Station: [17] The Treasury

The focal point of our Treasury is what’s known as an antiphonary – a large manuscript on parchment weighing more than 20kg or 44 pounds. It features short choral pieces known as antiphons for psalmody – the singing of the psalms. The beautiful miniature painting was created in a monastery in northern Italy in around 1300. It shows Mary as a new-born baby with her mother Anna in a bed and a room that reflects the style of the period.

If you look very closely, you can see a small seam, where a tear in the parchment has been repaired. On the left-hand page, the bottom corner is missing. That was where the animal skin, and hence the parchment, ran out. Yet it was still used, despite these small flaws – which shows how valuable parchment was in those days! 

The antiphonary is on loan from the Roman Catholic parish of Meersburg.

All depictions: © Bibelgalerie Meersburg