Manuscript compilation containing the works of Abbot Bernard of Reichenau (about 978- 1048; Abbot 1008-1048): a fragmentary copy of a long dedicatory codex, delivered by Bernard to King Heinrich III on the occasion of the Synod of Konstanz in the year 1043. Also contains the Epistola de tonis (on psalmodic musical tones), sermons for the high holy days of the Church year, sermons about St. Mark, the patron saint of Reichenau, hymns, sequences dedicated to Saints Ulrich, Gereon, and Willibrord, the holy office devoted to St. Ulrich, and a large collection of letters. Many of the works in this manuscript are the sole surviving exemplars from the second third of the 11th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A significant poetry manuscript from the second half of the 9th as well as the 10th century, produced at the Abbey of St. Gall. Among other items it contains copies of the poem Mosella by Ausonius which recounts a trip on the Rhine and Mosel rivers, a poem in hexameter by Walahfrid Strabo on the life and death of the Irish saint Blathmac (Versus Strabi de beati Blaithmaic vita et fine) and the work De ieiunio quattuor temporum (the so-called Calixtus Letter).
Online Since: 12/23/2008
The parchment manuscript contains Alexander of Villedieu's Doctrinale with the commentary of Master Bertholdus Turicensis. The colophon (p. 123) states the name of this commentator from Zurich, and of the copyist, a certain “Hermannus”, but nothing more is known about them. The volume, laid out in two columns, is carefully articulated: every hexameter of the Doctrinale is generally divided into paragraphs of one or more verses and is copied in a larger size than the commentaries that follow. This commentary is more or less as long as the verses and is moreover full of abbreviations, unlike the text being commented. Elegant pen-flourished initials, typical of upper-Rhine illuminations of the beginning of the fourteenth century, appear throughout this copy. The seal of abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 59) confirms that the book was at the Abbey Library since 1553–1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
School manuscript for the St. Gall monastery school, containing the Greek grammar by Dositheus and a prose version of Aratos of Soloi's didactic poem Phainomena which is illustrated with a pen drawing.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
A copy of the 16 books of the Grammar of Priscian of Caesarea (Priscianus maior), written in Carolingian minuscule at the turn of the 8th to the 9th century, probably in northern Italy (Verona?). The manuscript came into the possession of the Abbey of St. Gall during the 9th century under Abbot Grimald.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
The Irish Priscian manuscript of St. Gallen: a copy of the Latin Institutiones Grammaticae by the grammarian Priscian of Caesarea (6th century) with over 9000 glosses, among them 3478 in the Old Irish language. The basis for the reconstruction of the Old Irish language. Contains numerous elaborate pen initials. Written in an Irish scriptorium (Bangor?, Nendrum?) around 845.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The Vocabularium of Salomon, a 1070-page long alphabetical encyclopedia from the Carolingian period, written in a variety of hands in about 900, probably not in the monastery of St. Gall. The work has not survived in its complete form (entries beginning with Aa through Ab and Y and Z are missing). Generally attributed by the Abbey of St. Gall's internal historiography to the learned Abbot Salomon (890-920), the work is probably based on a Liber Glossarum from the French Abbey of Corbie.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Manuscript compilation for the monastery school of St. Gall, written by the monk Winithar.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
"The king of palimpsests": parchment fragments from late antiquity that were erased and reused at a later time, sometimes more than once. The scholarly significance of the palimpsests normally lies in the older texts. Some works have only been preserved as palimpsests. This volume, compiled by the librarian Ildefonse of Arx before and after 1800 from single fragments found in the abbey library, contains among many other texts the oldest known copy of the Mulomedicina of Vegetius (5th century), the only known poems and prose by Flavius Merobaudes (5th century) and the so-called "St. Gallen oracles", or "Sortes Sangallenses" (6th century).
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The oldest book in the German language, the so-called "Abrogans" manuscript from around 790, containing the earliest German translation of the Lord's Prayer and Credo.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The Abba-Ababus-Glossar in palimpsest form, one of the oldest manuscripts in the Abbey Library which survives in book form. This glossary, in which each Latin word is explained using another, was apparently written over older texts from the 5th century in the Cloister of Bobbio. The texts underneath, which vary in legibility, include fragments of the Psalms and of the book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament as well as extracts from works by the grammarian Donatus and the Roman poet Terence. Includes a miniature of a speaker in declamatory pose.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The Vocabularius sancti Galli – an Old High German glossary written by a missionary 150 years after the death of St Gallus. A manuscript compilation in small format written around 790 in Germany as a kind of diary by a scribe educated in the Anglo-Saxon tradition containing texts treating missionary, theological and educational questions. The glossary, which comes at the end of the manuscript, is arranged thematically rather than alphabetically.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The most historically significant exemplar of the Benedictine Rule from the time after 810.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
The oldest capitulary from the monastery of St. Gall, containing, among other items, a martyrology, a necrology, the annals of St. Gall and several rules for monks.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The Latin-Old High German Rule of St Benedict, one of the oldest monuments of the Old High German language.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
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
An important copy, in manuscript historical terms, of the Rule of St. Basil the Great (church father; 329-379) in a Latin translation by church father Rufinius (about 345-410), produced in the cloister of St. Gall by many hands during the second half of the 9th century. In addition to two shorter texts, the manuscript also contains an excerpt from the work De institutis coenobiorum by John Cassian († 430/35).
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 only surviving copy of the prose story Frau Tugendreich was written by an unknown author in the circle of Emperor Maximilian I in the second decade of the 16th century. The text is a mixture of a ‘Zeitroman' (a novel giving a critical analysis of an age) and a debate about the value of women or the lack thereof. An external narrative frame presents a discussion between a young narrator beholden to the courtly ideal and his more experienced master, who clings to a traditional view of women, about the value, significance and conduct of women. Unfortunately from p. 196 on, essential parts of the text have been lost due to missing pages. This copy, written in East Swabian dialect by scribe A. S. (p. 219), is dated 1521.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
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 manuscript was written in the years 1521 and 1522 by the copyists Regina Sattler, Dorothea von Hertenstein and Elisabeth Schaigenwiler in the Dominican Cloister St. Katharina in St. Gall; it is the only manuscript to transmit the spiritual works of the Dominican Monk Wendelin Fabri (around 1465 - after 1533), who was born in Pforzheim. Between 1510 and1518, while Spiritual (chaplain and confessor) at the Dominican Cloister Zoffingen in Constance, for reading aloud during meals at the cloister, he created spiritual treatises about the Eucharist, about the five loaves of barley bread of the religious and about the fruits of the Holy Mass, the collations of the seven O-Antiphons, as well as the treatises Villicatorius and Prudentia simplex religiosorum. The manuscript came to the monastery library of St. Gall between 1780 and 1782; at the end of the 16th century, it had still been at the Dominican Cloister St. Katharina in Wil.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
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 main text of this manuscript, which shows signs of intense use, is the Rule of St. Benedict in a German translation (pp. 3-107). Based on a comparison of the script with that of Cod. Sang. 546, this text was written by the St. Gall monk Fr. Joachim Cuontz († 1515). According to a 1504 note of ownership on p. 1, the manuscript belonged to the monastic women's community of St. Georgen above St. Gallen. On pp. 120-121 there is an admonition to the sisters to keep the Rule, also written by Fr. Joachim Cuontz. In between and after, there are short texts by other hands: pp. 108-112 an instruction on how to pray the "Heavenly Rosary" following on pp. 112-117, a spiritual song for rosary meditation in 13 verses with the promise of indulgence (Inc. gott vater in dem höchsten tron), p. 118 an exhortation to the sisters to be vigilant (according to 1 Pt 5:8-9) and to ask for blessings, pp. 123-125 a dictum and the rhyming prayer of Nicholas of Flüe (ain guotti hailsamy lerr von bruoder clausen in schwitz, Inc. bruoder klaus von underwalden, and bruoder klausen gewonliches gebett, Inc. O min gott und min schöpfer nim mich und gib mich gantz zuo aigen). On p. 126 there are notes of ownership (?), on p. 128 (according to Paul Staerkle, Die Handschriften des ehemaligen Klosters Wiborada zu St. Georgen, in: Die hl. Wiborada, vol. 2: Die Verehrung der Heiligen, St. Gallen 1926, p. 84) a register for the transport of sand from 1477-1487, "which stipulates some services from the quarry donated to the church for the new church construction” ("der einige Dienstleistungen aus dem der Kirche geschenkten Steinbruch zum neuen Kirchenbau festsetzt”).
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
The five parts of this manuscript were written by various scribes, among them the St. Gall Conventual Hans Conrad Haller (1486–1525), who was calligrapher, priest and, from 1523 until 1525, librarian of the monastery of St. Gall; he wrote various works such as a missal and other spiritual literature, as well as a life of Notker Balbulus. In Cod. Sang. 1006 Haller frequently left colophons, e.g., on p. 531 and p. 540. The five parts of the manuscript contain the following texts: part I (pp. 13–45) Prayers on the Passion and – partly in fragments – liturgical plays, among them the Ludus ascensionis on pp. 33-44. Part II (pp. 46–65) a prayer to St. Dorothea, which, according to the scribe, was translated from the Latin and written down in 1430 (pp. 61-62). Part III (pp. 66-80) Der Seele Klageby Heinrich der Teichner. Teil IV (pp. 81–95) liturgy of the hours on the Passion of Christ. Part V (pp. 96-762) a wide variety of devotional texts such as prayers and meditations, among them on pp. 188-190 Ein babst lag uurmals an dem tod, pp. 406–486 St. Anselmi Fragen an Maria and pp. 508–524 a German Salve Regina in rhyme.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
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 transmits sermons for the liturgical year and was copied by a regular hand in a thirteenth-century gothic minuscule. It is incomplete at the beginning and the end. The sermons, numbered in the upper margin, run from VII (Dominica iiii. in quadragesima) to LXXXVIII (In vigilia epiphanie domini). At the beginning of each sermon there is a simple two-line-high red initial and a rubricated title indicating the day on which the sermon was to be read. On the basis of the stamp of the Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 410), the manuscript was present in the library of St. Gall since at least the middle of the sixteenth century. The cardboard binding, covered in blank parchment and adorned with green-silk ribbons as clasps, dates from the eighteenth/nineteenth century.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This parchment manuscript contains Latin sermons by Berthold of Regensburg († 1272) in a copy from the second half of the thirteenth century or the first half of the fourteenth century. It begins with the feast of St. Stephen Protomartyr (26 December; p. 1a) and stretches to the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist (29 August; p. 181b). There then follow additional sermons and other texts, including two that bear the titles De passione (p. 197a) and De resurrectione (p. 199b) respectively. On p. 209 the text breaks off at the end of the right column. Then follows on pp. 210a–215a in a larger script what are apparently sermons on the Conversio sancti Pauli (p. 210a) and on the Purificatio beatae Mariae (p. 213a), although both of these feasts already appear in the original part (p. 23b and 31b). In the fourteenth century, another hand wrote a German text in the right column of p. 215 (Wilt du wizzen wie …). According to the note on p. 216, in 1433, the chaplain Jodocus Maiger gave this book to Nicholaus Jeuchin or Jenchin, parish priest of St. Mangen (a church outside of the city of St. Gallen). Worthy of note are the decorative, four-color stitching with a zig-zag pattern on p. 111/112, the pen drawing on p. 150a, as well as the library stamp of Abbot Diethlem Blarer, from the period 1553–1563 on p. 216. The wooden binding probably comes from the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The largest part of this manuscript contains sermons copied in two columns by multiple scribes (pp. 1-144). The various homilies are sometimes introduced by rubrics and small, alternating red-and-blue initials. The last part (pp. 145-157) is smaller in size (19 x 17 cm) and is copied for the most part in a single column; it contains leonine verses and versified sayings. Possessed by the St. Gall Abbey Library since at least the mid-sixteenth century (see the stamp of Abbot Diethlem Blarer, p. 120), the manuscript was rebound in the seventeenth/eighteenth century in a binding of blank parchment glued on cardboard, which closes with green silk laces.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The parchment bookblock (pp. 5–162) contains in its core on pp. 8–162 a collection of Latin sermons on the feasts of the ecclesiastical year (temporale and sanctorale) in a small gothic minuscule of the thirteenth century. At the top of p. 7 is a table with Greek letters as item numbers and below an incipit in red majuscules, that is partially covered by the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from the period 1553–1564. The single leaf p. 5/6 contains a table of contents of the sermons from the beginning of the codex to the Assumption of the Virgin, which probably was added in the second half of the fourteenth century. The collection begins with the sermons for Advent (p. 8) and runs through the Exaltation of the Cross (p. 109) and to the Assumption of the Virgin (p. 112). Additional sermons follow, including an Ad populum (p. 157, 162), before the text breaks off at the end of p. 162. The sermons are mostly introduced by a two-to-three-line decorative initial in the colors red, blue, and green. The binding, as well as the paper flyleaves (pp. 1–4, 163–190), probably come from the end of the seventeenth or the eighteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The manuscript was written in a textualis probably in the second half of the thirteenth or the first half of the fourteenth century. The old foliation runs from I to CLXXXIII and from CCLXV to CCLXXX (pencil foliation: 184–209). The current foliation is A–B in pencil and then I–CLXXXIII in red ink, and finally 184–216 in pencil. The table of contents, inserted in the fourteenth century on the last, separate gathering (fol. 211r–214v) uses Roman numerals from I to CCLXXVIII without gaps. This shows that several quires were lost at some point after the production of the table of contents, a fact that was already noted on the table of contents in the fifteenth century with “vacat”. The surviving leaves transmit, in the first place, sermons of Berthold of Regensburg († 1272) on Sundays and the Feasts of Saints (fol. Ir–CLXXIIIIv) and then – owing to the mentioned loss of leaves – only the end of his sermon on the common of saints (fol. 184r–184v). In between and afterwards are other sermons (Sermones ad religiosos, Sermones ad speciales) or spiritual texts by the same hand, although at the end (fol. 209r–210r) by another hand. According to the table of contents, there follow (fol. 214r–215v) further entries, probably from the fourteenth century, including a few in the German language. According to the ownership mark Liber sancti Galli on fol. Br, the codex was in the Abbey of St. Gall in the fifteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This small-format manuscript contains for the most part sermons (pp. 3–49). They have been numbered (1–39) in the margin by a later hand, which also wrote the title Sermones de tempore and the ownership mark Liber s. Galli on p. 3. According to Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150–1350, II.766 und IV.49 and Hamesse, Repertorium initiorum manuscriptorum latinorum medii aevi, No. 31477, the authors of these sermons include Lothario dei Segni (Innocent III), Hugh of Saint-Cher, and Nicholaus de Gorran. A wide range of texts follows on p. 49: seven short letters or letter formularies on pp. 49–51 (including from the Abbot of Isny to the Abbot of Blaubeuren, from the Duke of Bavaria to two bailiffs, from parents to their son, studying in Padua, and from the student to his parents); mnemonic aids on the Eucharist, the duties of a confessor, the seven sacraments, etc. (p. 51); an additional sermon (p. 52) (by Lucas de Bitonto; Schneyer, Repertorium, IV.56, No. 88); the Fifteen Portents of the Last Judgment (p. 53); Odo of Cheriton's Parabola De rustico et eius domino (p. 54); a Tractatus naturalis, inc: Cum alterius nature sit truncus, alterius surculus (pp. 55–62); a commentary on Aristotle's De anima, inc: Bonorum honorabilium noticiam [...] subiectum huius libri de anima est anima prout est coniuncta corpori (p. 63-77). The manuscript, bereft of ornamentation, is bound in an early-modern cardboard binding that has been covered in fragments of a printed missal.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This manuscript contains around a third of the text of Jacobus of Voragine's Legenda aurea, where some texts appear twice. The first part (pp. 1–267) begins with Advent and ends with All Souls' Day and the consecration of a church. The title written over the first text (Sermo de adventu domini, p. 1) is misleading and has led to the misidentification of the manuscript's contents as sermones. The second part (pp. 271–665) begins with Matthias (24 February) and ends with Thomas (21 December). This collection has been supplemented with a few texts from the so-called Provincia-Appendix (Oswald, Ulrich, Pelagius, Verena, Gallus, Otmar, Konrad), which have been added at the appropriate place in the ecclesiastical year. Between the two parts (pp. 267–270) can be found seven short exempla, the first three of which are based on texts from the Verba seniorum. Two scribes took part in producing the manuscript. The change in hand on p. 382/383 (at the end of a quire, but in the middle of a word) is accompanied by a change in decoration; while in the preceding part only a few multi-line red initials are adorned with simple red pen-flourishes, in the following part the pen-flourishes are two-color (red/blue), more luxuriant and finer. The pen-flourishes resemble those in the manuscript Fribourg, BCU, ms. L 34, but in comparison is somewhat less refined. Noticeable in the first part are found multi-color decorative stitching and holes filled with needlework (p. 55/56, 75/76, 115/116, 123/124, 131/132, 143/144 und 147/148). On the upper margin of pp. 7–664 can be found an old foliation (III–CCCXXXI). The cardboard binding, covered in blank parchment and adorned with green-silk ribbons as clasps, dates from the eighteenth/nineteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
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
This manuscript predominantly contains sermons. It begins (pp. 1–279) with the Speculum ecclesiae by Honorius Augustodunensis (around 1080 – 1150/1151). This is followed by 20 verses each on virtues and vices in Leonine hexameter (pp. 279–281), each followed by a brief explanation in prose. On the otherwise blank p. 282, there is a pen and ink drawing of the Apostle Paul. Following on pp. 283–411, there are the Sermones by Mauritius de Sulliaco (Maurice de Sully, around 1120 – 1196), with a list of chapters and a prologue on p. 283. On pp. 411-414, there is a commentary on the Apostles' Creed (Inc. Quo nomine vocatur hec doctrina apostolica symbolum, Expl. latine dicitur vere fideliter fiat). The very short text on p. 415 deals with Communion for the excommunicated (Inc. Communicans excommunicato, Expl. ad correctionem communicabis excommunicato).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
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
Book of heraldry by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) of Glarus, produced at some point between 1530 and 1572. It contains more than 2,000 coats of arms of the aristocratic families of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Many of the coats of arms include genealogical explanations in Tschudi's hand.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
This study notebook, written in 1567, contains two transcriptions of lectures written by the St. Gall monk Mauritius Enk († 1575), who was studying in Paris: 1) fol. 1r−53r: lectures by Petrus Christinus SJ on Aristotle's Metaphysics, 2) fol. 56r−130r: lectures by Jacobus Valentinus de Borrasa SJ († 1581) on Metaphysics.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
A study notebook used by the St. Gall monk Mauritius Enk († 1575) containing notes on lectures given by the Jesuit Jacobus Valentinus (also known as Jacobus de Borrasa; † 1581) on Aristotle's De physica, De caelo et mundo, Tractatus de elementis, De ortu et interitu and De anima, written in 1568/69 while Enk was a student at the Jesuit-run Collège de Clermont in Paris.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
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
Transcriptions, prepared by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall, of lectures about the Holy Scripture (Isagoge in sacram scripturam) presented by the Spanish Jesuit Johannes Marianus (Juan de Mariana, 1536–1624). This text is on pp. 33–269. In addition, the volume contains excerpts from Augustine (pp. 19–21 from letter 28 to Jerome, with an alphabetical index on pp. 1–12; pp. 27–28 from the Confessiones), as well as a short treatise about confession before the Eucharist, Num confessio necessaria sit ante sumptionem Eucharistiae (pp. 270–271, not written by Enk).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Transcriptions, prepared by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall, of lectures by Hubertus Morus (Hubert Meurier, 1535–1602) on the third and fourth book of the Libri magistri sententiarum (Peter Lombard's Sentences). The lectures on the third book (pp. 7–109) took place from April 22 until June 27, 1566; those on the fourth book (pp. 199–433) from May 7 until August 14 (19?), 1566. This transcription of lectures has a Parisian calfskin binding bearing an owner's mark embossed in gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Transcriptions, prepared by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall and an unknown fellow student, of lectures presented by the Spanish Jesuit Johannes Maldonatus (Juan Maldonado, professor of philosophy from 1564 to 1565 and of theology from 1565 to 1569 at the College de Clermont) and Jacobus Valentinus (Jacques Valentin, professor of theology at the College de Clermont from 1565 to 1569). In addition to an introduction to theology, the lecture notes include a commentary on Aristotle by Jacques Valentin (Annotationes in libros Ethicorum) and other material. The volume has a Parisian calfskin binding bearing an owner's mark embossed in gold.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Transcriptions, prepared by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall, of lectures by Hubertus Morus (Hubert Meurier, 1535–1602) on the first and second book of the Libri magistri sententiarum (Peter Lombard's Sentences). The lectures on the first book (pp. 7–178) took place from October 15 (?) 1565 until January 31, 1566, those on the second book (pp. 279–401) from February 4 until April 10, 1566. In between (on pp. 181–189) is a short text De Unione Hypostatica Verbi, pp. 181–183 not written by Enk (his hand begins again with the last three words on p. 183). This transcription of lectures has a Parisian calfskin binding bearing an owner's mark embossed in gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This volume contains four texts: 1. (pp. 1–149) Transcriptions of lectures by Michael Dionysius about the Libri magistri sententiarum (Peter Lombard's sentences), prepared by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall. Dionysius began the lectures on 10 December 1565 (p. 1) and discontinued them on 4 February 1566 for want of auditors (p. 149; ob defectum auditorum). 2. (pp. 153–195) Annotationes de immortalitate animae by the Spanish Jesuit Johannes Maldonatus in a transcription by Johannes Ruostaller († 1575) of the Abbey of St. Gall. 3. (pp. 197–203) Notes by Mauritius Enk. 4. (pp. 205–226) Canon law treatise about priests living in relationships similar to marriage (Quid sit sentiendum de concubinariis), written by a later (?) scribe. On p. 220 a short poem in distichs, addressed to priests, (Ad quemvis sacerdotem, Inc. Huc age, tende gradus) with the exhortation to read the booklet repeatedly and to follow the text's indications.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This volume contains lecture notes by the St. Gall monk Mauritius Enk (1538−1575) on lectures on the topic De eucharistia. The lectures took place between 27 January and 11 May 1568 at the Jesuit College de Clermont in Paris. The volume also contains the sentences of the Jesuit Professor Johannes Maldonatus (professor of theology at the College de Clermont 1565−1569), as well as some of Mauritius Enk's mottos, such as on the inside cover: Min Hoffnung und Vertrauwen / will ich allzit uf Gott bauwen. This manuscript is the second of three volumes of lectures notes in chronological order by Mauritius Enk that belong together (vol. 1: Cod.Sang. 1122, Annotationes on the Gospel of Matthew by a Dr. Sorbanicus and Johannes Maldonatus's commentary on the fourth book of sentences by Peter Lombard, from 15 July 1567 to 27 Januar 1568; vol. 3: Cod. Sang. 1120, Annotationes on lectures on the topic De eucharistia, de missa eiusque ceremoniis, beginning 11 May 1568).
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Lecture notes by Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) of the abbey of St. Gall from lectures by the Spanish Jesuit Jacobus Valentinus (professor of theology at the Collège de Clermont 1565-1569) on Aristotle's Ethics.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Transcription of lectures on Thomas Aquinas (pp. 15–260) and on the Holy Scripture (In universam sacram scripturam … eisagoge, pp. 1–116) by the Spanish Jesuit Johannes Marianus (Juan de Mariana, 1536–1624), prepared by the St. Gall Conventual and later Abbot Joachim Opser (1548–1594, Abbot 1577–1594); it consists of two parts, each with its own pagination. Another transcription of the latter lecture, written by Mauritius Enk (1538–1575), is in Cod. Sang. 1115, pp. 33–269.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Transcription made by Joachim Opser († 1594, St. Galler monastic community member, Abbot beginning in 1577) of lectures presented by the Spanish Jesuit Jacobus Valentinus (professor of theology at the College de Clermont 1565-1569) on the writings of Aristotle gathered together as the Organon.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Lecture note transcriptions made, not as earlier thought, by Joachim Opser, but rather by St. Gall monastic community member Mauritius Enk (1538-1575) and by unknown fellow students. In addition to commentaries on Aristotle by the Spanish Jesuit Johannes Maldonatus (Juan Maldonado, professor of philosophy 1564-1565 and of philosophy 1565-1569 at the College de Clermont) and Jacobus Valentinus (Jaques Valentin, professor of theology at the College de Clermont 1565-1569) as well as additional lectures by the Scottish Jesuit Jacobus Tyrius (professor of theology and philosophy at the College of Clermont) and other texts about arithmetic and geometry, some of them anonymous.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
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
This manuscript, initiated in 1551 under Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530−1564; colored abbot's coat of arms on p. 2) and continued (in the first part) until 1571, consists of three parts. The beginning (pp. 5-50) consists of copies of certificates of admission for pastoral care of St. Gall conventuals in the territory of the Diocese of Konstanz, issued by the episcopal chancery in Konstanz between 1551 and 1571. The second part (pp. 131-134) gives a description of the laying of the foundation stone for the Renaissance library of St. Gall Abbey on Juli 6, 1551; it also lists the names of all persons present for this festive ceremony. The Renaissance library was completed in 1553 and was replaced with the late Baroque library between 1758 and 1767. The third part (pp. 181-183) treats the creation of a large silver altar cross by the goldsmith Thomas Gennius from Wil; St. Gall Abbot Diethelm Blarer commissioned it in 1553 and had the sculptor (sculptor?) Heinrich Reissi, who was from Rapperswil but was active in Wil, carry it to St. Gall on his back in six hours. Also mentioned are the saints relics kept in this cross. All traces of the cross are lost during the liquidation of the assets of St. Gall Abbey after the dissolution of the monastery in 1805. Between the three parts and at the end, there are numerous empty pages (pp. 51−130; pp. 135−178; pp. 184−194).
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This volume contains the translations into German of the lives of St. Gall saints, as well as occasional poems by the preacher, poet and musician Anton Widenmann (1597-1641) of St. Gall Cathedral. Pages 29-129 contain the translation of the life of Gallus by Walafrid, pp. 283-317, 321-403, 407-448 and 459-481 contain the translations of the lives of Otmar, Notker and Wiborada, and pp. 487-562 contain those of St. Gall monks such as Iso, Ratpert and many more. Pages 273-282 contain Widenmann's translations of hymns to Gallus and Otmar (in part with musical notation); there are more liturgical chants on pp. 448-458. The codex concludes with occasional poems for holidays on pp. 563-613. In addition, on pp. 1-28 and 131-271, it contains five dialogues between a Catholic cleric and a Protestant from Toggenburg about religious questions, probably recorded by Abbot Pius Reher.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This manuscript was written in 1583 during the abbacy of Prince-Abbot Joachim Opser (1577-1594) by the Cantor Johannes Strang who died young († 1588; profession 1580), based on notes by Father Heinrich Keller. Mostly in Latin but often also in German, the manuscript describes the worship practices of the Monastery of St. Gall in the course of the year from January 1 to December 31. This Directorium cultus divini is one of the most important sources of information about the monastic liturgy in the monastery after the Reformation. It refers to prayers and chants that were said and sung on certain days or to the order of liturgical processions (even separately for days of fair versus bad weather). The volume contains directions for the decoration of the church and numerous notes that are interesting for their cultural history, such as those relating to the St. Gall custom of naming a boy abbot (abbas scholasticus). In addition to a list of anniversaries, p. 1 also contains historical notes about various events internal to the monastery. This volume was continued until 1606.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript, with an imposing binding, bears the title “Schlacht-, Nammen-, Schilt- und Waappen-Buoch von denen noch bewusten Graffen, Freyen, Edlen, Ritter und Knechten, welche mit Hertzog Leopoldo II. von Oesterreich auff St. Cirilli den 9.ten Tag Iulij 1386 vor Sempach umbgekommen und erschlagen worden” (Book of the battle, name, escutcheon and coat of arms for the known counts, freemen, nobles, knights and soldiers who perished or were slain along with Leopold II, Duke of Austria on St. Cyril, the 9th day of July 1386 at Sempach). Joseph von Rudolphi (1717−1740), abbot of St. Gall, commissioned this copy in 1738, because, after studying the Chronicon Helveticum, the great historical work by the scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) of Glarus, and a copy thereof that he had arranged to have made for his monastery shortly before from the exemplar at Schloss Gräpplang near Flums (Cod. Sang. 1213−1220), he had found certain discrepancies with an older copy of the “Wappenbuch von Sempach”. A colorful painting of the battle has survived as a sort of frontispiece on a parchment bifolio (pp. 6−7); it is similar to the painting in the Schlachtkapelle (“battle chapel”) of Sempach and, according to Franz Weidmann's manuscript catalog (Cod. Sang. 1405, p. 2002), it was “von einem gar alten Kupferstich getreülich abgemalet worden” (faithfully copied from a quite old copperplate print). Apparently Joseph Leodegar Bartholomäus Tschudi (1708−1772), a descendant of Aegidius Tschudi, is responsible for the book decoration (p. V1). After extensive introductory comments, the volume's rich ornamentation with the coats of arms begins with a portrait of Duke Leopold III (p. 34).
Online Since: 06/22/2017
In 1669, Georg Franz Müller (1646−1723) from Alsace traveled for eleven months from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta) and then spent 13 years on various Indonesian islands as a soldier in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Cod. Sang. 1278, which supplements his illustrated travel diary (Cod. Sang. 1311), gives a chronological account of his travels; in addition, there are detailed descriptions of people, plants and animals he encountered in the Far East and on his voyage there (pp. 1-457). This copy, completed by two scribes at the Monastery of Mariaberg near Rorschach between 1701 and 1705, contains in an appendix (pp. 460-489) two smaller-format collections of documents with the listing “souvenir pieces”, which Georg Franz Müller brought back to Europe from his stay in East India. In various places, Müller corrected and/or completed this copy.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
During his time as librarian (1729-1732), Fr. Aemilian Zeller (1691-1730) compiled a catalog of manuscripts, ordered alphabetically by author. He quietly omitted from the catalog all manuscripts where an author was not given, such as copies of the Bible, or Psalters, or texts by unknown authors. The manuscripts bear the signatures of the older manuscript catalog by Father Hermann Schenk (1653-1706) from the period before 1700 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1280; circa Class. 1, n. 44). Father Pius Kolb, Abbey Librarian from 1748, added the new signatures introduced by him (cf. Cod. Sang. 1400 and 1401, circa D.n. 88). to the earlier signatures in the Zeller mansucript catalog. The catalog offers no indications regarding the age, type of script, or availability of the individual manuscripts.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
A composite manuscript that is very instructive about the history of the library; it is made up of various documents, written between 1680 and 1780 and then bound together. Part 1 (pp. 7-121): manuscript catalog by Fr. Hermann Schenk (1653-1706) from the period around 1700. Around 1750, Fr. Pius Kolb (1712-1762) added his new catalog signatures. Kolb also noted missing manuscripts in Schenk's catalog. Most of these had been taken to Zurich in 1712 (deest). Part 2: (pp. 127−153 and pp. 162−167): register of abbey library benefactors (Monumentum gratitudinis dedicatum benefactoribus Bibliothecae), begun in 1680 and continued until 1780. Extraordinary donations to the library were entered retroactively to 1567, such as (p. 133) the “donation” of a large terrestrial and celestial globe by the pharmacist Lukas Stöckli from Constance. Such mentions often concern objects from the library's cabinet of curiosities and rarities. Part 3 (pp. 155-161): books that were acquired between 1717 and 1737 under Abbot Joseph von Rudolphi (1717-1740). Part 4 (pp. 169 and pp. 175-187): books from the estate of Prince-Abbot (1687-1696) and Cardinal Cölestin Sfondrati, which after his death were integrated into the library by Fr. Hermann Schenk. Part 5 (pp. 191-234): collection of larger format volumes from the abbey library from the period around 1700. Part 6: (pp. 237−270; separate loose documents): list of the abbey library's most beautiful books from the period around 1750, composed by Fr. Pius Kolb and entitled Ilias in nuce. Part 7 (pp. 275-280; collection of loose pages): list of manuscript signatures by Fr. Pius Kolb.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
In an elegant binding decorated with gold, Abbey Librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756-1823) compiled for his Abbot Beda Angehrn (1767-1796) a list of new acquisitions and accessions between 1780 and 1792: Verzeichniss der Handschriften, Bücher, Kunst und Naturprodukte, welche seit dem 23. Oktober 1780 bis Ende Mayes 1792 der Stift St. Gallischen Bibliotheke sind einverleibt worden. This volume thus is a unique document of the acquisition policy and practice of the Monastery of St. Gall. In barely twelve years, a total of 335 incunabula and postincunabula, around 4,000 later printed works, as well as 146 manuscripts were integrated into the library. Most of these manuscripts came to the current abbey library (in exchange for printed literature of ascetic-spiritual character) from St. Gall women's cloisters such as the Benedictine nuns of St. George, the Capuchin nuns of Altstätten or the Dominican nuns of Wil. Accessions to the coin collection, the natural history collection, and the cabinet of curiosities, new acquisitions of paintings and prints, as well as alia quaedam bibliothecae illata (diverse other acquisitions of various types such as chairs made of Spanish cane or a new library seal) are mentioned. Also listed are general expenditures for bookbinding as well as monetary contributions owed to the library by those officials and clergy onto whom the abbot had newly conferred a secular office or a parish.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript was written by the St. Gall monk Jakob an der Rüti (1562-1615), probably for private use. The first part (f. 1r-125r) contains responsories for the principal feast days of the liturgical year with melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") and often with directions for processions. These are followed by directions regarding the location of certain Vespers (f. 126r-128r), more directions on the order of processions f. 128v-136v), melodies for the doxology (f. 139r-140v), directions for the Vespers of the boy abbot (abbas scholasticus) on the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist and on the eve of the Feast of the Circumcision (f. 140v-147v), as well as prayers for processions (f. 150r-155v). Jakob an der Rüti decorated the manuscript with several somewhat clumsy pen sketches and borders (full-page decoration f. 1r, 58v-59r and 77v-78r, also representations of figures in initials). On f. 126r he gives his name in initials (F.I.A.R.), on f. 125r his name is written out (erased, legible under UV-light: Per me fratrem Jacobum An der Rüti …um Anno 1582).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Travel diary ("Reisebuch") of Alsatian world traveler Georg Franz Müller (1646-1723). Müller was employed by the Dutch East India Company between 1669 and 1682 as a soldier in the Indonesian archipelago. In the "Reisebuch" he illustrated people, animals and plants that he encountered during his voyage (via South Africa) to Indonesia and his travels in Indonesia. He also composed simple, sometimes clumsy verses, about all these people, animals and plants, and wrote them out in his idiosyncratic, difficult to read script.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
The manuscript was bought in the year 1779 by the St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743-1820), parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg, which was owned by St. Gall. It contains liturgical instructions for the church year, divided into two parts (de tempore and de sanctis). Written in German, its stated aim is to avoid ‘vnwißenheit' (ignorance) in liturgical matters. Information on collects has been left out both for reasons of space and because only priests needed this information. This may indicate that the manuscript was intended for nuns (the masculine form is, however, retained throughout). It remains to be seen to what the source text mentioned in the prologue – ‘Index' – refers.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The manuscript contains a number of normative texts from the Cistercian nuns' convent of Günterstal, written partly in German and partly in Latin. It begins with a treatise on simony, in Latin and German, which was written by ‘brůder Johannes' and dedicated to ‘der erwurdigen frowen von Mulhein', presumably Veronica von Mülheim, who was abbess of the convent from December 1504 until her death in May 1508. Johannes may have been a monk from Tennenbach, the Cistercian monastery which had responsibility for the cura animarum of the nuns. The rest of the manuscript contains a number of translations of normative texts from the Cistercian order, including the Liber definitionum and the Ecclesiastica Officia. Their use for nuns is highlighted by the German translations and the inclusion of only relevant chapters. Many of these were also transmitted in the Cistercian nuns' convent of Lichtenthal, near Baden-Baden. Although the convent was never formally reformed, the manuscript points to reforming impulses in the early part of the sixteenth century. The manuscript was bought in 1782 by the St. Gall monk Gall Metzler (1743-1820), parish priest in Ebringen near Freiburg, which was owned by St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This manuscript was written by the Freiburg University Theology Professor Jodocus Lorichius (1540-1612) for the Cistercian nuns of Günterstal. It was dedicated to the convent's abbess, Maria Störin von Störenberg. Following a prologue by Lorichius on the usefulness of liturgical ceremonies, the author provides the nuns with German translations of two of the founding texts of the Cistercian order from the twelfth century: the Exordium Cistercii, a narrative of the early history of the order, and the Ecclesiastica Officia, a set of regulations for liturgical and monastic life. It concludes with a short justification of why Cistercians pray the Seven Penitential Psalms on a Friday. A set of statutes (the Usus Conversorum) for lay brothers, translated into German, is appended. Lorichius dedicated four printed books to the nuns of Günterstal between 1581 and 1598, all in German, and this manuscript must be seen as part of this wider relationship.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Transcription of the works of Columbanus by Jodocus Metzler (1574–1639) of the Abbey of St. Gall: Instructiones I–XIII (pp. 1–58), Exhortatoria S. Columbani in conventu ad Fratres (pp. 58–60 ; Columbanus' authorship is doubtful), Epistula IV (pp. 60–70), Epistula VI (= Instructio XIV) (pp. 70–72), De octo vitiis (pp. 73–74), Epistulae III, II, V, I (pp. 74–119). According to Metzler's statement on p. 1, he copied a codex from Bobbio written in Irish script (ex manuscripto codice monasterii Bobiensis, litteris Hibernicis confecto) ; however, this codex has not survived until today. Metzler might have produced the copy in 1611 during a stay at Bobbio on one of his travels to Rome. This manuscript is the only textual witness for Columbanus' letters I-V. It is conceivable that Metzler's copy is based on the same codex as Patrick Fleming's posthumously published (Collectanea sacra, Löwen 1667 ; in 1623, Fleming copied two manuscripts from Bobbio that have also been lost.)
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Abbot Otmar Kunz's (1564−1577) small format prayer book, with several pages of rich decoration (flowers, vines, animals), was written and illustrated in 1574 by unknown artists. Especially noteworthy are two full page miniatures. On p. 4, Abbot Otmar Kunz, dressed in ceremonial regalia, kneels in a landscape with a city, hills and trees, above him is God with the terrestrial globe and with his hand raised in blessing. On p. 10, the St. Gall abbot, dressed in a simple monk's habit, kneels with Mary and John beneath the Cross of Christ. The prayer book contains (from p. 11 on) the so-called 5 Passion Psalms (Ps 22, 31, 55, 69, 109). These are followed by the 15 Gradual Psalms, the vigil for the deceased, as well as the 7 Penitential Psalms with the Litany of the Saints. After the death of Abbot Otmar, a scribe with the initials FVF added a prayer (pp. 105−109); probably this was Brother Ulpianus Fischer from Überlingen, who joined the Abbey of St. Gall in 1583. In 1594, the former abbot's prayer book belonged to St. Gall monk Georg Spengler († 1609), who was born in Wil. In 1599 the manuscript received its current binding with blind stamp decoration.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This small-format manuscript begins with a description of the festivities for the translation of the relics of St. Otmar and Notker Balbulus into the rebuilt Church of St. Otmar in the year 1628 (pp. 4–46). There then follow poems written for this feast (p. 47–630). These are overwhelmingly the work of the young monks Athanasius Gugger, Basilius Renner and Chrysostomus Stipplin, all of whom professed in 1626, as well as the monastery schoolboy Placidus Bridler (professed in 1630). Most of the poems are written in Latin, a few are also in German or Greek. In general, several poems together form an emblem, which then ends with a Latin and a German explanation of the image. Several emblems are summarized as a so-called affixio on a theme; frequently, following an affixion appears an appendix with logogriphs (letter-riddles) or other riddles. The images for the 1628 affixiones have not survived, although it is clear from the description of the translation-festivities that 976 large-format leaves with images, verses, and explanations hung in the cloister of the abbey (pp. 31–32). On pp. 631–727 there are further emblems and speeches of the same authors on various occasions in 1631.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
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