This composite manuscript from the second half of the 13th century is written in early Gothic minuscule; it consists of five parts. Among other items, it contains the Beniamin minor by Richard of Saint Victor, various writings by Hugh of Saint Victor, the De sermone domini in monte secundum Matthaeum by Augustine and the De cognitione humanae conditionis by Bernard of Clairvaux. The last page contains notes about recipes and healing blessings.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The first volume of the three-part so-called "Wettinger Graduale", made in Cologne for a cloister of Augustinian hermits, transferred from Zurich to the Cistercian cloister of Wettingen after the Reformation. The illuminated initials in this first volume are the work of the "Old Master of the Gradual" (Willehalm-Meister).
Online Since: 11/04/2010
The second volume of the three-part so-called "Wettinger Graduale", made in Cologne for a cloister of Augustinian hermits, transferred from Zurich to the Cistercian cloister of Wettingen after the Reformation. The illuminated initials in this second volume are the work of the "Younger Master of the Gradual" (Willehalm-Meister).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The third volume of the three-part so-called "Wettinger Graduale", made in Cologne for a cloister of Augustinian hermits, transferred from Zurich to the Cistercian cloister of Wettingen after the Reformation. The illuminated initials in this third volume, like those in the second (MsWettFm 2) are the work of the "Younger Master of the Gradual".
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript of university lecture notes on the Sentences of Peter Lombard was written by Heinrich von Weinfelden in Vienna in 1399/1400, during his studies at the university there. Together with its writer, this volume went to the Dominican Monastery of Basel, where it became part of the library.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Since the 13th century the Quatuor libri sententiarum, a collection of teachings of the church fathers on important theological problems compiled by Peter Lombard in the middle of the 12th century, had the status of a textbook in theological faculties. The texts were an essential part of basic studies and were intensively interpreted in lectures and commentaries. This 14th century manuscript from the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel contains commentaries by Henry de Cervo, William of Ockham, Jakobus of Altavilla and others.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This manuscript was produced in the Upper Rhine Region and was previously owned by Hugo and Johannes Münch of Münchenstein, two priors of the Basel Dominican Convent. It is a copy of the Franciscan Nicolaus of Lyra's Postilla super Psalmos. The dating of 1323 at the end likely refers to the exemplar or to the work itself, and not to this copy. The same scribe produced another volume of Lyra's work (Basel, UB, B V 5), with the same diagnostic pen-flourished initials, with which the same artist decorated some folio volumes from the Cistercian abbey of Pairis currently in the ZHB of Lucerne (P 13 fol.:1, 3 and 4; volume 2 burned in 1513 in St. Urban), which Hugo von Tennach copied in 1338–1340 under commission from a rich canon of the collegial of Basel, Peter von Bebelnheim.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
Copied by the same hand as the Postilla super Psalmos from the same library (B IV 3), this volume, with Nicholas of Lyra's postils on New Testament texts, on the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, and the Apocalypse, is also decorated with pen-flourished initials in the so-called Upper-Rhine Style, and had the same previous owners, Hugo and Johannes Münch of Münchenstein, members of the Basel Dominican Convent and contemporaries of Nicholas of Lyra. Hugo, attested several times as Prior of the Convent, and Nicholas, probably both died in the same year, 1349, while Johannes, Hugo's younger brother, was still prior in 1365.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This manuscript, a composite manuscript of legal content, has as its main text the Summa super rubricis decretalium by the Italian legal scholar Godefridus de Trano (deceased 1245). This is a textbook on the Compilation of Decretals commissioned by Pope Gregory IX, which was widely distributed. The text is decorated with five small figure initials, probably of French origin.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This slender parchment volume from the Dominican Monastery of Basel contains Books I-V of De vegetabilibus et plantis by Albertus Magnus. This work – actually in seven books, two of which are missing here – represents a small part of the extraordinarily extensive opus by the Doctor of the Church and universal scholar, whose fame was surpassed soon after his death by that of his student Thomas Aquinas. The worn binding shows traces indicating that this was a liber catenatus.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This 14th century manuscript, possibly produced by means of the Pecia System, contains the Super ethica and De causis et processu universitatis by Albertus Magnus. The Pecia System is a method for the quick handwritten reproduction of an original: instead of copying the text as a whole, it is divided into several sections so that several scribes could simultaneously work on creating a copy. This volume belonged to the Dominican Johannes Tagstern and thus became part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript, consisting of two 13th century parts, contains a Latin translation of the first two books of Aristotle's Metaphysics. A first hand, using a Textura script tending towards cursive, wrote the first nine leaves, while the main part of the manuscript was written by a second scribe, who used a formal Textura. The manuscript contains numerous 13th century glosses and marginal notes, some of which, relating, among others, to the translation of the Aristotle text, are highlighted by means of rubrication. The codex presents some old shelfmarks that create a connection to the Dominican Convent of Basel. The 14th/15th century binding was originally chained and had two clasps. 13th and 14th century paper and parchment fragments were used as pastedown and flyleaf.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
In this Northern Italian manuscript from the first half of the 11th century, Virgil's works (Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis) are accompanied by the commentary of Servius. This manuscript belonged to the influential Florentine humanist Coluccio Salutati, who added his own comments on Virgil's works in the margins. This manuscript probably came to Basel with the Dominican John of Ragusa, who held a leading position in the Council of Basel. After his death, the manuscript went to the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This composite manuscript of mainly astrological-astronomical content includes a journal of weather observations kept over seven years, the so-called Basler Wettermanuskript. It records meteorological observations in daily entries from January 1, 1399 until March 21, 1406, without a single gap. Towards the end of the journal, the entries become more schematic, until finally they transition to tables of the positions of the planets with only occasional comments on the weather. The volume is from the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript of content related to astronomy consists of three independently created parts with leaves of different sizes and varying layouts. They were produced by several scribes in the 13th and 14th centuries. The texts describe instruments for observing the sky and treat the planetary orbits, which are also represented in astronomical drawings. This composite manuscript belonged to the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This volume was written in the 13th century, probably by two alternating hands from France; it contains various astrological writings of Hellenistic-Arabic origin in the Latin translation of John of Seville, such as the Centiloquium Ptolemaei, as well as texts by Māšā'allāh, Alfraganus and Albumasar. This manuscript was part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This manuscript transmits various Latin-German vocabularies, among them the Mammotrectus by the Italian Franciscan John Marchesinus, which was written around 1300. This manuscript, written around 1400 by a certain Ulrich Wachter, was purchased for the Carthusian monastery of Basel in 1430.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This small-format, almost square 14th century Ovid manuscript contains the Heroides accompanied by the commentary of William of Orléans (Guilelmus Aurelianensis, around 1200). An older erased note of ownership suggests a French origin; Johannes Heynlin bequeathed this manuscript to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This manuscript contains exercises and Quaestiones on Aristotle's works De anima and De physica by the reform theologian Johann von Wesel (1425-1481). This volume is from the Carthusian monastery of Basel; based on a comparative study of the script, it can be assumed that the scribe of the first part is Jakob Louber. Numerous annotations in the margins and on slips of paper attest that the manuscript was heavily used.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
The "Codex Ricasoli Firidolfi", written on paper at the end of the 14th century, provides important evidence of the dissemination of Dante Alighieri's Commedia. The initial of the opening verse of the Inferno shows the famous profile of the author, surrounded by flowers.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 13th century manuscript offers a selection of texts from the legend-filled history of Great Britain: the knightly romance "Gui de Warewic" (Guy of Warwick) and the Anglo-Norman rhyming chronicle the "Roman de Brut" (History of the Britons) by Wace, which recounts the conquest of the British Isles by a great grandson of Aeneas, the returned hero of Troy. A translation of the "Prophéties de Merlin" (Prophesies of Merlin) by Helias follows. The volume closes with "Florence de Rome", a text that may be characterized as half "chanson de geste" and half adventure romance.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This 14th century codex is one of seven surviving manuscripts that preserve in its entirety the Eneasroman (Romance of Aeneas) by Heinrich von Veldeke, one of the most important pioneers of Middle High German poetry. This work by Veldeke is the first courtly romance written in Middle High German and is an adaptation of the Old French Roman d'Eneas, originally written in about 1160.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
"Even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so is it better to give to others the fruits of one's contemplation than merely to contemplate." The greatest work of Thomas Aquinas, the Summa Theologica, is the emblematic work of Christian scholasticism. This work, written near the end of the life of the great Dominican is incomplete, as its compositon was broken off by the death of the author. Organized in the form of questions (quaestiones) and subdivided into articles, the work presents theology in an organic form. Manuscript CB161 was produced in France, certainly in Paris, only a short time after the philosopher's death; it has been preserved in its original binding. The inscription from the end of the 13th century which can be found on the lower portion of the back cover shows that the manuscript was deposited as collateral by Jean de Paris against the loan of another work.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This parchment booklet from the parish archives of Dalpe (Leventina) contains the story of the suffering of St. Placidus of Disentis. Although the text is not complete, it contains a passage about the saint's martyrdom, which is not included in the text's principal manuscript held at the Zentralbibliothek of Zurich (Ms. Rh. 5). The community of Dalpe probably obtained this Passio so they could celebrate a yearly mass in honor of the saint in the new village chapel. The chapel had originally been dedicated to the Mary, but, as attested by documented sources, the patronage changed between 1370 and 1426, and the chapel was dedicated to St. Placidus.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Commentary on the first 70 Psalms by Adelpertus and, at the end, a selection of proverbs by church fathers, written in a pre-Carolingian minuscule at the end of the 9th century, probaby in Northern Italy. The two missing pages at the end are part of the fragment collection Einsiedeln, Abbey Library (Stiftsbibliothek), 370, IV, Bl. 18-19.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The manuscript consists of two parts and contains various ascetic texts. The first part (1-24) was written by various unskilled hands in a Rhaetian-influenced minuscule which can be dated to the 8th/9th century and localized in a scriptorium in northern Italy or in Switzerland. The second part (25-140) is dated to the second third of the 9th century.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
A composite manuscript written in the 9th, 10th and 14th centuries, probably in Einsiedeln or southwestern Germany. It contains, among other things, glosses on the Gospels, the Annales Heremi from the birth of Christ to the year 940, and various astronomical treatises, including the Sphaera by John of Sacrobosco and the Computus by Helpericus of Auxerre.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
A composite manuscript consisting of sections from three datable periods, the first from the 10th century, the other two from the 12th century. The first part (1-222) contains glosses on Priscian, the second (223-310) a collection of medical tracts assembled by Constantinus Africanus, the third part (311-357) contains the Liber Tegni by Galen (129/131-199/201).
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The content consists mostly of an anonymous commentary on the Gospel of Matthew attributed to Geoffrey Babion, together with other short texts, not all of which have been identified. The manuscript probably originated in Einsiedeln, certainly it has been there since the 14th century as attested by various annotations and marks by Heinrich von Ligerz.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Commentary on the first eight epistles of Paul. This is a copy of a (lost) exemplar which, according to tradition, was written before 945 by Abbot Thietland († around 964). The text depends to a great degree upon the Pauline commentary of Bishop Atto of Vercelli (885-961).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Lectionary, produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the 10th century (before 950). It may have been presented by St. Gall to Einsiedeln on the occasion of the consecration of the church at Einsiedeln in 948, together with Codex 17.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Composite manuscript consisting of two parts, which were joined in the 14th century at the latest, as confirmed by the dating of the binding. The first part (1-85) contains Alcuin's commentary on Genesis and is dated to the second third of the 9th century; some researchers localize this manuscript in western Germany, others in Raetia. The second part (87-191)contains the Partitiones by the grammarian Priscian and was written in the second half of the 10th century in Einsiedeln. A letter, sent by Heinrich II. von Güttingen, Abbot of Einsiedeln (1280 to 1299), to the vice-chaplain of the parish church of St. Peter and Paul on the island Ufenau, is copied onto the last page.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This codex can be dated to the 10th century; it contains the Musica enchiriadis (2-27), a 9th century music theory treatise which endeavors to develop a series of rules for polyphonic composition, as well as annotations to the commentary Scolica enchiriadis (27-45, 66-102). Dasian notation is used in order to graphically illustrate the music. For a long time, this treatise was attributed to the monk Hucbald, but today it is considered the work of an anonymous author.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
Cod. 83 is a complete breviary consisting of the following parts: calendar, antiphonary with neume notation, lectionary with biblical readings, homilary containing interpretations by the Church Fathers, hymnal, canticles from the Old and New Testaments, psalter, brief readings, prayers, preces and benedictions. Of special note is the oldest version of the Meinrad Office known to us, which is still used today. The melodies used in the antiphonary belong to the Alemanic choral dialect, still sung in the same form in Einsiedeln in the liturgy of the hours.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript produced at the Abbey of St. Gall during the second half of the 11th century contains a copy of De ecclesiasticis officiis Lib. I et II by Amalarius (Metensis), from which some chapters are missing. The continuation, with the missing text, is found in Cod. 110, which was also produced in St. Gall.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A manuscript of collected works, including the Ordines Romani and the works of Amalarius (Metensis). The content of this codex is nearly identical to that of Abbey Library of St. Gall Cod. Sang. 446, indicating that this copy, made in the second half of the 11th century, is of St. Gallen origin.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains a martyrology (pp. 1-28), the Rule of Saint Benedict (pp. 28-83) and a homiliary (pp. 84-126). It was written by two scribes in a late Carolingian minuscule and contains two initials decorated with plant branches drawn in ink. In the 13th century, a document about the confraternity of Einsiedeln Abbey and St. Blaise Abbey in the Black Forest was added to a blank area at the end of the text of the Rule of Saint Benedict (p. 83).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This manuscript contains Jerome's commentary on Matthew; it was written in Carolingian minuscule by the scribe Subo, who signed at the end of the text (p. 267) as well as on the last page (p. 268), which today, as the inside back page, is glued to the cover. The style of the initials indicates the Rhaetian area, whereas the scribe Subo is attested at Disentis Abbey. The manuscript has been in Einsiedeln since at least the 17th century, as shown by an ex libris on page 1.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This composite manuscript contains among others the De viris illustribus by Jerome and the De viris illustribus by Gennadius, the Deflorata by Isidore of Seville and, at the very end, the Tractatus de VII sacramentis, which was only added in the 12th/13th century. The 14th century binding is probably from Einsiedeln; certainly the manuscript was in the monastery library in the 17th century, as attested by the ex libris on p. 1.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The first part of this manuscript (pp. 2-261) contains the Gospel of Matthew by Jerome and a sermon attributed to Isidore of Seville (pp. 261-262), while the second part (pp. 263-378) contains a copy of the Expositio quattuor evangeliorum by Pseudo-Jerome. Various scribes wrote this manuscript in a pre-Carolingian minuscule which may show characteristics of Raetian script. The influence of the Raetian script can clearly be seen in several initials (p. 2, 5, 62).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This 10th century manuscript of Reichenau origin contains epigrams by Prosper of Aquitaine as well as the "De consolatione philosophiae" by Boethius.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job. It is assumed the manuscript originated in Disentis, since its Carolingian minuscule is very similar to that of manuscript 126, written by the scribe Subo of Disentis. Therefore this manuscript, too, should be dated to the first third of the 9th century. The manuscript has been held at Einsiedeln since the 17th century, as attested by an ex libris on p. 3.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains the homilies of Gregory the Great on the prophet Ezekiel. It is written by various hands in a minucule which in general is close to the Raetian minuscule. Some researchers attribute the manuscript to a Swiss or Raetian scriptorium. A part of pages 204 and 206 and the entire page 214 are written in uncial script. The mansucript contains numerous initials with geometric and vegetal elements, similar in style to the Remedius-Sacramentary (Cod. Sang. 348). The maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz confirm that the manuscript was in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This manuscript contains works by Isidore, Hucbaldus and Bernoldus as well as the Gospel of Nicodeum, copied at various times in Italy and Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This two-part composite manuscript contains various grammatical texts. Probably the two parts were combined when the manuscript was rebound in the 14th century; since then, it has been in the Abbey Library of Einsiedeln. The first part (2-110) was probaby copied in Reichenau in the 3rd third of the 9th century. The second part (111-215) is older and was perhaps written in Reims in the 8th/9th century. Certain scholars (Bruckner) suggest that the script of the second part may be Raetian.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This manuscript contains the Venerable Bede's Expositio of the Gospel of Mark (pp. 2-341) and a Tractatus de cruce domini (pp. 341-351) here attributed to Ambrose, but actually by John Chrysostom. According to A. Bruckner, the manuscript originated in the Rhaetian area; however, Hartmut Hoffmann assumes as origin St.-Germain-des-Prés. The ex libris on p. 3 attests to the manuscript's presence at Einsiedeln since the 17th century.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
A manuscript collection containing letters of Pope Gregory the Great as well as commentaries on Boethius. The text contains both Latin glosses and numerous Old High German glosses in cryptographic script. The manuscript was written during the second half of the 10th century in Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains the Tractatus super epistolam ad Titum, Expositio in epistulam Pauli ad Philemonem and Expositio in epistulam ad Hebraeos by Alcuin. It was probably produced at the time of Reginbert in the scriptorium at Reichenau.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The Panormia contains a collection of canon law texts, attributed to Ivo of Chartres, which apparently was edited after 1095. The codex probably originated in Einsiedeln and was written by a single scribe who used a regular and calligraphic Carolingian script. The text is divided into eight books, each introduced by an initial; of these eight initials, only one is executed in red, while for the others the preliminary drawings remain visible.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Originally, this codex constituted a whole together with Einsiedeln 281. It was created in the 8th/9th century in the Raetian-Lombard area. The first part (p. 1-256) was written in Carolingian minuscule, the second (p. 258-430) in Raetian minuscule, the third (p. 431-526) in Raetian or Alemannic minuscule. The maniculae (bookmarks) by Heinrich von Ligerz confirm that the manuscript was in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript, together with Cod. 247(379), 248(380) and 249(381), constitutes the four volumes of a collection of lives of the saints and passions of the martyrs, arranged according to the liturgical year. Without a doubt these four volumes were used in Einsiedeln, where most likely they also were produced. Each life is introduced with a large rubricated initial, and numerous glosses and maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz were inserted along the margins. The original endpapers, now removed, left traces of a liturgical text with neumes on the inside of the cover and traces of an illuminated initial on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
Contains an anonymous commentary on the Benedictine Rule, which today is attributed to Hildemar of Corby. The first part (f. 79r-106r) was written in the 9th century in Northern Italy, while the second part (f. 107r-169v) was written in the 10th century in Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript contains the third part (Collationes 18-24) of the Vitae et collationes patrum by John Cassian. The text is introduced by a full-page miniature, showing a medallion with Cassian in the middle, in the process of writing his work, surrounded by four abbots on a checkered background: Piamun and Giovanni with a round nimbus, Pinufius and Theonas with a square one. This manuscript was part of a group of codices that were created during the term of Abbot Thietland (961 until about 964).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This composite manuscript fromt the 9th/10th century contains the Vita Antigoni, fragments of a so-called Collatio Alexandrini et Dindimi, a falsified letter from Seneca to the apostle Paul and Augustine's Enchiridion: De fide spe et caritate. A copy of the Concordat of Worms from 1122 was added later. Transcription took place in Einsiedeln and the southern German region, possibly in St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript (9th century) from Disentis contains the Recognitiones of Pope Clement I in the Latin translation of Rufinus of Aquileia. Books IV-VI and individual chapters are missing.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This composite manuscript was produced during the 10th/11th and the 13th/14th centuries in Einsiedeln and St. Gall. It contains various selections intended for religious education, such as the lives of saints Faustinus, Jovita and Gangolf, the Benedictine Rule, sermons, a liturgical tract and De ratione temporum.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The first part (pp. 1-178) contains ascetic treatises in Rhaetian or Alemannic minuscule, which originally constituted a single volume together with Einsiedeln 199. The other parts were written in Carolingian minuscule. The second part there of (pp. 179-270) can be localized to Switzerland or Northern Italy and the last part (pp. 271-314) to France. The manuscript was held in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already, as attested by numerous maniculae in the hand of Heinrich von Ligerz.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Boethius is the author of the two treatises preserved in this 10th century manuscript: De geometria (1-22) and De musica (23-145). The two texts are surrounded by numerous sketches and marginal as well as interlinear glosses.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
This codex contains Peri hermeneias Aristotelis Libri V as written by Boethius. However, the beginning and end of the work are missing (and have been since the 14th century). The volume displays the work of numerous hands and marginalia added by Heinrich von Ligerz.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
A composite manuscript composed of two volumes of collected works, written during the 9th and 10th centuries in eastern France or southwest Germany. It includes works by Wandelbertus, Boethius, Ausonius, Gregory, Arator, Prosper, Prudentius, Aldhelmus and Boniface.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
For about twenty years it has been known that this extremely old manuscript contains medical texts by two different authors, whereas the contents of the entire volume had previously been attributed to Galen. The two parts are: 1. Galen's Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo Lib. I-III (which does not, however, follow the correct sequence of that text), and 2. Pelagonius , Ars veterinaria. The beginning and the end of this text are missing.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript contains several works by Prudentius and was written by various scribes. The test is surrounded by mostly interlinear glosses; most of these are in Latin, some are in Alemannic dialect.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
This codex contains In Isagogen Porphyrii Commentorum Editio secunda (ed. Brandt 1906). The codex was written by numerous hands, including those of both Cologne and Einsiedeln origins; the nature of the collaboration has not been determined. The same text is found in Cod. 338(1321) I.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
This is an almost square manuscript with wide margins, into which several glosses have been inserted. The manuscript's main text is the treatise De statu animarum by Claudianus Mamertus, which had been widely disseminated in the Middle Ages. The manuscript was certainly not produced in Einsiedeln, but probably originated in Soissons.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This composite manuscript is datable to the second half of the 10th century. It contains, among other items, the Annales Einsidlenses, Priscian's De grammatica, a fragment of a text on the game of chess, and a calendar with obituary entries up to the 16th century.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
A composite manuscript containing various texts related to figuring Easter dates, two datable calendars, the first from 950 to 975 (4-16), the second from the 9th and 10th centuries (29-40), and the Quaestiones morales, which are datable to the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
"De consolatione philosophiae" by Boethius and the life of St. Wolfgang by Otloh of St. Emmeram make up this two-part codex. One part was written in Einsiedeln, the second may have been written in Strassburg.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This Einsiedeln codex contains the letter of Alexander to Aristotle, the life of Charlemagne by Einhard, and an account by Eberwinus of the life of the hermit Simeon of Trier. This manuscript, which was written during the first third of the 10th century and the second half of the 11th century, could have been produced in St. Gallen, or else in western or southern Germany.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This codex is a particularly important manuscript of collected texts. Especially important are the Inscriptiones Urbis Romae and the Itinerarium Urbis Romae. The Ordo Romanus XXIII for use on Good Friday, transmitted only in this manuscript, is also notable. Additional contents of this codex include a selection from the Notae of Marcus Valerius Probus, the Gesta Salvatoris (Evangelium Nicodemi), Varia Poemata and a text entitled De inventione s. Crucis. There is no information about how the manuscript traveled to Pfäfers and then on to Einsiedeln (most likely during the 14th century).
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript consists of two parts, bound together for the first time during the 14th century in Einsiedeln and annotated by Heinrich von Ligerz. The first part (1-137), which contains three works by Priscian and one by Rufinus, was probably produced during the 9th/10th centuries in Switzerland or Germany. The second part (139-318) contains works by Isidore and is in part a palimpsest. It was written during the 8th/9th centuries in northern Italy or Switzerland, probably in the same scriptorium as Cod. Sang. 908.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This manuscript contains Eusebius of Caesarea's Historia ecclesiastica. Based on the script as well as several marginal notes, it can be placed in Southern Germany, perhaps in the area of Lake Constance. It is certain that the manuscript has been in Einsiedeln since the 14th century, as attested by numerous annotations by Heinrich von Ligerz, as well as two drawings by the same hand (p. 133 and 211).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript, written in Rhaetian minuscule, contains selected chapters of the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius of Caesarea.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
Boethius (c. 476-c. 525), one of the earliest scholars of late antiquity and most influential of thinkers, in logic as well as in philosphy and theology, is the author of the works reproduced in this codex, De arithmetica et geometria and De musica. Both works were recognized during the middle ages as foundation works of the quadrivium. The manuscript was produced in Einsiedeln in the 10th century.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript contains the 15 books of St. Augustine's On the Trinity. On 1v, under the Capitula a pen-drawing depicts Augustine with his three adversaries. The codex has been decorated in a particularly artistic manner by the so-called Engelberg Master. A large initial with figurative motifs in red-brown and blank ink begins each book; in the text that follows, intermediate initials are smaller, monochromatically red, and richly ornamented. In verse on 1r, the copyist describes in detail the circumstances of the production of the volume: it was begun under Abbot Berchtold of Engelberg (1178-1197), who died shortly after the copying was underway; his successor Heinrich (1197-1223) supervised the completion of the work.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
Codex 102 is a twelfth century hymnbook with neumes. The chants are written in two columns and are generously rubricated. Ff. 3v-11v contain a calendar of saints and tables about the liturgical year; ff. 1r-3r and 141v-151v also contain neumed chants written by various predominantly later hands. Recorded as a note on 3r is a dedicatory poem that is found in numerous manuscripts produced under Abbot Frowin (1143-1178).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The oldest surviving collection of German sermons by the Strasbourg Dominican and mystic Johannes Tauler (1300-1361) from the year 1359. Probably produced in Strasbourg.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
The third volume, now missing materials from the end, of a codicologically heterogeneous composite of fascicle groups and individual leaves containing copies of sermons in German, assembled near the end of the 14th century or early in the 15th century for use in the women's cloister of St. Andreas at Engelberg. Together with Cod. 335, this is the oldest textual witness for the body of works known as the "Engelberger Predigten" (formerly the "Engelberger Prediger"). Scribes have been identified as the latter Johannes von Bolsenheim, Prior of Engelberg, and the clerk of Lucerne and lay prebendary Johannes Friker, who died in 1388. The Benedictine nuns of St. Andreas took the two complementary volumes Cod. 335 and Cod. 336 (a third volume may have been lost) as well as Cod. 337 and at least 24 additional manuscripts with them to their new location at Sarnen; these have been held in the library of Engelberg Abbey since 1887.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Paper manuscript with colored pen sketches from 1396. The Passion tract follows the Vita Christi by Ludolf von Sachsen (of which it is the first German version), the liturgical tract follows Marquard von Lindau. Produced by Nicholaus Schulmeister, clerk of Lucerne from 1368 to 1402, for Lucerne patrician widow Margaretha von Waltersberg. After her death the codex was to be inherited by the nuns. It remained in their possession until 1887 and since then has been held in the library of Engelberg Abbey.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This 1394 composite manuscript contains an excerpt of the Super libros sapientie (ff. 1r-192r) by Robert Holcot (ca. 1290-1349). Folio 1r has a note of ownership Jste liber est h. wahter prespiteri et detur filijs fratris mei (et johanni . heinrici by another hand) in remedium anime mee, which names Heinrich Wachter (priest) as the owner. This single-column manuscript was written in a cursive script by two different hands. Folios 1r-86v can unequivocally be attributed to Heinrich Wachter. Folios 87r-192r were written by an unknown second hand. The rest of the volume can also be ascribed, albeit not entirely unambiguously, to the two hands mentioned above. The pastedowns, the flyleaves and the reinforcing strips are from a register of names, perhaps from a chancellery. The wood-leather binding is contemporary.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
James of Voragine's Golden Legend, one of the most copied texts of the Middle Ages, appears here in a meticulous fourteenth-century copy. This copy is particularly noteworthy for its exceptional elegance and the refined stitchwork that fixes defects in the parchment (holes and tears); they bring to mind similar works from the double convent of canons and canonesses at Interlaken. The decoration resembles the output of a Zurich workshop. Little is known of the early history of the manuscript, but it as attested in the Cistercian monastery of Hauterive from at least the seveneenth century.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
The manuscript contains primarily the Sermones quadragesimales by the Dominican Jacobus da Varagine. It is from the same scriptorium as Cod. L 34 with the Legenda aurea by the same author, and it shows the same kind of repair to parchment damage, carried out with colored threads. This type of repair can also be found in similar execution from the Augustinian double monastery of Interlaken. The origin of the manuscript remains unknown, but it is attested to have been in the possession of the Cistercians of Hauterive since the 17th century.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
Sermons by the Franciscan Bertrand de Turre (Sermones epistolarum dominicalium); from the holdings of Friedrich von Amberg (guardian in Fribourg, † 1432), who in 1393 had a professional scribe copy these sermons (f. 134r-v, regarding the cost f. 153r) and compile a table of contents (ff. 147-153). The 14th century binding with wooden boards and formerly with a chain was restored by Father Otho Raymann before 2007.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
German-Latin and Latin-German dictionary by the cleric Fritsche Closener; in 1384 Friedrich von Amberg (guardian in Fribourg, † 1432) had the scribe Gregorius copy this lexicon (colophon f. 101v). This is an important, alphabetically-arranged dictionary with brief translations of words, with additions and supplements by Friedrich von Amberg. The 14th/15th century binding with wooden boards and formerly with a chain was completely restored by Father Otho Raymann in 1998 (see ms. 139 regarding the original binding). The originally loose parts of the manuscript (f. B, ff. I-XX) are now securely bound.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript, dated to about 1200, contains several texts, among them the Martyrology of Usuard (Benedictine monk, died around 875), an incomplete homiliary, the Rule of St. Augustine, and the necrology of Sixt Abbey (France, Haute-Savoie) that was expanded with later additions into the 17th century. According to François Huot, the various parts could have existed separately, but they seem to have been combined since the beginning of the 13th century. Primarily in the 13th and 14th century, diverse texts were added on previously blank pages, among them list of dues owed the abbey noted on pages f. 75v and 99r. This manuscript belonged to the Augustinian Canons Regular of Sixt Abbey, who used it during the Officium capituli; the manuscript must have been in their possession until the French Revolution. In the 19th century it was purchased by Auguste Turrettini (1818-1881) from Geneva.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This book of hours belonged to Johannes Huber (†1500), chaplain at the Grossmünster in Zurich. It contains parts of prayers related to the Liturgy of the Hours for the daily routine of clerics.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This book, from the time around 1400, contains prayers and treatises for personal prayer. It has a limp binding of red leather.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This manuscript was made for the female part of the double monastery of Muri since the prayers feature female terms. This work contains the readings, responsories and prayers for the Liturgy of the Hours; the Penitential Psalms; the benedictions for the daily life in the monastery; and the Office of the Dead.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This Dominican-type breviary is from Zurich. It contains texts on the saints' days and on the Commune of saints. Thomas Aquinas is especially emphasized (2r has an initial stretching over 10 lines with a pen drawing of the saint).
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This volume contains St. Bonaventure's Legenda maior of St. Francis, the Vita beati Antonii and two documents regarding the Portiuncula indulgence. The manuscript was written by Elisabeth von Amberg (ff. 1-127) and Katherina von Purchausen (ff. 129-176) in the year 1337. It is decorated with an initial portraying St. Francis as a knight (f. 4r) and a vignette showing the bestowal of the Stigmata (f. 77v). The appearance of the name of St. Clara in the text suggests that the codex was written in a cloister of the Poor Clares, perhaps the Paradise. It came into the posession of the Capuchin cloister in Frauenfeld at the beginning of the 17th century and has been held in the provincial archive of the Capuchins in Lucerne since 1848.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This breviary, which contains only the winter part, is dated to the first half of the 14th century. It is from the diocese of Besançon (with which Porrentruy was also affiliated), as indicated by certain saints that appear in the litanies, such as St. Ferreolus or St. Germanus, the responsories for the Sundays of Advent, as well as the Holy Triduum.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This 13th/14th century florilegium cites mainly the saints Bernard, Augustine and Gregory as well as biblical books with the Glossa ordinaria, Ambrose, Seneca, Aristotle and many others. The pastedowns consist of 12th century parchment fragments on which several lines from Virgil's Georgica are legible.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This Missale speciale was created in 1333, probably at Muri Abbey, for the Chapel of St. Lawrence in Wallenschwil. It contains the texts for those masses that were read in the chapel in the course of the year.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This small 12th century prayer book, the oldest in the German language, was written for a woman. It contains various prayers in German and Latin, including the famous "Mary Sequence of Muri" ("Mariensequenz aus Muri"), the oldest known German language version of the Latin sequence model, the Ave preclara maris stella. During the 19th century the manuscript was linked to Queen Agnes (ca. 1281-1364), who had lived in the Cloister of Königsfeld. It is listed in the manuscript catalog of the monastery of Muri as of 1790.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
The "Richtebrief", written in or about 1300 is the oldest codex in the collection that was written outside the monastery. It contains laws protecting individuals and regulating business and trade, a series of regulations for ensuring the independence of the city, and laws for the constitution of Schaffhausen. It is likely that the creation of this "Richtebrief" is a result of the political alliances Schaffhausen had built with Zurich, Constance and St. Gall. Thus, the first part of the manuscript follows the model of a document from Constance, while the second follows a model from Zurich.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This copy of Augustine's Enarrationes in psalmos 1–50, written in two columns, is listed in the supplements to the Allerheiligen Abbey register of books from about 1100 (Min. 17, f. 306v); together with Min. 16, it completes the older Min. 17. Beautiful parchment, the same layout with large margins as in Min. 16, several hands. The initials with scroll ornamentation are rather small and often are not completed. The ornate decorative capital on the incipit page (f. 1v) confirms that it was created later. Judging by its shape, the leather binding is Romanesque and was equipped with five bosses and clasps in the 14th/15th century. The handwritten note of ownership on the front pastedown and the title label on the back cover probably are from the same period.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Most parts of this missal, some of with neumes, were produced in about 1100. After 1200 they were bound together with a more recent addition. The characteristic initials with twining branches, the inclusion of the feast days of local saints in the calendar, the additional section, and other addenda indicate that the missal was produced in the monastery of Allerheiligen (All Saints) in Schaffhausen and remained in use there over the course of many centuries. It is one of the few liturgical manuscripts from this monastery that survived the Reformation.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
A magnificently laid-out summer part of a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century Franciscan breviary. In addition to the red and blue lombards, the manuscript has impressive gold-background initials. The calendar refers to the diocese of Constance; possibly the breviary belonged to the convent of Paradies. Glued to the back pastedown, the depiction of a nun kneeling before an enthroned Christ with a bleeding head cannot be dated with certainty.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
According to an ownership seal this parchment manuscript was completed before 1318. Scribe and place of origin are unknown. It contains commentaries in Latin by the Dominican Albertus Magnus (ca. 1200-1280) on the six foundation texts of medieval instruction in logic. Their wording was altered during the 14th century using a text handed down by a separate tradition, familiar today mainly through Italian Renaissance manuscripts. The resulting hybrid text, with good, though often singular, textual variations, is of particular importance for the edition of these commentaries. The manuscript has been held by the Schaffhausen Bibliotheca Publica in the Church of St. Johann since 1589.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
This composite manuscript contains legal texts, mainly from the period before Accursius (first half of the 13th century): the Dissensiones and the Insolubilia by Hugolinus de Presbyteris; the Quaestiones by Pillius de Medicina, by Azo, by Roffredus Beneventanus and others of uncertain attribution; the Libellus de iure civili, the Tractatus de bonorum possessione and the rare Tractatus de pugna by Roffredus Beneventanus; the Tractatus de reprobatione instrumentorum and the Summa arboris actionum by Pontius de Ilerda; several lecturae about titles and fragments of the Digestum Novum; the Brocarda by Azo; the Summula de testibus by Albericus de Porta Ravennate; an anonymous Tractatus de testibus; the Libellus disputatorius by Pillius de Medicina; fragments of the Notabilia about the Decretum by Gratian and about the Corpus iuris civilis; the ordo iudiciorum ‘Olim'; a part of the Catalogus praescriptionum, for a certain time attributed to Rogerius, and the ordo iudiciorum ‘Quicumque vult' by Johannes Bassianus.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This Decretum by Gratian is a copy of an archetype which contains an ‘archaic' text belonging to the the Σ-group and with a reduced number of paleae in the text, which were integrated partly at a later time. The codex was used in several schools in Italy and in Southern France. In the first layer of glosses is a copy of the Glossa ordinaria by Johannes Teutonicus (published in 1215/16), in the following layers there is a copy by several hands of Bartholomew of Brescia's additiones to the Glossa ordinaria, as well as glosses by canonists mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Online Since: 06/23/2016