Speaking the Gospels: The Visual Program in Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 8

by ALISON L. BERINGER, Emory University


Et respondens ihesus dixit iterum in parabolis eis dicens Simile factum est regnum celorum homini regi qui fecit nuptias et cetera. these words mark the beginning of a biblical pericope in a fourteenth-century manuscript of the Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk (Plate #1). typical of the Evangelienwerk, they are immediately followed by a German translation: Daz himelreich ist geleich worden einem manne der seinem svn het ein hohzeit gemacht . . . . but the German translation lacks the first phrase: it does not set the narrative frame of Christ speaking to the apostles (eis) in parables and instead begins immediately with the parable itself. the picture beside this pericope, though, is of Christ preaching to three apostles. this unframed picture in the margin visualizes the content of the missing Latin words and literally replaces them: the picture, like the Latin words, provides the setting for the parable. In this illustrated manuscript, the translation between media—textual to pictorial—replaces the need for a vernacular linguistic translation. the picture here is the vernacular translation of the words of the Latin incipit.