The Codex Vyssegradensis, also known as the Vyšehrad Codex or the Coronation Gospels of Vratislav II, is a late 11th century illuminated manuscript

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...

 Gospel Book

Gospel Book

The Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...

 made at the order of Czech diplomats to honour an anniversary of the Czech King Vratislav's coronation which took place in 1085. The codex is of Danubian provenance, and closely related to three other surviving manuscripts - two of them now in Poland and one in the Prague Capitol Library. They probably originated in the circle of the scriptorium at the Monastery of St. Emmeram in Regensburg

Regensburg

Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...

.

The manuscript is now in the Czech National Library, Prague (Národní knihovna Ceské republiky).
Vratislav was the first monarch of Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, which was previously a dukedom.

The earliest known representation of the Tree of Jesse

Tree of Jesse

The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the Ancestors of Christ, shown in a tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David; the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy...

is in the book.
In a paper analysing this image, J.A. Hayes Williams points out that the iconography

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

 employed is very different from that usually found in such images, which she argues relates to an assertion of the rightful kingship of the royal patron. The page showing the Jesse Tree is accompanied by a number of other illuminated pages of which four depict the Ancestors of Christ. The Jesse Tree has not been used to support a number of figures, as is usual. Instead, the passage from Isaiah

Isaiah

Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...

 has been depicted in a very literal way. In the picture, the prophet Isaiah approaches Jesse

Jesse

Jesse, Eshai or Yishai, is the father of the David, who became the king of the Israelites. His son David is sometimes called simply "Son of Jesse" ....

 from beneath whose feet is springing a tree, and wraps around him a banner with words upon it which translate literally as:- "A little rod from Jesse gives rise to a splendid flower", following the language of the Vulgate. Instead of the ancestors seen in later depictions, seven doves (with halo

Halo (religious iconography)

A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...

es) perch in the branches. These, in a motif from Byzantine art

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

, represent the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are a medieval enumeration of seven spiritual gifts probably encodified by Thomas Aquinas along with five intellectual virtues and four other groups of ethical characteristics. They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the...

 as described by the Apostle Paul.
Williams go on to compare it with two other famous images, theTree of Jesse window at Chartres Cathedral and the Lambeth Bible

Lambeth Bible

The Lambeth Bible is a 12th Century illuminated manuscript considered to be among the finest surviving giant bibles from Romanesque England. It exists in two volumes. The first volume exists in the Lambeth Palace library and covers Genesis to Job and is 328 pages of vellum measuring 518 x 353 mm...

in England.