Title Page of Abbot Berno's "Tonarius:" Initial D[omino] (c.1030): Art, History and Details

Title Page of Abbot Berno's "Tonarius:" Initial D[omino] (c.1030) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf originally served as the dedication page of the Tonarius, or Tonary, written by Reichenau's Abbot Berno (1008-1048). A tonary was a music manual used to regulate liturgical chants. Berno's manuscript was presented to Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne (1021-1036) whose name appears at the bottom of this leaf.

Object facts

• Title: Title Page of Abbot Berno's "Tonarius:" Initial D[omino]
• Date: c.1030
• Culture: Germany, Abbey of Reichenau, 11th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 21.5 x 15.3 cm (8 7/16 x 6 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1952.88

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Title Page of a Reichenau Manuscript." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 7 (September 1952): 177-178, 183.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Wixom, William. "The Helmarshausen Latin Gospels." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 4 (April, 1959): 58-59.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.