This Merovingian composite manuscript, which was created in Bourges, originally consisted of six independent parts, which were written by different, often not very practiced hands in various phases. Most of the close to thirty individual pieces are texts from grammatical, patristic, computistic and medical works. The longer pieces are interspersed with further excerpts, partly written in Tironian notes. One quaternio from the only partially preserved third part is today held in Paris (BN lat. 10756). Noteworthy is the palimpsest in the fifth part, whose undertexts were probably written in Italy in the 7th century and in the second half of the 5th century respectively. (mit)

Online Since: 03/17/2016

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. (smu)

Online Since: 10/04/2011