Registrum Gregorii
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Registrum Gregorii is a copy of the collection of letters by pope Gregory the Great. It was commissioned by Egbert of Trier from the anonymous Italian artist known as the "master of the Registrum Gregorii" or the "Gregory Master" (fl. c. 980–996), probably after the death of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor in 983.
The manuscript was separated: Two pages show one illuminated miniature each - one shows Otto II enthroned and surrounded by the four provinces of his empire (now held at the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France), and the other shows pope Gregory the Great writing whilst receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, which is perched on his shoulder (now held at the Stadtbibliothek at Trier).
Frontispiece and its inspiration
The frontispiece of the Registrum Gregorii, depicting Pope Gregory the Great writing, was inspired by a story of how he was given dictation by the Holy Spirit. The story goes that while Pope Gregory was writing his sermon on Ezekiel, a curtain was drawn between him and his secretary, Deacon Peter. From the other side of the curtain, Pope Gregory started to have long pauses in his speech, and Deacon Peter became nervous, so he poked a hole in the curtain to see what was happening. What the Deacon saw was a dove perched on Pope Gregory’s shoulder with its beak in the Pope's mouth. When the dove took its beak out of the Pope’s mouth, he would begin to speak again, and Peter would continue to write down his words.[1] The bird was supposedly the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove, and when it put its beak into the mouth of St. Gregory, it was putting its own words into Gregory’s mouth. It is from this legend that the dove became the hallmark of St. Peter, and has been since the ninth century.[2]