Welcome to Lucerne

… at the publishing company for true-to-the-original facsimiles in the heart of Switzerland. We are the youngest facsimile publishing house, although all together, we look back on more than 30 years experience in fine art facsimile publishing. Our aim is to discover the finest and artistically most interesting of the illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages and make them accessible to you.

The Corpus Apocalypse – The Most Lavishly Illustrated Apocalypse of the Gothic Era

The four riders of the Apocalypse, the angels and their trumpets, the whore of Babylon, or the heavenly Jerusalem—hardly any other biblical text has fascinated and inspired people, especially artists, in the same way throughout the centuries as have the mysterious images from the Secret Revelation of Saint John.

Between 1335 and 1339 the most richly illustrated Gothic-era Apocalypse manuscript, containing 121 large-format pictures, was created in England. Gold, silver, and intense minium red turn the Revelation of St John into a vision of brilliance.

The Corpus Apocalypse consists of an extensive cycle of 106 miniatures illustrating the Apocalypse of St John. In addition, it contains a cycle of fourteen miniatures depicting the Visions of Hell of the apostle Paul—this is the first time ever that these impressive pictures have been made accessible in a facsimile edition. A full-page miniature illustrating the Coronation Order used for English kings opens up the third section of the manuscript. Henry de Cobham, who commissioned the manuscript, was a noble who participated in the coronation of Edward II in 1308. At his explicit request, all three texts were produced in a single campaign in London by a single scribe and one master illuminator.

Read more about this most richly illustrated Gothic Apocalypse manuscript.

The Speyer Pericopes – Ceremonial Gift to the Bishop of Speyer

Quaternio Editions Lucerne has created a fine art facsimile of the splendid Speyer Pericopes, commissioned around 1220 for the Speyer Cathedral. The irreplaceable original has been maintained in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe (Germany) since the early nineteenth century. In order to preserve the manuscript, it has not been opened for decades. The beautiful miniatures are practically unknown.

On October 7, 2011 his Excellency Bishop Wiesemann, patron for the ambitious facsimile edition, was presented with the patron’s copy during a ceremony in the apse of the Speyer Cathedral. It was of particular importance to Quaternio Editions Lucerne that the first copy could be presented during the year celebrating the 950th anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral. Bishop Wiesemann praised the outstanding quality of the edition and underscored the spiritual significance of these kinds of works of art. All of those involved in creating the facsimile—specialists in digitalization, printing, restoration, and gemology—made the greatest effort to produce a faithful copy of the splendid Romanesque manuscript and its glittering, golden miniatures, down to the last detail.

Do you want to learn more about the Speyer Pericopes?
Please click here.