UNESCO
Ada Gospel from Trier is a world heritage site
The Ada Gospel from the treasury of the Trier City Library. The valuable illuminated manuscripts are around 1,200 years old. photo
© Harald Tittel/dpa
With the Trier Ada Gospel, works from the court school of Emperor Charlemagne have been included as UNESCO World Documentary Heritage. Representatives from several European cities came to the honor.
The inclusion of the manuscripts from the court school of Emperor Charlemagne, including the valuable Trier Ada Gospels, into the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage was ceremoniously sealed on Monday. The President of the German UNESCO Commission, Maria Böhmer, presented the relevant certificates to the city of Trier and to representatives of archives and libraries from France, Great Britain, Austria and Romania.
The works were added to UNESCO’s international list in May 2023. The eleven valuable illuminated manuscripts are around 1,200 years old. Most contain the Latin text of the four Gospels, are written in gold ink, and feature portraits of the evangelists. The main work is the Ada Gospel, which is kept in the scientific library of the city of Trier. The other manuscripts are in archives and libraries in Paris, London, Vienna and Bucharest.
The Ada Gospels with 172 parchment pages and a precious book cover made of gold and precious stones were probably created around the year 800 at the court of Charlemagne in the Imperial Palace of Aachen, said library director Francesco Roberg in Trier. The richly decorated and illustrated texts were written over years of work. The valuable book cover was added later in 1499.
Currently, almost 500 documents worldwide are part of the World Documentary Heritage, including around 30 from Germany. This also includes a Gutenberg Bible, the literary estate of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Nebra Sky Disk and the Nibelungenlied.
The corresponding UNESCO program has existed since 1992. The aim of the international register is to secure documentary evidence of exceptional value in archives, libraries and museums, to make them accessible and to point out their importance.