Dating from the 12th century, the two magnificent manuscripts were on display side by side in 2016 to mark the 1,200th jubilee of the Diocese of Hildesheim. A double page of the Gospels was flanked by four pages from the Albani Psalter, which was unbound at the time.

Ornate copies of sacred texts held out the promise of a heavenly reward – for the medieval scribes who created them, for their patrons, and for those who read them. These books were made to last forever. Even after almost a thousand years, the parchment, writing and illuminations of these manuscripts that were so highly prized through the centuries have lost nothing of their beauty and brilliance.

The exhibition Die Verheißung des Buches: Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen und der Albani-Psalter zwischen Diesseits und Jenseits (The promise of the book: The Gospels of Henry the Lion and the Albani Psalter between this world and the next) was a collaborative undertaking by the Diocese of Hildesheim and the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and ran from 4 October to 15 November 2015 in the Schatzkammer of the Bibliotheca Augusta.