Sub-project: Fragmenta Bongarsiana
Start: March 2018
Status: In progress
Financed by: Burgerbibliothek Bern, swissuniversities, SNF
Description: Together with the Burgerbibliothek Bern, we have facilitated the digitization of approximately 150 fragments of parchment. Most of these are from the collection of Jacques Bongars (1554-1612), who had a philological interest in rare texts, as did Pierre Pithou (1539-1596) and especially Pierre Daniel (1530-1603), with whom Bongars was closely associated. Jacques Bongars and Pierre Daniel are among the earliest scholars to have shown an interest in fragments. The Bernese fragment collection is unique because it contains not only manuscript waste, but also a large number of manuscripts that have been transmitted in incomplete form, for example, with only a single quire or a part thereof to have survived. In the course of making these texts accessible through e-codices, many fragments were identified for the first time. Most of these were known texts or authors, but some spectacular new discoveries were made of previously unknown texts on biblical exegesis from the Carolingian epoch. In the coming years, the collection will be published in parallel in e-codices and in Fragmentarium.
All Libraries and Collections
Bifolium of a manuscript of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, which served as pastedown on the front board of Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 47 (a homiliary from the Strassbourg Cathedral Libarary). This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Leaf from a manuscript of Lucan’s Bellum Civile. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A heavily damaged leaf from a large-format manuscript that contained the late-antique commentary of Lactantius Placidus on Statius’ Thebaid.This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Large-format bifolium from a manuscript of Dioscorides that was probably produced in Fleury. Other parts of it are conserved in Paris, BnF, lat. 9332. The script and decoration display Insular characteristics. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium and 3 fragments of another bifolium of a manuscript of Augustine’s De genesi ad litteram, written in uncial script and possibly produced in Luxeuil; other parts were identified in Paris, BN lat. 9377. The manuscript came to Bern in 1632 from the holdings of Jacques Bongars. At the time of Hermann Hagen (around 1870), the fragments, originally bound as f. 1-2 and 227-229 in Cod. 224 (composite manuscript containing texts by Isidore), were removed and preserved separately; they were given a new binding by Johann Lindt in 1944.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
Bifolium of a small-format manuscript with a prayer ascribed to Augustine, as well as a Biblical index that matches the content of Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 706. The fragment probably formed the end of this manuscript, and came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Three bifolia from a manuscript of Ambrose’s Hexameron, namely the beginning of Bern, Burgerbibiliothek, Cod. 585. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium of a manuscript with the remains of an antidotary in which have been added excerpts from treatises on precious stones. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A fragment composed of two independent parts. The oldest part contains a commented version of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Around the outside of the quire is a later bifolium (f. 1, 11), written in French with a legal or ecclesiastical list of names. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Four bifolia (= 1 quire) of a manuscript of Augustine’s De vera religione, which probably was once in Fleury. It is the first quire of Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 540, of which another part can be found in Città del Vaticano, B.A.V., Reg. lat. 1709. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A two-bifolia fragment of Boethius’ De arithmetica. The manuscript was found in the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Martin in Séez. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Three bifolia from a small-format manuscript containing medical recipes, perhaps connected to the Collectio Salernitana. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Ten leaves from a manuscript in two parts containing the medical treatises of Isaac Judaeus and Johannes Afflacius. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Five leaves from a Fleury manuscript that contains, alongside medical recipes, the oldest treatise on the production of binding agents. Therefore, this text, which has only survived here, is extremely important for the understanding of the production and use of colors in the Middle Ages. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Four bifolia from a manuscript probably produced in Eastern France, containing a collection of greco-latin glossaries whose central part is transmitted in this form only here. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A collection of fragments from three different parts that contains various excerpts of texts by Remigius Altissiodorensis (A), Bernardus Silvestris (B), and Hildebertus Cenomanensis (C). The fragment, encompassing 16 leaves, came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Two bifolia from a collection that contains, alongside a fragment of Guido of Arezzo’s Versus de musicae explanatione, other rhetorical, metrological, and philosophical treatises. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Three bifolia of a manuscript probably produced in Fleury, containing musical treatises by Guido of Arezzo and illustrated with various diagrams. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium with juridical excerpts (on rights of succession) probably from the Novellae of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A leaf with extracts related to Lactantius and Boethius, but not more precisely identified. The fragment comes from Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 440, where it was originally bound with the beginning of the text – the offset of the decorated initial is still visible on the verso. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021