Codex Vyssegradensis

The Vyšehrad Codex (Czech: Kodex vyšehradský; Latin Codex Vyssegradensis), also known as the Coronation Gospels of King Vratislaus, is a late 11th-century illuminated Romanesque Gospel Book, which is considered the most important and most valuable manuscript kept in Bohemia (Czech Republic).

Its extremely rich iconography and its visual components rank it among the most precious illuminated manuscripts of the second half of the 11th century in Europe.

The codex is of Danubian provenance, and closely related to three other surviving manuscripts – two of them now in Poland and one in the Prague Chapter Library.

Hayes Williams points out that the iconography employed is very different from that usually found in such images, which she argues relates to an assertion of the rightful kingship of the royal patron.

[3][4] Williams go on to compare it with two other famous images, the Tree of Jesse window at Chartres Cathedral and the Lambeth Bible in England.