In an essay published in 1893 László Fejérpataky drew attention to the Hungarian associations of the Admont Bible. Since then the codex has been in the focus of codicological research in Hungary.
     In its present form it consists of two volumes decorated with numerous full-, three-quarter-, half- and quarter-page illuminations, four canon tables and numerous initials. It is undoubtedly an outstanding example of Salzburg book illumination.
     Inscriptions in the codex and documents indicate that it was kept in the Benedictine monastery at Csatár (Zala County, bishopric of Veszprém) from the mid-12th century to the middle of the following century. The founder and patron of the monastery was a member of the Gut-Keled clan, which for a long while gave the country high office-bearers and included some of the wealthiest lords of the country at the time. The fact that Béla II personally attended the consecration of the abbey church shows the high rank of the founder. The codex may have come into the possession of the Saint Peter's monastery church at Csatár at the time of the consecration. The donor could have been the king or the patron. We can only speculate as to how they acquired the manuscript. Various inscriptions were added to the history of the manuscript while it was in Hungary. The most valuable of these is part of the gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. It is incomplete because an entry states that a superior ordered a halt to work on copying the text judged to be apocryphal. Even in this form the text is a valuable relic of cultural history. On the one hand it gives a picture of what the inmates of a monastery in Hungary read and on the other hand because it is a variant of the work surviving in this manuscript. In 1263 the patron pawned the bible and did not redeem it. It passed into the hands of a new owner through Farkas, a merchant from Vasvár who acted as intermediary in the deal. Austrian researchers suppose that the manuscript is identical with the two-volume Gebhard Bible figuring in the inventory of the 14th-15th century Admont Benedictine monastery and thought to have been the gift of the founder. However, the codex can only be shown to have been preserved in Admont from the 15th century. It remained here until 1937 when it was sold to the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. Two leaves shown at the exhibition had earlier been given to a collector; these are now in the possession of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
     The illustrations and initials in the manuscript are linked, among the Salzburg illumination workshops, to the one that operated in the Saint Peter's Benedictine monastery. Relics regarding the style and composition of this school link it on the one hand to the Walther Bible (Michelbeuern, Benediktinerstift, Bibliothek, Cod. Perg. 1) which is still more closely associated with the Bavarian monastery school, and on the other hand to the precedents of the Pericope Book of the St Erentrud (Nonnberg) Benedictine convent of Salzburg (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 15903). Despite the fact that a number of compositions in the Admont Bible resemble illustrations of particular subjects in the Walther Bible, there is no reason to assume direct borrowing. A comparison of the illustrations of Creation, Daniel in the lion's den, the story of Job, and King David singing psalms shows that the compositions in the Admont Bible are richer and more mature. In addition to the traditions of Salzburg and Regensburg, a more recent Italo-Byzantine influence can also be shown in the illustrations. At the same time - as the latest Austrian literature also postulates - some of the masters of the two bibles were identical. However, this identity applies not to the chief masters but to other contributors. We consider that the leaves in our exhibition showing portraits of the minor prophets Hosea and Nahum may have been done by the same master who did the Suffering Job composition in the Walther Bible.
     Taking into account the documents mentioned and the historical facts, most researchers date the origin of the Admont Bible and with it the group of manuscripts mentioned to the foundation of the Csatár monastery (1136). Recent literature has revived an earlier view seeing in the Bible the influence of the mid-12th century mosaics of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo and so putting the whole group of manuscripts to a later date. We suppose, independently of the documents, that the manuscript was produced earlier.
     Despite the fact that numerous studies have dealt with the Admont Bible, research on the subject cannot be regarded as closed. In our opinion progress could be achieved not principally from a study of the style but rather from an iconographic approach.