Medieval prayer wheel found inside rare Liesborn Gospel – but how the diagram …

Enigmatic diagram is written on the first blank page of the Liesborn Gospel
It has God at its centre and words of prayers and religious acts in rings
Diagram is thought to have been drawn a century after the book was made
It’s not known how it’s meant to be used or what the artist’s intention was

Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline

Published:
09:23 GMT, 4 May 2015

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Updated:
09:25 GMT, 4 May 2015

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Presented by an abbess to her convent of nuns, a medieval tome known as the Liesborn Gospel Book is one of the most valuable gospels on the planet.

Only five copies with rare first pages are known to exist, and now one has revealed an extra hidden treasure – a mysterious hand-drawn prayer wheel inside.

But despite the unusual find, it is not known how to use the enigmatic diagram.

A page in a rare medieval tome named the Liesborn Gospel Book bears a mysterious prayer wheel, but how it was used remains a mystery. It has concentric circles bearing quotations from the Lord’s Prayer and gifts of the Holy Spirit. This image shows an English translation of the medieval Latin original

The book, containing just the Gospels, has a cover made of carved oak with copper clasps and is thought to have been ordered by an abbess – or female superior – called Berthildis for highborn ladies who entered her convent in Liesborn in Germany.

Religious News reports the book is for sale by Manhattan-based medieval manuscripts dealer Les Enluminures Gallery for $6.5 million (£4.3 million).

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However, a copy of the tome complete with its painted wooden cover showing the crucifixion is listed on the seller’s website, for $150,000 (£100,00).

MailOnline has contacted the gallery to determine the correct price and whether there is one or two books available.

The mysterious prayer wheel was added to the book’s blank first page more than a century after it was made and was primarily used for display and oath taking.

A copy of the tome complete with its painted wooden cover showing the crucifixion is also listed on the seller’s website. It’s said to be in ‘astonishing condition as it has been treasured for a thousand years and bound for six hundred in a ‘binding of extreme significance’

Written in Latin and arranged in concentric circles, the prayer wheel’s outermost ring contains instructions, which when translated from medieval Latin read: ‘The order of the diagram written here teaches the return home.’

CIRCLES OF THE PRAYER WHEEL

The wheel’s outermost circle contains instructions that when translated, read: ‘The order of the diagram written here teaches the return home’.

The next reads ‘seven petitions’ and features seven quotations from the Lord’s Prayer along its spokes.

The third circle from the outside reads ‘Gifts of the Holy Spirit’ and includes the words ‘wisdom’ and ‘counsel,’ written in a mixture of black and red ink.

It also includes seven events in the life of Jesus, which are written in black.

The innermost ring lists the seven groups of people blessed in Jesus’ Beatitudes.

And the centre contains the word Deus, or God.

The wheel was originally written in medieval Latin.

It appears as if a user would have worked their way to the centre either reading the rings in turn, or working along the prayer wheel’s spokes.

But how it is meant to be used and its intention is a mystery.

The gallery has only released an image of the translated version of the text, not the original Latin inscription.

The next circle, entitled ‘seven petitions’, contains seven quotations from the Lord’s Prayer along its spokes, including ‘daily bread’ and ‘kingdom come’.

The third circle from the outside reads ‘Gifts of the Holy Spirit,’ and includes the words ‘wisdom’ and ‘counsel,’ written in a mixture of black and red ink.

Written in red, these gifts are mixed with seven events in the life of Jesus, such as his baptism and ‘passion day of judgement,’ which are shown in black.

Around the centre of the wheel, which reads Deus, or God, are the seven groups of people blessed in Jesus’ Beatitudes, for example, the meek and poor of spirit, with their rewards, such as ‘inherit the Earth’ and ‘Kingdom of heaven’ listed opposite.

While the contents of the wheel will be familiar to modern Christians, how it was used, perhaps by medieval nuns, is a mystery.

Lauren Mancia, an expert at Brooklyn College who has studied the Liesborn Wheel, said that monks and nuns in Central Middle Ages had a bad reputation for learning prayers and mumbling them without thinking.

But ‘this diagram suggests that they’re not just mumbling, they’re using a mnemonic device to remember and internalise, or even to make an inner journey,’ she said.

It resembles diagrams used by religious people to organise their thoughts centuries later, or may even looks like a magical incantation to some.

It appears as if the wheel can be used in two main ways, so that a reader could think about the words in each concentric circle, working towards the middle, or follow each ‘spoke’ of the wheel to focus their prayers.

The wheel questions the notion that monks and nuns in the Central Middle Ages simply learnt prayers by rote instead of embarking on a spiritual journey. This image from a 13th Century painting shows monks and nuns welcoming travellers and caring for the sick

It’s not known whether the diagram was used to teach people or was private aid for meditation, or whether it was an exercise designed to be repeated again and again.

It appears that the volume is missing the page before the one including the diagram, which raises the tantalising question of whether there were once instructions of how to use the wheel, or whether nuns who came across it were as clueless as we are today and chose to use in unique ways.

The last and only time the rare manuscript appeared in a bookseller’s catalogue was in 1945, when it was described as ‘one of the most valuable manuscripts of the gospels in private hands,’ Fine Books Magazine reported.