Sub-project: Treasures from small collections
January 2013 - December 2020
Status: Completed
Financed by: swissuniversities
Description: The majority of Swiss manuscripts is held in larger collections, mostly in public and ecclesiastical institutions. It is easy to forget that some of the most important sources shaping the identity of Switzerland are found in collections that hold only a few manuscripts. e-codices has taken it upon itself to provide digital access to these important treasures from small collections, the originals of which are often not available to the general public.
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This booklet contains a collection of recipes for producing medications, home remedies and foodstuffs. The presentation of the recipes ranges from lists of ingredients to detailed texts that describe the processing of the ingredients. The manuscript does not have an index. A page from a manuscript - probably 14th century - serves as book cover. Its visible text is about the geometry of triangles (De triangulo). In the first half of the 20th century, the book was purchased at the bookstore Helbing & Lichtenhahn by Theo Baeschlin and then donated to the Pharmaceutical Institute of Basel.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This collection is contained in a paper manuscript that originated in Switzerland. Later it received a binding of wooden boards covered in blind-tooled pigskin leather. The collection contains treatises and recipes based on the Practica of Meister Bartholomäus. The herbalism follows the tradition of Macer. The collection also contains rules for bloodletting, a treatise on the plague, menstruation and the like. In addition, various diseases are covered, such as those of the head, of the ears and the like. In general, the text collects treatises on the nature of women, on the four elements and the natures, and it gives veterinary advice based, among others, on Meister Albrecht’s pharmacopeia for horses. It also contains various blessings (blessings against arrows, blood loss and worms). Incantations as well as formulas for women in labor and more.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript was written or compiled by Johannes of Fulda in 1440. In 1953 it was donated to the museum by Dr. S. Merian. It had been the property of Jakob Burckhardt. The text is about medical alchemy.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
In his medical compilation for animals, Carolus von Wattenwyl collects recipes of medications for equine diseases (Ross). These range from lack of appetite to an imbalance in the amount of bile. Ff. 95r-99v are written in a different French hand. This excursus explains how to remove various kinds of grease stains from horse riding clothes (title: "pour oster toutes sortes de tasches de graisse des habits"). In the course of the book, the handwriting changes two more times.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This copy of Burkart von Hallwyl's (1535-1598) pharmacopoeia is a collection of medications and recipes for treating everyday problems. The length of the recipes ranges from a single sentence to detailed texts containing instructions and lists of ingredients. The manuscript is organized with an alphabetical index, which is followed by more entries.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This manuscript is a pharmacopoeia and recipe book. It contains many recipes against “pistilienz” and other diseases. Sentences and entire parts of instructions for medications are crossed out. The book is not paginated and does not have an index at the end.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
In the “Mägte Büchlin”, Maria Iselin collected (culinary) recipes. It contains the first known recipe for “Basler Läckerli”. For a long time, gingerbread was also considered to have medicinal properties.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This parchment manuscript dates from the first half of the 13th century. About 300 formulas for medical remedies are described on 72 leaves, including information on the production, use and effect of the remedies. The text is based on Nicolò Perposito’s Antidotarium from the medical school of Salerno. In general the manuscript has a simple text design with only a few small initials in red and blue ink, some with ornaments, embellishing the text. From enclosures it can be assumed that Mr. Ludwig Bertalot (1884-1960) probably was the previous owner of the manuscript. The Pharmacy Museum was able to purchase this manuscript in 2017 from Daniel Thierstein's antiquarian bookshop in Biel. In 2019/2020, Friederike Hennig restored the manuscript in Basel.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The family register of the pharmacist Hans Friedrich Eglinger (1608-1675) from Basel provides insights into 17th century pharmacy and its networks. The book contains mostly German, French and Latin sayings by various authors, addressed to Eglinger. In some cases, they are splendidly illustrated. One illustrated entry by Jacobus Mozes on f. 53r depicts a very large mortar in the center. The title page is decorated with a baroque tempera painting.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This family register of the pharmacist Emmanuel Ryhiner (1592-1635) from Basel provides insights into 17th century pharmacy and the relations among pharmacists. It contains mostly Hebrew, ancient Greek, French and Latin sayings by various authors, addressed to Ryhiner. In some cases, they are splendidly illustrated. The register page dedicated to him by his classmate Matthaeus Colomanus in 1612 dates back to Ryhiner’s student days. The picture (242v) of an idealized apothecary shop, open to the street, was created by the miniaturist Johann Sixt Ringle of Basel. It depicts a pharmacist standing in front of shelves abundantly filled with colorful wooden containers, dispensing medication to a lady.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This manuscript contains the statutes of the community of Bever from 1558 (ff. 1r-5v). After 1560, these were used as the basis for developing new statutes; in the course of this, the articles were sometimes supplemented and crossed out after having been copied, but without any loss of text. The draft of the new statutes was continued on blank pages; a fair copy of this text has not survived.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript contains the statutes and the respective lists of land appraisals from 1584 (ff. 1-30), 1589 (ff. 33-58), 1593 (ff. 60-85), 1597 (ff. 88-115) and 1601 (ff. 117-146), occasionally with additional decisions made by the community. These are followed by appraisals for the years 1613, 1617, 1625, 1629, 1637, 1641, 1645, 1649, 1653, 1657 and 1661 (ff.155-186), which provide an overview of the development of the community’s financial circumstances over 70 years.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
Composite manuscript of liturgical texts, containing the prayers of the breviary of the Carthusian Order (1r Capitula, 18r Temporale, 35v Sanctorale, 49v Commune Sanctorum und 51v Usus communis). This small prayer book was probably produced in a Carthusian monastery in Burgundy in the 13th century. Certainly it was used from the 13th to about the 15th century in one of the Carthusian monasteries in present-day Western Switzerland, such as La Valsainte, La Part-Dieu or La Lance. The text is written on parchment and is decorated with blue and red paragraph initials. There are notes and drawings in the margins.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This small liturgical book was used in the Monastery of San Michele di Campagna near Verona during the 15th century. The work contains the rite of the profession of faith and of the consecration practiced on the occasion of the investiture of a Benedictine nun. It is valuable evidence of a ritual for women who take their vows.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The Ordo iudiciarius is a work of canon law written at the beginning of the 13th century by Tancred of Bologna (ca. 1185-ca. 1236): f. 60r Explicit ordo iudiciaris magistri Tancreti. Tancred was archdeacon and professor at the University of Bologna.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The first 14 pages of this urbarium consist of various notes regarding oaths and contracts. Page 15 constitutes the frontispiece of the register as such: ‟Ici commence mon rentier domestique, cet assavoir de moÿ Joannes Castella, bourgeois de Frÿbourg et chastellain de la ville de Gruÿere, le 3me janvier 1681”. This booklet lists all of Jean Castella’s expenditures (ordinary expenses such as saddle girths, wages paid to a midwife, purchase of wood, etc., as well as less ordinary expenses) along with receipts and, in particular, details regarding his income from lands. The author also notes down judgments in which he participated as a jury member or as guarantor for the authorities. In addition he mentions gifts that he received or gave. The register lists costs of and earnings from his official function as well as expenditures and income from his private activities. This is nothing less than a historical summary of the everyday life of a notable Gruyère citizen from the late 17th century.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
Inventory of property, prepared by the notary Michel d'Enney on behalf of Peter of Gruyère, Prior of Broc, and written between November 17, 1565 and November 20, 1566. The register consists of records of the properties of Broc Priory, organized by location. Originally Broc Priory was a dependency of the one at Lutry; in 1577 it was annexed to the Cathedral Chapter of St. Nicholas in Fribourg.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This martirologio-inventario (annal) was written in 1554 at the request of the vicini (the original members of the municipal corporate body) of Castro and Marolta in the Blenio Valley (Ticino) in order to replace an older one that was destroyed in a fire. It contains the list of obligations toward the parish and toward the community for bequests and anniversaries of deaths. The first page is decorated with an illuminated initial and has in its bottom margin a painting of the coat of arms of the canton of Uri. At the time, the Blenio Valley was governed ruled by the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Obituary of the Parish of S. Ambrogio of Chironico (Ticino), written by the priest Ambrogio Rossi of Chironico, who copied an older obituary that was probably damaged or had no more space. The Ambrosian type calendar lists the stipends for annual masses or for anniversaries, the solemnities, the indulgences and notes regarding the pledges to the parish and to the entire valley. On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the commemoration of the Battle of Giornico (Battaglia dei Sassi Grossi, 1479) is recorded.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript contains the translation into Puter (the dialect of the Upper Engadine) of the drama “Die zehn Alter dieser Welt.“ As of now, it is the oldest known manuscript of a Romansh drama. At the end, it contains a translation of song number 85 by Durich Chiampel[l]; although the original was not published until 1562, the song is written here after the date at the end of the piece (43r-46r). At the end of the manuscript, barely legible, there is a Decalogue (46v). The scribe signed as bartolomeus ulderici zauarit (42v).
Online Since: 03/22/2018