The death of Otho III. in 1002 did not affect materially the steady
advance of monastic art. Bamberg, St. Gall, Corvey, Luxeuil, Bobbio,
Monte Cassino continued their accustomed labours. Under the Capetian
Kings the French foundations maintained the reputations they had won
during the Carolingian times, while others were added from time to time
throughout the Rhineland, Limousin, and the South of France, where the
Romanesque or Byzantine tastes had not yet penetrated, and whose work
therefore remained distinct from that of Italy and the German Empire.
Henry II. and the Empress Cunigunda made Bamberg the great centre of
German art, and it is to Bamberg, St. Gall, Luxeuil, Monte Cassino, and
Magdeburg that we have to look for the finest productions of the
eleventh century. Among the earlier works of the Othonian period we may
mention the famous Gospel-book executed for the minister of Otho II.,
Egbert, Archbishop of Tr?ves, and known as the Codex Egberti. It was
written in 980 at Reichenau on the Lake of Constance (or Bodensee, as it
is locally known) by two monks, Kerald and Heribert, whose dwarfish
figures appear beneath that of the archbishop on the frontispiece. It
contains fifty-seven illuminations and several folios of violet
parchment with golden ornaments and lettering.
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