This composite manuscript contains among others the De viris illustribus by Jerome and the De viris illustribus by Gennadius, the Deflorata by Isidore of Seville and, at the very end, the Tractatus de VII sacramentis, which was only added in the 12th/13th century. The 14th century binding is probably from Einsiedeln; certainly the manuscript was in the monastery library in the 17th century, as attested by the ex libris on p. 1.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This composite manuscript was produced during the 10th/11th and the 13th/14th centuries in Einsiedeln and St. Gall. It contains various selections intended for religious education, such as the lives of saints Faustinus, Jovita and Gangolf, the Benedictine Rule, sermons, a liturgical tract and De ratione temporum.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This composite manuscript is datable to the second half of the 10th century. It contains, among other items, the Annales Einsidlenses, Priscian's De grammatica, a fragment of a text on the game of chess, and a calendar with obituary entries up to the 16th century.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
A composite manuscript containing various texts related to figuring Easter dates, two datable calendars, the first from 950 to 975 (4-16), the second from the 9th and 10th centuries (29-40), and the Quaestiones morales, which are datable to the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This is actually a manuscript of collected texts, since, in addition to the incomplete Imago mundi by Honorius Augustodunensis, it also contains other texts by unnamed authors such as: Nomina XI regionum, Divisio orbis terrarum, De anima, De anima humana, De origine animarum, De anima mundi, De origine animarum and ends with the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem.
Online Since: 08/12/2010
This antiphonary was written by order of Abbot Johannes I of Schwanden for the liturgy of the Hours of the monastic community of Einsiedeln. Together with Cod. 611-613, this manuscript attests to the introduction of Guido of Arezzo's (Guido Monaco's) system of musical notes with square notation.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This manuscript containing the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine is the second-oldest manuscript copy of this work, written within the lifetime of the author; it is dated 1288. The codex also contains the first known transmission of the so-called Provincia or Purgatory addendum. The proposal by A. Bruckner that the Abbey of Rheinau is the location of origin is not supported by any indications in the codex itself. It was most likely written in the southern German region (within the community of Augustinian hermits).
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript contains the 15 books of St. Augustine's On the Trinity. On 1v, under the Capitula a pen-drawing depicts Augustine with his three adversaries. The codex has been decorated in a particularly artistic manner by the so-called Engelberg Master. A large initial with figurative motifs in red-brown and blank ink begins each book; in the text that follows, intermediate initials are smaller, monochromatically red, and richly ornamented. In verse on 1r, the copyist describes in detail the circumstances of the production of the volume: it was begun under Abbot Berchtold of Engelberg (1178-1197), who died shortly after the copying was underway; his successor Heinrich (1197-1223) supervised the completion of the work.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
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
This codex contains the Benedictine Rule. A German translation follows each Latin chapter. The different sections are to varying degrees distinguished from each other through simply decorated initials in red ink, and the Latin text appears in a slightly thicker script. According to a Latin (1r) and a German (72r) dedicatory verse, the manuscript was produced under Abbot Walther (Walther I. of Iberg, 1250-1267, or Walther II. of Cham, 1267-1276).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
A composite manuscript containing text and music for the celebration of the Benedictine office, including a fully neumed (non-diastemmatic) antiphoner. Local saints' feasts (Disibod, Afra, Alban) and the extensive repertory for Martin help to establish its probable provenance.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
This codex contains on 2r-241r the Aurora, a versification of the Bible by Petrus Riga, canon of Reims (ca. 1140-1209), with notes by Aegidius Parisiensis, and on 244r-254v the dialogue Synodus by the cleric Warnerius of Basel, which probably was written ca. 1100. The compact script of the text in black-to-light-brown ink is decorated with small red initials and passages underlined in red. In places the page margins have been broadly cut out, and occasionally entire passages have been left blank. A three-line poem by the copyist on 4v attests that the manuscript was produced under Abbot Ulrich (1197-1223) in 1203.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
The principal part of this manuscript consists of the Antiphonale. The mostly neumed Mass chants for the church year and for the saints' days (ff. 3v-83v are supplemented with processional chants, litanies and a sequentiary (ff. 83v-109r). Bound into the manuscript at the beginning (ff. 1r-2v) and at the end (ff. 109r-122v) are 13th century supplements, among them a neumed German-language sequence dedicated to Mary (fol. 115r) and an elegy on the death of King Philip of Swabia of the House of Hohenstaufen, who was murdered in 1208 (fol. 117v).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This finely painted illustration, executed in vibrant and colorful opaque colors, has been cut out. It depicts the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple as described in the Gospel of Luke. Mary and Joseph bring the infant to the old prophet Simeon in order to receive his blessing. One of the two women behind Mary holds two doves in her right hand, which are to be sacrificed according to the requirements. In her left hand the woman carries burning candles, which indicate the feast to which this event is dedicated, i.e. Candlemas. Below Jesus, three small kneeling figures are praying: a Dominican nun and the donor couple. The scene is inserted into an N-initial decorated with scroll ornamentation at the beginning of the Canticle of Simeon for the feast of Mary: Nunc dimittis, domine, servum tuum in pace (Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word). The words visible at the top Intercede pro nobis (Pray for us [Holy Mother of God]) follow at the end of the song. An excerpt from the liturgical antiphon with the text Postquam impleti sunt dies purgationis (When the days of purification were completed) is preserved on the back. This fragment was purchased at auction at Sotheby's in London by the Canton of Thurgau in 1978; it came from the collection of Robert von Hirsch of Basel (1883–1977).
Online Since: 12/12/2019
Breviary, rubricated red and blue, with numerous initials on a gold background as well as drolleries at the lower margin. Calendar with the signs of the zodiac and with agricultural tasks to be carried out in each month. Particularly worthy of emphasis are the full-page representations of St. Christopher (p. 176), of the Adoration of the Magi (p. 178), and of Christ on the Cross (p. 179). Based on the mention of saints in the calendar and in the rest of the manuscript, it was probably created in Besançon. From there, by unexplained means, it came into the possession of the patrician family Wallier of Solothurn: owners' entries by Guillaume Wallier (16th century) and Henri Wallier (1605) on p. 4 and p. 731, the latter's also on the front cover. On p. 90 of the 1858 catalogue of the cantonal library of Thurgau, the provenance is given as Fischingen. Possibly the mansucript reached Fischingen by means of one of the two abbots of Fischingen from Solothurn, Augustin Bloch from Oberbuchsitten (1776-1815) or the last Abbot of Fischingen, Franz Fröhlicher from Bellach (1836- 1848).
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This work, written in German, contains the life of Thomas Aquinas written by William of Tocco (1240-1323). On f. 106v, there is also a note on the writer and on the possible patroness of the work: Dis buoch hat ze tùtsche bracht gemachet vnd geschriben pfaff Eberhard von Rapreswil kilcherr zu Jonen (addition anno 1418 by a 16th or 17th century hand). Dem sol Got vnsri frow sant Thoman der heilig lerer vnd die erwirdig frow die Stoeklerin ze Toess wol lonen. According to this entry, the 15th century hand goes back to Eberhard von Rapperswil, who was pastor in Jona in the canton of St. Gallen. The woman who commissioned the work is considered to be the nun Stöklerin from Töss (probably Elsbeth Stükler). This makes the work one of the few German translations of the life of Thomas Aquinas. Individual initials are not only highlighted in red, but are also decorated. The manuscript has a raspberry-red leather binding with clasps, which was restored in the 20th century. The detached pastedowns in the front and back are from a 13th century manuscript with neumes (probably a Kyriale). The manuscript contains two ownership notes: Dijs buoch ist erhart blarer von Wartensee zuo Kemten, guothsher zuo kemtem vnd zuo Werdeg (f. 106v) and Monasterij apud D.[ivam] Yddam in Visch.[ingen] (f. 1r). Accordingly, the manuscript belonged to Prince Abbot Johann Erhard Blarer von Wartensee in Kempten, who is documented to have been active from 1587 to 1594; subsequently the manuscript became the property of Fischingen Abbey.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Around 1220 Konrad Fleck translated the romantic novel "Flore et Blancheflor", written in 1160 by an unknown Provençal poet, into High Alemannic. The complete work consists of about 8,000 verses. Several fragments of an early copy of Fleck's translation have survived in the parish archives of Frauenfeld. The parchment pieces had been used as a cover for a tribute register from the prebend of St. Michael.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
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
Breviary for use in the diocese of Lausanne. Additions to the calendar attest that this manuscript was used in a Dominican monastery in Lausanne from the 14th century on. The decoration consists of initials with mostly floral ornamentation and drolleries in the margins. This codex was heavily trimmed when it was rebound in the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This Cistercian manuscript, datable to the first half of the 13th century, contains only a part of the Old Testament, that is, the Books Isaiah to and including Malachi. This book must have changed libraries for historical reasons. After being held in the Cistercian Abbey Frienisberg in the Canton of Bern, it reached Hauterive when the Bernese Monastery was dissolved during the Protestant Reformation. The last Abbot of Frienisberg, Urs Hirsinger, is said to have arrived at the Fribourg Abbey with a handful of manuscripts.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains predominantly hagiographical texts, written in various hands at the beginning of the 13th century. One could reasonably propose that it originated at Hauterive. Without doubt, the text at the beginning of the collection was most important for the monks, a Vita of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (the Vita prima), which takes up the greatest part of the manuscript. Also worth noting is a text quite surprising in a monastic context: the Liber locorum sanctorum terrae Jerusalem at the time of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem by Fretellus of Nazareth († after 1154). Another particularity of the manuscript is its binding with flaps that show traces of metalwork in the shape of a star.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The colophon at the end of the manuscript establishes with certitude that it was copied at the Cistercian abbey of Hauterive during the thirteenth century. Its author, or the one who commissioned the work, dobutless wanted to “gather together the works of two Cistercian authors who exercised important functions in the region: Henry, Abbot of the neighboring monastery of Hautcrêt, and Amadeus, bishop of the diocese of Lausanne” (from Ciardo). Henry, whose biography is still a subject of debate, chose the learned title Pentaconthamonadius (“the fifty-first”) to designate a sermonary composed of 17 groups of three sermons intended for the liturgy of the White monks. Amadeus of Clermont, a Cistercian monk who became bishop of Lausanne (1145-1159), is the author of eight homilies in honor of the Mother of God, which achieved lasting success as liturgical texts because used in the breviary of the diocese of Lausanne.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This Cistercian missal, produced around 1300, “represents an already advanced phase in the development of this type of liturgical book: the chants of the gradual are completely integrated into the sacramentary, and are no longer accompanied by musical notes; moreover, they are written in a smaller script. In this form, the missal could have served the celebrant for both the conventual mass and for the private mass that Cistercians are known to have held since their origins. The geographical origin of the codex has not been determined with certainty. Without doubt, however, from the fifteenth century onward it was at Hauterive, where it was re-bound. The rich decoration in the canon section provide a fine example of fleuronné initials from the end of the thirteenth century; here, the decoration of the scrolls seems to be still “domesticated” by rigorous framing.” (Joseph Leisibach, Liturgica Friburgensia. Des Livres pour Dieu, 1993, p. 89).
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This late 13th century manuscript contains the part of the medieval bestseller Lancelot en prose that was given the provisional name of Agravain, for the Knight of the Round Table who revealed the illegitimate relationship between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. This simple, neat copy, with gaps at the beginning and end, was decorated with alternating blue and red filigree initials. It is of unknown origin and has been attested in Hauterive since the 18th century.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
Antiphonary for Franciscan use, dating from the late 13th or early 14th century (after 1260), but representing the earliest Franciscan edition. Contains the chants (text and music) for the entire year for the liturgical Office, including the feast for Anthony of Padua in its proper position and an added Office for Corpus Christi in a different hand (f. 157r-159v).
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Gradual from the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg, still in use in the 16th/17th century according to the ownership note on the inside cover. Binding from the 16th century. Written in a Gothic minuscule around 1300. The beginning of important feasts is indicated with larger initials, sometimes with miniatures (e.g. F. 128v Ascension, f. 132v the Miracle of Pentecost).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript is made from parchment of medium thickness, quite soiled. The 17th/18th century binding consists of wooden boards covered in black pressed leather with 5 brass bosses in the front and back (1 boss is missing from the back). Two clasp fragments. Evidence from paleographyas well as from the content suggests that the volume was produced in Hauterive.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This anonymous collection of sermons with homilies, chiefly with a Neoplatonic slant, comes from the third quarter of the fourteenth century and probably was written in Fribourg-en-Nuithonie. The volume contains, after a thematic index at the beginning, 18 homilies for the time from Advent to Quinquagesima, 34 homilies from Easter to the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, and a few Sunday sermons for Lent. The pastedowns are fragments of a Hebrew manuscript in a thirteenth-century Ashkenazi cursive. The book has not been restored, a formerly chained volume with raspberry-red leather cover.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This miscellany manuscript contains texts from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth century in 12 parts, and belonged to Jean Joly (Guardian of the Fribourg Franciscan Convent, 1467-1469, 1472-1478, 1481-1510). The first part of the manuscript consists in a bull of Pope Benedict XII, dated to 1337. The volume essentially contains papal bulls and constitutions as well as statutes of Franciscan Order and determinations of particular provinces of the Franciscan order. A formerly chained volume, it has wooden boards covered with dark brown leather.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Collection of Latin sermons by the Franciscan Berthold von Regensburg (in two volumes). The production of this codex involved consultation of Berthold's originals. Marginalia by Friedrich von Amberg appear throughout the entire manuscript (volume I).
Online Since: 04/14/2008
Collection of Latin sermons by the Franciscan Berthold von Regensburg (in two volumes). The production of this codex involved consultation of Berthold's originals. Marginalia by Friedrich von Amberg appear throughout the entire manuscript (volume II).
Online Since: 04/14/2008
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
This immaculately preserved Italian 13th century massoretic Bible was employed as a study manual for learning the cantillation notes for the Torah readings. The significance of this massoretic bible lies however within its provenance, where it must have been acquired sometime in the mid-15th century by Solomon Finzi, a famous Jewish banker from Mantua, who owned a large library of Hebrew manuscripts. Lastly, a letter inserted at the beginning of the manuscript testifies to the use of this bible as one of the 615 biblical manuscripts collated for Benjamin Kennicott's Vetus Testamentum hebraicum variis lectionibus (1776-1780).
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This medium format bible from northern France arrived at the Bibliothèque de Genève between 1667 and 1701 and is one of the oldest donations to this library, once called the Académie de Genève. Furthermore, this bible was also used as one of the 615 biblical manuscripts collated for Benjamin Kennicott's Vetus Testamentum hebraicum variis lectionibus (1776-1780).
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This beautiful Mahzor for the High Holidays (Rosh ha-Shana and Yom Kippur) of the Jewish liturgical year, according to the north French rite (Nussaḥ Tsarfat) is accompanied by a great deal of liturgical poems (piyyutim). This manuscript preserves the liturgy recited by the once flourishing communities of medieval northern France. Several catchwords are surrounded by figurative ink drawings. The volume entered the Bibliothèque de Genève at an unknown date between 1667 and the end of the 17th century, having been previously owned by the physician of Andrea Doria, Condottiere of Charles Quint (1500-1558).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript contains an anonymous Hebrew paraphrase of the first five books of Averroes' (Abu al Walid Muhammed Ibn Rushd, c.1126-1198) Commentaire Moyen (middle commentary) on the Organon attributed to Aristotle. From the 13th century on, Hebrew paraphrases and compilations of certain books of the Organon were written by intellectual Jews from Provence, such as Jacob Anatolio Abba Mari (ca. 1194-1256); more than fifty manuscripts of this work of his have survived. The anonymous paraphrase found in the Bibliothèque de Genève's Ms. heb.12 is part of the same series.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This manuscript contains several texts copied between the 13th and the 16th century. The oldest one is the Solemn Evangelistary of St. Pierre Cathedral of Geneva (ff. 5-28v), which, according to its illuminations (esp. f. 5r), was probably created in Paris, even though the pericopes correspond to the feast days particular to Geneva. This is followed by excerpts from the sung Gospels (with staff notation) from the 14th and 15th century, one of which is an interesting late 15th century liturgical witness for the feast of the Epiphany (ff. 37v-40r).
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This manuscript, produced in a Parisian workshop during the mid-13th century, contains books I through XVIII of the Digestum vetus by Justinian, in a textual variant different from that found in the version of the Digest most common at that time. An illustration in the form of a vertical band depicts the Emperor Justinian, standing among the five most important jurists of the early 3rd century, who are frequently quoted in the Digest.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
This manuscript was produced in a Parisian workshop around the end of the 13th century. It contains the Latin version of thirteen critiques written by, or generally thought to have been written by, Aristotle. The book ends with a fragment of De uno deo benedicto by Moses Maimonides. Forty decorated initials adorn the text, and a large drawing of Christ on the cross with Mary and John has been added on the last folio.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
This manuscript contains three medical texts translated from Arabic and Greek into Latin. It begins with a small medical encyclopedia in ten books, the Kitâb al-Mansuri by Rhazes (ff. 4-126), in the translation attributed to Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187); this is immediately followed by a treatise on fever (ff. 126-144v) inspired by Johannitius (Latin name of the doctor and translator Hunain ben Ishāq al-Ibādī from Baghdad, 808-873). The collection concludes with the text Twelve books of medicine by the Byzantine physician Alexander of Tralles, divided here into three books and followed by the Treatise on fever (ff. 146-289v). The extensively annotated manuscript is adorned with decorated initials from which very beautiful red and blue "Italian extensions" emerge.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript, dated to about 1200, contains several texts, among them the Martyrology of Usuard (Benedictine monk, died around 875), an incomplete homiliary, the Rule of St. Augustine, and the necrology of Sixt Abbey (France, Haute-Savoie) that was expanded with later additions into the 17th century. According to François Huot, the various parts could have existed separately, but they seem to have been combined since the beginning of the 13th century. Primarily in the 13th and 14th century, diverse texts were added on previously blank pages, among them list of dues owed the abbey noted on pages f. 75v and 99r. This manuscript belonged to the Augustinian Canons Regular of Sixt Abbey, who used it during the Officium capituli; the manuscript must have been in their possession until the French Revolution. In the 19th century it was purchased by Auguste Turrettini (1818-1881) from Geneva.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
Lectionary from the second half of the 12th century or beginning of the 13th century from a Benedictine monasrtery in the southwestern German region, as indicated by the naming of various saints from this area. This is likely among the manuscripts brought to Hermetschwil by the nuns from the Double monastery of Muri. Adorned with many figured and historiated initials.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
This manuscript contains the prayers and instructions for the Liturgy of the Hours. It was made for the nuns of the double monastery of Muri; the manuscript came to Hermetschwil when the convent of nuns relocated there.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This manuscript was made for the female part of the double monastery of Muri since the prayers feature female terms. This work contains the readings, responsories and prayers for the Liturgy of the Hours; the Penitential Psalms; the benedictions for the daily life in the monastery; and the Office of the Dead.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This psalter is the work of the Engelberg Master. Psalms 1, 51 and 101 are introduced by large initials. Especially remarkable is a knight on 41r.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This manuscript is from France; certainly from the 14th century onward it has been part of the Libraria secreta of the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi, as attested by an entry in the library inventory. This inventory was written in 1381 by Brother Giovanni Ioli, who saw to its reorganization between 1377 and 1384. The manuscript, which originally contained not only the Liber sapientiae but also the third and fourth parts of Peter Lombard's Sentences, belongs to an important group of French manuscripts, some richly decorated, that were purchased by the monastery since the founding of the library. When the manuscript was owned by the antiquarian Leo Olschki, it was still complete; but it was already divided in 1960, when the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne purchased it from the Geneva antiquarian Nicolas Rauch.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript is a cartulary that was created for the Cluniac priory of Romainmôtier (canton of Vaud) and that was probably copied at the monastery. It consists of two chronologically distinct parts that were united at an unknown time. The first part is from the 12th century and consists of 77 documents, introduced by a preface that recounts the most important events from the history of the institution. The second part was copied around the end of the 13th century and contains 80 documents, most of which date back to the years 1270-1286.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
The Biblia Porta manuscript, which bears the name of its last private owner, is an illuminated Bible from the Franco-Flemish region, produced at the end of the 13th century. The value of this unique and extraordinary work lies in the quality of its textual illustrations: 337 scenes of great artistic refinement, very lively and expressive. The illustrations consist of historiated initials, ornamental initials, drolleries and marginal illustrations. The text, which is written in extremely carefully formed calligraphy on very fine parchment, is St. Jerome's Vulgate version of the Bible in Latin, revised in Paris in the second quarter of the 13th century. This document is one of the few remaining works from this particular school of book decoration in northern France.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Liturgical music to be sung during night prayer hours on the feasts of the saints, from the early period of the Cistercian cloister of Saint Urban.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This manuscript contains the life of Ulrich by Berno of Reichenau and the lives of St. Gall and St. Othmar. by Walafrid Strabo, as well as a copy of a document on the early history of St. Urban's Abbey, which is among the oldest surviving manuscripts in the St. Urban library.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This manuscript contains the as yet only know textual witness of the Breviloquium sententiarum artis theologicae, an adaptation of Peter Lombard's sentences by the Canon Odalricus of Verdun.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Fragment of a 13th century manuscript. Parts of the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo and the Agnus Dei have survived. This is followed by five lines from the trope of baptism, which begins with Quoniam Dominus and ends with coaeternum Patri. The title Tropi makes clear that the text contained more tropes.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
A manuscript without beginning. The titel was added later (18th century?). The parchment used is very uneven in quality. In the late Middle Ages, probably towards the end of the 15th century, the manuscript was carefully restored, with parts of the text re-copied. This is a choir book in several volumes, which was used for daily Mass by a community of clerics. Numerous additions from the 14th and 15th century attest to its use at Notre-Dame Abbey in Neuchâtel. Two (of four?) volumes have survived. It can be deduced that they follow the calendar in use at St. Jean Cathedral in Besançon. The first volume contains the sanctoral cycle from May 6th until November 30th. In 1813, the governing council donated the volume to the library of Neuchâtel.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
A manuscript without beginning. The titel was added later (18th century?). The parchment used is very uneven in quality. In the late Middle Ages, probably towards the end of the 15th century, the manuscript was carefully restored, with parts of the text re-copied. This is a choir book in several volumes, which was used for daily Mass by a community of clerics. Numerous additions from the 14th and 15th century attest to its use at Notre-Dame Abbey in Neuchâtel. Two (of four?) volumes have survived. It can be deduced that they follow the calendar in use at St. Jean Cathedral in Besançon. Volume II contains the temporal cycle from Holy Saturday until the last Sunday after Pentecost as well as the sanctoral cycle from April 14th until May 3rd. In 1813, the governing council donated the volume to the library of Neuchâtel.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Missal following the liturgical custom of the Diocese of Basel, datable to around 1300. In the 15th century, a part containing the Ordo Missae was added, preceded by a Crucifixion miniature. The binding was restored in 1992 and replaces the unpreserved original binding.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This 13th/14th century florilegium cites mainly the saints Bernard, Augustine and Gregory as well as biblical books with the Glossa ordinaria, Ambrose, Seneca, Aristotle and many others. The pastedowns consist of 12th century parchment fragments on which several lines from Virgil's Georgica are legible.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This complete Gradual (square notation) contains the temporal (f. 1r-70v), the sanctoral and the Commune Sanctorum (f. 70v–103v), votive masses (f. 103v-107v), the Kyriale and litanies (f. 107v–111v), antiphons and processional responsories (f. 112r–113v), the tropes of the Kyrie Cunctipotens and Fons bonitatis (f. 113v–115r) and several additions from the 14th century (f. 115r-127v). According to the analysis of the calendar, this copy could date back to the middle of the 13th century, between 1246 (mention of Saint Lambert by the first hand, f. 100r) and 1255 (no mention of the mass for Saint Dominic on August 5th, f. 95r). Contrary to what is suggested by the labels (back and inside cover), this codex was copied before the end of the 1260s, since the mass of Saint Anthony (f. 75v) was noted by a second hand. In addition, f. 98v contains no mention of an octave of St. Bernard, which is usually included in all Cistercian books from 1295 on. A study of the musical and liturgical content shows that manuscript FiD 5, which is a faithful copy of the older Gradual of the order (Abbazia Tre Fontane 47, around 1140/1143), probably originated in Hautcrêt Abbey (Oron VD), which was the motherhouse of Fille-Dieu until 1536.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This missal is from the church of Glatt an der Glatt in Southern Germany, a property of Muri Abbey. It was created in the second half of the 13th century. Numerous marginalia from the 14th-15th century testify that it was intensively used.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The "Richtebrief", written in or about 1300 is the oldest codex in the collection that was written outside the monastery. It contains laws protecting individuals and regulating business and trade, a series of regulations for ensuring the independence of the city, and laws for the constitution of Schaffhausen. It is likely that the creation of this "Richtebrief" is a result of the political alliances Schaffhausen had built with Zurich, Constance and St. Gall. Thus, the first part of the manuscript follows the model of a document from Constance, while the second follows a model from Zurich.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This manuscript consists of four parts from different eras. The first part (ff. 1r-59v, 2nd half of the 13th century) contains Bonaventure's Breviloquium; the second part (ff. 60r-153v, 13th-14th century) contains excerpts from the Talmud; the third part (ff. 154r-239v, 14th century) contains sermons by the Franciscan Gualterus de Brugis as well as the text Pharetra by Pseudo-Bonaventure; finally, the fourth part (240r-268v, first half of the 14th century) contains the collection of sermons Rusticani by the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg. The Extractiones de Talmud are especially interesting since they represent the largest surviving corpus of Latin translations of the Talmud and since they were produced in Paris in 1244/1245, at the time of the revision of the condemnation of the Talmud, which had been proclaimed in 1240/1241. The version in this codex has the translations organized not following the order of the treatises, but instead thematically, according to the various arguments. The binding from the last century, for which parts of an old binding were reused and which shows traces of a chain, indicates that the manuscript originated in the Franciscan monastery of Schaffhausen.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
According to an ownership seal this parchment manuscript was completed before 1318. Scribe and place of origin are unknown. It contains commentaries in Latin by the Dominican Albertus Magnus (ca. 1200-1280) on the six foundation texts of medieval instruction in logic. Their wording was altered during the 14th century using a text handed down by a separate tradition, familiar today mainly through Italian Renaissance manuscripts. The resulting hybrid text, with good, though often singular, textual variations, is of particular importance for the edition of these commentaries. The manuscript has been held by the Schaffhausen Bibliotheca Publica in the Church of St. Johann since 1589.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
The 13th-century manuscript is composed of three parts. The first part contains Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian works in Latin translation. The second part contains 'De mineralibus' and 'De natura loci' by Albertus Magnus. The third part consists of a commentary by Michael Scotus on Johannes de Sacrobosco's work about the heavenly spheres, an anonymous commentary on the Arithmetic of Boethius, and the commentary by Averroës on Aristotle's 'De longitudine et brevitate vitae'. This manuscript is among the finest examples of Italian secular book production from the last third of the 13th century, and it is one of the earlier illuminated Aristotelian manuscripts.
Online Since: 03/24/2006
Fragmentary missal without beginning, missing the beginning of the Temporale, the entire Sanctorale - which could provide information about the location - as well as several pages. The elegant and careful Gothic script suggests that the manuscript was produced in the scriptorium of the Sion Chapter.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
Chancellery register of the Cathedral Chapter of Sion on parchment, pertaining to Vercorin and the Val d'Anniviers and comprising about 2,300 records from the years 1285-1314. The register is paginated from 1-402, but it contains the pages 96bis, ter, quater and quinque, 296bis and 297bis. (408 pages).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This antiphonary (winter part of the temporale), copied by a single hand, has a number of gaps in the text (for example, the beginning is missing). The chants in square notation are separated either by simple alternating blue and red initials, or by larger initials, in part with pen flourishes. In addition, the manuscript is decorated with four historiated initials, from which extend elegant, straight and ringed shafts with gold dots, ending in long, colored leaves that curl and uncurl (f. 54v, 89v, 108v, 210r). In terms of color and style, they are close to late 13th century production in Emilia. Instead of the traditional iconography of King David praying before God, the initial introducing the chant "Domine ne in ira" (f. 108v) depicts a cleric with tonsure – St. Francis or a Franciscan? –, which probably refers to the fact that the manuscript was intended for the use by the Minorites. Both the monastery for which the manuscript was originally intended and its later provenance history are unknown. This copy can at most be associated with one other manuscript from the State Archives of Valais, the Franciscan gradual AVL 506; both works were bound in the same workshop in the 18th century, which likely is an indication of their common origin. The binding has since been restored by R. Bommer in Basel (1998).
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The original parts of the calendar indicate that this missal was meant for use in the Diocese of Lausanne, whereas the later entries attest to its presence and use in the celebration of the Mass in the Diocese of Sion at the latest since 1300. Three special sequences suggest that the missal originated in the Abbey of St. Maurice (188v: sequence of Theodulf Collaudetur rex virtutum; 190r: sequence of Augustine Augustino laude demus and 189r: sequence of Maurice Pangat Syon dulce melos). The Canon of the Mass is decorated with an illuminated initial, with the Vere dignum, and with a frame showing the crucifixion, the Virgin and St. John (97v). The most important holidays are introduced with decorated initials on a gold background (4v, 13rb, 17ra, 18ra etc.). In 1981, the Valais State Archives purchased this codex on the antiquarian book market.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
The Chanson de la Reine Sebile or Macaire is a work from the end of the 12th century that belongs to the medieval French epics, more precisely to the epics that refer to the "poetic biography of Charlemagne": Macaire, who is in love with Queen Sebile, wife of Charlemagne, conspires so that she is unjustly accused of adultery, cast out, and sent into exile, to be rehabilitated in the end. More than 200 alexandrines from this heroic epic are known. They come from five different fragments that were not part of the same original manuscript and are today held in Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium (ms. II 139, ff. 3r-4r: 2 13th century fragments), in Sheffield, University Library (ms 137: 2 13th century fragments), and in Sion, State Archive of Valais. The fragment from Sion was discovered in 1925 by Leo Meyer, cantonal librarian and state archivist, in an old binding and removed. It was then edited by Paul Aebischer (1950), who dated it to around 1300. The fragment, which has a hole in one place, contains 168 verses in two columns. Its only decoration are red initials at the beginning of the verses.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This Missale speciale from the second half of the 13th century is for the use of the Franciscan Order and contains the mass formularies for the most important feasts of the liturgical year, for votive masses, and for some rituals. Thanks to its small format, it could easily be taken along on journeys. Leisibach places its origins in the Savoy region, as the barely visible coats of arms of the de Sales family seem to confirm (f. 59v). The missal came into the possession of Charles Emmanuel de Rivaz (1753-1830), an important politician in the Valais. On the fly leaf, a note in his hand can be found, which lists the contents of the missal (f. A1r-v). His library was donated to the Valais State Archives by his descendants in 1978.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This composite manuscript contains legal texts, mainly from the period before Accursius (first half of the 13th century): the Dissensiones and the Insolubilia by Hugolinus de Presbyteris; the Quaestiones by Pillius de Medicina, by Azo, by Roffredus Beneventanus and others of uncertain attribution; the Libellus de iure civili, the Tractatus de bonorum possessione and the rare Tractatus de pugna by Roffredus Beneventanus; the Tractatus de reprobatione instrumentorum and the Summa arboris actionum by Pontius de Ilerda; several lecturae about titles and fragments of the Digestum Novum; the Brocarda by Azo; the Summula de testibus by Albericus de Porta Ravennate; an anonymous Tractatus de testibus; the Libellus disputatorius by Pillius de Medicina; fragments of the Notabilia about the Decretum by Gratian and about the Corpus iuris civilis; the ordo iudiciorum ‘Olim'; a part of the Catalogus praescriptionum, for a certain time attributed to Rogerius, and the ordo iudiciorum ‘Quicumque vult' by Johannes Bassianus.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This Decretum by Gratian is a copy of an archetype which contains an ‘archaic' text belonging to the the Σ-group and with a reduced number of paleae in the text, which were integrated partly at a later time. The codex was used in several schools in Italy and in Southern France. In the first layer of glosses is a copy of the Glossa ordinaria by Johannes Teutonicus (published in 1215/16), in the following layers there is a copy by several hands of Bartholomew of Brescia's additiones to the Glossa ordinaria, as well as glosses by canonists mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This scroll contains a collection of 133 culinary recipes that served as a source for the famous Viandier of Guillaume Tirel, or Taillevent. It was part of the library of Bishop Walter Supersaxo (ca. 1402-1482) and his son Georges (ca. 1450-1529).
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This Parisian or Sorbonne Bible, produced around 1270 in Northern France, is remarkable not only for the form of its text including glosses and corrections, but also for its high-quality illuminated initials. The volume came to Zuchwil in the late 16th century and from the 17th century on, it has been held in the Solothurn abbey library.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This small-format missal is an important witness for the Franciscan liturgy of the thirteenth century. Schönherr hypothesizes an origin in the Franciscan province of Upper Germany, and a Bavarian provenance (the convent of Franciscan nuns zum Heiligen Kreuz, Landshut?). A possessor's mark of the warden of the Franciscan convent of Dieburg near Darmstadt dates to 1513. It is not known how and when the manuscript got to Solothurn.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This Rudolf von Ems manucript originated in the same area of Zurich that produced the Manessische Liederhanschrift (Manesse Song Script). It represents one of the most accomplished examples of south German book decoration from the time around 1300, with excellent miniatures illustrating the Chronicle of the World by Rudolf von Ems and the Stricker's epic poem about Charlemagne and his military campaign in Spain.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This cartulary contains the major legal title of the Premonstratensian abbey of Weissenau near Ravensburg; the popes, emperors, kings, princes, dukes, counts, bishops and vicars mentioned in the cartulary are portrayed in the margins with their attributes of office. Prepended to the cartulary itself is a history of the founding of the monastery: appended are a tribute register and other documents.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This richly illustrated pocket bible from the third quarter of the 13th century contains the Old and New Testaments. It combines the new chapter numerations of the 13th century and the older Eusebian numeration of the Gospels; the Psalm section includes Gallican versions set side by side with translations by Jerome. The Psalm section also includes historiated initials accompanied by interesting humorous sayings.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This volume, assembled in the 14th century from four originally separate pieces, probably was the missal for the chapel at St. Margrethenberg (Sampans) above Pfäfers. The chants in parts 1 (1r-63v, 12th century), 2 (64r-77v, 13th-14th century) and 4 (129r-131v, 12th century) contain neumes, part 3 (78r-128v, 14th century) is in square notation.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
The Liber viventium Fabariensis is likely the most important surviving work of Rhaetish book art. This manuscript was originally designed as an Evangelistary and richly adorned with initials, frames for canonical tables and full-page illustrations of the symbols of the four evangelists. Starting in 830 the names of monks who joined the monastic community were listed in the empty canonical table frames, together with living and deceased benefactors of the abbey. In addition to its function as evangelistary, memorial and record of the monastic brotherhood, the Liber viventium was later also used to preserve the historial records and treasure catalog of Pfäfers Abbey. Because of the legal importance of the Liber viventium up to modern times, the volume is housed in the archival collection of Pfäfers Abbey.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
Probably produced in Paris, this pocket Bible contains the Old Testament with 16 of Jerome's prologues to the individual Biblical books. At least five leaves (from 1 Macc. 4: 38) have been torn out of the end. The exceptionally fine and thick parchment is of extremely high quality. The pages feature continuous red-and-blue column headings and chapter numbers. The ornamentation consists of pen-flourished and painted initials, a few of which have figurative scenes: p. 9 (Hexaemeron), p. 137 (Moses), p. 435 (David with Harp), p. 446 (David), p. 450 (fool), p. 470 (David), p. 482 (Solomon). In the Psalms, the liturgical eight-part division of the psalters is particularly emphasized through painted initials.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Produced in the thirteenth century, this Psalter shows evidence of heavy use. An “instructions for use” found on the back pastedown calls for the Psalter to be left in the choir so that every sister can read it. Thus, the Psalter came from a convent of women. Since St. Catherine is particularly emphasized in the calendar, it could have belonged to the convent of Dominican women of St. Catherine in St. Gall. Decoration consists of red and blue pen-flourished initials. In addition, the liturgical eight-part division as well as the three-part division of the Psalter are highlighted with larger painted initials, which are partially adorned with silver and gold ink. Following the Psalms, starting on p. 240, are the biblical Cantica, Credo, Te Deum, Symbolum Athanasianum and a litany. A few leaves were replaced in the fifteenth and fourteenth/fifteenth century (pp. 95–98, 257–264). Two quires of a breviary in the same hand as pp. 257–264 are bound to the litany (pp. 269–288). In the same hand, an incomplete calendar (July to December) with names of the month in German precedes the Psalter (pp. 1–12). Originally the calendar probably consisted of two quires, of which only the last leaf of the first quire and the complete second quire remain. On the front pastedown is glued the bookplate of Prince-Abbot Beda Angehrn (abbot 1767-1796).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
A composite manuscript with three parts: 1) a copy of the Song of Songs, surrounded by a learned scholarly commentary from the 12th or 13th century, possibly from the Abbey of St. Gall, 2) a copy of the letter from Prosper of Aquitaine to Rufinus regarding De gratia et libero arbitrio, the work Pro Augustino responsiones ad capitula obiectionum Gallorum calumniantium by Prosper of Aquitaine, the work Responsiones ad Dulcitium de octo quaestionibus ab eo missis by Augustine, and the pseudo-Augustinian piece Hypomnosticon contra Pelagianos (like Cologne, Dombibliothek, Codex 79), 3) an incomplete copy of Augustine's work Enchiridion de fide, spe et caritate (a guide to belief, hope and love).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This codex contains the Gospel of Matthew with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 590; pp. 1-4), an anonymous prologue (Stegmüller, RB 589; pp. 2-3, margin), the Glossa ordinaria, and further glosses (among others Stegmüller, RB 10451 [2]). The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership note Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (flyleaf) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This codex contains the Gospel of Mark with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 607; pp. 3-8) and the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership entry Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (p. 2) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This codex contains the Gospel of Luke with the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall. The decoration consists of two initials with scroll ornamentation. On p. 1 there is a red Q with green and blue filling, whose tail is formed by a dragon; on p. 2 there is an F framed in red and filled in gold, with green scrolls with blue filling.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This volume consists of three codices that were bound together. The first two (pp. 1–84 and 85–228) contain the Gospel of John, the third (pp. 229–342) the Gospel of Mark, each with the so-called Prologus monarchianus (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 624: pp. 1–2 and 86–88; Stegmüller, RB 607: pp. 229–232) and Glossa ordinaria. In the first codex, the Gospel text abruptly ends in the middle of a sentence on p. 84 in Jn 21,2; only Jn 1,1–8,24 are glossed. In the second codex, Jn 1,1–20,25 is glossed. While the first and third codices are from the 12th century, the second is somewhat later (12th/13th century). The last pages of the third codex also are later (13th century: glosses from p. 315, main text from p. 319). There is a zoomorphic initial (dragon) on p. 3 and an initial in minium on p. 229. Fragments of 10th century manuscripts were used to line the back. On the inside of the front cover, there is an imprint of a manuscript fragment, and on the back pastedown there is a late medieval note of ownership for St. Gall Abbey.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This codex contains the Gospel of John with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 624; pp. 3-7), an anonymous prologue (Stegmüller, RB 628; pp. 3-7, margin), and the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership note Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (p. 2) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Two codices in one volume. The first codex (pp. 1-288; early 12th century) contains the Pauline epistles with the Glossa ordinaria and four prologues: anonymous prologue, Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum, No. 11086 (p. 1), prologue by Pelagius (?), Stegmüller, RB 670 (pp. 1–2), prologue by Pelagius, Stegmüller, RB 674 (pp. 2–3), prologue by Marcion, Stegmüller, RB 677 (p. 3). P. 3 also contains excerpts from the Decretum Gratiani (D. 28 c. 17), the Concilium BracarenseII, can. 2, and one more canonical text. This is followed by the Pauline epistles in the customary order (pp. 5-287), including the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans (pp. 216-218). The second codex (pp. 288-448; 12th century; from p. 417 on 12th/13th century) primarily contains excerpts from sermons and other works by Jerome (pp. 289–374 and 386–387), interposed with more sermons (pp. 382–386, 387–403 and 408–415) and other works, in part only as excerpts: Grimlaicus, Regula solitariorum, cap. 3–5 and 31–34 (p. 374–381); anon., De consanguinitate BMV (pp. 403–407); Gregory of Tours, Miracula 1, 31–32 (on St. Thomas; pp. 407–408); Amalarius of Metz, Ordinis missae expositio I, prologue and cap. 17 (pp. 415–416); excerpt from Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis, cap. 12 (p. 416); Peter Abelard, Sententiae 1–60 and 102–247 (pp. 417–448). The front and back covers show imprints of fragments from a 10th century missal.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
A composite manuscript with three originally separate parts. In front, an incomplete copy of the works Cathemerinon (up to Book X) and Peristephanon (Books I and V) by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens from about 900, in the middle, a 13th/14th century Latin commentary on Aristotle's Perihermeneias, and at the end, a copy of the works De trinitate, De divinitate, De substantiis and Contra Nestorium by Boethius, made in about 1000. This codex is annotated with a multitude of Latin and Old High German glosses.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The manuscript contains Anselm of Laon's († 1117) commentary on the Psalms (the author's identity is according to Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, Nr. 1357; elsewhere the text is ascribed to a certain Haimo). On pp. 245–253, the manuscript continues with a commentary on the little doxology as well as on the Old Testament cantica for Lauds, which were authored either also by Anselm or by his student Gilbert of Poitiers († 1155) (Stegmüller, RB 1357, 1 or 2530). A few pages contain longer marginal glosses. Decoration is limited to two- to three-line red lombards and sparse rubrication. On p. 254 can be found the library stamp from the time of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1553–1564).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
In a binding from the time of Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463–1491), the manuscript has two parts. The first (pp. 3–166), written probably in southern Germany towards the end of the twelfth century, contains approximately the last third of Peter Lombard's († 1160) commentary on the Psalms (on Ps. 109–150). The second part (pp. 167–308) was produced in the thirteenth century, perhaps in St. Gall, and contains sermons and treatises, overwhelmingly by Bernard of Clairvaux († 1153). In addition to a few of Bernard's large liturgical sermons, there appear a few of uncertain authenticity, such as six sermons by Nicholas of Clairvaux († after 1175). The sermons on pp. 167–292 are ordered according to the ecclesiastical calendar (de tempore and de sanctis). A sermon from Bernard's Sermones de diversis is here applied to the feast of St. Gall (pp. 268–270). On pp. 292–298 can be found the second half of Bernard of Clairvaux's treatise De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae; a few chapters, especially the first and last, are heavily abridged. The final pages (pp. 298-308) contain further short sermons and treatises, at least part of which can be ascribed to Bernard.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Latin composite manuscript from the period between 1150 and 1250, written in Southern Germany, perhaps even in St. Gall. The volume contains (not quite complete) the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux on the Old Testament Song of Songs (Sermones super cantica canticorum), the history of the First Crusade by Robert of Reims (Historia Hierosolimitana), the work De locis sanctis by the Irish scholar and saint Adomnán of Iona († 704), a Relatio about the Apostle Thomas as well as short verses about the parts of the Liturgy of the Hours (Versus de horis canonicis), and verses about the ten plagues of Egypt (Versus de plagis Aegyptii).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This manuscript contains the commentary on the Epistles of Paul (Collectanea in epistolas Pauli) by Peter Lombard (1095/1100-1160). On the spine label and on p. 1/2, it is falsely attributed to Pierre de Tarentaise (later Pope Innocent V). The codex is written in two columns; one column, often very narrow, gives the biblical text, the other gives the commentary in lines of half the height. References to authors consulted by Peter Lombard are given in red in the margins. At the beginning of each letter, there are two initials (for the biblical text and for the commentary) painted in opaque colors on a gold background (p. 3, 5, 116, 202, 249, 287, 316, 334/335, 351, 371, 402, 409, 412). These exhibit features of the so-called "channel style", which was popular on both sides of the English Channel around 1200.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The manuscript is bound in a cardboard binding of the eighteenth/nineteenth century. It has two parts written at different times. The first part (pp. 3–120) begins with a fragmentary gradual (it starts on the Wednesday after the Third Sunday in Advent), written in the thirteenth century. The melodies are noted in staffless neumes. Following the Sundays after Pentecost, the part concludes with alleluia-verses (pp. 118–120). The second part (pp. 121–186), containing sequences without melodies, comes from the fourteenth century. In two parts of the codex is bound a quire from a gradual probably written in the thirteenth/fourteenth century: pp. 11–26 (in the middle of the introitus to the feast of the Holy Innocents), the propers for the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday after Christmas; pp. 159–174 (in the middle of the All Saints' sequence), the chants for the period from the Wednesday after the first Sunday of Lent to Holy Saturday.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This codex, with boards covered in green textile, consists of two parts. The first part (pp. 3-53) contains sequences by Notker Balbulus and other authors, the second part (pp. 55-226) contains a gradual. All of the texts have neumes; the script is interspersed with red and blue majuscules. Of note is a series of decorated initials, for example one containing a dragon on p. 3 of the sequentiary and one with scroll ornamentation on p. 55 of the gradual. Other examples can be found on pp. 114, 134, 144, 146. Bound in at the beginning is an 11th/12th century leaf containing excerpts from the Commune Sanctorum, with 14th century supplements on the back.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Tropary and Sequentiary in point-like square notation with exceptionally fine monophonic and polyphonic music from the great repertoire of the school of Notre-Dame at Paris. Written before 1250 in Western Switzerland, probably at the Cathedral of Lausanne. Probably in St. Gall by 1300.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Breviary consisting of several parts: 1) Capitula and orationes for the period from the first of Advent until the octave of Pentecost as well as for Sundays and weekdays (pp. 3–48). 2) Proprium de tempore (with readings, excerpts from sermons, antiphons, responses and hymns) for the period from the first of Advent until the Saturday after Pentecost (pp. 49–280). The antiphons and responses have neumes. 3) Proprium de sanctis (pp. 281–419), these chants do not have neumes. It begins with St. Andrew (30 November) and ends with St. Petronilla (31 May). 4) Proper for Easter until the second Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 421–466). 5) Responses and antiphons De sanctis in pascali tempore (pp. 466–468). 6) Lectiones per totam ebdomadam for weekdays of the third and fourth week after the octave of Easter (pp. 469–484). 7) Capitula for Nocturns, Sext and None at Easter (p. 485). 8) Orationes for Nocturns, Sext and None on weekdays usque ad ascensionem Domini (pp. 486–487). 9) Capitula and orationes for Vespers, Lauds and Sext for the first until the fourth Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 488–489). 10) Hymns (and sequence Cantemus cuncti melodum, p. 504) (pp. 502–504 and 506). Parts 1-3 were for the most part written in the 13th century (with numerous additions and corrections on erasure up until the 15th century). Parts 4-6 are from the 14th century, parts 7-10 from the 15th century. Property of the Monastery of St. Gall at least since the 15th century (perhaps 1450, cf. p. 1).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Antiphonary from the XIIIth century containing chants for the liturgy of the Hours. The melodies are noted using neumes without lines. Essentially, this is a copy of Cod. Sang. 390/391 (“Hartker antiphonary”) completed by saint's days added after the completion of the Hartker antiphonary.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Book of hours, composed for an unknown female convent in the diocese of Basel: excellent example of early Gothic book art. With a Calendar, 14 miniatures of the life of Christ and Mary, the Psalter, Canticles and an All Saints' Litany.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This is a collection of liturgical works from the monastery of Disentis, written in the second half of the 12th century, most likely around 1200. In sequence, the volume contains a calendar (pp. 2-13), a psalter (pp. 15-90) and a hymnary (pp. 91-110), a (mixed) capitulary and collectarium (pp. 116-186), as well as an antiphonary, a lectionary, and a homiliary (pp. 203-638). Highlights from the point of view of manuscript decoration include the initial “B” at the beginning of the psalter (p. 15) and a picture of the crucifixion (p. 89). This breviary is one of the very few surviving medieval manuscripts from the monastery of Disentis. The manuscript came to Kempten around 1300; as early as the 15th century, the Disentis Breviary was held in the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/20/2012