The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram's, made in 870 for Charles the Bald in a West Frankish abbey, was thoroughly restored three times: ca 1000 under Abbot Ramwold of St. Emmeram's at Regensburg; in 1608 by the bookbinder Bassmann at St. Emmeram's; in 1965 by scholars and technicians of the Bavarian State Library in Munich. During the earliest restoration the edges of the manuscript were cropped and the cover reduced in size accordingly, necessitating the overlapping of the chased reliefs by the shortened goldsmithwork frame and the partial covering of the scenes. During the 1965 restoration, the reliefs were removed from the frame and the original extension of the images exposed. Ignoring this evidence, the scholars directing the restoration maintained that the partial obscuring of the scenes by the frame was original and kept it. Werckmeister holds that the philosophy guiding that misconceived restoration was in keeping with an anti-rationalistic conservative ideology current in West German art history during the early years of the Federal Republic. -- AATA