Protecting the human Legacy.

The Sacramentary of Emperor Henry II. is one of the most important manuscripts of the Middle Ages. The original is kept in the Bavarian State Library as Clm 4456. It was created more than 1000 years ago in Regensburg/Germany. The front cover shows a magnificent ivory plate framed with golden sheet metal, illustrating the same biblical events that are also pictured in the manuscript: the Crucifixion and below it the events of the Easter morning with the Three Marys at the Tomb. The replica is indistinguishable from the original.

Artworks on paper or parchment are very delicate. They are sensible for light and humidity – and they are easily damageable. A replica of an old manuscript – a reproduction of a precious original as a true-to-the-original Fine Art Facsimile Edition – helps in an instrumental way to protect the original: it can replace it for scientific study, it can be shown in an exhibition and can be handled with much less caution.

For centuries, these books had the function of manifesting the principles of faith and power. The Unique Library preserves these masterpieces of all times and all cultures in manufacturing faithful true-to-the-original First Editions.

In using the most modern technologies in combination with centuries-old craftsmanship, we are producing faithful complete reproductions of these manuscripts down to the smallest detail.

Manuscript A, one of the famous twelve scetchbooks by the great Leonardo da Vinci, in the possession of the Institut de France, Paris. During all his life, Leonardo carried around with him a notebook in order to put down his ideas immediately.

Brilliant colors and radiant gold or silver, bonded to paper with the most advanced technical methods, show the same characteristics as the original; every page is border-cut true to the original. But also holes in the original’s parchment or paper, exfoliations or remarks attached during the manuscript’s living history as well as faults have to be included.

Only then a true-to-the-original First Edition – reproducing the original in every aspect – can replace the sumptuous original manuscript to protect it.

The Book of Lindisfarne contains the oldest translation of the Gospels from Latin into Old English. It is, like the Book of Kells, a masterpiece of Celtic monastery book illumination. The original is kept in the British Library in London under the shelfmark Cotton MS Nero D. iv.