Manuscript collection produced at the monastery of St. Gall, containing the oldest known surviving version of the Casus sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert, in a copy from about 900. Additional longer texts, written down between the 9th and 13th centuries contain sermons by the early Church fathers, a register of the abbots of St. Gall from the 7th through the 13th centuries, hymns, and excerpts from the Collectio Canonum by Pseudo-Remedius as well as the Micrologus by Bernold of Konstanz.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Contains the earliest extant copy of the monastery chronicle Casus sancti Galli by the St. St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV. (ca. 980 – ca. 1060), as well as copies of the Casus sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert and the principal manuscript of the anonymous continuation of the monastery chronicle (Continuatio Casuum Sancti Galli).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This manuscript contains the Chronicle of the Popes by Martin of Opava († after 1278) on pp. 3-95. The chronicle goes as far as Boniface VIII; the names of the five following popes are added at the end by a later hand. This is followed by sermons for saints' days (pp. 96-206), and then, on pp. 207-224, excerpts from Martin of Opava's Chronicle of the Emperors, with an anonymous continuation up to Henry IX [VII] (1313). A 14th century fragment of an ascetic tract is bound into the front (pp. 1a-2b). The book decoration is limited to simple pen-flourish initials (pp. 105, 107, 184).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This codex contains Konrad of Würzburg's Trojan War, a tremendous unfinished late work by the German lyric and epic poet, who died in 1287 before completing the work. The author recounts the story of the Trojan War in verse in an expansive construction of historiographic narration, forward and backward references, and encyclopedic digressions. Defective in the beginning and later supplemented with an inserted leaf, the work extends from p. 4 to p. 893. This is followed on pp. 895-897 by a fragment of an anonymous prose retelling of Conrad's Trojan War. The text of Conrad's Trojan War is written by a scribe, who probably is identical to the rubricator responsible for the red Lombard initials, the black Gothic initials and the decorated majuscules at the beginnings of the columns, and who put the date 1471 on p. 893. The prose fragment is from a later hand. The manuscript's place of origin is not known. The codex was found in 1739 at the Haldenburg, a St. Gall fief in the Allgäu, and then became part of the Abbey Library, as indicated by a note on p. 894.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
13th century composite manuscript consisting of 8 parts: 1) excerpts from the martyrologies of the St. Gall Monk Notker Balbulus and of Ado of Vienne (p. 3-10), 2) copy of about half of Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica (p. 11-234), 3) Canones apostolorum et conciliorum prolati per Clementem papam in a smaller format booklet by another hand (p. 235-252), 4) excerpts from the work Panormia by Ivo of Chartres (p. 246b-252b), 5) Historia Langobardorum by Petrus Diaconus with an annex by Andrea Bergamensis (p. 253a-272b), 6) Historia Hierosolymitana by Robertus Monachus Remigiensis (p. 273a-313a), 7) appendices concerning the history of the Holy Roman Empire, the schism of the Church of Utrecht, and the death of Conrad III (p. 313), 8) excerpts from the Chronica pontificum et imperatorum, ab Hadriano usque ad Constantinum by Martin of Opava (Martinus Polonus; p. 314-330).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
St. Gallen copy of Paulus Orosius' history of the world from Adam to the year 417 from the 9th century, with numerous glosses and several maps, written by the monk Ekkehart IV. in the 11th century.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
The Carolingian world history written by Bishops Frechulf of Lisieux in the oldest surviving copy, produced in 825/830. Written in the scriptorum of Lisieux, this item had already been obtained by the monastery of St. Gall by 850/860.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the excerpts made by Junianus Justinus from the lost history of the world (Historiae Philippicae) by the Roman historian Pompeius Trogus, produced in the 9th century, probably at the Abbey of St. Gall. At the end of the text is the famous Old High German St. Gallen scribal verse: Chumo kiscreib filo chumor kipeit.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A copy of the Alexanderroman (Romance of Alexander) by physician, translator and poet Johannes Hartlieb (1468) of Munich. This is the exemplar that Hartlieb had produced for Duke Albrecht III. of Bavaria (1451-1460) and his wife Anna of Braunschweig by calligrapher Johannes Frauendorfer of Thierenstein in the year 1454, using a professional Bastarda script. It is illustrated with 45 six-by-thirteen-line fully colored initials, possibly by the hand of Bavarian miniaturist Hans Rot. Decorations include numerous simple and intricate vine borders with acanthus leaves, in which a wide variety of animals frolic, and in which one can find many of the flowers of the region. The Romance of Alexander remained one of the most popular prose romances in the German language until 1500.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Hegesippus/Flavius Josephus, Jewish War. Copy from the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A copy of the work Bellum Judaicum (the Jewish War) by the Jewish author Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), produced in the 9th century, probably not at the Abbey of St. Gall, by the hands of eight different scribes.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The largest part of this voluminous manuscript consists of an abbreviated version of the Universal Chronicle of Platterberg/Truchseß, completed in 1459 (pp. 3−796), which in the older literature is also referred to as the “St. Gall Universal Chronicle.” This chronicle also contains the so-called St. Galler Cato (pp. 259−260; Disticha Catonis; Von Catho dem weysen und seinen spruchen), a partial German translation of the work De officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero (pp. 263−265); as well as more quotations from other works by Cicero (pp. 265−271). Next are a German version of the fictional correspondence between Alexander the Great and Dindimus, King of the Brahmins, written by Meister Wichwolt (pp. 809−815); Cronica Allexandri des grossen konigs), the German version of the History of the Three Kings (Historia trium regum) by John of Hildesheim (pp. 816−854); and the report about Jean de Mandeville's travel to India in the German translation by Otto von Diemeringen (pp. 854−917). At the end (pp. 918−940), the volume contains an incomplete version of the travelogue of Johannes Schiltberger (1380 – after 1427) from Bavaria, who had been taken captive by the Ottomans. The book decoration consists of numerous red and blue Lombard initials. In 1570, the volume was owned by Luzius Rinck von Baldenstein (p. 940), brother-in-law of Prince-Abbot Diethelm-Blarer (1530-1564) of St. Gall; at the latest by the 17th century, the volume became part of the holdings of the monastery library of St. Gall (p. 3: Liber Monasterii S. Galli).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript contains the Historia Regum Britannie by Geoffrey of Monmouth (around 1100-1154) (pp. 3-121, Incipit Prologus in brittannicam hystoriam); excerpts from the Collectanea rerum memorabilium by Solinus (pp. 122-128), and the Epistola presbiteri Johannis, the so-called Letter of Priester John (pp. 128-130), all in Latin. The volume is mentioned in the library catalog of 1461.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This is a copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the Historia Longobardorum (History of the Langobards) by the Langobard monk and author Paulus Diaconus († 797/799), who was active in Montecassino. It was written in northern Italy, possibly in Verona, around 800 by a variety of hands. The volume has been at the monastery of St. Gall since the 9th century already.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This manuscript, probably not written in St. Gall, contains two works by the ancient author Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus): p. 1-95 Coniuratio Catilinae, (history of the Catiline Conspiracy); p. 95-206 Bellum Jugurthinum (history of the Jugurthine War). The codex is written by various hands; several chapters are repeated, e.g., Coniuratio Catilinae, chap. 46-52 (p. 195-206).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This extensive volume was copied at the turn of the thirteenth to fourteenth century by a single hand with a somewhat varying ductus. It contains a thematically ordered compilation of short examples and observations on virtues and vices (pp. 3–658) that may have been taken from Etienne de Bourbon or Humbertus de Romanis. This summa is made accessible by an index (pp. 659–661), written in a later hand, which hand also completed the foliation. The manuscript is rubricated throughout and contains two-line red and blue lombards. On the front flyleaf can be found a fragment of a charter from 1295. The red-leather binding has the remains of a medieval clasp.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Manuscript compilation containing a collection of fables (Ulrich Boner's Edelstein), decorated with simple pen drawings, farcical stories – preserved only here – by the so-called "Swiss Anonymous" as well as chronicle notes on the history of Zurich and Glarus.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The Cantonal Secretary of Schwyz Hans Fründ († 1469), originally from Luzern, wrote a chronicle of the Old Zurich War in about 1447. This carefully written copy illustrated with the flags of the cantons of the Confederation was made by Rorschach chaplain and former Schwyz schoolmaster Melchior Rupp in the year 1476. The manuscript, in the final pages of which are transcribed certain records and documents from the years 1446 through 1450 related to the Old Zurich War, made its way into the possession of Glarus scholar Aegidius Tchudi (1505-1572) and from there, in the year 1768, into the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
A copy made in 1520 of the so-called “Klingenberger Chronik” (Klingenberg Chronicle) originally composed in 1450. It is the history of the Appenzell Wars (1401-1429) and of the Old Zurich War (1440-1446) from the point of view of the losing side: the eastern Swiss nobility. Illustrated with several color sketches of battle scenes and coats of arms. In addition this codex contains copies of legal documents, chronological notes, songs, and in the very front an incompletely preserved 1520 Strasbourg print edition by Sebastian Brant (1457/58-1521) of the biographies of Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian. This volume was obtained by the Abbey Library of St. Gall from Glarus humanities scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) in 1768.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The oldest copy of the Chronicle of Konstanz by Gebhard Dacher, made between 1458 and 1472 by the author himself and illustrated with a series of colored pen sketches, among them the oldest known view of the city of Konstanz. Obtained by the Abbey Library of St. Gall in the 18th century, at the latest.
Online Since: 07/31/2009