Sub-project: Call for Collaboration 2013
Start: January 2013
Status: Completed
Financed by: swissuniversities
Description: In mid-January 2013, e-codices published its second “Call for Collaboration”. This call, published jointly with our Swiss partner libraries, once more invited scholars to suggest Swiss manuscripts for digitization. As with the first such call, interest among international manuscript researchers was impressive; in fact, considerably more proposals were submitted this time than for the first call in June 2009. The number of researchers who submitted proposals rose from 33 to 55. Many researchers suggested several manuscripts at once, so that we received no fewer than 134 individual proposals. Three years before, the total number of proposals was 97. Altogether manuscripts from 22 collections were recommended, among these several Swiss manuscripts which are held today in foreign libraries, as well as a newly discovered and previously completely unknown manuscript from a private collection in Geneva.
All Libraries and Collections
The manuscript consists of two parts. The first, Carolingian (fol. 1–12) with its original texts (fol. 1v–11v), reflects a meeting between Einhard and Lupus of Ferrières that occurred in June of 836 in Seligenstadt. Lupus received the arithmetic book (Calculus) by Victorius of Aquitaine along with a now widely known model alphabet for Ancient Capitals. Around 1000, texts by Abbo of Fleury on the ‘computus’ (reckoning the date for Easter) were then added at the abbot’s home monastery on the Loire (fol. 12–28), along with an abacus table (fol. 1r). The resulting collection of documents contains key items for and from Abbo's technical scholarship and offers a slightly divergent counterpart to the contemporaneous Floriacensis, Berlin, Staatsbibl., Phill. 1833.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The manuscript consists of a single quaternio formerly bound with the present Cod. 250 of the Burgerbibliothek Bern. The quire continues the computistic content of the latter, here with Easter tables whose margins hold the Annales Floriacenses. The last page received a copy of Abbo’s second letter to Giraldus and Vitalis.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Florus of Lyon († around 860) specialized in compiling patristic commentaries on the Epistles of Paul. This manuscript was written in France, probably in Auxerre, at the beginning of the 10th century, and is devoted exclusively to the compilation of the commentaries of Jerome and Gregory the Great. These two compilations are currently unpublished; however, the other two known texts have been digitized: Paris, BnF, lat. 1764 ff. 28r–97v and Paris, BnF, n.a.l. 1460 ff. 82r–169v.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Monumental Bible in one volume, which reveals Spanish tradition and which is related to the so-called ‘Theodulf-Bibles.’ At the beginning there is a binio with the coena nuptialis in the version of Rabanus Maurus. Inserted into the text are a version of the Sibylline Oracles, a vita of John, as well as an oath regarding the rights of the church and a catalog of the bishops of Vienne; at the end are remnants of the Psalmi iuxta Hebraeos. The greater part of the manuscript’s many initials has been cut out.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript assembles about 700 documents from the years 814-1242, which concern the administration of the Chapter and the Cathedral of Lausanne. The compilation of the cartulary began around 1202 and was completed in 1242; 5 files, dated 1250-1294, were added later. The material structure of the manuscript is very complex because of numerous additions to the original core, which corresponds to the Livre censier du Chapitre cathédral de Lausanne of about 1202. The manuscript contains various texts: the Annals of Lausanne, a topographic cartulary, a chronological register, two chronicles, an urbarium, the Chronicle of the Bishops of Lausanne and the Cathedral’s necrology. The author of this valuable collection is Conon d’Estavayer (before 1200-1243/1244), who became Dean of the Cathedral in 1202. From 1216 until 1242, he directly supervised the editing of the manuscript and the organization of the documents.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Composite manuscript of catechetical-ascetic content, in quarto format on paper. Three fascicles of various strengths. The oldest is from the second half of the 14th century; it is written by Albert von Münnerstadt, Conventual from the Commandry of the Teutonic Knights of Hitzkirch, and contains Moralitates super evangelium sancti Lucae. In the second half of the 15th century, probably in Beromünster, this was bound together with two natural science Compendia moralia (excerpts from Thomas of Cantimpré’s encyclopedia) and with catechetical treatises by Heinrich von Langenstein, Johannes Gerson and Bonaventure. Scholarly manuscript for regular use in the area of pastoral care (hasty hand with numerous abbreviations, especially in the third fascicle).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The Edelstein contained in this manuscript consists of 100 fables, composed around 1330 by the Bernese Dominican Ulrich Boner; the fables were taken from various Latin sources and were translated by Boner into Swiss Dialect. The script and the typical characteristics of the layout with spaces for never-executed illustrations indicate a work from the late phase (approximately about 1455-1460) of Diebold Lauber’s workshop in Hagenau in Alsace, a work that had been prepared to be completed at the request of a buyer.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Carefully copied by a single scribe at the end of the 13th century in England, this manuscript was given to Sir Thomas Phillipps by Sir Robert Benson (1797-1844). Benson claimed it had belonged to Wilton Abbey, in Wiltshire, where its readership would have been noble women and nuns. Bound by Phillipps, the Lai d’Haveloc was placed first and its title appeared on the spine. The Donnei des amants, a unica, is a scholarly debate between two lovers who exchange exempla : The Tristan Rossignol, Didon, the Lai de l’oiselet, and L’Homme et le Serpent.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Commentary on the first 70 Psalms by Adelpertus and, at the end, a selection of proverbs by church fathers, written in a pre-Carolingian minuscule at the end of the 9th century, probaby in Northern Italy. The two missing pages at the end are part of the fragment collection Einsiedeln, Abbey Library (Stiftsbibliothek), 370, IV, Bl. 18-19.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The manuscript consists of two parts and contains various ascetic texts. The first part (1-24) was written by various unskilled hands in a Rhaetian-influenced minuscule which can be dated to the 8th/9th century and localized in a scriptorium in northern Italy or in Switzerland. The second part (25-140) is dated to the second third of the 9th century.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
Contains an anonymous commentary on the Benedictine Rule, which today is attributed to Hildemar of Corby. The first part (f. 79r-106r) was written in the 9th century in Northern Italy, while the second part (f. 107r-169v) was written in the 10th century in Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This very small manuscript contains treatises on music by various Italian and French authors, among them Marchettus of Padua (f. 1-44), Johannes de Muris (f. 83-104v), and Prosdocimus of Beldomandi (f. 51-55, 75-82). It was written in Northern Italy at the beginning of the 15th century.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The manuscript contains two collections of sermons (one of which is the Homiliary of Angers, the other unidentified), several individual sermons and a martyrology. It also contains (usually in part and/or with omissions) the Euangelium Nicodemi, Pseudo-Matthaei Euangelium, the Liber de lapidibus of Marbod of Rennes, the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis, De Antichristo of Adso of Montier-en-Der, the Breuarium apostolorum, and extracted sententiae.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Codex 67 contains De mirabilibus mundi, a collection of curiosities by the grammarian Julius Solinus from late antiquity; the texts are also known by the titles Polyhistor and Collectanea rerum memorabilium. The text is written in a uniform script and is decorated with titles and initials, some of which are adorned with filigree (e.g., 2r and 6r), in red ink. Holes and tears in the parchment have been artfully stitched up with colorful threads (e.g., 23-25, 34, 62). According to the dedicatory poem on 1v, this copy was produced under Abbot Heinrich von Buochs (1197-1223).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Codex 102 is a twelfth century hymnbook with neumes. The chants are written in two columns and are generously rubricated. Ff. 3v-11v contain a calendar of saints and tables about the liturgical year; ff. 1r-3r and 141v-151v also contain neumed chants written by various predominantly later hands. Recorded as a note on 3r is a dedicatory poem that is found in numerous manuscripts produced under Abbot Frowin (1143-1178).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
With his brief "Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit,” the Dominican Henry Suso (1295-1366) created a work that was widely distributed in the late Middle Ages. This manuscript is part of the collection of the women’s cloister of St. Andrew in Engelberg; together with cod. 141, it is a very early witness of the text.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This manuscript brings together two collections, originally passed down separately, containing a total of 110 German language prayers for private devotions in the Engelberg convent. The prayers, which refer to the passion of Christ and above all to Mary, Mother of God, are meant for private prayer apart from the communal Divine Office. An exception is the first prayer, analyzed and edited by J. Thali, which is meant for silent devotion during the mass.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The origin of this Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit attributed to Henry Suso (1295-1366), is unknown; perhaps it originated in a Franciscan environment in the Western Alemannic region. This text may have been created about a century after the very early witnesses in codd. 141 and 153.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This collection of hagiographical texts was written by various hands in the second third of the 13th century, probably in Hauterive. The presence of certain texts indicates a Cistercian origin (Vita of St. Robert of Molesme, the author Geoffroy de Hautecombe) and, based on our knowledge of medieval Hauterive, a regional origin (the Vita of St. Theodore, Bishop of Sion; the Vita and the Miracula of Saint Nicholas of Myra; the Vita of St. Elizabeth of Hungary; the Passio of Saint Maurice and his companions by Eucherius of Lyon). The end of the book contains a collection of texts related to confession. The last one of these attests a little know activity of the monks: the pastoral care of the Cistercian nuns. The manuscript remains in its original cover which, although damaged, is still well recognizable: a cover with wide flaps that cover the edges of the book.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This 13th century Byzantine manuscript contains a great number of scholia, which partially complete those of older manuscripts and which testify to the environment during production and to the habits of the manuscript’s annotators and successive owners. To be distinguished among these are Theodorus Meliteniota, who restored and completed the already damaged manuscript in the 14th century, as well as Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus), who owned the manuscript in the second half of the 16th century and used it for his 1566 edition of Homer’s poems, which remained the standard into the 18th century. With the exception of several accidental short lacunas or gaps, the manuscript contains a complete Iliad, including an interlinear paraphrase for the first twelve books.
Online Since: 12/13/2013