About the Manuscrpit
CONTENTS
The Hermann Composite contains the works of three known authors and an anonymous chronology in addition to three sets of narrative illustrations, by either one or multiple artists or workshops. The manuscript seems to have been assembled for Hermann, Abbot of St. Peter in Kastl, as suggested by a number of illuminations in the texts and two panels in the illustrated section depicting him, usually labelled by name and consistent in appearance across the manuscripts.(Schonborn 4: A Composite Manuscript, unpublished bibliographic reference)
The works contained are biblical commentaries by Haymo, Bishop of Haberstadt; works by Rabanus Maurus; and the Anticlaudianus, a philosophical epic poem by Alain de Lille about the creation of the perfect man. The anonymous chronology diagrams family relations from the beginning of the old testament up to the time of Christ, providing both biblic and historical lineages.
Three sets of illustrated narratives appear between the chronology and the Anticlaudianus. The first set of illustrations are four pages of 14-panel narrative miniatures, beginning with a dialogue contrasting old and new testament prophets and followed by scenes from the Anticlaudianus. The second section is a dramatization of the fifteen signs before doomsday told over four leaves divided vertically into two illustrated panels per side with High Middle German captions, except for the last page which takes a full page to depict the last judgement. The last illustrated section depicts female saints and martyrs in three rows, clearly unfinished as indicated by the lack of inked text. (Schonborn 4: A Composite Manuscript, unpublished bibliographic reference)
Each work contained in the composite is incomplete in numerous places, details left out or indicated with light sketches, even entire pages left blank. It is unclear whether the work was ever bound in its time. Curiously, the final folio of the manuscript, in which only a single column of text appears completed, is slashed in half. Frequent marginal annotations occur throughout the composite in a lighter, sketched hand also used for the ruling of the lined text as well as the preliminary sketches and notation for unfinished elements.
MATERIAL CONDITIONS
After entering the private collection of the Schönborn family, the codex was rebound with a leather cover displaying the Schönborn family crest. (Schonborn 4: A Composite Manuscript, unpublished bibliographic reference) The leaves are consistently cut to 12.5''h x 9.5''w. Several of the manuscripts contained are clearly trimmed down from their original dimensions, evident from flourishes which extend off of the vellum. This may be the result of several prior manuscripts of varying dimensions being brought together for the original compilation, or a decision made by a later owner in the work’s rebinding.
Prior to this retroactive mutilation, some water damage has stained the book, causing the ink to smear and lighten in places although it is in no part wholly illegible. The most unfortunate loss is the silver leaf pressings in the fifteen signs illustrations, which have lost their lustre and definition over time.
Another distinctive feature recurrent throughout the codex is the frequent occurrence of holes in the vellum. These gaps in the folios are not damage but rather holes in the animal skin itself, which the scribes have worked around. That these features occur is not in itself unique to a manuscript on vellum, but interestingly there is evidence of stitching done to seal up these gaps in the material; punctures from needlepoint around locations where gaps were sealed and in several instances fibre from the thread used remain as testimony to this practice.