Vitae of ancient Roman saints, among them – preserved here only – the Life of Pope Gregory the Great, composed by a monk from the English monastery of Whitby.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
A careful copy of the Vita of St Sylvester (Pope, 314-335) and the legend of the finding of the Cross by Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, written in the monastery of St. Gall around 900.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Contains, among other items, the only extant version of the Life of Saint Ambrose, composed by an unknown monk from Milan around 870, and the principal manuscript of Seneca's (1 BC - 65 AD) Apocolocyntosis, a satirical pamphlet on the Roman emperor Claudius (41 - 54 AD).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A composite manuscript, produced for the most part during the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. In addition to some shorter texts with computistic-chronological, homiletic and liturgical content, the manuscript contains as its main elements a copy of the Book of Pennance (Poenitentiale) by Bishop Halitgar of Cambrai († 830), excerpts from the rule of Fructuosus of Braga (7th century), and the tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, a work by an unknown Irish author, long attributed to Cyprian of Carthage.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Manuscript compilation from the second half of the 9th century, predominated by lives of the early Christian and early Frankish saints. The codex contains, among other items, the life history of St. Augustine written by Possidius as well as a catalog of the writings of Augustine, a copy of the life history of St. Remaclus with dedicatory letter and prologue (from the 11th century), and the lives of Saints Sualo (an Anglo-Saxon who lived at Einsiedeln), Pelagius, and Purchard.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This rather plain (in comparison to Codices 560, 562 und 564) copy of the lives of St. Gall's patron saints Gallus and Otmar by Reichenau Abbot and scholar Walahfrid Strabo, was made in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Manuscript compilation with partly hagiographic content, written in the monastery of St. Gall in about 900. Contains, among other items, the Vita metrica Sancti Martini by Paulinus of Périgueux, the Vita metrica sancti Martini by Venantius Fortunatus, a copy of the Visio Wettini by Haito and Walahfrid Strabe, the Revelatio Baronti monachi and the Life of the Martyr Leodgar in metric (poem) form.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Part I of The conferences (Collationes patrum I-X) composed by John Cassian († about 435). This copy was made in St. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Part III of The conferences (Collationes patrum XVII-XXIV), composed by John Cassian († about 435). This copy was made in St. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Part II of The conferences (Collationes patrum XI-XVII), composed by John Cassian († about 435). This copy was made in St. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The St. Gall Passionarium novum: a large-format manuscript containing the lives of early Christian, early German and Carolingian saints, written in the cloister at St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries. This volume includes the oldest known, and indeed the best surviving copies of the life histories of saints Meinrad, Odilia, Hilarius, Trudpert, Verena, Leodgar and Pirmin.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of the Life of the Saint and Pope Gregory I. by Johannes Diaconus (825-880/882), produced at the Abbey of St. Gall around the year 900.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A manuscript compilation written in the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript contains, among other items, the Lives of monastic father Antonius (by Athanasius), Paulus, Hilraion and Malchus (all by the church father Jerome), 12 homilies (Predigten) of Caesarius of Arles, additionals tracts by Caesarius and by Pseudo-Caesarius as well as the dicta of Martin of Braga addressed to Polemius entitled De correctione rusticorum3. The manuscript contains a very large number of quill tests, including two alphabetical verses (“Adnexique globum…” and “Ferunt ophyr…”) and a scribal saying: Scribere discce puer…
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This codex contains the miracles of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which the Benedictine monk Benedict of Peterborough began to collect after Thomas' murder on December 29, 1170. The manuscript, which has beautiful initials with scroll ornamentation on p. 12, was written by two hands in the Southwestern region of Germany towards the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. The collection of miracles is divided into four books, of which the last nine chapters (IV.95-96, V.1-4, VI.1-3 of this edition) and the following letter from the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset, are not numbered. The manuscript is listed in the Monastery of St. Gall catalog from the year 1461.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript has a binding with large and striking metal bosses; following a 15th century list of saints (f. Iv−IIv), it contains first the Latin Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine († 1298; f. 4r−262v) and then the so-called Provincia appendix, also in Latin (f. 263r−301r), which also contains short descriptions of the lives of the St. Gall patron saints Saint Gall and Saint Othmar. Later additions include blessings and reflections (f. 302v−304v). A note by an unknown scribe on f. 302v begins with the verses: Qui me scribebat, R nomen habebat. Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo… This manuscript was written by several (three?) hands; the book decoration consists of Lombard initials that extend over three lines. The decoration ends on f. 210v; however, space has been reserved for additional initials.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript, probably produced in the 14th century in the area around Lake Constance, contains a copy of the main part of the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 5−691), as well as small parts of the so-called Provincia appendix (p. 691−701). On the last three pages a sermon for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29) has been added. The area of Lake Constance is suggested by remains of a document glued to the front and back inside covers (probably parts of the writing “Konstanz”) and also by an ownership note on p. 704 dated to the late 15th or the early 16th century from a community of sisters near Stammheim (Vnnser frouwen ze niderstamhem ist das …). This could refer to the community of Beguines of Haslen in the municipality of Adlikon in the Zürcher Weinland (wine country of Zurich), which was dissolved during the Reformation. This volume has been the property of the library of the monastery St. Gall at least since the middle of the 18th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This codex contains the first five books of the Liber specialis gratiae by Mechthild von Hackeborn; books 6 and 7 are missing. On p. 3 there is also a fragment of the Epistola de Ihesu Christo by Ps.-Lentulus Romanus de Judea. The notes on p. 224, which name Johannes Tauler and Konrad (in the codex: Johannes) of Prussia as previous owners, suggest an origin in a Dominican environment. In the 15th century, this manuscript belonged to Ulrich Varnbüler (brother of Angela Varnbüler, who was prioress of the Dominican Convent St. Katharina in St. Gall from 1476-1509; mayor/imperial vogt of St. Gall 1481-1490).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This little booklet brings together in an eighteenth-century half-leather binding two fascicules produced in different centuries and which certainly were not originally connected. The first fascicule (pp. 5–52) contains a single text, the Dominican William Rothwell's treatise on the sacraments. The text, copied in a fourteenth-century hand, is arranged in two columns and is rubricated throughout. Due to water damage, the parchment is heavily rippled. The second fascicule (pp. 53–76) contains the life of St. Bridget of Sweden. The text, laid out in a single column, is written in a fifteenth-century hand, and only the first page is rubricated. The second paper flyleaf at the beginning (p. 3) contains a breviary fragment.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The bulk of this manuscript is constituted by lives of the Apostles taken from the Elsässische Legenda Aurea, an important Upper German rendition of James of Voragine's Legendary (pp. 1–259, largely identical to the abridged legendary in Cod. Sang. 594). There then follows the mystical treatise Christus und die sieben Laden (pp. 260–277). The last two quires (pp. 281–328) contain a collection of spiritual, mostly mystical excerpts (Meister Eckhart, Jan van Ruusbroec) and, on the final pages, an indulgence prayer intended to be recited before an image of St. Gregory (indulgence promise dated 1456, pp. 326–328). Several pages before this prayer, there is an explicitly-connected accompanying prayer (pp. 319–320). Scarpatetti believes the scribe was Sister Endlin of the Franciscan convent St. Leonard in St. Gall. Later, the manuscript came into the possession of Johannes Kaufmann (ownership marks, p. 1, p. 277, and on the upper piece of the book block), and, even later, it belonged to a lay brother of the monastery of St. Gall (p. 328). Simple red initials provide the only decoration. The binding is red-colored pigskin of the fifteenth century, with clasps and with six of ten original bosses still in place. Some fragments used as quire guards can be seen (e.g., p. 52/53).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
A German language edition of the life history of the St. Gall patron saints Gallus, Magnus, Otmar and Wiborada. Includes color portraits of saints Wiborada and Otmar (the latter bound into the wrong location in the manuscript; the portraits of Gallus and Magnus have been lost). The manuscript also includes a German translation of the Proverbs ("Sprüche der Altväter") as well as some brief spiritual texts for nuns, written down and most likely translated into German by Friedrich Kölner (or Colner), a Reformist monk originally from the cloister of Hersfeld in Hessen, who was a member of the Cloister of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436.
Online Since: 12/09/2008