Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Magnificent Gems: Medieval Treasure Bindings

September 8, 2017 through January 7, 2018

Treasure bindings—book covers encrusted with gold, silver, and gemstones—were a luxury in the Middle Ages. Few survive, and some of the finest examples are in the Morgan’s distinguished collection. Magnificent Gems: Medieval Treasure Bindings presents these masterpieces in context for the first time. The treasure bindings on view include star sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, pearls, and garnets, alongside illuminated manuscripts and printed books that depict two-dimensional representations of these precious materials.
 
Among the exhibition highlights will be the ninth-century Lindau Gospels, one of the two finest Carolingian jeweled bindings in the world, and the thirteenth-century Berthold Sacramentary, the most luxurious German manuscript of its time. In these and other examples, we learn that the application of gemstones and precious metals served to venerate the texts inside and embellish church services, as well as reflect the status and wealth of the patrons who commissioned them.
 
Images of “imagined” gems are also featured on the pages of manuscripts and printed books presented, including three examples of Venetian books, hand-painted by Girolamo da Cremona.  The artist’s frontispieces to Augustine’s City of God (1475), Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (1478), and Aristotle’s Opera (1483) are masterpieces of trompe-l’oeil. The last has been called the "most magnificent printed book in the world."

Magnificent Gems: Medieval Treasure Bindings is made possible by Caroline S. Bacon, Elizabeth A. R. and Ralph S. Brown, Jr., Salle Werner Vaughn, and other members of the Visiting Committee to the Department of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the B. H. Breslauer Foundation, and Susanna Borghese.

Cover of the Lindau Gospels. Court School of Charles the Bald Lindau Gospels, in Latin, Switzerland, Abbey of St. Gall, late ninth century ca. 880, 350 x 275 mm. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1901, MS M.1. The Morgan Library & Museum.

Selected Images

Jeweled Cover of the Lindau Gospels, France, ca. 875. Gold repoussé Crucifixion and ten mourning figures, including personifications of the sun and moon. Workshop of Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne. On: The Lindau Gospels, in Latin; Switzerland, Abbey of St. Gall, between 880 and 899. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1901.

Jeweled Cover of the Lindau Gospels, France, ca. 875. Gold repoussé Crucifixion and ten mourning figures, including personifications of the sun and moon. Workshop of Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne. On: The Lindau Gospels, in Latin Switzerland, Abbey of St. Gall, between 880 and 899. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1901.

Jeweled cover with silver-gilt repoussé figures of Christ in Majesty and the symbols of the four evangelists, Continental work, last third of the eleventh century. On: Gospels of Judith of Flanders, in Latin; Canterbury, England, ca. 1060. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. P. Morgan, 1926.

Ivory and silver gilt cover with ivory depicting St. Theodore: top: Etimasia flanked by archangels Raphael and Gabriel; center: Sts. Peter and Paul; bottom: donor kneeling before Archangel Michael, flanked by Sts. Mark and Luke. Probably by a Greek artist in Ravenna, eleventh century. On: The Sacramentary of Frontale, in Latin, Northeastern Italy, probably Ravenna, ca. 1050. Manuscript on vellum. Gift of the Trustees of the William S. Glazier Collection, 1984.

Jeweled cover of the Berthold Sacramentary, with statuette of the Virgin and Child in the center, the four evangelists in the corners, and eight other figures, including abbot Berthold himself. On: The Berthold Sacramentary, in Latin, Weingarten Abbey, Germany, ca. 1215-1217 , for Berthold, abbot from 1200 to 1232. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. P. Morgan, 1926.

Maius (d. 968), Vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Beatus of Liébana, Commentary on the Apocalypse, in Latin; San Salvador de Tábara, Spain, ca. 945. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. P. Morgan, 1919.

Girolamo da Cremona (active 1451–1483), Aristotle seated before Averroës, his great Muslim commentator: below, scenes with satyrs, putti, and deer; Aristotle, Opera, in Latin, Venice, Italy, 1483. Printed on vellum. Purchased by J. P. Morgan, 1919.

Simon Bening (1483/4–1561), St. Luke Writing his Gospel and Painting the Virgin; borders with pearls, pendants, and brooches. Da Costa Hours, in Latin, Ghent, Belgium, ca. 1515. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1910. The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.399, fol. 113v. Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/Austria.

Jeweled Cover of the Lindau Gospels, possibly Salzburg, last quarter eighth century. On: The Lindau Gospels, in Latin Switzerland, Abbey of St. Gall, between 880 and 899. Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1901.

Jeweled cover with cast figures of Christ in Majesty and the Crucifixion set against a silver-gilt filigree background with gems. Continental, perhaps Germanic, last third of the eleventh century. On: Gospels of Judith of Flanders, in Latin, England, between 1051 and 1064, for Judith of Flanders (1032–1094). Manuscript on vellum. Purchased by J. P. Morgan, 1926.

Silver-repoussé and enamel cover with the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, a small Annunciation at the bottom, and busts of the 24 prophets in niches, produced in the Kayseri silversmith workshop, ca. 1700. On: Gospel Book, in Armenian, Tokat, Turkey, 23 March 1700, written by Georg (Mik'ayel's son) for Hrip 'sime, who commissioned it in memory of her parents. Manuscript on paper. Purchased on the L. W. Frohlich Charitable Trust, in memory of L. W. Frohlich and Thomas R. Burns, in recognition of their interest and contributions to the art of the written word, 1998.