Codex Aureus of Lorsch

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Lorsch Codex redirects here. For the 12th-century monastery catalogue, see Lorsch codex.

Folio 72 verso of the Codex Aureus of Lorsch contains an illumination of Christ in Majesty

The Codex Aureus of Lorsch (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 50, and Alba Iulia, Biblioteca Documenta Batthyaneum, s.n., also known as the Lorsch Gospels) is an illuminated Gospel Book written between 778-820, roughly coinciding with the period of Charlemagne's rule over the Frankish Empire.

It was located for the first time in Lorsch Abbey (Germany), where it was mentioned as Evangelium scriptum cum auro pictum habens tabulas eburneas in the catalogue of the Abbey's library, compiled in 830 under Abbot Adelung. Considering gold letters in the manuscript and its location at Lorsch it was named the Codex Aureus Laurensius. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the library of Lorsch was the one of the best libraries of the world.

In the 16th century the manuscript was taken to Heidelberg (Otto Heinrich removed the contents of the library to Heidelberg, creating the famous Bibliotheca Palatina, just prior to Lorsch's dissolution in 1563), from whence it was stolen in 1622 during the Thirty Years' War; in order to be an easy sell, the codex was broken in two and the covers torn off. The richly illustrated first half reached the Migazzi Library and after that was sold to Bishop Ignac Batthyani. This section is now in Alba Iulia, Romania, and belongs to Batthyaneum Library. The second half is in the Vatican Library. The front cover is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the back cover by the Vatican Museums of Rome.