Medievalists have long debated the function of miniatures of rulers embedded in liturgical manuscripts. As a phenomenon it begins in the early ninth century and ends in the end of the eleventh, corresponding with the intensification of the idea of sacral kingship in the Carolingian period and advent of the Gregorian reforms, which questioned the divine character of royal power. Many scholars have treated the iconography of medieval rulers as visual propaganda for kings striving to elevate their power vis-a-vis Empire and Church. Recently, however, scholars have begun to interpret these images according to the liturgical function of the book in which they were included. 

I take up this recent approach, and prove that Ottonian images of rulers can be interpreted as visualizations of liturgical texts. I analyze the famous ’’Coronation of Henry II” in the Sacramentary of Regensburg (Muenchen, Clm 4456, fol. 11r) as well as ’’Coronation of Otto by Virgin Mary” in the Sacramentary of Warmund (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, Ms. 86, fol. 160v), comparing the iconography of these two illuminations with liturgical prayers for rulers preserved in the same manuscripts. as well as with symbolical meaning of liturgical books in the Middle Ages. Through a contextualization of the iconography and prayers within the broader symbolic function of liturgical books in the Middle Ages, I argue that the selected miniatures are not only visualizations of texts, but also performances of prayers for rulers. The illuminations are thus not mere tools of royal propaganda in a war against the Church, but rather signs of the consensus and mutual support struck between rulers and ecclesiastical centers.