Indexing and art-historical description of the book illumination of the manuscripts from the monastery libraries Salem and Petershausen Salemitana pictura

The Bibliotheca Salemitana is a continuously growing collection of books with a focus on liturgical manuscripts from the 12th century as well as the 15th and early 16th century. Within the framework of various projects funded by the Stiftung Kulturgut Baden-Württemberg, among others, it has been possible to create uniform scholarly descriptions for these codices in recent years. With this project completed in July 2024, the last gap, the cataloguing of the art-historically significant book decoration, has now been closed.

120 manuscripts from the monasteries of Salem and Petershausen are decorated with book ornaments. They contain about 3,300 picture pages with miniatures, ornamental initials, borders, etc., which were described in detail.  The manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Salemitana consist of a few theological works as well as predominantly liturgical manuscripts, i.e. those that were needed for choral prayers and the celebration of mass. Overall, the chronological spectrum of the illuminations ranges from individual pieces from the Carolingian period, to numerous codices from the Romanesque and late medieval periods, to a number of magnificently decorated choir books from the Renaissance. Of the famous manuscripts, the following are particularly noteworthy: Hildegard of Bingen's “Liber Scivias”, the Petershausen Sacramentary, named after its medieval repository, the breviaries of Abbot Johannes Stantenat (1471-1494) (summer part, winter part) and the large choir books commissioned by subsequent abbots.