Vortrag von Dr. Martin Kauffmann
Head of Early and Rare Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford
9. Juli 2026, um 18:00 Uhr
Kunstgewerbemuseum am Kulturforum
An Ottonian illuminated manuscript in Oxford, and how to study it
Oxford’s most important medieval work of art from the German-speaking lands is an illuminated manuscript which, though it does not tell us where or when or by whom it was made, was probably produced at the monastic house of Reichenau on Lake Constance in the first half of the 11th century. Whilst exploring the making of the manuscript, its relation to other books made at the same house, its uses and its reception (including its subsequent travels), it is important to interrogate the interlocking tools which historians have traditionally used to analyse such objects: codicology, palaeography, liturgy, stylistic criticism, and iconography. What is the place of an illuminated book in history, and in the history of art?
Eine illuminierte Handschrift der ottonischen Zeit in Oxford – und wie sie zu untersuchen ist
Das bedeutendste aller mittelalterlicher Kunstwerke aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum, die in Oxford verwahrt werden, ist eine illuminierte Handschrift, die wahrscheinlich in der ersten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts im Kloster Reichenau am Bodensee entstand – wobei dieses Buch keine Informationen darüber enthält, wo, wann und von wem es geschaffen wurde. Untersucht werden im Vortrag seine Genese, sein Verhältnis zu anderen Codices aus derselben Werkstatt, sein Gebrauch und seine Rezeption (die auch die späteren Verbringungsorte einschließt) – und zwar unter Berücksichtigung ineinandergreifender Untersuchungsmethoden, die seit jeher für die Analyse solcher Objekte zur Verfügung stehen: Kodikologie, Paläographie, Liturgie, Stilkritik und Ikonographie. Was ist der Ort eines illuminierten Buches in der Geschichte – und in der Kunstgeschichte?
Martin Kauffmann was born in London but his mother’s family came from Berlin. He studied History at Oxford and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on a group of 13th-century illustrated saints’ lives. After a fellowship at the Warburg Institute he was appointed Curator of medieval manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, where he has catalogued, exhibited, taught and written about illuminated manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the Middle Ages. He is now Head of Early and Rare Collections at the Bodleian (consisting of maps, music, early and rare printed books, and medieval and early modern manuscripts).
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