Aachen Gospels (Ada School)

These are surrounded by architectural decoration, which reflects a late antique model from around AD 400 and, uniquely in all Carolingian illumination, depicts Classical entablatures.

Through the differing transparencies of the paint, sketches are visible which show that an architectural background in the form of crenellated walls was originally planned.

Reference is also made to the unity and consistency of the four gospels, as written evidence and manifestation of the a unified body of belief: the Christian Good News.

Excepting the image discussed above and a decorative page with the title of the Gospel of Matthew in gold and silver capitalis rustica on a purple background in an ornamental frame, there are no further miniatures in the manuscript, which is incomplete.

Until 1972 a book cover from Ottonian times (c.1020) with goldsmithery and a Byzantine ivory relief from the late tenth century with a depiction of Mary holding Baby Jesus in the centre was bound to the manuscript.

The centre of the cover is an ivory panel, showing the Theotokos as Hodegetria (Way-pointer), one of the five main iconographic types of the Madonna in Eastern Orthodox art.

The Hodegetria is framed above and below by four gold sheets in Repoussé relief with scenes from the Life of Christ: the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.