This hand-written megillah Esther from Venice (type: “Gaster I”, on three sheets with text in 19 columns, all but the last one arranged in pairs), is decorated with a printed and hand-colored decorative border; it can be dated circa 1675 based on almost identical Esther rolls that are dated. This decorative technique was first used in Rome in the late 16th century and later, especially in the 18th century, was widely used in Venice and Amsterdam. Polylobed cartouches below and above the text depict scenes from the Book of Esther.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
In contrast to most Esther scrolls, the first two decorative fields of this megillah emphasize the central importance of Mordecai. First there is written, in burgundy letters: “The Scroll of Esther the Queen and Mordecai the Jew” and then in orange letters “In the fortress Shushan lived a Jew by the name of Mordecai, son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish” (Esther 2:5). This genealogy is traced back to Abraham on the borders along the top and bottom of the entire scroll. This is followed by the lineage of the opponent Haman, which was taken from the Targum Riscon, the Aramaic translation of the original Hebrew text.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Cut-out decors are typical for Esther scrolls from Ancona and Lugo. These can also be found on ketubbot (see K96 and K105) and other decorative sheets. The upper ribbon of cutout designs on this megillah (on three leaves with 12 columns of text) has peacocks, butterflies and deer interwoven with flower, tendril and latticework ornaments, while the lower one shows the signs of the zodiac. The turned wooden roller is 54.8 cm high.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
The opening panel of this megillah (on 4 leaves with 34 columns of text) shows a rampant lion with a palm frond, surrounded by four birds and insects. Above it, an inscription gives the name “Salomon Marinozzi”, presumably the original owner. To its right, a cartouche containing the name of his son as owner, was probably added later: “This scroll belongs to Mordecai, son of Solomon Marinozzi of blessed memory, and it was bought by Solomon […] in the year 1652.”
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Influenced by the Islamic culture of North Africa, this megillah (on three sheets with 19 columns of text) dispenses with figurative representations and uses the formal language of Islamic art with its manifoldly varied ornaments. The text is adorned by an arcade that extends over the entire scroll. The decoration most closely resembles that of some ketubot from the city of Meknes in Morocco.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The text on this Esther scroll (on 5 sheets with 42 columns of text) is written in unusually narrow columns, set in golden frames on a greenish background. The hexagonal case made of cast, chased, engraved and granulated silver bears the silver hallmarks of the city of Rome and of the manufacturer Giovanni Battista Sabatini from 1778 to 1780. The initials alef, resh and samech refer to the patron and to the owner. What is unusual is that in this case, the complete original set of scroll, case and leather box has been preserved.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The calligrapher and artist Arje Leib ben Daniel, who created this megillah (on three sheets with 12 columns of text and a separate sheet with blessings), came from Goraj near Zamość in Lesser Poland. A total of 28 of his megillot have been preserved, eight of which are signed and dated by him. This so-called ha-melech scroll, where each individual column begins with ha-melech ("the king"), was created in Venice in 1748, with the sepia drawings typical of Leib ben Daniel. Influences of Salom Italia's border designs as well as of Eastern European folk art can be discerned. The artist's name in the inscription was later replaced by that of Judah Capsuto, who gave the scroll to Ephraim Isaac Capsuto as a Purim gift.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This work is dated to the 3rd Adar of the year 5324 (15 February 1564) in Venice and is thus the earliest dated example of a fully decorated Esther scroll. It was made by Stellina and therefore contains the only early modern megillah that we know to have been created by a woman. The scroll begins with blessings. These are followed by the text, which is placed between arcades. The columns of text are flanked by caryatids carrying antique vases, urn vessels or oil lamps on their heads. In the seventh, thirteenth and nineteenth arcade, the caryatids are replaced by a satyr and a woman with animal paws. All illustrations include gold highlights. The style and motifs correspond to the visual language of contemporary mannerism.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The Zurich armorial on parchment is one of the most important and most unusual documents of medieval heraldry. Today it consists of four parts of various lengths, which can be combined into one four-meter-long roll. Painted on both sides of the parchment, it depicts 559 coats of arms, each shield decorated with a crest, of high and lower nobility from Northern Switzerland, Southern Germany and Western Austria. Names are given next to each shield. In addition there are 28 flags of German bishoprics and monasteries. The order of these four remaining parts, which consist of thirteen parchment leaves that were sewn together, is as follows: Part I (36.5 cm) contains the coats of arms of the bishoprics and monasteries on the verso side (Merz-Hegi numbering: I-XXVIII; the numbering in the original is from the 16th/17th century) and 22 noble coats of arms on the recto side (1-22). Parts 2 and 3 (255.5 cm) were still sewn together in 1930. Part 2, consisting of four parchment leaves, contains the coats of arms 23-104 and 108-114 on the recto side and the coats of arms 214-220, 224-308 on the verso side. Part 3, consisting of three parchment leaves sewn together, contains the coats of arms 105-107, 115-162 on the recto side and the coats of arms 163-213, 221-223 on the verso side. Part 4 (109 cm), consisting of five parchment leaves sewn together, contains the coats of arms 309-378 on the recto side and the coats of arms 379-450 on the verso side. The armorial is incomplete. The missing fourth part should have contained another 109 coats of arms, which are known from a late 18th century copy of the roll. The armorial was probably created in Zurich or in the area of Lake Constance. It can be dated to the period between 1330 and 1345. The style of the workmanship is reminiscent of the famous Codex Manesse, a collection of poems in German with 137 miniatures, also created in Zurich, but somewhat older. The Zurich armorial was owned by Zürich historian and naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733); later it became part of the collection of the Antiquarian Society of Zurich and then of the Swiss National Museum.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Small book of hours in Latin, very much cut, containing the Seven Psalms, the Cursus beate virginis Marie, the Office of the Dead, the Cursus de passione Domini and various prayers. The decoration consists of various initials with wine scroll ornamentation and one full page miniature (5v) - unfortunately partially damaged - which depicts an Ecce homo with the donor kneeling in front of it with his coat of arms to his right. Mention of the indulgence of Popes Gregory and Callixtus III (1455-1458) (f. 139) makes it possible to narrow the date to the second half of the 15th century, while the style of the book decoration suggests an origin in Southern Germany, perhaps in Augsburg, in the circle of the book illustrator Johannes Bämler.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This Rituale originated in the Monastery of Münsterlingen (Canton of Thurgovia); it contains a collection of sermons and chants sung by the nuns for processions in the monastery, followed by a long requiem (54v-72v). The latter is introduced by a miniature depicting St. Michael weighing the souls of the dead. The rubrics are written partly in German and partly in Latin. The style of the three initials in the text is associated with the area of Lake Constance. During a restoration around 1973, two sheets of parchment, which originally were glued to the inside cover of the binding, were removed; they come from an lectionary in pre-caroline minuscule, that can be dated to the beginning of the 9th century (Mohlberg: 11th. century).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Breviary in two volumes, created in 1493 for Jost von Silenen († 1498), the Bischop of Sion from 1482 until his dismissal in 1497. Richly decorated, the miniatures are the work of an itinerant artist active in Fribourg, Bern and Sion during the final decades of the 15th century and known by the name Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen. At the beginning of the 16th century, he continued his work in Aosta and Ivrea, where he took the name Master of George of Challant.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
Breviary in two volumes, created in 1493 for Jost von Silenen († 1498), the Bischop of Sion from 1482 until his dismissal in 1497. Richly decorated, the miniatures are the work of an itinerant artist active in Fribourg, Bern and Sion during the final decades of the 15th century and known by the name Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen. At the beginning of the 16th century, he continued his work in Aosta and Ivrea, where he took the name Master of George of Challant.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
Fragment of an official document from the Republic of Venice; it contains an illuminated page and a part of the index of the “commissione” of Cristoforo Duodo, procurator of San Marco de ultra from 1491 until 1496. After the doge, the procurators held the highest office in the Serenissima; upon their election, they had capitularies drawn up, usually illuminated, containing their oath and the list of their “commissione,” i.e., of the specific tasks to which they committed themselves by their oath. This fragment follows 21 commissions of Venetian procurators from the 15th century; it is distinguished from the others by its illumination, which is attributed to a high-level Venetian master trained in the circle of Leonardo Bellini, and also by the rare depiction of the patron saint of not only the procurator, but also his wife.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This gradual is from the Dominican Convent St. Katharinental and represents one of the most important artworks of the Gothic period in Switzerland. Created around 1312 in the convent itself, it was probably illuminated in the area around Lake Constance. It contains more than 80 pen-flourish initials, more than 60 historiated initials and 5 I-initials, which consist of several historiated medallions. Several pieces of the last two I-initials, whose medallions were cut out and sold separately, are known today; they are dispersed among various museums and libraries. In addition to the initials, in the floral friezes there are represented numerous kneeling and praying Dominican nuns as well as other secular donors (e.g., 3v, 18v, 90r, 159v, 161r etc.). Until the 19th century, the gradual was in use in the convent; around 1820 it was ceded to an antiquarian book dealer in Konstanz, Franz Joseph Aloys Castell (1796-1844). After 1860 it was owned by the English collectors Sir William Amherst of Hackney and Sir Charles Dyson Perrins (1864-1958). Upon the death of the latter, his library was offered for sale through Sotheby's, and the manuscript was purchased by the Swiss Confederation with the support of the Gottfried Keller-Foundation and the Canton of Thurgau.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
Fragment of page f. 158a verso from the gradual of St. Katharinental, which was removed in the 19th century, and the miniatures from which were sold separately. The initial A shows Christ bestowing a blessing with John the Evangelist, who is resting his head on Christ's knees; kneeling at their feet is a praying Dominican monk, in the frieze at the side, a Dominican nun. Below the initial there used to be a frame (today in Zürich, Swiss National Museum, LM 29329.2) with a painting of the Madonna of the Apocalypse accompanied by John the Evangelist, while two kneeling Dominicans pray under two arcades. Originally the same leaf also had an initial V (today in Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Inv. Nr. 32434) with a very detailed representation of the Maiestas Domini and of the Last Judgement. The fragment belongs to the Swiss Confederation, the Gottfried Keller Foundation and the Canton of Thurgau.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. One of the fragments (no. 5) contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. One of the fragments (no. 5) contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. One of the fragments (no. 5) contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. One of the fragments (no. 5) contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. This fragment contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of six parchment leaves from a book of hours, written in bastarda and datable to the second half of the 15th century. It contains illuminated initials, executed in gold on a background alternating between blue and pink; ornamental vine scrolls, sketched in pen and decorated with trifoliate leaves, extend from the initials to the margin. One of the fragments (no. 5) contains a part of the Litany of the Saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Parchment fragment from a Book of Hours of French origin, which contains a part of the Office of the Virgin.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Leaf from a calendar (the month of January, divided on two pages), from a small-format liturgical manuscript, probably a breviary. The calendar entry for January 11th for the feast day obitus Tercii regis. Duplex, which commemorates the Magi, suggests that the calendar was used in the diocese of Cologne. The book decoration draws on Italian illumination (from Padua and Ferrara) customary in the second half of the 15th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Housebook of the Lords of Hallwil, also known as Turnierbuch, is a combination of family chronicle, tournament book and book of heraldry. This paper manuscript from the second half of the 16th century probably replaces an older copy. On the inside of the cover are found the large coats of arms of Burkhart von Hallwil and his two wives Judith von Anwil and Margaretha von Löwenberg. Pp. 4-10 contain a late version of the poem Ring von Hallwil, a saga about the endangerment and saving of the inheritance of the Hallwils. On pp. 11-17 there follow texts about family history and then a second, older version of the poem Ring von Hallwil (pp. 19-21). After a number of empty pages, there are six empty crests (pp. 48-50), meant for the three brothers Thüring I von Hallwil († 1386) und Katharina von Wolfurt, Walter V († after 1370) and Herzlaude von Tengen, “Hemann” (Johannes IV, † 1386) and Anna vom Hus. On p. 51 there is a view of the ancestral home of the Hallwil family. It is followed by pictures of Caspar (p. 54) and Burkhart von Hallwil (p. 55), scenes from tournaments (pp. 56-59), and images relating to the Ring von Hallwil (pp. 60-66). At the end of the manuscript, there are more coats of arms of the Lords of Hallwil and their wives (pp. 68-96), the last ones only sketched out but not completed (pp. 97-118). The manuscript was donated to the Swiss National Museum in 1907 by Count Walther von Hallwil, the last occupant of the castle, and his wife Wilhelmine. A second version is held by the Basel University Library (Ms. H I 10).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
One of the two oldest (fifteenth-century) extant copies of the Nüwe Casus Monasterii Sancti Galli, originally written by Christian Kuchimaister in about 1335. Kuchimaister, a citizen of the city of St. Gall, relates here the history of the abbey (and some history of the city) of St. Gall between 1228 and 1329. Kuchimaister's chronicle is one of the most important sources for the history of the Lake Constance area in the 13th and early 14th centuries.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This richly illustrated “Historienbibel” (history Bible) from the workshop of Diebold Lauber belongs to edition IIa of the text (following Vollmer). For the Old Testament, it contains a prose version of the Weltchronik by Rudolf von Ems; for the New Testament, it contains a prose version of the Marienleben by Bruder Philipp. The cycle of illustrations, richer in comparison to sister-manuscripts, can be attributed to the illuminators of Group A, active in the Lauber workshop during the 1430s.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The St. Gallen Passionarius Maior, or Great Passion, a collection of 92 legends of the saints assembled by monks of St. Gall from the time around 900, supplemented with annotations and glosses by the St. St. Gall monks Notker Balbulus († 912) and Ekkehart IV. († about 1060).
Online Since: 04/26/2007
The so-called "Zürcher Psalter" (Zurich Psalter) or "St. Galler Psalter" (St. Gallen Psalter), written and decorated in the scriptorum of the monastery of St. Gall, with numerous initial capitals as well as with the oldest extant artistically sophisticated miniature found in the St. Gallen manuscripts, from about 820/830. Includes appended All Saints Litany and computational tables and diagrams. Used daily by the monks in the liturgy of the hours.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
(Fragmentary manuscript remnant) Elaborate lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings for the full church year, written and decorated with prominent initial capitals by contemporaries of Sintram in about 900/910 in the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Elaborate lectionary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and enhanced with numerous ornate initial capitals by a contemporary of the famous St. Gallen scribe Sintram about 900/910, the same scribe who wrote and illuminated Ms. C 60 held by the Central Library of Zurich. This work, also known as the "Liber Comitis", contains the cycle of liturgical Epistle and Gospel readings for the Church year.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Manuscript compilation from the monastery of St. Gall containing a number of assorted brief texts from the 9th through 15th centuries. Among other items from the 9th century, this manuscript contains the sole exemplar of a document explaining the reasons for the meeting between King Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, the "Aachener Karlsepos " (Carolingean Epic of Aachen or Paderborn Epic) in 799 as well as another sole exemplar, the so called "Carmina Sangallensia", verses on the wall paintings in the former Gallusmünster (Church of St. Gallus) in the monastery of St. Gall. Further components of this manuscript include theological-canonical treatises as well as sermons from the 14th and 15th centuries.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This elegant illuminated copy of the Sefer Moreh Nevukhim (Guide to the Perplexed) by Moses Maimonides was produced in Christian Spain in 1292. It is a copy of the Hebrew translation of the work made in 1204 by Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon (1150-1230). The manuscript arrived in Italy either after the Jewish persecutions of 1391 or the ensuing expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula in 1492. It was in the possession of the renowned Bolognese Sforno family before reappearing in the early 17th century in the hands of the Italian Jewish apostate and inquisitor Renato da Modena. After more than a century, the manuscript reappeared in the possession of Johann Caspar Ulrich (1705-1768) a Protestant theologian, who donated it in 1762 to the Bibliotheca Ecclesia Carolina, the chapter library of the reformed Grossmünster church of Zurich. In 1835, when the chapter was dissolved, the books and manuscripts of the chapter library became part of the new Cantonal Library in Zurich. Finally in 1917, the holdings of this library, among others, formed the new Zentralbibliothek, where the manuscript still remains today.
Online Since: 03/19/2020
Beautifully illuminated Maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur according to the Ashkenazi rite. It is however possible to surmise that this manuscript was produced in Poland during the 14th century, as its script resembles that of contemporary Hebrew manuscript fragments of maḥzorim produced in Poland. This manuscript of middle-sized format, enclosing several ornate initial words and illuminated frames, contains the liturgy for the High Holidays of Rosh ha-Shana and Yom Kippur, including many liturgical poems (piyyutim) displayed in several columns, and was destined for public use by the precentor (ḥazan) at the synagogue. However, the particularity of this maḥzor lies in the presence of a woman's name, גננא כהנת (Jeanne Kohenet), inserted within the painted letters of a decorated monumental initial word. She was probably the patron of this manuscript and either the daughter or wife of a cohen. The manuscript is incomplete at the beginning and at the end.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Illuminated biblical and ethical miscellany produced in Italy in 1322. This small format manuscript, with an exquisite 16th-century white leather binding blindstamped with the coat of arms of the city of Zurich, is divided into two groups of texts. The first section is made up of the biblical texts of the Five Megillot, accompanied by three commentaries on them, composed by the great medieval scholars, Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), Avraham ibn Ezra and Joseph Qara. The second section is of ethical nature and consists in the Mishna tractate of the Pirqei Avot or Ethics of the Fathers and its commentaries. The first is an anonymous one ; the second is entitled Shemonah Peraqim by Maimonides, as translated by Samuel ibn Tibbon, and the third is a commentary by Rashi placed in the margins of the latter. In addition, this handbook is interspersed with aggadic, midrashic, mystical and philosophical material.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This richly illustrated manuscript of Rudolf von Ems' Chronicle of the world was written in the 1340s, probably in Zurich (in the same writing workshop as the 1346 book of statutes of the Zurich Grossmünster). Its iconographic program is closely related to that of the Chronicle of the World currently held in St. Gall (Vadian Collection Ms. 302). Ms. Rh. 15 came to Zurich in 1863 from the library of the dissolved Rheinau Abbey.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
The Rheinau Psalter, Ms. Rh. 167, is among the preeminent treasures of the Zurich Central Library. Its miniatures are a product of the highest level of artistry of the High Gothic painting of this period around 1260, which is also true for the sophisticated color and painting techniques that were used. In contrast, the script, while of quite good quality, cannot be counted among the highest examples of the art of writing. The commissioner of the manuscript must be sought in the area of Lake Constance, probably in the city of Constance, which was very important in the politics and church politics at the time of the interregnum. In 1817, Father Blasius Hauntinger purchased the manuscript from Melchior Kirchhofer in Schaffhausen for the Benedictine Rheinau Abbey; in 1863, the manuscript, along with the Rheinau Abbey Library, became part of the Cantonal Library (today Central Library) in Zurich.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A total of 23 leaves of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). The main parts probably were written by Eberhard of Fulda; the book decoration as well is very reminiscent of the Codex Eberhardi (Marburg, Hessisches Staatsarchiv K 425 and K 426). Based on the numbering in the surviving indexes and at the beginning of the texts, the size of the collection can be projected to have been about 500 vitae and passions. Thus this work bears testimony to the efforts for not only the economic, but also the spiritual and cultural reform undertaken under Abbot Markward of Fulda (1150-1165); at the same time this work is the northernmost and probably the earliest of the surviving five- and six-volume 12th century legendaries from Southern Germany. Later it served as (indirect) model for the base stock of texts of the great Legendary of Böddeken, through which it remained influential for the Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum and on into the modern times. The monumental Fulda Legendary was still used in Fulda in the middle of the 16th century by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Fragments from the 3rd, 4th and 6th volumes are preserved in Basel, Solothurn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. This indicates that at least the 3rd (May-June) and 6th (November-December) volumes of the legendary reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
The Eidgenössische Chronik by Werner Schodoler (1490-1541) is in chronological order the last of the illustrated Swiss Chronicles of the late Middle Ages. It was written by private initiative between 1510 and 1535 and took as its model primarily the Official Bernese Chronicle - Amtliche Berner Chronik - by Diebold Schilling and the Chronicle - Kronica - by Petermann Etterlin. This volume, the first of the three volumes of the chronicle, covers the history from the legendary origin of Zurich and Lucerne up to Antipope John XXIII's flight from Constance (1415). Although space was left for illustrations, they were not realized (except those of 12v). Today the three volumes are held in different libraries: the first volume is in the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, the second in the City Archives in Bremgarten, and the third in the Cantonal Library of Aargau.
Online Since: 12/20/2012