Few works of antiquity had as profound an influence on the Middle Ages as did Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae. This exemplar contains valuable information which allows it to be placed in an interesting historical context. The Fribourg cleric Pierre Guillomin finished copying the manuscript on Christmas Eve 1447 in Dijon. The colophon, which states these details, also names the recipient of the manuscript, Jacques Trompettaz († 1503), a compatriot of the copyist. The latter was careful to include in several passages of the text, in addition to his own name and that of the addressee, the names of two more Fribourg friends, Claude de Gruyère and Jacques Sutz, Monk at Hauterive.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This small volume with the German translation of the Franciscan Rule (“Augsburger Drittordensregel”) comes from the Franciscan convent of Solothurn and is probably connected with the tertiaries or the Beguinage “zum Lämmli” in Solothurn, which was entrusted to the Franciscans for the cure of souls.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Cod. Sang. 1396 is one of the Abbey Library of St. Gall's eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments). Between 1774 and 1785, the St. Gall monks Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756–1823) and Ildefons von Arx (1755–1833) detached numerous fragments from bindings in which they had served for centuries as pastedowns, flyleaves, spine linings, and quire guards. Several fragments, including many in Cod. Sang. 1396, were also used as limp bindings for manuscripts or prints. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound into eight thematically-organized volumes and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. From 2012 to 2021 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1396 was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same order, except for a few bifolia) in 32 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (without the empty paper pages). Citation form (example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1396.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1396, Folder 1, Pages 1-2). Folders 10-14 and 18-32 contain fragments of late-medieval charters, whose texts are incomplete to various degrees. The contents of the charters are indicated in the registers of Karl Wegelin (1803–1856), who examined most charters during his period as Abbey Archivist of St. Gall (1834–1856). The register's content is reproduced with the orthography and wordflow unchanged, and only exceptionally in abbreviated or modified form. In contrast to Karl Wegelin, who only reports the year, the date is presented, when possible, on the basis of the charter text. The abbreviation P.L. (=Philipp Lenz) indicates supplemental free-standing observations on the content. The descriptions do not mention the old numeration scheme in blank ink, which Karl Wegelin probably introduced. If a charter fragment has no explicit dating, the script is described and dated. Measurements give height x width at the maximal point of the documents, according to the reading direction, and thus independent of the direction the charters were bound. The twenty-sixth folder contains German-language fragments of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century documents and a letter, from Germany and Austria.
Online Since: 08/21/2025