{"id":2095,"date":"2015-05-03T03:53:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T03:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2015-10-15T10:28:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T10:28:08","slug":"codex-gisle-gradual-gisela-kerssenbock-facsimile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/codex-gisle-gradual-gisela-kerssenbock-facsimile\/","title":{"rendered":"Codex Gisle – Gradual of Gisela von Kerssenbrock, now available"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cistercian Convent of Marienbrunn in Rulle and Its Choirbook<\/h2>\n

The splendid manuscript from a small Cistercian nunnery outside the town of Osnabr\u00fcck in northern Germany known as the Codex Gisle<\/strong>\u00a0is one of the most richly illuminated choirbooks<\/strong> made in northern Europe in the high Gothic period<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is a gradual<\/strong> containing the chants for the mass and its 52 historiated initials for major chants are embellished with numerous literary quotations from the liturgy reflecting the intellectual ambience of the encloistered nuns who made and used it.<\/p>\n

Preserved at Rulle for centuries, it came into the keeping of the bishopric of Osnabr\u00fcck after the French Revolution, first at the Gymnasium Carolinum, and now at the Di\u00f6zesanarchiv where it is Inv. No. Ma 101<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\"Codex<\/a>\n

Gisela von Kerssenbrock as Scribe and Artist<\/h2>\n

The artist and scribe are clearly identified in an extraordinarily detailed prefatory memorial verse identifying \u201cthe venerable and pious virgin Gisela von Kerssenbroeck<\/strong>\u201d as the person who \u201cwrote, illuminated, notated, paginated, and decorated this admirable book with golden letters and beautiful images in her memory\u201d before her death in 1300.<\/p>\n

While professional workshops were well established in the Gothic period, the one type of book that remained a near monopoly of monastic craftsmen were music books, because of their complex chant repertoire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gisela von Kerssenbrock as Choirmistress<\/h2>\n

Gisela is depicted twice<\/strong> in her manuscript identified in the humble diminutive as \u201cGisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

She leads her sisters in song at Christmas and kneels in prayer as a witness or visionary at the Resurrection on Easter. Her gesture pointing to the words of the Christmas sequence chant suggests that she was the choirmistress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As such, she would have memorized the chant repertoire, and was in charge of the convent\u2019s liturgical books<\/strong> and in-house book production.<\/p>\n

An Elegant and Charming Style<\/h2>\n

The high quality of Gisela\u2019s miniatures<\/strong> identify her as one of the the most gifted women artists<\/strong> of the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n

Her images possess an elegant courtly gothic style<\/strong> with deep reds and blues set against shimmering gold grounds. The sounds made by various participants in the initials get particular attention.<\/p>\n

At the Kyrie<\/em> and Confitemini<\/em> chants of Holy Saturday a choir of angels is singing, some of them with realistically open mouths. On the road to Bethlehem, the donkey lowers its head and opens its mouth to bray, both from fatique and more symbolically from carrying the weight of salvation on its back.<\/p>\n\"Codex<\/a>\n

Two lions roar menacingly in the foreground as the holy family traverses the wilderness before reaching the safety of Bethlehem\u2019s gate.<\/p>\n

Choirbooks for use at Mass and the Codex Gisle\u2019s Unusual Cycle<\/h2>\n

Most surviving German graduals<\/strong> from the period around 1300 were made for women\u2019s houses, but they differ dramatically from the Codex Gisle in their liturgical emphasis.<\/p>\n

While these other choirbooks<\/strong> have dozens of images for the feasts of saints, Gisle\u2019s book instead is unique in its focus on the Easter season which was of fundamental importance in monastic life.<\/p>\n

Of its 52 initials<\/strong>, 11 occur in Lent and Holy Week and 22 in the Easter Season. On Easter day, every single one of its 8 chants receives an historiated initial! The Advent and Christmas season are also singled out for heightened celebration with 8 initials.<\/p>\n\"Assumption<\/a>\n

Art as Music and Music as Art<\/h2>\n

Phrases of chants appear on banderoles<\/em> turning the narrative scenes in many initials into mini-operas with many voices engaged in melodious conversation.<\/p>\n

At the same time, individual phrases of music and words of chant are embellished in red, blue and gold turning them into painted embroidery on the parchment page<\/strong>. For example, at the feast of the Assumption, the words Marie and assumptione are written in red with red notes highlighting a rising melody just as Mary is raised to heaven in the initial.<\/p>\n

Both phenomena \u2013 the nearly operatic multiplicity of chant quotations and the visual highlighting of music and words of text are unique or highly unusual features of Gisela\u2019s choirbook<\/strong>. They reflect the fusion of music and art in the religious services of women\u2019s convents described in the writings of contemporary German visionary nuns.<\/p>\n

The fusion of the senses known as synaesthesia<\/em> seen in Gisela\u2019s manuscript reflects a highly desired heightened state of mind in monastic choir devotions.<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/h2>\n