Codex Aureus of Echternach

The Codex Aureus of Echternach (Codex aureus Epternacensis) is an illuminated Gospel Book, created in the approximate period 1030–1050, with a re-used front cover from around the 980s. It is now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

The manuscript contains the Vulgate versions of the four gospels plus prefatory matter including the Eusebian canon tables, and is a major example of Ottonian illumination, though the manuscript, as opposed to the cover, probably falls just outside the end of rule by the Ottonian dynasty. It was produced at the Abbey of Echternach under the direction of Abbot Humbert.

The manuscript has 136 folios which measure 446 mm by 310 mm. It is one of the most lavishly illuminated Ottonian manuscripts. It contains over 60 decorative pages including 16 full page miniatures, 9 full page initials, 5 evangelist portraits, 10 decorated pages of canon tables, and 16 half-page initials. In addition there are 503 smaller initials, and pages painted to resemble textiles. The entire text is written in gold ink.

Each gospel is preceded by the following: two pages summarizing the gospel, two pages imitating textiles, four pages of narrative scenes laid out in three registers per page, a full-page evangelist portrait, two pages of decorative text, before a full-page initial, which begins the actual text. As one art historian put it, the planner of the book "was in no hurry to bring his reader to the text". The narrative scenes cover the Life of Christ, including many of his miracles, and preceding Luke his parables, which by this date was becoming unusual. There are one, two or sometimes three scenes in each register, giving a total of 48 framed images with 60 scenes, an unusually large number for a medieval cycle. Unlike the comparable scenes in the Augustine Gospels, the scenes are arranged to cover the life and ministry of Jesus without concern for whether a particular scene is covered in the gospel it precedes.

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