Vision and Christomimesis in the Ruler Portrait of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram

Abstract

The Gospel book known to scholars as the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14000) is a lavishly decorated manuscript produced in 870 for the Carolingian king and subsequent emperor Charles the Bald (823–877). Although the manuscript has been much admired and its art frequently reproduced, many questions remain concerning the Codex Aureus and its miniatures, both individually and as parts of a program. This article examines the relationship between text and image in the two full-page miniatures, which represent the enthroned Charles the Bald facing an image of the twenty-four elders adoring the Lamb. It reads the illuminations as a diptych by looking at the writings of John Scotus, known as Eriugena (ca. 810–ca. 877), the poet, philosopher, and master of the school to whom the Codex Aureus’s captions have been attributed. By assimilating the king to Christ, the Word made flesh, the two-page opening captures the king’s imperial aspiration and related expectations for salvation. The miniatures not only compose a statement of ruler theology but also introduce Charles the Bald, who was the principal viewer of the manuscript, to a process of spiritual ascension through intellectual contemplation. This process was designed to elevate the king’s mind above the temporal world in order to accomplish a mystical union with God, a theosis.