Category:MS 33 (Getty museum) - World Chronicle

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1774

Unknown German, Regensburg, about 1400 - 1410 with addition in 1487 Tempera colors, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment bound between wood boards covered with brown leather 13 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. MS. 33

Rudolf von Ems, a German knight and prolific writer, composed his World Chronicle in German (Weltchronik) toward the middle of the 1200s. In rhymed couplets, the chronicle weaves biblical, classical, and other secular texts into a continuous history of the world, beginning with Creation. Its overarching theme is the revelation of God's plan of Christian salvation through the course of time. Written for Rudolf's patron, King Conrad IV, the work was intended to culminate with an explanation of the Hohenstaufen dynasty's role in salvation history, but Rudolf died before the work was finished, having only completed the history up to King Solomon.

Other thirteenth-century texts, including Brother Philipp's Life of the Virgin Mary, the Christherre Chronicle (Christherre-Chronik), and an excerpt from the chronicle of Jans Enikel completed Rudolf's chronicle.

The Getty Museum's version of the World Chronicle is a large book, six inches thick, copied and illuminated around 1400 to 1410. Of the many surviving versions of this important example of Middle High German literature, the Museum's copy is the most lavishly decorated, containing more than 380 miniatures. Vivid coloring, bold brushwork, and psychological intensity characterize the images in the book.