch.de (6/9/2022) ( A German momastery is threatening to sell manuscripts that had resided there since the 13th Century; “Of the 18,000 nuns living in Germany only 17 per cent are younger than 65.“)