TheStockholm Codex Aureus (Stockholm,National Library of Sweden, MS A. 135, also known as theCodex Aureus of Canterbury andCodex Aureus Holmiensis) is aGospel book written in the mid-eighth century inSouthumbria, probably inCanterbury, whose decoration combinesInsular and Italian elements. Southumbria produced a number of important illuminated manuscripts during the eighth and early ninth centuries, including theVespasian Psalter, the Stockholm Codex Aureus, three Mercian prayer books (the Royal Prayer book, theBook of Nunnaminster and theBook of Cerne), theTiberius Bede and theBritish Library's Royal Bible.
The manuscript has 193 surviving folios which measure 395 by 314 mm (15.6 by 12.4 in). It contains the text of the fourGospels inLatin written in anuncial script onvellum leaves that alternately aredyed purple and undyed. The purple-dyed leaves are written with gold, silver, and white pigment, the undyed ones with black ink and red pigment. On some folios, the differing colours of ink are arranged to form geometric patterns.Purple parchment was, in the Roman and Byzantine Empires, reserved for Imperial manuscripts, and in the West reserved for the grandest commissions, and often only seen on a few pages.[1]
The illustration programme includes two survivingevangelist portraits, sixcanon tables and seven large decorated initials. The manuscript is the oldest surviving example of initials decorated withgold leaf. The style is a blend ofInsular art, as in theChi-Rho initial shown, and Mediterranean traditions, possibly including some from earlyCarolingian art. In the opening shown at the start of Matthew the evangelist portrait to the left is in a consistent adaptation of Italian style, probably closely following some lost model, though adding interlace to the chair frame, while the text page to the right is mainly in Insular style, especially in the first line, with its vigorous Celtic spirals and interlace. The following lines revert to a quieter style more typical ofFrankish manuscripts of the period. Yet the same artist almost certainly produced both pages, and is very confident in both styles. The other surviving evangelist portrait of John includes roundels withCeltic spiral decoration probably drawn from the enamelled escutcheons ofhanging bowls.[2] This is one of the so-called "Tiberius group" of manuscripts, which leant towards the Italian style, and appear to be associated withKent, or perhaps the kingdom ofMercia in the heyday of theMercian Supremacy. It is, in the usual chronology, the last English manuscript in which "developed trumpet spiral patterns" are found.[3]
An inscription asks for prayers for four individuals, one a goldsmith (Wulfhelm). The others are Ceolhard, Niclas and Ealhhun, who were presumably the monks responsible for creating the manuscript and the elaborate metalwork cover it no doubt originally possessed.[4] In the late ninth century it was looted by aViking army andEaldorman Aelfred (Alfred), ealdorman ofSurrey, had to pay aransom to get it back. Above and below theLatin text of theGospel of St. Matthew is an added inscription inOld English recording how the manuscript was ransomed from a Viking army who had stolen it on one of their raids inKent by Alfred, and given toChrist Church, Canterbury. It reads:
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was inSpain, and in 1690 it was bought for the Swedish royal collection. It is now kept in theNational Library of Sweden.
