This manuscript, written in the second half of the 15th century, probably shortly after 1450, contains first (pp. 1−46) the Constance World Chronicle from the end of the 14th century. This is followed by the Zurich Chronicle from the beginnings to the start of the 15th century (pp. 47−121), a continuation of the Zurich Chronicle about the years 1420/21, 1436 and 1443−1450 (pp. 121−132), and a abbreviated edition of the Chronicle of the Council by Ulrich of Richenthal (pp. 132−228). Based on an examination of the handwriting, in the older literature it is considered that the early humanist Felix Hemmerli (1388/89−1454) from Zurich may have been the scribe. The manuscript was owned by the Swiss scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) and was sold to the monastery of St. Gall by his family in February 1768. Tschudi added various marginal notes and corrections to the texts.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
German translation of a history of the First Crusade (1095/96-1099; Historia Hierosolymitana), composed by the monk Robertus Monachus from Reims. Written and illustrated with 22 colored pen drawings in the year 1465. As an appendix, the manuscript also contains around 9000 verses from the Österreichische Reimchronik (rhymed chronicle of Austria) by Ottokar of Steiermark describing the siege and destruction of the Crusaders' fortress in Akkon in the year 1291.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Five codicological units make up this paper manuscript; the text was written by one or more hands in the fifteenth century. The longest texts in the manuscript are the Tractatus de vitiis capitalibus, which is probably to be ascribed to Robert Holcot, the Dialogus rationis et conscientiae of Matthew of Krakow, and the Dialogus de celebratione missae by Henry of Hessia the Younger. The remaining texts are shorter, including sermons, spiritual instructions, and astrological and medical treatises. In addition, there are added numerous documents related to the Council of Constance (1414—1418) that deal with the condemnation of John Hus and with the question of Communion under both kinds.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The paper manuscript, bound with a limp binding, is composed of four parts written in the first half of the fifteenth century. Parts II and IV are probably to be ascribed to the hand of Johannes de Nepomuk, who came from the Cistercian house of Nepomuk in Bohemia. The manuscript probably reached the Abbey of St. Gall by the middle of the fifteenth century at the latest. It contains Latin sermons, spiritual treatises, and documents pertaining to the Council of Constance in the years 1417–1418.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This manuscript contains Burchard of Strasbourg's Summa casuum (pp. 7a-261a); according to the colophon (p. 261a), it was completed by the clergyman Fridolinus Vischer in the parish of Mollis in Glarus, probably on April 4, 1419. In the course of the 15th century, notes on personages from the Old Testament were added at the beginning of the manuscript (pp. 4-5), and brief canonical and theological explanations on spiritual kinship, on legitimate and illegitimate contracts and purchases, on tithes and found objects were added at the end of the manuscript (pp. 261b-271b).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This paper manuscript has cardboard binding from the 18th/19th century. It was probably written entirely by the secular priest, Mattias Bürer, whose books devolved after his death (1485) to the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript contains chiefly a verse summary, ascribed to Adam von Aldersbach, of the famous textbook of canon law and pastoral theology by Raymund of Peñafort (pp. 7–123). In addition to interlinear glosses, a thick apparatus of glosses can be found in certain places in the margins. After two short texts follows a long commentary on the preceding versified work (pp. 135–264).
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This paper manuscript brings together various texts of pastoral theology on the sacraments, and particularly on confession, as well as commentaries on the doctrine of the faith as well as sermons. Among these texts are the Summula de summa Raimundi of Magister Adam [Adamus Alderspacensis] (pp. 99–138) and the Liber Floretus (pp. 139–151), both written in verse. The scribe identifies himself as Johannes in a colophon on p. 138. The manuscript presents numerous annotations from the hand of the learned and wandering St. Gall monk Gallus Kemli (1480/1481).
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This voluminous paper manuscript was written by Gallus Kemli († 1480/81) approximately in the period 1466 to 1476. It transmits tools, compendia, and summaries of theology, canon law, liturgy, and confession and penance, as well as prayers and chants with German Plainchant (Hufnagel) notation for the mass, a rituale, and, finally, further prayers, blessings, sermons and exhortations, partly in Latin and partly in German. The manuscript is bound in a limp wrapper with a red leather cover. Gallus Kemli, monk of Saint Gall, who led an erratic itinerant life outside the abbey, left at his death a large collection of books, including this one.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This paper manuscript contains a commentary on Magister Adam's (Adamus Alderspacensis) Summula de summa Raimundi. A hand from the first half or middle of the fifteenth century prepared this copy in a book cursive script. Occasional pen-drawings decorate the text. Based on the binding, the manuscript has been in the Abbey of St. Gall since 1461 at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This paper manuscript contains a commentary on Magister Adam's (Adamus Alderspacensis) Summula de summa Raimundi. According to the colophon on p. 314a, Jodocus Probus completed copying the text on September 12, 1422. The ownership note on p. 3 indicates that the manuscript was in the Abbey of St. Gall by the second half of the fifteenth century at the latest. It is bound with a limp binding.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Completed in 1338, Bartholomew of Pisa's Summa de casibus conscientiae is one of the most widespread late-medieval confessors' manuals. Its success is due to its practical orientation and the alphabetical organization of keywords from canon law and moral doctrine. This copy from the second quarter of the fifteenth century likely belonged to the books that the secular priest Matthias Bürer agreed in 1470 to give to the Abbey of St. Gall, and which were transferred after his death in 1485.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This extensive manuscript miscellany was written by the secular priest Matthias Bürer. According to the numerous colophons, he finished the copies of the texts in the period from ca. 1448 to 1463 in Kenzingen (Baden-Württemberg) and in many places in Tyrol. The manuscript transmits among other things several theological treatises, a confessors' manual, two mirrors of confession, an ars moriendi (“the art of dying”), the Acts of the Apostles with the Glossa ordinaria, sermons, as well as Books II–IV of Pope Gregory the Great's Dialogues. After the death of Matthias Bürer in 1485, the manuscript went, along with other books, to the Abbey of St. Gall, in accordance with a 1470 agreement.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The manuscript was written at the turn of the fourteenth to fifteenth century. It transmits a collection of charters and formularies for the ecclesiastical benefice and courts system, secular money transactions and sales, the feudal system, and so on. The notes at the end of the manuscript identify its owner as Johannes Pfister of Gossau († 1433?), imperial notary and cleric of the bishopric of Constance, who was in the service of the city and abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript subsequently belonged to the city clerk of St. Gall Johannes Widembach († c. 1456), who placed his coat of arms on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript, probably written in Italy in the second quarter of the 15th century, contains the canonist Wilhelm Horborch's († 1384) collection of judicial decisions of the Rota Romana. The manuscript probably reached the library of the monastery of St. Gall along with other codices from the estate of St. Gall Abbott Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg (1442–1463), who had studied canon law in Bologna from 1439 until 1442 under Johannes de Anania.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The eighteenth- or nineteenth-century cardboard binding contains four roughly contemporary manuscript parts from the second half of the fifteenth century. Parts I and III are written in the same hand and transmit instructions and examples for the correct composition of Latin letters and charters and for the use of rhetorical figures. Part II contains a textbook of procedural law by Johannes Urbach; Part IV is a collection of Latin letters composed in the years 1465–1480 and addressed to the Einsiedeln monk and early humanist Albrecht von Bonstetten.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The manuscript chiefly transmits a 1481 Landgerichtsordnung (procedural and penal ordinances) for the Abbey-Principality of Kempten, which was possibly copied before the end of the fifteenth century. The manuscript was used by Ulrich Degelin, Chancellor under Abbot Johann Erhard Blarer von Wartensee (1587–1594) and author of a new Landgerichtsordnung for Kempten. Thereafter, the manuscript passed successively into the possession of the Lindau legal scholars Johannes Andreas Heider († 1719) and Johann Reinhard Wegelin († 1764), before Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger acquired it for St. Gall Abbey between 1780 and 1792.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Universal chronicle from Saturn of Crete to Brenno, legendary Duke of Swabia (col. 3a-17a). This is followed by the Schwabenspiegel (mirror of the Swabians) with common law according to the first systematic order, in 79 sections up to article 343 (col. 17a-264b); and feudal law up to article 158 (col. 264b-347a). A table of contents for the entire manuscript can be found at the end (pp. 350-361).
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Schwabenspiegel (mirror of the Swabians), common law, articles 1-86 (col. 7a-58a), articles 155-219 (col. 59a-100b), and articles 220-377 (col. 101a-187b); after article 40, common law article 40§1 (col. 33a) from the Deutschenspiegel is inserted; the common law is followed by feudal law, articles 1-120 and 122-154 (col. 187b-284a) and article 159 (col. 284a-285a).
Online Since: 12/18/2014
The manuscript, rebound in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, transmits in its first part a commentary on the second book of the Decretales Gregorii IX (Liber Extra). The second part of the manuscript comprises just two quires, with a commentary on Title 26 of the same second book of the decretals. The manuscript belonged to the St. Gall monk Johannes Bischoff († 1495), who studied Canon Law in 1474–1476 at the University of Pavia. He wrote the commentary in the first part of the manuscript in his own hand.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The flexible binding contains four manuscript parts, each of which transmits a commentary on selected Titles and Chapters of the first book of the Decretales Gregorii IX (Liber Extra). Parts I, III and IV are written in the hand of the St. Gall Monk Johannes Bischoff († 1495), who studied Canon Law at the University of Pavia in 1474–1476. He likely obtained Part II during his studies in Pavia.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The flexible binding covers ten codicological units containing texts that the St. Gall monk Johannes Bischoff († 1495) for the most part copied in his own hand or, for a smaller number, obtained during his studies of Canon Law at Pavia in 1474–1476. They include commentaries on individual Titles of the Decretales Gregorii IX (Liber Extra), the Liber Sextus and the Clementinae, discussions of legal procedure, torture, hereditary law, and other themes, an alphabetically-organized reference work on moral doctrine, as well as the public disputation of Johannes Bischoff.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The paper manuscript contains three adaptations of the Libri feudorum, Lombard feudal law, and is composed of two parts. The first part, with Dullius Gambarinus's Margarita feudorum (pp. 1a–28a), was probably written in France in the first half of the fifteenth century. The second half contains Odofredus de Denariis's Summa feudorum (pp. 29a–60b) and Jacobus de Belvisio's Lectura super usibus feudorum (pp. 60b–144b) and was produced either in Italy or France in the fourteenth century. The second part of the manuscript contains annotations by the legal scholar Johannes Bischoff († 1495), a conventual of the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This four-part manuscript was written primarily in the second half of the 13th century or in the first half of the 14th century in Italy and perhaps partly in France. It preserves the Tres libri Codicis (Books 10–12 of the Codex Justinianus) including the glosses, the Libri feudorum, the corresponding Glossa ordinaria , as well as other lesser writings. Particularly valuable are the pre-Accursian glosses to the Tres libri Codicis, which have been preserved partly in their original form. The manuscript came to the Abbey Library at the latest in the 16th century via the St. Gall citizen Johannes Widembach († around 1456).
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Collection of German medical texts. The beginning is missing, then the Ordnung der Gesundheit for Rudolf von Hohenberg (pp. 3-60); various recipes for medicine, magic and food (pp. 63-101), among them a treatise on vultures and verbena from the Bartholomäus (pp. 64-69); “Verworfene Tage” (pp. 69-71); a recipe for vinegar (pp. 73-76); an excerpt from the Buch der Natur by Conrad of Megenberg (pp. 82-85); recipes making use of “Schwalbenstein” (pp. 89-90); prognostics for the new year and for thunder (pp. 90-94); recipes for wine (pp. 95-101). Herbal book with excerpts from the Macer Floridus by Odo von Meung (pp. 101-146); medical recipes (pp. 146-147); applications for medicines according to the Macer Floridus (pp. 147-161); recipe against the ritten (p. 162). At the end on p. 164 there is a colored sketch of Agrimonia (Odermennig). The manuscript, originally from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 117), is related to the 2° Cod. 572 of the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Collection of German medical texts. Recipes for medicines (pp. 1-148) with an index (pp. 149-157), more recipes added later (pp. 158-168), instructions for bloodletting (pp. 169-184), German and Latin incantations (pp. 185-186), excerpts from De pestilentia by Theobaldus Loneti (pp. 187-188). The manuscript is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 118).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Composite manuscript in Latin and German. The texts, which are presented in no systematic order, can be grouped as follows. Geomancy: Latin treatise with schematic drawings (pp. 1-152, 163-169); other geomantic schemata (185, 236, 263 [incorrectly paginated as 262]). Medicine: recipes, in German (pp. 153-162 and 197-198); examination of the blood after bloodletting and instructions for bloodletting, in German (pp. 193-196, 255-261). Iatromathematics: lunarium, in Latin (pp. 169-172); planets and the attributes of their corresponding hours / of the persons born under their sign, in German, partly in rhymed verse (pp. 173-175, 178-179, 218, 240); tables for determining which planets govern which hours (p. 200, 240); signs of the zodiac, their characteristics and their influence on the people born under them, in Latin (pp. 180-185, 186 [hexameter]) and German (pp. 187-192), directions and tables for calculating the position of the moon in the zodiac (pp. 177-178, 213-214, [215b]-216 [for the years 1406-1480]); diagram of the zodiac (p. 262); drawing of the parts of the fingers correlated with signs of the zodiac, temperaments and elements (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]); monthly rules, in Latin (p. 215-[215a]). Astronomy: calendar (pp. 201-212); tables for calendar calculations (pp. 237, 241-242, 254); table of lunar eclipses for the years 1422-1462, with drawings of the respective degree of coverage (pp. 238-239 and 243). Prognostication: prognostics for thunder, in German (p.199); prognostics for the new year, in Latin (p. 217). Alchemy: recipes for alchemy, in Latin (pp. 219-220) and in German (pp. 221-228). Treatise on chiromancy, in German, commencing with a colored pen drawing of two hands with the lines of the hands (pp. 244-254). Other items: incantations, in German (p. 156) and in Latin (p.219); four hexameters about the quality of wine, in Latin (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]). The manuscript, written in various hands, is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 104).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This miscellany begins with a few short medical texts: pp. 5–6 Johannicius (Hunain ibn Ishāq), Isagoge ad Techne Galieni (a reworking of Galen's Ars Parva, in the Latin translation of Constantinus Africanus), § 1–9; pp. 6–7 and 8 have a few verses from the Regimen sanitatis salernitanum, a didactic poem in hexameter on medicine; pp. 7–8 contains a short text on the proportions of combined medicatons, inc. Gradus est sedecupla proporcio; pp. 9–10 a text on bloodletting, with the title in red De flebotomia, inc. In flebotomia quedam generales condiciones sunt; pp. 10–11 a Latin-German glossary of plant names, with the rubric title Nomina herbarum, inc. Plantago Wegerich; pp. 11–12 a text on uroscopy, the beginning of which a later hand in the margin indicates with in the margin with the title De urinis, inc. Si urina alba fuerit. Pages 12–14 are written in a later hand and contain, contrary to Scherrer, not further medical material, but rather an exemplum or exempla from the Vitaspatrum (In vitas patrum legitur quod quidam interrogavit senem quare cogitaciones prave inpedirent oraciones [?]). After the medical part comes on pp. 15–89 a Latin version of the Lumen animae, a collection of natural history exempla for preaching. On the margins of the page appear small diagrams concerning the contents of the chapter as well as additions to the authorities named in the text. The Lumen animae is the only text in the manuscript to begin with a larger red initial and ends on p. 89 with the rubric colophon Finito libro sit laus et gloriae Christo. The next two pages (pp. 90–91) contain, among other things, calendar verses and a text on the planets. Pages 92–97 have a Latin version of the “Letter from Heaven” or the “Sunday Letter”, a letter supposedly that fell from heaven concerning the celebration of Sunday, inc. Incipit epistola dei de celo vere missa petro apostolo ab omnibus diebus dominicis qualiter sit colendus dies dominicus. A prayer follows on pp. 97–98, inc. O dilecte Iesu Christus, felix est qui te amat. The final pages (pp. 98–101) contain further exempla written in the same later hand as pp. 12–14, inc. Legitur quod quedam mulier […] venisset ad beatum Hillarionem pro sterilitate tollenda. The manuscript is bound in a grey cardboard binding from the eighteenth century; the earlier parchment binding with a spine label bearing the shelfmark 758 survives, but it has been cut apart and stapled to the first and last quires, respectively (p. 3 and between p. 24-25; p. 102 and between p. 88-89).
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This manuscript, illustrated with numerous colored pen drawings, originated in a secular environment in Southern Germany or in Switzerland around the middle of the 15th century. It describes the signs of the zodiac, the planets, the four temperaments, and the four seasons regarding their influence on human health. This is followed by dietary guidelines primarily regarding bloodletting, but also regarding eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, resting and moving, as well as, in concrete terms, regarding bathing (illustration p. 101) or defecating (illustration p. 120). Most likely an amateur doctor with an interest in astronomy, from the Southern region of Germany, wrote the original text around 1400 and assembled it into a compendium. Later the text was repeatedly supplemented and modified. The last part (from p. 128 on) contains a prose and a poem version of the so-called letter from Pseudo-Aristotle to Alexander the Great, in which the Greek universal scholar advises the king on maintaining good health.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The manuscript is composed of various fascicules, of which many carry at the end the ownership mark of Johannes Engler, canon of St. Leonhard (p. 140, 168, 304). After a calendar (pp. 4–24) comes the Summa rudium (pp. 25-140). The next quire (pp. 143–168) contains the synodal decrees of Marquart von Randeck, bishop of Constance (the decrees, and not the copy, date from 1407, p. 165). The remaining quires contain observations, sermons, a Latin-German vocabulary (pp. 290–304), recipes and calendar-related texts, as well as various spiritual and lay short texts. Among the latter are two collections of fables (pp. 141–144 and 266–275). The quires frequently start at the beginning of a text and often have blank pages at the end, a phenomenon that, along with the multiple ownership marks and worn outer leaves of quires, points to the individual quires being used for some time without a binding. Fifteenth-century leather binding, containing several bosses. On the pastedowns, the offset of a German-language charter can be seen.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This theological miscellany is composed of four parts (I: pp. 3–122; II: pp. 123–215; III: pp. 216–231; IV: pp. 232–243) and is written by multiple hands in a gothic book cursive. Only the first initial has been executed. The first four gatherings, written in a single column, contain Marquard von Lindau's treatise De reparatione hominis (pp. 3–122). On the last page of this part (p. 122) appears the 1553–1564 library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer of St. Gall. On the next four gatherings is Henry of Friemar's commentary Expositio decem praeceptorum, written in two columns (pp. 123a–213b). The next quire contains the 1398 report Determinatio magistrorum sacrae theologiae sanctae universitatis studii Pragensis concerning the theses of the Ulm master Johannes Münzinger (p. 216-230). The last gathering contains a text that begins Vas electionis est non plus sapere quam opportet… (pp. 232–238). Except for the last gathering, all parts have marginalia or manicules (p. 134), which have been trimmed. On the back of the endpaper (p. 245) is written and drawn with pen: the ownership mark, Liber monasterii sancti Galli, a face and the purchase statement, Anno domini MCCCCX [the X is crossed out?] XXII [1422 or 1432] […] emi Henricus Lútenrieter hunc librum a domino Nycolao … Hallensium. The cover is wrapped in parchment reused from a will, the inside of which is lined with linen cloth in a coarse plain weave, and has now partially detached in front. The will, written in early New High German, the front half can be read: Ich phaff Berhtolt der horiden [?] von Ehingen […] und der darnach in dem acht und súbentzigesten iar […]. The gatherings are directly chain-stitched to the thick leather spine lining. On the front of the wrapper is written in a contemporary hand a table of contents. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler produced another table of contents, which he glued to the front flyleaf (p. 1). The pagination (pp. 1–245) has an error: there are two p. 143s.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This paper manuscript contains first of all a series of draft sermons dated by the colophon to 1381 (p. 80). There then follows, in the same hand as before, a partial copy of Defensor of Ligugé's Liber scintillarum (pp. 80-96), miracles (pp. 96-108) and an index (pp. 108-110). A different hand copied book IV of Augustine's De doctrina christiana and makes numerous marginal annotations (pp. 113-162). Next comes, probably in the hand of the wandering monk Gall Kemli († 1481), Aileranus Sapiens' interpretation of the ancestors of Christ (pp. 163-168), as well as excerpts from theological texts, including the Mammotrectus by the Franciscan Johannes Marchesinus.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Sermons form the bulk of this moral-theological miscellany. It is written by multiple hands. The initials have not been added to the first, fragmentary text, written in a single column (pp. 29–74). The next text, written in two columns, has the title De purificatione written in the top margin, and begins Sanctificavit tabernaculum suum [1 Par 22,1] Altissimus… (pp. 79a–102b). The confessionary De septem viciis, with the incipit Superbia est tumor… (pp. 105–120), is written in one column and illuminated elaborately with six black and red word trees with geometric patterns on the branches (pp. 107, 109, 111, 113, 115 und 120) as well as the ten commandments, circled, along with their contraries on p. 117. This is followed by the didactic poem on virtuous living, Modus vivendi secundum deum, written in a single column (pp. 121-124). There is then a letter from a Master Samuel to a Rabbi Ysaak, allegedly translated by a Spanish friar called Alfonsus Boni Hominis. The text is written in a single column on pp. 125-153. The Sermones de sanctis by the Cistercian Konrad von Brundelsheim (Soccus) that follow are written, frequently corrected and annotated, in an early gothic book cursive on pp. 173-389. The first initial is red, the others either were never added or in brown, some with strapwork inclusions on p. 218, 247 and 323. There is a tab on p. 219 and a manicule on p. 266. Michael of Massa's Tractatus de passione Domini (Version Angeli pacis…) with allegorical introduction and dialogues (pp. 389-470) is the last text. The colophon of the last part dates the work's completion to 8th March 1427 (p. 470). The shelfmark plate “T 17” on the wooden board binding with leather cover and a plaited endband corresponds to the records in the 1461 library catalogue of St. Gallen. It therefore suggests that this volume was likely compiled and bound in the mid-fifteenth century. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler glued a table of contents onto the inside front pastedown. Pages 1-8, 17-24 and 169-172 contain only the ruling lines for a two-column commentary with extensive marginal gloss, but no text. Other pages are completely blank, without even a page layout: 9–16, 25–28, 49–54, 75–78, 103–104, 155–168 and 471–483. There is an entry made on p. 484. The leaf pp. 53-54 is loose. There was a loose, reused fragment with a hand drawn onto it between p. 180 and 181.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This paper manuscript contains just Peter Lombard's Libri sententiarum, written by various hands in scripts somewhere between bastarda and newer Gothic book cursive. The copy of the first book abruptly ends at Distinctio 42, though with the colophon Explicit liber questionum super primum [sc. librum] sententiarum anno domini 1422 (p. 239). There are then six slightly smaller, empty leaves, surely meant for the completion of the volume (pp. 149-160). A further twelve empty leaves of the same size appear at the very end of the volume (pp. 460-483). No initials have been added. The recto sides from p. 165 onward have page-titles with the number of the book concerned. The binding shows signs of the five buckles it used to have both on its top and bottom. On the lower and upper edges is the following edge-title: Sententiarum. The bound cord is inserted between large wooden boards. The endband is plaited. On the inside of the now bare front cover the offset from a since removed binding fragment can be seen. On numerous pages parts of the edge of the leaf have broken off, text loss is minimal (pp. 175, 176, 181–200, 219–246, 317–332).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This miscellany has five parts written by several hands (Part I: pp. 1–50; Part II: pp. 51–86; Part III: pp. 87–110; Part IV: pp. 111–254; Part V: pp. 255–316). At the beginning of the first part is a sermon De dignitate sacerdotale, using Is 60:8 as its thema (pp. 1a-2b) and quaestiones on the sacraments (pp. 3a-40a). Each individual quaestio is identified by a red Q-lombard, sometimes with a face drawn in it (p. 18, 21a). In the colophon (p. 40a) Conradus Jud from Zürich (Thuregum) in Uznach names himself, having finished the copying of the quaestiones on the 8 January 1410, in the first hour. There then follow two sermons De dedicatione (pp. 40a-44a) and De dignitate sacerdotale (pp. 44a-50b). The second and third parts both contain sermons De tempore (pp. 51a-85b). The fourth part contains sermons by Nicolas of Lyra, Postilla super evangelia: the text transmitted here begins with twice III, 1 (Hamesse II, 254, Nr. 14807) on p. 111a and 113a. In between, on p. 112, is a table showing the readings for summer and advent. Early New High German glosses on p. 184 describe the semantic field of ‘expression of lament' (“Ausdruck von Trauer”). The text of the Postilla abruptly ends on p. 240a. Pages 241-254 have only outlines for the columns. There then follows the fifth part containing the Liber de informatione electorum by Nicolaus Andreae de Civitate Theatina (Hamesse I, 7, Nr. 115) (pp. 255a–314b). The volume contains a great many manicules (p. 13, 14, 17, 34, 51, 55, 60, 65, 73, 90, 142, 152) and marginal titles, especially numberings. There are detailed marginalia on p. 78, 79, 214 and 255, as well as a later addition on pp. 84b-85b that also has marginalia. Page 86 and 300 are completely empty. The leaf pp. 299-300 is only one-column-wide. On the endpaper p. 316 there is a charter text dated 1553, June 15, bound upside-down, which mentions the Knight Hospitaller Johannes Wick and the priest Thomas Molitor of the diocese of Constance. On the back pastedown is an offset from a two-column grammatical text (late thirteenth or early fourteenth century) complete with blue and red pieds-de-mouches. Page 50b is stamped with the 1553-1564 St. Gallen library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer. There is a table of contents added by the St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler which he pasted on the inside of the front board. The volume has a wooden board binding and is covered in light-coloured leather with two reinforced patches left where there used to be leather straps on the front cover.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This folio-format miscellany is formatted as a single column in a looping bastarda script. On the former flyleaf there is a fragmentary evangeliary, also in a looping bastarda, (Mc 16:1; Lc 24:13; Lc 24:39; Io 21:1; Io 20:11 on pp. 3a–4b). The main part, which consists of moral-theological definitions and short narratives (pp. 5-297), has in ink original numbering in the centre of each leaf (1-150), as well as an accompanying table of contents (pp. 297-301). Before the table of contents there is a doxology and a book curse written as a shape poem which contrasts the salvation of the writer with that of a book thief (p. 297). A sermon for All Saints' Day is written onto the last page as well as the endpaper (p. 302a-303b). On the verso side of the endpaper are the legend of the journey of the thirty pieces of silver from Abraham up until Judas' betrayal (p. 304a) and a note in German about the pawning of the manuscript: the previous owner, Hans Rich, parish priest in Mosnang pawned the manuscript for four guilders and ten shillings (p. 304b). This final column has been stamped with the 1553-1564 St. Gallen library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer. The offset of a calendar is visible on the inside of the front and rear boards. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler has stuck a table of contents onto the inside front cover. The leaf p. 1-2 is missing. The holes from five since lost buckles are visible in both the front and back of the brown leather covering the wooden board binding with plaited endband. The remains of two buckle straps can be seen on the back of the book, each fastened with a decorative tack in a floral design (15th or 16th century). On the front there are two stamped holes for the two buckles.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This composite volume, written between 1425 and 1425 in the Lake Constance regions, though not at the Abbey of St. Gall, contains Latin versions of a great many computistic/astronomical/cosmographical treatises, including the widely disseminated work De sphaera mundi by John of Sacrobosco and his arithmetical foundation work Tractatus de algorismo. The manuscript, organized according to the calendar, also contains illustrations: the twelve signs of the zodiac, a map of the winds, sketches of the ecliptics of the sun and moon, planets and constellations, a diagrammatic guide for bloodletting, a set of early medieval Terra Orbis-type world maps, and (on pages 265 and 266) twelve simple illustrations for the months with brief rhyming proverbs in German derived from the nature- and landscape-dominated everyday life of the people of the late middle ages.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This volume contains the Manuale confessorumby the Dominican Monk Johannes Nider, born in Isny and later active in Nuremberg and Vienna (p. 3-124), the work De generatione et corruptione by Albertus Magnus, also known under the title Problemata Aristotelis (p. 129-168), the second Book of Aristotle's Physics In librum secundum physicorum (p. 169-212), the treatise De constellacione [siderum] in nativitate (p. 212-213), the late medieval collection of anecdotes and tales Gesta Romanorum (p. 258-453). The text on pages 129-213 is dated to 1459; pages 259-453 were completed on 30 August 1402 by the copyist Konrad Heinrich von Tettnang.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
A copy of the commentary on Aristotle by the French scientist and philosopher Nicolas Oresme († 1382) Quaestiones super libros Meteororum; according to the colophon (on f. 175v) this copy was completed in September 1459.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Copy of the commentary on the first twelve books of Artistotle's Metaphyiscs by the philosopher Nicholas Theoderici of Amsterdam († before 1456 in Greifswald), completed on 21 May 1459 (fol. 203v). Following the text, there is a table of contents on fol. 204r−205r. According to the note of ownership on fol. 209v (Liber monasterii sancti Galli), this volume probably was part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1500. Prior to that the volume probably was held in Eastern Switzerland, as suggested by notes on fol. 1r (naming Wernher Müntzmaister; Jakob Grübel; Albert von Glarus). From 1422 on, Theoderici was professor of the theological faculty at the universities of Rostock, Leipzig and Greifswald; it has been verified that in the 15th century there were students from St. Gall in Leipzig.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
A fifteenth-century wooden-board binding contains this manuscript composed of multiple parts. The original start of the miscellany, the part of the manuscript consisting of pp. 1–140, was probably removed in the ninenteenth century. Six codicological units remain, and, with the exception of Part IV, they all were copied in the fifteenth century. Part I (pp. 141–348) has, on pp. 141–198, Johannes de Fonte's florilegium Auctoritates Aristotelis (Lohr, p. 260) and, on pp. 199–346, Latin sermons, with the insertion of excerpts from the book of Proverbs (pp. 257–263). Part II (pp. 349–396) contains Latin texts on the Mass, confession, and penance, written in two columns on pp. 349a–396, including Ambrosius Autpertus' treatise De conflictu vitiorum on pp. 363a-383b (Bloomfield, Nr. 0455). Further Latin sermons appear in Part III (pp. 397–440b). Part IV (pp. 441–574) consists of an incomplete abbreviation in two columns of Guillelmus Peraldus' Summa virtutum (Bloomfield, Nr. 5775; Verweij, p. 111–110), which was copied in the fourteenth century. Part V (pp. 575–618) transmits Thomas Aquinas' treatise Collationes de decem preceptis (Bloomfield, Nr. 6071), which is decorated with a rather large pen drawing of a bishop on p. 600b. Part VI (pp. 619–638), a single gathering, is written in two columns and contains on pp. 619a–630b a Latin interpretation of the Pater noster by Johannes Münzinger (Adam, p. 160), on pp. 631a–634a Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of the Ave Maria (Expositio angelice salutationis) (cf. Rossi), on pp. 634b– 637a an interpretation of the responsory Missus est Gabriel, and finally on pp. 637a–638b a short text in another hand. Based on the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 440b), the manuscript has been in the Abbey Library since 1553–1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This codex, written in humanist minuscule, contains philosophical works by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC): pp. 3–121 Tusculanae disputationes (“Tusculan Disputations”), pp. 121–248 De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), pp. 249–344 De natura deorum (“On the Nature of the Gods”) and pp. pp. 345–416 De divinatione (“On Divination”). The coat of arms on p. 3 (four bearded male faces in profile, arranged in a circle) most likely was that of the later Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli (1397–1455, Pope 1447–1455). Parentucelli used this coat of arms (“stemma delle quattro barbe”, Manfredi, p. 662) in the years before he was elected pope. It is found in 38 manuscripts in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome as well as in a codex in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Padua (ms. C27). The white vine initials, typical of Florentine book decoration, are similar to those in the codex from Padua, whose illuminations Silvia Fumian attributes to the Florentine artist Bartolomeo Varnucci (* ca. 1412/1413). Perhaps Parentucelli commissioned this manuscript in 1439–1443, when he resided in Florence for the Council.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This manuscript, written in 1499 under the schoolmaster Cunradus Reuschman of Lindau (note on p. 488), contains predominantly works by ancient writers, as well as several works by 15th century Italian authors. All texts have commentaries, and the more important works are generally preceded by an argumentum. Often there are several pages left blank between the texts. In the margins, there are several simple pen sketches (pp. 498–501, 504, 511, 513; on p. 706 and 712 sketches of maps of the world). P. 3 contains a full-page pen sketch of the city of Troy. The individual texts are: Publius Baebius Italicus, Ilias latina (pp. 5–51); Virgil, Georgica (pp. 57–146); Horace, Epistolae (pp. 148–230); Horace, Carmen saeculare (pp. 231–234); Lactantius, De ave Phoenice (pp. 234–241); Persius, Satires (pp. 245–282); Margarita passionis, inc. Cum prope pasca foret (pp. 283–288); Seneca, De providentia (pp. 289–298); Augustinus Datus, Elegantiolae (pp. 323–361); Carmen de dolo et astutia cuiusdam mulieris, inc. Summe procus caveat ducatur ne mala coniunx (pp. 362–365); hymns (pp. 366–388); Parvulus philosophiae moralis (pp. 395–417); Dominicus Mancinus, De quattuor virtutibus (pp. 419–488); Hieronimus de Vallibus, Jesuida (pp. 491–514); Matthaeus Bossus, Oratio in beata coena domini (pp. 515–524); Ps.-Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Comoedia Poliscena (pp. 539–549); Terence, Andria (pp. 563–621); Virgil, Bucolica (pp. 629–660); Horace, Ars poetica (pp. 661–678); Horace, Epodes (pp. 679–692); Ps.-Virgil, Moretum (pp. 692–694); Ps.-Ovid, Remedia amoris, inc. Qui fuerit cupiens ab amica solvere colla (pp. 694–695); Ps.-Ovid, De arte amandi, inc. Si quem forte iuvat subdi sapienter amori (pp. 695–698); a treatise on punctuation, De kanone punctorum (pp. 699); Virgil, Aeneis, lib. 1 and 3 (pp. 701–726 and 741–760); Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae (pp. 765–802); Sallust, De bello Iugurthino, incomplete (pp. 803–804); Seneca, Epistolae morales (pp. 812–853).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Manuscript compilation with mainly historical content, written for the most part in Latin and German, mostly by Gall Kemli, the wandering monk of St. Gall († about 1481). The manuscript contains, among many other texts, the Benedictine Rule, Latin and German riddles and proverbs, the only known copy of a Middle Rheinish Passion play in German from the 14th century, and a sort of curriculum vitae of the scribe Kemli.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
This composite manuscript from the Monastery of St. Gall is significant in terms of textual history; it contains copies of monastic texts regarding reform movements of the first half of the 15th century. Among other texts it contains the Consuetudines Sublacenses (pp. 1−19), the Consuetudines of a Cistercian monastery in Bohemia (pp. 26−74; Directorium et consuetudines monasterii de Nepomuk ord. Cist. in Bohemia), general and liturgical directives for monastic life (pp. 74−87), disparaging remarks by a monk from Hersfeld staying in St. Gall about the reform efforts of the general chapter (pp. 98−108), as well as the Consuetudines Castellenses (pp. 113−258). The latter contain liturgical directives for the worship service as well as rules for daily life in and for the organization of the monastic community of Kastl in the Upper Palatinate (Bavaria). Later these Consuetudines circulated widely and influenced monastic life in many other monasteries in Southern Germany, including in St. Gall. Cod. Sang. 928 is the only manuscript to preserve the original prologue about these reforms by Abbot Otto Nortweiner of Kastl (1378−1399). The manuscript's original limp vellum binding was restored in the 19th or early 20th century with severe alterations to the original substance of the codex.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This quarto volume brings together various texts, mostly shorter in length, of which the bulk are spiritual essays and prayers, including: a treatise on the Passion (pp. 4–38), prayers on the Passion (pp. 68–84), prayers for the canonical hours (pp. 88–91), a treatise on the Fall (pp. 92–107), and another on the quattuor gemitus turturis (pp. 112-159); a Biblia pauperum indicates numerous saints and for what emergencies they can be invoked (pp. 160–193). Among the spiritual texts, there are also a few in German (e.g., pp. 218–220, 238). Two letters concern St. Gall: one is addressed to Abbot Eglolf (pp. 40–43), another to monks who have fled to St. Gall (pp. 85–88). Additional texts treat the Council of Constance and monastic reforms; also here there is a reference to St. Gall (pp. 239–250). The last quire is composed of parchment leaves and could have come from the fourteenth century; it contains a grammar and medical texts (pp. 251–266). The manuscript has a limp binding; for guards was used a German-language parchment charter, of which the year 1415 and the name of a ulrichen leman burger ze arbon are still legible.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript contains as its main text (pp. 1-199) the so-called Waldregel, an Early Modern High German translation of the Regula solitariorum (rule for hermits), which was written in the 9th or 10th century by the monk Grimlaicus, who probably was from Lorraine. The Waldregel is supplemented by further texts on the topic of the hermit's life and poverty: pp. 199–256 Hie vachet an ain ander buoch ainsidelliches lebens vnd von siner bewaerung …, Inc. Die muoter der hailigen cristenhait hat zwayer hand gaistlicer lüt; pp. 256–326 Das ander buoch von bewärung der armuot, Inc. Gelobet sy got vnser herr iesus cristus; pp. 326–334 Hie nach ain bredige, Inc. Fünf stuk sint dar inn begriffen. According to the explicit on p. 335, these four parts are consolidated under the title Waldregel, although only the first part until p. 199 goes back to the Regula solitariorum. On pp. 337–419 there follows a Spiegel der geistlichen Zucht. This is a translation of the booklet for novices by the Franciscan David of Augsburg († 1272). Prayers were added on pp. 420-422. For the most part, this codex was written by Father Johannes Hertenstein (OSB); it was the property of the hermitage in Steinertobel, not far from St. Gall. A copy of the first four texts can be found in Cod. Sang. 931.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript contains as its main text (pp. 1-180) the so-called Waldregel, an Early Modern High German translation of the Regula solitariorum (rule for hermits), which was written in the 9th or 10th century by the monk Grimlaicus, who probably was from Lorraine. The Waldregel is supplemented by further texts on the topic of the hermit's life and poverty: pp. 180–222 Hie fachet an ein ander buoch von der bewerung einsidliches lebens …, Inc. Die muoter der heilge kristenheit het zweyerhand geistlicher lüte; pp. 222–277 Dz ander buoch von bewerung armuot, Inc. Gelobet sy got vnser herre vnd got iesus cristus; pp. 277–284 [sermon] Inc. Fünf stuk sind dar inne begriffen. On pp. 285–289, prayers have been recorded. The decoration consists of simple red Lombard initials, on p. 1 and 3 with green pen-flourish. Except for the prayers, the manuscript is a copy of Cod. Sang. 930. It was the property of the hermitage of the church of St. George outside the walls of St. Gall. Three spiritual women who lived there in the 1430s are depicted in simple pen and ink drawings on the back pastedown.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Several scribes contributed to the writing of this small-format manuscript between 1437 and 1443, among them Gallus Kemli, the wandering monk of St. Gall (1417−1481). The manuscript with the spine label Miscellanea Regularia Liturgica et Medica is preserved in its original binding; in addition to the Consuetudines Sublacenses, it contains more reformist writings from the late medieval reform movements of Subiaco and Melk. These writings include prayers of grace at meals which vary throughout the church year according to the feast days (pp. 99-117), numerous liturgical texts and calendar calculations. At the back there are medical treatises, among them (p. 480) mnemonic aids regarding bloodletting (pp. 569-571), and the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise Secretum Secretorum, a sort of encyclopedic secret doctrine with oriental characteristics that has been preserved in numerous manuscripts. The table of contents on the inside front cover was written between 1774 and 1780 by Fr. Magnus Hungerbühler (1732−1811), while he was abbey librarian.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Parts I, II and IV of a four-part manuscript in German of collected materials containing cloister rules (including the Benedictine Rule), prayers, and short spiritual texts. A comparative study of the script indicates that the volume was written by Benedictine monk Friedrich Kölner (Köllner, Cölner, Colner), who lived at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1429/30 and 1439. Part III, or the model on which it was based, was dedicated to Anna Vogelweider, a sister in the Cistercian women's cloister of Magdenau in Lower Toggenburg, according to an annotation which was later stricken through. This Anna was likely the aunt of a certain Sister Els (Elsbeth?), named in the record of a donation, from the women's community of St. George.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This codex, written by several scribes, contains theological writings very different from one another in seven parts interrupted by empty pages. Part I: pp. 1–14 table of contents and pp. 17–124 the text of De decem praeceptis by Heinrich von Friemar, pp. 124 Septem dona sancti spiritus contra septem peccata mortalia, pp. 125–139 Tractatus de confessione et de peccatis mortalibus et venialibus, p. 139 Quid sit vera poenitentia et confessio, pp. 139–140 a theological note and further notes on p. 142, pp. 143–173 the treatise De proprietate ad canonicos regulares religiosa by the theologian, astronomer and church politician Heinrich Heinbuche von Langenstein (1325–1397) as well as pp. 177–186 a fragment of the Expositio regulae S. Augustini. Part II contains a fragment of De sacramento ordinis on pp. 187–199, pp. 199–257 Notabilia super Cantica Canticorum by Frater Johannes, followed on pp. 258–260 by the sermon Omnia parata sunt venite ad nuptias. Parts III (pp. 261–284), IV (pp. 285–316) and V (pp. 317–340) contain more sermons. Part VI consists of 14th and 15th century Sibyllenweissagungen in German, (Von Kung Salomo wishait, pp. 341–361) and a fragmentary letter (pp. 361–362). Part VII contains moralizations from the Historia septem sapientium on pp. 365–376. In a note on p. 379 Abbey librarian Ildefons v. Arx reports about the illness and death of the former Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger in the year 1823. An entry in the top margin of p. 1 attests that the manuscript was already in the St. Gall monastery in the 15th century.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript from the Monastery of St. Gall, written and compiled by several hands in the 15th century, contains (in addition to shorter texts and numerous blank pages): excerpts in alphabetical order of Latin writings by church fathers regarding various theological concepts (De abiectione – De voto; pp. 3−179); the work Soliloquium by the Franciscan theologian and philosopher Bonaventure (1221−1274; pp. 181−266); a copy of the anonymous work Stella clericorum that was often adopted in the 15th century (pp. 291−319); the work Speculum peccatoris falsely attributed to Augustine (pp. 339−354); the sermon Corde creditur ad iustitiam by Thomas Ebendorfer (pp. 355−361); the Capitulare monasticum III of 818/819 (pp. 363−367); a not quite complete copy of a letter from Theodomar, Abbot of Montecassino, to Charlemagne (pp. 369−373); and the Consuetudines Fuldenses from the 10th/11th century in the Redactio Sangallensis-Fuldensis (pp. 374−404). The wood binding is covered with red leather; on p. 361 three is a note by the scribe: per me syfridum pfragner.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This volume contains a single text, a German-language intepretation of the Song of Songs, of which 25 manuscript witnesses are currently known. This extensive text is probably not based on a Latin model and its structure becomes decreasingly systematic. Although it is based on passages from the Song of Songs, it does not contain an actual commentary, but is divided into three books: teachings on faith (Book 1, pp. 8–241), a monastic doctrine of virtue (Book 2, pp. 241–431), and discussions of sins, penance, etc. (Book 3, pp. 443–512). An extensive table of contents precedes the text (pp. 5–7). A colophon at the end of the second book (p. 431) states that this part of the manuscript was completed in 1497. The whole manuscript is written and rubricated in the same hand. According to an entry on p. 1, the manuscript came from a convent in Freiburg (Liber S. Galli Emptus 1699 Friburgi); Scarpatetti suggests Adelhausen (Dominican nuns). On an inserted piece of paper can be read a note about the profession of Sisters Margret Boshartin, Kattrin Ferberin and Anna Branwartin in Constance in 1511 and 1514; on the back there is a fragment of a letter (?). Half-leather binding contemporary to the text, with striped and stamped decoration and clasps. To the headband is affixed a braided, two-colored bookmark.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript in its original limp vellum binding contains as its main part (pp. 1-88; index p. 93) alphabetically ordered excerpts in Latin from writings by church fathers on various theological concepts (De abiectione – De voto). These are followed by shorter texts. On p. 89 there is a little-know characterization of peoples and tribes (especially from regions within Germany) in Medieval Latin verses; it is titled Versus de provinciis and it begins with Roma potens, reverenda Ravenna, Britannia pauper. Pp. 90-92 preserve a letter from a Parisian university teacher (Epistola cuiusdam egregii magistri parisiensis) about the evil of property, followed by an interpretation of the Lord's Prayer in Latin (pp. 94-100) and by more spiritual-ascetic texts in Latin (pp. 106-112) and in German. The table of contents on the inside front cover was written by Fr. Jodocus Metzler (1574−1639), longtime abbey librarian.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This composite manuscript likely is from Rhenish Franconia or from the Upper Rhine area and came into the possession of the Abbey of St. Gall in 1699, probably from the Convent of Poor Clares in Freiburg im Breisgau (like, for example, Cod. Sang. 985). The manuscript contains a large number of different sermons and mystical-ascetic texts, especially from the 13th and 14th centuries. Among them are, for instance, the treatise Von der Minne (pp. 7−19) attributed to Johannes Hiltalingen from Basel, the so-called sünde-version of the pseudo-Albert work Paradisus animae (pp. 62−68 and pp. 195−196), ten sermons passed down under the name of Bertold of Regensburg (pp. 70−104), the interpretation of the Lord's Prayer Adonay, gewaltiger herre (pp. 109−192), or the allegory Es ist ein hoher Berg (pp. 211−250) attributed to Johannes Tauler.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript contains the so-called Reformatio Sigismundi, a document about the reform of church and empire that was written anonymously in German in 1439 during the Council of Basel by an author who until today has not been reliably identified. The text was printed for the first time in 1476. The treatise presents reform proposals that emphasize the importance of pastoral care and that promote releasing secular clergy from obligatory celibacy and releasing bishops from exercising temporal power. The treatise also reports Emperor Sigismund's alleged vision, according to which a priest-king Frederick is said to have appeared to him with plans for the reform. In a colophon on p. 234, the writer gives his name as Petrus Hamer von Weissenhorn, chaplain in Kirchberg. He begins the chapters with red initials and decorates two of them with caricatures of bearded faces (p. 158 and 212).
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript, dated in two places to the years 1465 (p. 393) and 1467 (p. 181) and perhaps written by eight different hands, belonged to the Benedictine Convent of St. George near St. Gall and became part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall as part of an exchange around 1780/82. The codex, written entirely in German, contains the explanation of the Decalogue by Marquard of Lindau (pp. 3−176); the song Ain raine maid verborgen lag from Spiegelweise by Heinrich Frauenlob (pp. 177−181); instructions regarding attention during prayer, attributed to Thomas Aquinas (pp. 182−186); the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit by Henry Suso (pp. 195−393); reflections on consecration (pp. 394−399) and on the Sunday (pp. 399−402); as well an anonymous treatise on death (pp. 405−422). Several parchment fragments from an 11th/12th century St. Gall liturgical manuscript containing neumes were used in order to reinforce this manuscript.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript in Northeastern Swiss-Alemannic dialect was probably written for the community of the sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall; it contains numerous shorter and longer texts by known and unknown authors, among them: pp. 1−106: Thomas à Kempis, 3rd book of the Imitatio Christi; pp. 106−123: Bonaventure, excerpts from the work De triplici via; pp. 124−126: preacher of St. Georgen, sermon Geistliche Blume; pp. 126−134: Meister Eckhart (attributed), treatise Von der Vollkommenheit; pp. 135−166: Johannes Tauler, sermon on Mt 13,8 and other sermon excerpts; pp. 167−181: two anonymous sermons Vom Leiden und Meiden; pp. 184−259: treatise from the “Schwester Katrei"; pp. 259−268 anonymous didactic dialog with Timothy's questions to Paul; pp. 271−372: Johannes of Neumarkt, excerpts from the 3rd so-called Jerome letter; pp. 377−407: Marquard of Lindau, Job-treatise; pp. 409−434 and pp. 472−481 (wrongly bound together by a bookbinder): Das Buch des Lebens by an anonymous author; pp. 435−442: excerpts from Meister Wichwolt (Cronica Alexandri des grossen Königs); pp. 446−448: Ps.-Bertold of Regensburg, Bertold's ten lessons for a spiritual sister. About half of the texts were written by the Reformist monk Friedrich Kölner from Hersfeld, who was active at St. Gall Abbey from 1430 until 1436; the other parts were written in the 15th century by three other hands.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
A compilation of religious and ascetic content from the 15th century containing dicta, exhortations and sermons from saints and doctors of the church, treatises on the Sacrament, the Lord's Prayer etc. (by Meister Eckhart, David von Augsburg, Berthold von Regensburg and the Engelberg homilist, among others), the so-called St. Gall Christmas Play (St. Galler Weihnachtsspiel, also known as St. Galler Spiel von der Kindheit Jesu) as well as a commentary on the book of Daniel by Nicolaus of Lyra.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This composite manuscript was written for the quasi-monastic community of women of St. Georgen above St. Gall (see ownership note on p. 3); it contains numerous shorter and longer texts by Marquard von Lindau and other authors known by name as well as anonymous authors, among them: pp. 5-13: Marquard von Lindau, Deutsche Predigt; pp. 25-46 and 51-69: Marquard von Lindau, Von der Geduld; pp. 76-102: anonymous catechetical treatise Von einem christlichen Leben; pp. 149-260: Rulman Merswin, Neunfelsenbuch; pp. 261-262: Volmar, sermon; pp. 262-263: Stimulus amoris, German (excerpt); pp. 268-379: Marquard von Lindau, Auszug der Kinder Israel; pp. 381-404: Marquard von Lindau, De fide, German; pp. 405-447: Heinrich von St. Gallen, sermon cycle on the Acht Seligkeiten. About one third of the pages were written by the reform monk Friedrich Kölner (or Colner) from Hersfeld Abbey in Hesse, who was active at St. Gall Abbey from 1430 to 1436. He was the confessor for the sisters of St. Georgen. The remaining parts were written by several other hands in the 15th century.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This undecorated manuscript in Swabian–Alemannic was written by two hands and contains numerous German-language ascetic-mystical texts, among them the treatise De contemptu mundi (pp. 3−6), various sermons (pp. 7-33), salutations to Mary, prayers, exempla and sentences by church teachers (pp. 33-46), the legend of St. George (pp. 69-105), the first eight fables from the collection Edelstein by Ulrich Boner (pp. 116-129), the treatise Die besessene Schwester Agnes (pp. 131-215), and a mention of the ten commandments, each accompanied by a humorous rhyme (p. 108). The manuscript probably originated in the convent of the female Capuchins of the third order in Wonnenstein near Teufen; it became part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall in 1782 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1285, p. 12).
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript, written around 1500 by the Sisters of the third order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall, contains as an introduction a register (pp. 1−9) of manuscripts and printed works held in the convent library, compiled around 1500; it has a total of 110 entries. The majority consist of ascetic-edifying treatises; among them are Brother Conrad Nater's German translations of Bonaventure's Regula novitiorum (pp. 15−107), the German version of David of Augsburg's De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione (pp. 109−188), the Ermahnung zu einem wahren klösterlichen Leben by the Franciscan monk Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg (pp. 190−223), the treatise Die besessene Nonne Agnes (pp. 225−404), a treatise on the passion attributed to Bernardino of Siena (Lernung das lyden unsers lieben heren zu betrachten; pp. 406−475), revelations by the mystics Gertrude of Helfta and Christine Ebner (pp. 476−486), Bonaventure's Soliloquium in a shortened German version (pp. 496−713), as well as the treatise Vom Reuer, Wirker und Schauer by the so-called Kuttenmann (pp. 717−727). On 11 February 1782, the St. Gall Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756−1823) acquired this manuscript, together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 976, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the community of Capuchin nuns at Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written in 1499 (cf. dates p. 174 and 519) by a Sister of the Third Order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall. It contains a copy of the Schürebrand, a 14th century spiritual treatise from the circle of the Friends of God of Strasbourg (pp. 2-174); the first and third parts of the treatise Von dreierlei Abgründen (pp. 176-313), attributed to St. Bonaventure; and the Passion treatise Extendit manum by Heinrich von St. Gallen (pp. 315-519). The scribe asks for an Ave Maria on p. 519. In 1782, St. Gall Abbey librarian P. Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756-1823) acquired the manuscript together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 973, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the Community of Capuchin nuns of Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This extensive prayer book, probably completed over time by a single hand, contains a treatise on the canonical hours (pp. 34–224) as well as a Marian office (the German version of the Officium parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis, pp. 225–343). These are accompanied by sermons and shorter treatises: at the beginning, texts on the sufferings of Christ, structured according to the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer (pp. 1–33, the first page is missing); at the end of the manuscript appear the short treatise Von der seligen Dorfmagd (pp. 344–346), a fragmentary treatise on the twelve virtues of the sacraments (pp. 347–352), a sermon by Johannes Nider (pp. 352–362), another sermon (In unser Capel die erst bredig von gehorsami, p. 363–384), as well as shorter texts and textual fragments (pp. 385–396). A late-medieval entry (p. 390) gives a name (das buch hadt hanns petris auch ze len). Fifteenth-century red-leather binding, detached bosses, and missing clasps; the hand-marbled pastedowns attest to a modern restoration.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
At the time this work, Die 24 Alten, which was completed in 1386, was written, the Franciscan Otto von Passau was a member of the Minorite convent in Basel. This piece, a form of guide to the Christian life, was widely used in women's convents for reading aloud during meals. This manuscript was written by a swester Endlin, probably at the Franciscan nuns' convent of St. Leonhard in St. Gall.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript from 1467, which first belonged to the convent of the Poor Clares at Freiburg in Breisgau and was transported to the Abbey of St. Gall in 1699, contains, in addition to some Latin texts, many tracts for spiritual instruction in German translation. These include an Ars moriendi, the Cordiale de quattuor novissimis by Gerard van Vliederhoven, the so-called Hieronymus-Briefe(Letters of Jerome) translated by John of Neumark (ca. 1315-1356), the Spiegelbuch, a dialogical text in rhymed verses on living life properly, the trials of worldly life and everyday tribulations, with about twenty colored pen sketches, and a version of the legend of the Three Kings by John of Hildesheim (1310/1320-1375). The manuscript also contains some additional pen sketches: a unicorn (p. 87), images representing two Apostles (p. 107; Paul and John?), a man and a woman in secular dress, and a stag and a wild boar (p. 513). There are imprints in Carolingian minuscule on front and rear inside covers (rear inside cover: Hrabanus Maurus, De computo).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript contains three substantial treatises in German. At the beginning there is the life of Archbishop Johannes of Alexandria (pp. 5−83), written by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. It is followed by the edifying treatise Die vierundzwanzig Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele by Otto of Passau (pp. 87−544) and the History of the Three Kings (Historia trium regum) by John of Hildesheim (pp. 546−602). The treatise by Otto of Passau is illustrated with 25 colored pen and ink drawings, outlined in red and extending the width of the column. The History of the Three Kings begins with a full-page miniature (p. 546), which shows the three Magi visiting the infant Jesus. The scribe and the illustrators of this manuscript, which possibly originated in the circle of the community of lay brothers of St. Gall, are unknown; stylistic characteristics suggest the Konstanz book illumination of Rudolf Stahel. The manuscript is dated to the year 1454 in three places (p. 93 as an inscription in a picture; p. 544; p. 602). In the 15th century the manuscript was the property of the community of lay brothers of the Monastery of St. Gall (who did not know Latin); in 1618 the manuscript was still in the library of the community of lay brothers. At least since 1755 it has been attested in the main library of St. Gall Abbey.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This folio-size manuscript contains a single text, the Gemahelschaft Christi mit der gläubigen Seele (redaction: Es spricht ain haidischer maister es sy besser und nützer), an extensive and still-unedited book of monastic edification. The anonymous author may have been an Augustinian Hermit; his readership largely consisted in female religious communities. Indeed, the present manuscript comes from such a community; based on a comparison of scripts, it was copied and dated by Angela Varnbühler, the chronicler and long-time prioress of the convent of St. Catherine in St. Gall (colophon on p. 842/843). In the run-up to the Reformation, the librarian Regula Keller sent this manuscript and another (today lost) to the women's community in Appenzell, as reported by the letter accompanying the shipment that is pasted on p. 2. From there, the codex went to Wonnenstein Cloister, and in 1782 to the Abbey Library (ownership entry by P. Pius Kolb on p. 4). Two entries from 1584 attest that a certain Hans Bart had das Buoch gelernet (p. 1 and p. 845). The manuscript is laid out in two columns and rubricated throughout. A bookmark and a single leaf from a post-incunable breviary printed in the workshop of Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg are inserted. Between pp. 839 and 840 many leaves have been removed (loss of text). Unadorned leather binding, contemporary with the text, with two clasps (one lost). On the wooden boards the offsets of two German-language charters are visible.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript contains the work Die 24 Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele (completed around 1386) by the Franciscan Otto of Passau. This work, a sort of guide to Christian life in sentences, is addressed to laymen, to lay brothers in monasteries, and to nuns. According to a colophon on p. 512, this manuscript was written by the reformist monk Friedrich Kölner (or Colner), who came from Hersfeld Abbey in Hesse and was active at the Monastery of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436; it was intended for the monastic women's community of St. Georgen above St. Gallen, whose confessor he was.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
The monk Friedrich Kölner (also Colner), originally from Hersfeld Abbey in Northern Hesse, was active at the Monastery of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436; together with several confreres, he introduced internal reforms there. At this time Friedrich Kölner also served as confessor for the quasi-monastic community of sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall. For them he translated numerous texts from Latin into German. The texts in Cod. Sang. 998 are primarily about virginity and chastity. The volume contains numerous sentences of the church fathers in Alemannic with Middle German reflexes; texts by Bernard of Clairvaux are frequent. In addition the volume contains translations of books I and II (pp. 67-139; pp. 141-187) of Imitatio Christi by Thomas à Kempis, various sermons and excerpts, translated into German, from the treatise for novices by David of Augsburg De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione secundum triplicem (pp. 291−299 and pp. 319−338).
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript contains the German-language treatise on Corpus Christi by the “Mönch von Heilsbronn”, a monk of the Cistercian monastery of Heilsbronn located between Nuremberg and Ansbach, who probably lived in the 14th century. The small-format manuscript with a limp vellum binding comes from St. Leonhard Convent near St. Gall and was later owned by the community of women of St. Georgen above St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript, which features two ownership notes from the community of sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall (probably from the period around 1500) on p. 3, contains two spiritual texts from the 13th and 14th century, respectively. They are a translation into German of instructions regarding the Rule of his Order by Humbert of Romans, Master General of the Dominican Order († 1277) (pp. 5–295), and an Upper German version of the work Die geistliche Hochzeit (Brulocht) by the Flemish theologian Jan von Ruusbroec († 1381) (pp. 296–482).
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript, written in 1498, is from the library of the regular community of sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, outside the city gates of St. Gall. The unknown principal scribe — she wrote up to p. 536 — asks future readers for an Ave Maria in two places (p. 201; p. 536). The manuscript contains: in the beginning a copy of the Schürebrand (pp. 10−201) that is significant in terms of textual history; in the middle (pp. 206−339) parts 1 and 3 of the treatise Von dreierlei Abgründen attributed to St. Bonaventure; and in the end (pp. 344−535) the treatise on the passion Extendit manum by Heinrich of St. Gall. The salutation to Mary (“Mariengruss”) added to the end of the manuscript (pp. 537−539) was written by another hand. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the community of sisters of St. Leonhard, the manuscript came to the library of the Benedictine nuns of St. George and finally in 1780/82 to the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written by the Benedictine Friedrich Kölner among others and was meant for the Hermitage of St. George; in addition to a translation of the life of St. Benedict (after Gregory the Great's Dialogi, Liber 2) and an excerpt from the Eucharist treatise of Marquard of Lindau, it contains an especially early version of prayers from the “Wilhelm-Gebetbuch” and the “Ebran-Gebetbuch” by Johannes von Indersdorf. Furthermore, it transmits several of the “Engelberger Predigten”, thus completing the collection contained in Cod. M 47 from the archive of the Convent of the Dominican sisters at St. Katharina in Wil. It bears mentioning that both of these manuscripts are based on an earlier model, to which also the manuscripts Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42, which were created about 50 years later, owe their (complementary) selection of „Engelberger Predigten“.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Around 1500, this composite manuscript of theological-mystical content, which may have originated in Northern Bavaria and have been completed in the area of Lake Constance, was the property of the spiritual community of Franciscan sisters at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, west of the city of St. Gall, which was dissolved in the wake of the Reformation. This volume contains more than thirty mostly anonymous sermons, treatises and excerpts of treatises of Dominican character. Among them are Eberhard Mardach's open letter Von wahrer Andacht (pp. 83–116), a sermon by Johannes Tauler (pp. 129−156), the treatise Liebhabung Gottes an den Feiertagen by Thomas Peuntner from the year 1434 (pp. 232−237), excerpts from the Auslegung der zehn Gebote by Marquard of Lindau (pp. 238–245), the beginning of the prologue and three chapters of the anonymous Theologia deutsch (also called Der Frankfurter; pp. 287–297) that was published in print in its entirety for the first time by Martin Luther in 1518, as well as excerpts from a German version of Der Minnebaum (Arbor amoris; pp. 323–331), which differs significantly from other manuscripts.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The manuscript is entirely copied by the Hersfeld reform monk Friedrich Kölner, who was active in the monastery of St. Gall from 1430 to 1436. Among other things, he took over the spiritual care of the women's community of St. Georgen. The manuscripts written by him, of which twelve survive, were produced chiefly for this group of recipients, and this can be assumed for the present manuscript, which is in a handy octavo-format. It contains an extensive sermon cycle, introduced by a sermon presumably by Rulmann Merswin (pp. 2–22: Leben Jesu / Von der geistlichen Spur), which Kölner ascribes to Johannes Tauler (the same combination of texts can be found in Cod. Sang. 1067). The forty sermons that follow are actually by Tauler (pp. 22–557). Under the rubric Von der drivaltikait on pp. 134–147 appears the pseudo-Eckhartian composite treatise Von dem anefluzze des vaters. Tauler's Lenten discourses are missing; instead Kölner refers to two letters by Johannes von Schoonhoven. Although these are not contained in the present volume, they are available in Kölner's own translation in St. Katharina in Wil, Klosterarchiv, Cod. M 47, another manuscript that Kölner probably wrote for the women in St. Georgen. The single-column manuscript is densely written and thoroughly rubricated. The unadorned binding was restored in 1992; the book block shows signs of numerous medieval reparations as well.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript, which originated probably in 1484 in the Convent of the Dominican Sisters of St. Katharina in St. Gall, constitutes the first (remaining) half-volume of a collection which, as indicated in the table of contents, originally comprised 151 sermons, organized according to the church year, and in all likelihood meant to be read daily at mealtime. Among others, it contains sermons by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Nikolaus von Straßburg, Rudolf Goltschlacher, Meister Wilhelm, Felix Fabri (?), Jordan von Quedlinburg and several from the corpus of the „St. Georgener“ and „Engelberger Predigten“. Remarkably, regarding the inventory of “Engelberger Predigten”, Cod. Sang. 1066 is exactly complementary to Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42, which also originated in the Convent of the Dominican sisters of St. Katharina in St. Gall. Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42 are directly or indirectly based on the same model *C to which also cod. Sang. 1004 and Wil M 47, created 50 years ealier in the St. Gall Benedictine Monastery, owe their selection of Engelberger Predigten; in contrast, Cod. Sang. 1066 is based on a manuscript from text group *Y3, close also to Cod. 752(746) from the library of the Benedictine Monastery of Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This folio-volume contains an extensive sermon cycle, introduced by a sermon presumably by Rulmann Merswin (ff. 1ra–5vb: Leben Jesu / Von der geistlichen Spur), which here is ascribed to Tauler (as in Cod. Sang. 1015). The sermons that follow (ff. 5vb–235ra) are actually by Tauler. On ff. 85va–93va, under the rubric Von der drivaltikait, is the pseudo-Eckhartian composite treatise Von dem anefluzze des vaters; on ff. 235ra–241va are four letters of Henry Suso (Letters 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the Little Book of Letters), followed by another sermon. The manuscript, arranged in two columns, is carefully written, corrected in many places, and rubricated throughout. Each sermon is introduced by an ornate initial, usually five lines high, with very simple red and blue pen flourishes; a few initials are someone larger and more elaborately presented (e.g., f. 190vb). Well preserved late-fifteenth-century leather binding with decorative lines, five bosses on each side (only one on the back is missing) and two clasps. Two owner's marks on the front pastedown attest to the ownership of the book by the sisters of St. Leonhard cloister, and later by those of St. Georgen in St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch's (1462-1491) book of heraldry, containing 1,626 coats of arms of prominent people from the laity and the clergy, mostly from the southern region of Germany. This heraldic book was probably prepared in the Heidelberg workshop of Hans Ingeram for an unknown customer from the area between the Neckar River and the Upper Rhine. In the 1480s St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch purchased the volume and had numerous coats of arms from Swiss and German border areas added in the back pages; these were drawn by Winterthur artist Hans Haggenberg. One of the most important heraldic record books of the 15th century.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
This codex, written by multiple hands, contains a nearly complete copy of Conrad of Megenberg's natural history (Das Buch der Natur); only a few chapters are missing, some of which are due to a loss of pages. Quires 17 (pp. 371–394) and 18 (pp. 395–418) are bound in the wrong order. A contemporary table of contents introduces each of the parts of the third book (on animals) and of the fourth book (on trees). The numbers of the leaves given there correspond to the individual parts' foliation, which frequently starts over. On the back paper pastedown there is an ownership mark written in the hand that numbered the leaves: sint der bletter CClxxvj bletter vnd ist dz ůrrich [Ulrich] von fulach. This note indicates that a total of 12 leaves have been lost. As the dedication to Abbot Joseph von Rudolphi (Abbot 1717–1740) on the front pastedown shows, this volume was in the Abbey Library of St. Gall by the eighteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This is a liturgical manuscript from the Cistercian nuns' cloister Günterstal near Freiburg im Breisgau, written partly in Latin and partly in German. The manuscript was bought in the year 1782 by the St. St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743-1820), parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg, which was owned by St. Gall. Among other texts, the manuscript contains readings from a martyrology and from the Rule of Saint Benedict for the months of September and October; pericopes from the Epistles and from the Gospels for Sundays and saints' days in September; legends of the saints according to the Alsatian Legenda Aurea for the month of September; German language texts from the Old Testament books of Tobit, Judith, and Esther as well as version B2 of the Dekalogerklärung by Marquard of Lindau. Together with Cod. Sang. 1141 and Cod. Sang. 1142, as well as probably six more now lost volumes, this manuscript was part of a large Günterstal lectionary, containing sermons as well as martyrological and liturgical texts. Here and there throughout the volume, a prior loss of pages can be noted (e.g. between p. 350 and p. 351); between the various parts, there frequently are blank pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Liturgical manuscript from the Cistercian Nuns' Cloister Günterstal near Freiburg im Breisgau, written by various hands, partly in Latin and partly in German. The manuscript is damaged at the end. It was purchased in the year 1782 by the St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743-1820), parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg, which was owned by St. Gall. The manuscript contains, among other texts, readings on the martyrology and on the Rule of Saint Benedict for the month of August in both languages (p. 1-94), Latin Lectiones for August, Latin pericopes from the Gospels from the 10th Sunday after Pentecost with sermons as well as German-language legends of the saints according to the Alsatian Legenda Aurea for the month of August (p. 395-502). Together with Cod. Sang. 1140 and Cod. Sang. 1142, as well as probably six more now lost volumes, this manuscript was part of a large Günterstal lectionary, containing sermons as well as martyrological and liturgical texts. Several pages were already cut out before the pagination at the end of the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Liturgical manuscript from the Cistercian Nuns' Cloister Günterstal near Freiburg im Breisgau, written by various hands, partly in Latin and partly in German. The manuscript was purchased in the year 1782 by the St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743-1820), parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg, which was owned by St. Gall; it contains, among other texts, a calendar (p. 1-12), sermons (p. 57-213), pericopes from the Epistles and from the Gospels (p. 222-271), further liturgical texts and prayers for the celebration of the Commune sanctorum , an incomplete copy (p. 490-624) of the popular treatise Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (The little Book of Eternal Wisdom) by the Constance mystic Henry Suso († 1366), the Latin Gospel of Nicodemus (p. 659-695), a German prose version of the Gospel of Nicodemus (p. 695-761), as well as the Lamentationes Jeremie in Latin (p. 762-770). Together with Cod. Sang. 1140 and Cod. Sang. 1141, as well as probably six more now lost volumes, this manuscript was part of a large Günterstal lectionary, containing sermons as well as martyrological and liturgical texts. Several pages (for example between p. 489 and p. 490) were already torn out or cut out before the pagination at the end of the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This voluminous manuscript of more than a thousand pages, written by a single hand in the Cistercian Nuns' Cloister Günterstal near Freiburg im Breisgau, contains around a hundred Latin sermons for Sundays and holidays of the church year for the period from the first Sunday of Advent to Ascension Day. Several of the Sermones have been identified to be by, for example, St. Ivo, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Pope Gregory the Great, the Venerable Bede, Heimo of Auxerre or John Chrysostom. The codex was acquired for the library of the Monastery of St. Gall in 1780 by the St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743–1820), who at the time was parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg im Breisgau.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This 15th century paper manuscript was written in the Alemannic region; around 1500 it belonged to a women named Anna Wiechbalmer. This as yet little studied composite manuscript contains, among others, legends written in prose on the life of Saint Clare of Assisi in German (pp. 1−18) and excerpts from the German Lucidarius, a popular book that offers theological and scientific knowledge in a question and answer format (pp. 19−48). The manuscript contains numerous medical recipes, especially about the healing power of different plants (pp. 49−74; pp. 138−145), blessings against worms (p. 74), against ulcers (pp. 101−102), and for livestock (pp. 127−128), as well as a poem about the plague (pp. 132−134) written by Hans Andree, a (lay) physician working in Konstanz, including rules of conduct in case of an occurrence of the plague. Sentences by mystics and other spiritual texts (pp. 77−101, pp. 103−104), excerpts from the work Die 24 Alten des Otto von Passau (pp. 105−119), and German language hymns, songs and prayers (pp. 129−131; pp. 135−138), among them a German version of the first stanza of Media vita in morte sumus) on p. 131 complete the manuscript. At the beginning (p. B), there is a rudimentary table of contents by the librarian P. Franz Weidmann (1774−1843).
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Collected Fragments Volume I from the Abbey Library of St. Gall ("Veterum Fragmentorum manuscriptis codicibus detractorum collectio tomus primus"). The volume contains, among many varied single pages and fragmentary texts, fragments from the Aeneid and the Georgics by Vergil from the late 4th century which are significant to textual history (11 pages and 8 small strips), 17 smaller and larger bits of text from a pre-Vulgate Vetus-Latina version of the Gospels from the early 5th century, fragments of a copy of the comedies of Terence from the 10th century, documents from the 9th through 15th centuries, small fragments in Hebrewscript, and the "St. Galler Glauben und Beichte II" (formulas for shrift or confession, together with professions of faith from the 11th century). Pater Ildefons von Arx (1755-1833) assembled this composite volume in the year 1822 and dedicated it to his former supervisor, Abbey Librarian Pater Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756-1823).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Cod. Sang. 1397 is one of eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments) of the Abbey Library of St. Gall. 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 endleaf guards. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound in eight thematically-organized bindings and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. Chiefly in the twentieth century, researchers found additional, small fragments in bindings, from which they were then removed and added to the existing fragment volumes or into the collection of fragments. From 2005 to 2006 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1397 was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same sequence) in 23 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, now authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (and not the empty paper leaves). To be cited (for example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1397.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1397, Folder 1, pages 1-2). The sixteenth folder of Cod. Sang. 1397 contains fragments from five liturgical manuscripts from the ninth to the fourteenth/fifteenth century.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Cod. Sang. 1398a is one of eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments) of the Abbey Library of St. Gall. 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 endleaf guards. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound in eight thematically-organized bindings and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. Chiefly in the twentieth century, researchers found additional, small fragments in bindings, from which they were then removed and added to the existing fragment volumes or into the collection of fragments. From 2003 to 2004 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1398a was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same sequence) in 14 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, now authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (and not the empty paper leaves). To be cited (for example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1398a.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1398a, Folder 1, pages 1-2). The first folder of Cod. Sang. 1398a contains nine fragments from biblical texts and one document (p. 25-26). The fragments date from the eighth to the fifteenth/sixteenth century.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Cod. Sang. 1398a is one of eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments) of the Abbey Library of St. Gall. 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 endleaf guards. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound in eight thematically-organized bindings and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. Chiefly in the twentieth century, researchers found additional, small fragments in bindings, from which they were then removed and added to the existing fragment volumes or into the collection of fragments. From 2003 to 2004 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1398a was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same sequence) in 14 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, now authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (and not the empty paper leaves). To be cited (for example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1398a.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1398a, Folder 1, pages 1-2). The eighth folder of Cod. Sang. 1398a contains fragments from seven manuscripts of canon law and one text of logic (p. 23-24), from the tenth to the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This large-format manuscript, which forms a unit with Cod. Sang. 1758, itself consists of two parts. The first part (p. 1-214) from 1473 (dating in the initial on p. 1) was completed in the 16th/17th century. Both parts, however, are not complete; furthermore, multiple pieces have been deleted and replaced with other pieces. The volume contains chants for the Mass – Proprium de sanctis, Commune sanctorum, Ordinarium missae (partially troped), Sequences and Tractus– in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") in a five line-system. Together with Cod. Sang. 1758, this codex presents the oldest systematic St. Gall records of sequences on a musical staff. Several pages have book decorations in the form of borders and initials, sometimes with figurative representations. Until 1930, the manuscript was kept in the choir library (first of the St. Gall monastery, later of the St. Gall cathedral).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This large-format manuscript, which forms a unit with Cod. Sang. 1757, contains chants for the Mass – Proprium de tempore, Ordinarium missae (partially troped), Sequences and votive Masses - in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") in a four line-system. Multiple pieces have been deleted and replaced with other pieces. Together with Cod. Sang. 1757, this codex presents the oldest systematic St. Gall records of sequences on a musical staff. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials (several exquisite filled initials, some with gold leaf) and borders. Heavy decorative fittings with animal heads and mythical creatures. Until 1930, the manuscript was kept in the choir library (first of the St. Gall monastery, later of the St. Gall cathedral).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Beginning with a Dominican calendar from Strasbourg, this volume contains, among others, several texts by the Italian theologian and philosopher Bonaventura (1221-1274), the Regula monachorum ad Eustochium by the church father Jerome, excerpts from the ascetic-mystical treatise Stimulus amoris, the instructions for a monastic life by the Franciscan Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg, and David of Augsburg's work De compositione exterioris et interioris hominis, all in German. The volume, declared the Franciscan "Encheiridion asceticum" by Kurt Ruh, probably came to the Dominican cloister Wil in 1590 along with other Strasbourg manuscripts (Codd. Sang. 1904, 1915 and perhaps 1866).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Composite manuscript with sermons and spiritual instructions, written around 1487 in the Dominican cloister St. Katharinen in St. Gall by the prioress Angela Varnbüeler. Among others, the volume contains a detailed sermon about Saint Clare of Assisi, into which is incorporated her vita; an open letter from a father to his spiritual children, attributed to a Franciscan monk; a sermon about suffering, death and the sacraments (an interpretation of John 16,21); and a meditation Von der Maß des gaistlichen Crutz, falsely attributed to Anselm of Canterbury.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
A copy of the so-called Engelberger Predigten. Homilies in German for a variety of occasions during the church year, written in about 1400 in a Dominican cloister, possibly at St. Katharinental near Diessenhofen, where the manuscript was held for several centuries.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
Dominican breviary for nuns, probably written in Southern Germany. The script and decoration follow 14th century models, but the presence of the saints St. Vincent Ferrer (canonized 1453/54) and St. Catherine of Siena (canonized 1461) suggest an origin not before the second half of the 15th century. Numerous initials with gold leaf and scroll ornamentation, illuminated borders on p. 21 and 168 (two dogs, misericordia and Justicia, hunting a stag, Verbum patris). This volume is from the convent of Dominican nuns of St. Katharina auf dem Nollenberg near Wuppenau (Thurgau); according to a note of ownership, it was the property of the convent at least since the 17th century. Since 1930 it has been a deposit of the episcopal library of St. Gall at the Abbey Library.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
An important copy, in terms of textual history, of the Reformatio Prediger Ordens by the Dominican Johannes Meyer (1422-1482) of Basel. This copy originated in the Dominican cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, written in 1483 by Sister Elisabeth Muntprat (1459-1531). This work, which was copied from a model belonging to the cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg, is a valuable source for the history of the Dominican order in the German speaking world.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Compilation of mystical treatises, referred to as the Greith'scher Traktat for the first editor Carl Greith (1807 -1882, Bishop of St. Gall from 1862). The primary sources for the German text are Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso. The manuscript, which is defective at the end, is from the Convent of Dominican nuns of St. Katharina in St. Gall (later Wil), where it was probably written as well. Even the text itself may have been compiled by a scribe from the convent, based on a collection of texts. Since 1930 it has been a depositof the episcopal library of St. Gall at the Abbey Library.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
A collection of religious writings from the Dominican cloister of St. Katherina in St. Gall, written in the second half of the 15th century by the hand of an experienced woman scribe. The volume transmits a great number of sermon texts in versions important to textual history. It contains, among other things, seven so-called Engelberger Predigten, the oldest copy of Version B of the work De Nabuchodonosor by Marquard of Lindau († 1392), ten sermons by Johannes Tauler († 1361), an account of the life, works, and miracles of St. Dominic taken from the work Der Heiligen Leben, a tract attributed to Meister Eckhart: Vom klösterlichen Leben, and religious epigrams.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
German Psalter, complete except for one missing leaf at the end: Psalms (pp. 1-164), canticles (pp. 164-178). With few figured initials (dog p. 1, fish p. 141, p. 153 and p. 157). The volume is from the St. Katharinen Convent of Dominican nuns in St. Gall; whether it was written there cannot be determined for certain. Since 1930 it has been in the Abbey Library as a deposit of the episcopal library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
Late medieval prayer book. The first part contains an incomplete Office of the Virgin (fol. 1r-45v) with variants for Advent and for the time period between Christmas and Candlemas (fol. 46r-51v), Absolutions, Benedictions, Orations and other short prayers (fol. 51v-68r). The Office of the Dead (fol. 69r-98v), including Vespers, Vigil, and prayers for the anniversaries of the deaths of priests, abbots and other deceased persons, is followed by prayers of indulgence (fol. 99r-111v). The beginning of the Office of the Virgin as well as possibly a calendar preceding it have been lost. The fact that the patron saints of St. Gall, St. Gall and St. Othmar (fol. 56r-56v; fol. 58r-58v), are the only saints mentioned other than Mary and St. Benedict suggests a provenience from the Monastery of St. Gall. The manuscript is written in Gothic script; it is decorated with numerous initials executed in gold leaf and with colorful vine scrolls in the margins of individual pages. The beginning of the Office of the Dead (fol. 69r) is adorned with a small miniature of a catafalque bordered by two Benedictine monks, one of which is holding a prayer book in his hands. The cut leather binding with the monogram S, created by a master whose name is unknown, is particularly noteworthy. The covers show the two Princes of the Apostles, Peter (front cover, with book and key) and Paul (back cover, with book and sword), surrounded by rich vine scroll ornamentation. The Abbey Library of St. Gall was able to acquire this manuscript in June 2006 at a Christie's auction in New York from the collection of the American brewer Cornelius J. Hauck (1893−1967) from Cincinnati (Ex Libris on the inside front cover).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The design concept of this manuscript, both the text and the execution, typify the Parisian 'Horae' tradition of the early 15th century ('Boucicaut-Meister'). The top-level organizational elements in the book's decorative program are seven pages decorated with miniatures; multi-line colorful initials mark the secondary textual divisions. The extremely squared illustrations on the decorated pages include scenes with figures enclosed on three sides by staffs entwined by tendrils with decorative gold, red and blue thorny leaves which completely fill the broad parchment margin. Four lines of text, introduced by a large colorful initial, are inserted between the illustration and the lower decorative staff. The beginning of each of the various offices is marked with such an ornamental page. This book of hours is not only the oldest item in the Carl Meyer collection in the Cantonal Library of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, it is one of its best and most valuable items. It is not know who originally commissioned the manuscript.
Online Since: 05/20/2009