{{Unreferenced, date=January 2014
A number of medieval
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
Gospel book
A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels (Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazaret ...
s are called the Coronation Gospels, meaning they have, at least by tradition, had a
coronation
A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...
oath
Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to gi ...
sworn upon them at some point.
The plain term is mainly used of the 8th century
Vienna Coronation Gospels
The Vienna Coronation Gospels, also known simply as the Coronation Gospels (), is a late 8th century illuminated Gospel Book produced at the court of Charlemagne in Aachen.Kunsthistorisches 1991, p. 166. It was used by the future emperor at his co ...
, traditionally used for crowning the
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperator ...
s and their
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
successors, but also the
Coronation Gospels (British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius A.ii), in England since the 10th century. There is also the 11th century Czech
Codex Vyssegradensis
The Vyšehrad Codex (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 ...
, also called the "Coronation Gospels of Vratislav II", commissioned after the event to commemorate the coronation of the first
King of Bohemia.
Gospel Books
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...