Ragyndrudis Codex

The Ragyndrudis Codex is one of three "Bonifatian" books, a set of three manuscripts traditionally considered to have been in the possession of Saint Boniface. The others are the so-called Victor Codex (Codex Bonifatianus I) and the Cadmug Gospel (Codex Bonifatianus III). All Codices Bonifatiani are held in Fulda, though in different locations: I and III are held in the Hessian State Library in Fulda, and II is held in the Domschatz of Fulda Cathedral, on loan from the library of the Fulda seminary. All three Codices Bonifatiani have eighth-century bindings. three facsimiles of the Ragyndrudis Codex were made by Ludwig Ritterpusch on the occasion of Pope John Paul II's visit to Fulda in 1980. First mention of the three as a set pertaining to the life of Boniface was made by the Jesuit Nicolaus Serarius (1555–1609), who described the three in a vita of the saint (1604). Codices Bonifatiani I and III The Victor Codex, Codex Bonifatianus I, also known as the Codex Fuldensis, was produced in the middle of the sixth century for Victor of Capua, and is known for its content, script, and history. It contains a Gospel harmony and is an important witness for a number of textual cruxes in the New Testament. Victor himself corrected and edited the manuscript, and signed off on it on a date that translates to the 12 April 547. It was long thought that a particular turn of phrase found also in Boniface's correspondence was evidence of his having used the manuscript, but Malcolm Parkes proved that the phrase was added to the Codex by an eighth-century scribe in Fulda after Boniface's death. Bonifatius Fischer believes that the glosses in the margin of the Epistle of James could well be by the saint, since they are written in a southern English hand in the early eighth century. The binding was probably made in Northumbria. The manuscript is written in a Luxeuil-derived minuscule from the late seventh or early eighth century; Additionally, there are eighth-century corrections and glosses in an Anglo-Saxon hand. ==Contents==

The Codex contains 14 texts pertaining to exegesis, apologia, and dogma. While some sources report that the codex is "a collection of mainly anti-Arian texts", this is not entirely correct—the codex contains a number of those (short) texts, but it also contains Ambrose's De bono mortis and Isidore of Seville's Synonyma. The text of the Decretum Gelasianum is the earliest complete manuscript copy. • Epistola Leo I papae ad Flavianum episcopum Constantinopolitanum, 2v-11v • Theodoro episcopo Foroiulensi Leo urbis Romae episcopus, 11v-14v • Disputatio beati Cerealis episcopi Castellensis contra Maximinum Arriomanitam, 14v-34v • Epistula Agnelli episcopi Ravennatensis ad Arminium De ratione fidei, 34r-39r • Libellum Fausti confessoris episcopus Reiensis De ratione fidei, 39r-45r • Fides edita sancti Ambrosii episcopi De spiritu sancto, 45r-47v • Testimonia de deo patri et filio et spiritu sancto, 47v-53v • Regula fidei catholicae facta a Nicena, 53v-55r • Regula fidei secundum CCCXVIII patris, 55r-55v • Regula fidei caholicae contra omnes hereses Hieronimi presbyteri, 56r-57r • Explanacio fidei catholicae (Decretum Gelasianum), 57r-61v • Sancti Ambrosii De bono mortis, 62r-96r • Notitio regionum et civitatum quibus sanctorum apostolorum et evangelistarum venerabilia corpora requiescunt (De locis apostolorum), 96r-97r • Liber sancti Ysidori episcopi (Synonyma de lamentatione animae peccatricis), 98v-143r ==Legacy==

's martyrdom, the saint holding a book in front of his chest. The legacy of the codex is based on the life and death of Saint Boniface who, in 753, had gone off to Friesland one more time to try and convert the Frisians. On the morning of June 5, 754, Boniface, camping in the Frisian countryside with 50 or so comrades, was getting ready to accept new converts, when the camp was overrun by pagan bandits who killed all the missionaries and destroyed their possessions. While the earliest hagiographical accounts of Boniface and his martyrdom had him order his comrades to lay down their arms and accept martyrdom willingly, later accounts added that he held a book over his head to protect himself – this is what Boniface scholar Lutz von Padberg calls the Schutzhypothese, the "protection hypothesis", and it has become an enduring image of the saint. Adding to the Schutzhypothese are five deep cuts which appear to strengthen the theory, but von Padberg argues that the position and character of the cuts do not match the hypothesis; in addition, Boniface was an uncommonly tall man, which makes it even more unlikely that such cuts would have been made while he held the Codex over his head. According to von Padberg, the Codices Bonifatiani must have left Utrecht and been in Fulda in 825, or the Utrecht tradition would have more clearly identified them. Images of the saint holding up a book for protection are being produced in Fulda by the year 970, when a series of sacramentaries are illustrated with images of Boniface's work as a missionary and his martyrdom. That Boniface would have carried a collection of books with him on his journeys is without doubt. Whether the Ragyndrudis Codex was one of those books is not – its contents appear unrelated to any missionary work, A 2012 article in Der Spiegel reported that recent investigations found evidence of a nail having been driven through the book, which could have been the result of the book being nailed to a tree, in a Germanic, anti-Christian ritual. Michael Drout supposes that J. R. R. Tolkien's Book of Mazarbul in The Fellowship of the Ring, especially its physical condition, owes something to the Ragyndrudis Codex. ==References==