Medieval treasury

Elaborately decorated cover enclosing a book of Gospels. The cover is of beech overlaid with plaques of gold, enriched with plaques of cloisonné enamel work and precious stones cut for the most part "en cabochon". The central plaque of the upper cover is repoussé in relief with figure of Christ in Majesty, holding up his right hand in Benediction and holding in his left hand a book. This relief is surrounded by the cloisonné enamel border with an inscription in which enamel on a translucent blue ground.

The undercover is bound with red sheepskin, upon which a cross is indicated by means of iron nails. The clasps are composed of strips of leather with mounting of silver decorated with niello.

The manuscript consists of a nearly square folio of one hundred and eighty seven leaves of vellum written by a German scribe in the tenth or eleventh-century. The text is written in bold semi-uncial characters, with initials and headings in red. The manuscript contains those sections of the Gospel which were read at mass on the chief festivals of the year. On the last page is the beginning of a decree by Pope Adrian promulgated in the reign of Charlemagne.

An attempt has been made to identify this book with the Gospels of Charlemagne, a volume recorded as having belonged the abbey of St Maurice d' Agaune, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. There is however very good reason to suppose that it was originally made for the ancient church of Notre Dame de Valère, in the same canton, to which, according to an inscription, it belonged in the seventeenth-century. It afterwards became the property of the Cathedral of Sion in the valley below. In 1851 it was sold by the chapter to a dealer of Geneva, by whom it was sold to the Marquis de Ganay. Towards the end of the nineteenth-century, it passed into the Spitzer Collection, where various restorations were made and it was subsequently sold in Paris in 1893 when it was bought for the South Kensington Museum.

The enamels and the outer border are probably contemporary with the manuscript , but the seated figure of Christ and the surrounding strips can hardly be earlier than the twelfth century.Few of the larger stones can be original as they differ considerably from the those described in a fourteenth-century note on the first page of the book. The enamels were considerably restored in the nineteenth century.

Precious bindings such as this were reserved for the liturgical manuscripts used in services. Their decoration usually included the figure of Christ or the Crucifixion and the Evangelists, the whole often lavishly encrusted with gems.

Enamel plaques about 980-1000, Manuscript about 1025-1050, Binding about 1180-1200. The inscription above Christ was added before 1893 when the book cover was in the possession of Fredrick Spitzer.

Although the manuscript of the Sion Gospels is itself beautifully written, with initials and headings in red ink, the most striking feature of the book lies in its cover. Precious bindings such as this were reserved for the liturgical manuscripts used in services.Made of gold or silver, their decoration usually included the figure of Christ or the Crucifixion and the Evangelists, the whole often lavishly encrusted with gems.

While the enamels and outer border are probably contemporary with the manuscript, the seated figure of Christ and the surrounding strips of stamped work are likely to be later in date, perhaps twelfth-century. Few of the larger stones are original as they differ considerably from those described in a fourteenth-century note on the first page of the book.There has bee 19th century restoration to some of of the enamels.

567-1893