Jeweled Binding with Virgin and Child Surrounded by Evangelists, Five Saints, and Two Virtues

Berthold Sacramentary, in Latin
Illuminated by the Master of the Berthold Sacramentary
Germany, Weingarten Abbey, ca. 1215

The Berthold Sacramentary, the masterpiece of Weingarten illumination, is the finest, most luxurious German manuscript of the time. A major monument of Romanesque art, the book retains its original jeweled binding. The cover is dominated by a silver-gilt high relief figure of the Virgin and Child, anchored by a framed cross. Surrounding the Virgin, whose prominence reflects her important cult in Weingarten, are twelve repoussé figures identified by inscriptions: the four Evangelists, the archangels Michael and Gabriel, the virtues Virginity and Humility, SS. Oswald and Martin (patron saints), St. Nicholas, and Abbot Berthold himself.