Overview
This book brings to light an aesthetic passage of European history which has never before received full-scale treatment in English. It explains the origins and momentum of a magnificent movement of German art, and demonstrates how religion and political ideology were intertwined in Ottonian culture from about 950 to 1050. Besides dealing with the great imperial books (including the Gospel Book of Otto III and the Pericopes Book of Henry II), as well as other splendid liturgical manuscripts, the author writes with penetrating insight about the great art-loving bishops such as Egbert of Trier and Bernward of Hildesheim, whose aims and personalities are expressed in the books they commissioned. The most important art centers of the Ottonian Empire are also discussed in detail.