Print Me a Manuscript! Facsimiles from the Institute of European Art History Facsimile Production Through the Present Day. The Case of the Codex Manesse

The several facsimiles of the Codex Manesse exemplify the evolution of this reproductive genre in terms of technology, function, and audience. Preserved today in the University Library of Heidelberg, the manuscript is considered the most important compilation of Middle High German minnesang, a form of lyric love poetry. With its full-page miniatures, it is a masterpiece of medieval book art – and as such, has been facsimiled many times. 

A partial, hand-colored copy of the Codex Manesse was produced in 1852 using lithography. The first complete rendition of the manuscript, issued in 1886, featured detailed black-and-white reproductions thanks to the new collotype process. The next major development came with the discovery of color phototype printing, which quickly became the preferred medium for facsimiles. This technique yielded a full-color duplicate of the Codex Manesse, produced between 1925 and 1927.

With the popularization of four-color offset printing, such high-quality editions could be made available in larger, more cost-effective print runs. In this process, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) are layered to variously absorb brightness from the underlying white paper, resulting in excellent color reproduction. In the case of medieval manuscripts, gold or silver leaf is often overlaid on miniatures by hand, and special papers or imitation parchment can be used to lend an air of authenticity. It is CMYK offset printing that is behind most of the facsimiles on view here. Collaboration among experts in a range of fields – from restoration to printing to bookbinding – is a further prerequisite for creating such high-quality editions.