Illuminated Manuscripts in Graz University Library 1200-1300

The aim of the project is to open up to the public the illuminated manuscripts of the 13th century in Graz University Library by means of an art-historical catalogue. This is the third part of the FWF-funded series, `Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Universitätsbibliothek Graz (The Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula of Graz University Library)`, which is edited by O. Univ.-Prof. Dr Michael Viktor Schwarz. The work on the codices will be lead by the art historians Dr Anna Reisenbichler and Dr Michaela Schuller-Juckes. This should lead to a richly illustrated catalogue that presents each of the illuminated manuscripts individually. Alongside the determination of provenance and the dating of the books` painted decoration, the catalogue will contain a stylistic and iconographical analysis of the books` decoration, as well as a discussion of their palaeographical and codicological characteristics. The project performs primarily ground-laying research, which opens up to those interested a wealth of otherwise inaccessible sources. Although the catalogue is art-historical, it will also be of interest for other historical disciplines (e.g. for palaeographers, philologians, theologians, historians, material cultural scientists). Engagement with the history of the monasteries and scriptoria from which the codices originated will cast new light on the educational, local and cultural history of Styria/Steiermark in the 13th century. The University Library in Graz has, after the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the largest collection of manuscripts in Austria. The continuation of art-historical work on the collection is urgently necessary, if a rounded picture of the art and cultural history of Austria is to be achieved.

The digital age has brought fundamental changes for research on medieval book painting. Worldwide attempts to make important historical and cultural-historical sources accessible online have led to a flood of images, which demand explanation and, at the same time, offer a new basis for research on medieval manuscripts. The present project, an art-historical investigation of the thirteenth-century manuscripts in Graz University Library, has sought to exploit these circumstances in order to improve our understanding of thirteenth-century book painting, the historical and geographical contexts of the individual works, and production conditions in illuminators workshops.The Graz library contains collections of books from the dissolved monasteries of Styria and Carinthia. In determining the place and date of the manuscripts production, a central question was thus how far the monasteries illuminated their own books. It was in fact possible to show that several monasteries, at least for certain periods of time, had in-house facilities for book decoration for example, the Augustinian monastery of Seckau around the middle of the thirteenth century. As a rule, however, such institutions turned to professional illuminators who worked for various clients at various locations. Thus it was possible to create a profile for one painter who was active towards the end of the thirteenth century for both the Benedictine monastery of St. Lambrecht and the Augustinian monastery of Vorau. At the same time, there is also evidence for the establishment of the first professional illuminators ateliers in the region: stylistic evidence in particular shows the existence of an illuminator who led a commercially organized atelier in Friesach. This town was the most important economic, ecclesiastical, and cultural centre of the thirteenth century in the Styrian-Carinthian region.A further focal point of the project derived from around 15 illuminated legal manuscripts that were imported from Italy. The evidence of their texts and the style of their decoration made it possible to date and localize these works. It became clear that the import of such books reached a highpoint in the second half of the thirteenth century, and that Bologna was the most important centre for their production. The intellectual and artistic transfer documented by these manuscripts influenced the subsequent development of illumination in Styria and other regions.