Exhibition

On 13th July 1024, Henry II died in the imperial palace of Grona. Together with his wife, Empress Cunigunde, he is one of the most outstanding personalities of the Middle Ages. To mark the 1000th anniversary of Emperor Henry’s death, the exhibition at the Bamberg State Library traces the history of the canonized couple’s influence right up to the early 20th century.

Thanks to the printing press, the veneration of the holy imperial couple Henry and Cunigunde experienced an enormous upswing in the period around 1500. In 1493, the Nuremberg city physician Hartmann Schedel praised the exemplary life of the couple in his widely circulated world chronicle, through which they “shone with miracles beyond death”. Pilgrims from near and far were able to view the relics of the imperial couple, including the imperial cloaks that have survived to this day.

Books illustrated with woodcuts brought the life story of the bishopric’s patrons closer to the faithful. The Bamberg Benedictine monk Nonnosus Stettfelder published “Dye legend und leben des Heyligen sandt Keyser Heinrichs” in 1511. The Würzburg sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider presented the saints’ lives to visitors to Bamberg Cathedral at his imperial tomb, which was completed shortly afterwards.

Illustrations of the tomb can be found among the exhibits, as can the first scholarly works on the medieval manuscripts donated by Henry and Cunigunde. Other exhibits bear witness to popular piety: text books document the annual commemorative processions on the Feast Day of Saint Henry.

Accompanying program

You can join our weekly guided tours (in German), which start every Thursday at 17:00 (except 3rd October 2024) in the entrance hall of the library, without registration. On 17th October 2024 at 12:30, an art snack will provide intellectual nourishment for those hungry for culture at lunchtime (in German). We are happy to arrange separate guided tours for private groups.

At the exhibition opening on Sunday, 15th September 2024, at 11:00, Prof. Dr. Christof Rolker (Bamberg) will speak on the topic of “Preserving, developing, reproducing. The long afterlife of Emperor Henry’s Library” (in German). You are cordially invited!

In November 2024, as part of the series Bamberg Book Stories, we are also offering three online lectures (in German) to complement the exhibition, which you can follow free of charge via Zoom (meeting code: SBB#24).

New publication on the Emperor Henry’s Library

The 165 codices and manuscript fragments in the Bamberg State Library which can be proven or most probably were donated by Emperor Henry II are presented digitally in the Kaiser-Heinrich-Bibliothek. A book edited by Prof. Dr. Bettina Wagner and Prof. Dr. Christof Rolker presents a selection of 50 items from Emperor Henry’s Library. The richly illustrated publication (in German), which brings together essays by renowned scholars, was published in October 2024:

Des Kaisers neue Bücher: Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Bamberger Kaiser-Heinrich-Bibliothek in 50 Porträts. Herausgegeben von Christof Rolker und Bettina Wagner. Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag, 2024. (Bamberger Buch-Geschichten, Nr. 4)
Printed book: ISBN 978-3-7520-0855-5, € 29.95 
e-book: ISBN 978-3-7520-0326-0, € 29.95

On the occasion of the presentation of the new publication on Monday, 28 th October 2024, at 19:00, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Scholz (Zurich) will give a lecture at the University of Bamberg on The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia and the position of medicine in the early Middle Ages (in German). You are cordially invited!

Virtual exhibition

To mark the 1000th anniversary of the death of Emperor Henry II, Bavaria’s digital treasury bavarikon is offering a virtual exhibition on the life and reign of the medieval emperor: Emperor Henry II – A Man of Power and a Saint.

Over 30 digital exhibits on Henry II from 10 archives, libraries and museums can be discovered, including manuscripts from the Bamberg State Library and the Bavarian State Library in Munich and the imperial robes that can be seen today in the Bamberg Diocesan Museum. Virtually united, they reveal the intellectual world of the mighty Holy Roman Empire with its secular and ecclesiastical rulers and convey exciting facts about the historical person of the “Emperor at the End of Time”.

Outstanding works of medieval book art from influential monastic workshops, such as magnificently illustrated and sumptuously bound gospels and books of pericopes or the unique Bamberg Apocalypse, invite you to browse, zoom and marvel. Among the imperial vestments, Henry II’s legendary gold-embroidered star cloak, which was once given to him by an Apulian prince, and the blue cloak of Cunigunde, the world’s oldest surviving liturgical vestment, are particularly fascinating.

Information at a glance