Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job (commentary on Job): commentary on Job 1-5 dating from the time of Hartmut (dean ca. 850-872). Volume 1 of a six-volume series.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Gregory the Great, Moralia in Hiob (Commentary on Job): commentary on Job 28-35 dating from the time of Hartmut (dean ca. 850-872). Volume 6 of a six-volume series.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Gregory the Great, 22 homilies on the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. Copy dating from the time of Hartmut (dean ca. 850-872).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A carefully written manuscript of the Dialogi of Gregorius Magnus (p. 2-417). P. 1 contains a table of contents and pen tests with neumes. Decorated intials on p. 2, 78, 156, 279. The manuscript contains four Alemannic textual glosses. It was probably read from during meals and shows signs of heavy usage, especially in Book II (the life of Benedict).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The Book of Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis) by Gregory the Great, St. Gall copy dating from around 800, bound in a splendid enamel binding from Limoges dating from around 1210/30.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Incomplete copy of the widely distributed Book of Pastoral Care Regula pastoralis by Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), written by several hands in Carolingian minuscule toward the end of the 9th century, probably in the Monastery of St. Gall. Various pages were already missing around 1553/64. The manuscript contains numerous Old High German glosses and several Latin glosses, which were added in St. Gall. At the very front, on a page with pen trials, a skillful hand from the late 10th century wrote the hymn Felix mater Constantia in honor of Pelagius, patron saint of the city of Constance.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Manuscript compilation from the second half of the 8th century, written and decorated with several extraordinary initials, possibly at a “Swiss center under Burgundian or Irish influence” (Bruckner) or instead “in western Alemannia or in eastern Burgundy” (Bischoff), perhaps also in Müstair. The manuscript contains large parts of - but not in full - Pope Gregory the Great's († 604) homilies on the Gospels (Homiliae in evangelia), as well as excerpts from authentic and inauthentic works by Augustine († 430) and Caesarius of Arles († 542).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Manuscript compilation from the monastery of St. Gall, written out in early Alemanian Minuscule script between 760 and 797 with a wide variety of different texts about synonymy (Isidore of Seville, Differentiae), Exegetics (Eucherius of Lyon, Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae), computation, healing arts, hagiography (for example the oldest version of the life stories of the patron saints of Zürich, Felix and Regula), etc.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This manuscript contains a collection of Patristic texts with selections from works by Isidore of Seville (d. 636; Sententiae and De officiis), Gregory the Great (d. 604; Homiliae in evangelia) and Augustine (Sermones, most of them not actually written by Augustine, but ascribed to him), a list of regions and cities where remains of the apostles may be found, and selections from an anonymous commentary on the four gospels (only the commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and John are included), produced in about 800 or shortly before, not in the Abbey of St. Gall, but in northern Italy, probably in Monza or Verona.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This copy of the Sententiae by the church father Isidore of Seville is important to textual history; it was produced in about 800, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall, and expanded in the course of the 9th century. The Sententiae are regarded as one of the most important works by Isidore of Seville.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A careful copy of books I to X of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville († 636), written shortly before the year 900 in the monastery of St. Gall. This manuscript forms a unity with Cod. Sang. 232.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
A careful copy of books XI to XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville († 636) written shortly before the year 900 in the monastery of St. Gall. On a flyleaf from the early 12th century: "St. Galler Glauben und Beichte I" with a short confession, a plea for indulgence, an indulgence formula for the use of a priest and the Creed in Old High German.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
St. Gall copy of books XI through XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville from the second half of the 9th century. Contains (on page 89) a famous and beautifully drawn early medieval world map (terrae orbis, T-O, or Noachid map) that serves as an illustration for the description of the continents .
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville from the time after 800. Most probably not written in the monastery of St. Gall. In the front, on a page with pen trials, a faded and much studied early medieval map of the world. The encyclopedia written by Isidore of Seville in the early 7th century is one of the most read and most quoted books of the Middle Ages.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
A copy of a collection of texts by Isidore of Seville (d. 636), including De natura rerum, produced in the women's cloister of Chelles on the Marne east of Paris in, or shortly after 800. The copy of the work De natura rerum in this manuscript includes a very simple world map (Mappa mundi) as well as a so-called “Knopfkarte” (a chart composed of multiple connected circles).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A patristic manuscript of unknown provenance from the first half of the 9th century. It contains the Liber Testimoniorum by Paterius, letters exchanged between Jerome and Damasus, selections from the homilies of Augustine on the Gospel of John, the Athanasian Creed with exegesis, and an exegesis of the Our Father.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Commentary on the liturgy of the Mass and of the church year by Rupert of Deutz (Rupertus Tuitiensis, around 1070-1129). This copy is written by a single hand in a neat 12th century script; the binding is from the middle of the 15th century with a bookmark made of string attached to the headband. On p. 226 and on the cover, the text by Rupert of Deutz is falsely attributed to the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Natural history (scientific) manuscript compilation, written by various scribes, mostly around the year 850, in the area of Laon in northern France. The codex contains, among other items, Boetheus's De arithmetica, a computational treatise incorrectly attributed to the English scholar the Venerable Bede († 735), and De temporum ratione as well as selections from De natura rerum and De temporibus, all true works of the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Collection of Astronomical-computistical tables and charts with high-quality pen drawings of the constellations.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Copies of assorted works of natural history by the Venerable Bede (De natura rerum; De temporum ratione; the closing portion of De temporibus), produced as early as the 9th century in the Cloister of St. Gall. In addition, this codex contains, among other items, computistic and calendar texts and tables, and at the end, schematic diagrams of the organization of the scientific disciplines as well as quill tests.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
This copy of the commentary of the Venerable Bede (d. 735) on the seven Canonical Letters is significant to textual history; it was produced during the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of the commentaries of the Venerable Bede (d. 735) on the Old Testament books of Tobias, Ezra and Nehmiah, produced in the first half of the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A redaction by the Anglo-Saxon Joseph Scottus, written in about 860. Appended is the oldest known surviving copy of the letter of Cuthbert, student of the Venerable Bede, to his friend Cuthwin, relating the story of the death of Bede in the year 735. This account incorporates the Old English Death Song by Bede, Fore there neidfaerae ..., in the oldest known version in Bede's own Northumbrian dialect. The manuscript still retains its original Carolingian binding.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
A manuscript compilation of the shorter version of the Book of Genesis by the Venerable Bede (d. 735), together with the work Contra Iudaeos by Isidore of Seville, the letter De mansionibus filiorum Israhel (Epistula 78) by the church father Jerome, and a copy of the first and second Old Testament books of Maccabees, produced in the 9th century, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall. A noteworthy initial capital appears on page 232.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of the commentary on the Gospel of Mark by the Venerable Bede (d. 735), produced in the Abbey of St. Gall in the 9th century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
The commentary on the Gospel of John by Alcuin of York (k. 804), possibly produced in the vicinity of Reims during the mid-ninth century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of the exegetical works De tabernaculo and De templo as well as Quaestiones in libros regum by the Venerable Bede (d. 735), produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the second half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of the grammar textbook De grammatica, composed as a dialogue between the two pupils Saxo and Franco, by Alcuin of York (d. 804), produced during the first half of the 9th century at the cloister of St. Martin at Tours, acquired by St. Gall during the 9th century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This composite manuscript from the 9th century was probably produced in Tours. It contains various theological works by Alcuin of York (around 730-804): De virtutibus et vitiis; De fide sanctae et individuae trinitatis; De trinitate et ad Fredegisum quaestiones XXVIII; De animae ratione ad Eulaliam virginem. Also included in the manuscript are the Epitaphium Alcuini (carm. 123) and Alcuin's Carmen 112 Dum sedeas laetus (an inscription for an unknown abbey church), which has been preserved only in this manuscript. On p. 245 there is a brief historical note regarding Charlemagne's Divisio Regnorum from 806. This note is written in the same hand as Alcuin's Carmen 112 and contains a reference to the date of the writing: Anno dcccvi ab incarnatione domini indictione xiiii anno xxxviii regnante karolo imperatore viii idus februarii die veneris divisum est regnum illius iter filiis suis quantum unusquis post illum habet et ego alia die hoc opus perfeci. On p. 247 there is a pen trial of the antiphon Quid vobis videtur de Christo? Cuius filius est? (Hesbert, Corpus antiphonalium officii, no. 4533), the first four words of which are marked with neumes.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This copy of a commentary on the Gospel of John by Alcuin of York (about 730-804) was produced in the first third of the 9th century, probably in the West Franconian empire, possibly in Tours. The flyleaf shows traces of a page from Vergilius Sangallensis (Cod. Sang. 1394).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Copy of the Collectanea ex Augustino in epistolas Pauli, combined from works by the early Church fathers (especially Augustine) by the scholar Deacon Florus of Lyon († about 860), produced under Abbot Hartmut (872-883) in the monastery of St. Gall, with numerous glosses by the St. St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV. (about 980 -1060). This manuscript, still in its original Carolingian period binding, preserves the commentaries on both Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A careful copy of the commentary of Hrabanus Maurus on Kings I and II, written in the monastery of St. Gall around 920/925.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
A copy of the work De institutione clericorum (On the institution of the clergy) by Hrabanus Maurus, most likely produced in 850 in the Cloister of St. Emmeram in Regensburg and probably obtained by Abbot Grimald (841-872), who was also Ludwig the German's royal chaplain. The manuscript also contains a letter from Charlemagne to Alcuin from 798 as well as Canon 145 of the Synod of Aachen in 816.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
A copy of an anonymous commentary on the first and second books of Exodus. The codex was produced during the 11th century, possibly at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
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
Homiliary of the Benedictine Scholar Haimo of Auxerre (Haimo Autissiodorensis; † around 878). A much used manuscript from the 10th/11th century with marginal notes by the St. Gall Monk Ekkehard IV with added pages from the 12th/13th century.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Antiphonary, dating from around the year 1000, with Calendar and Gradual (written and provided with fine neumes probably by the monk Hartker), Ordo Missae and Sacramentary. An invaluable monument of music history.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Earliest complete extant gradual of St. Gall. The different parts of the manuscript date from different periods. Illustrated with numerous initials and several pen drawings (especially in the Sacramentary part).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This plenary missal, produced in St. Gall, which contains all chants and prayers of the Mass, consists of the following parts, written partly in the 11th and partly in the 14th century: liturgical calendar; sequences (without melodies); gradual; Masses (with prayers, readings, and chants for the Proper of the Mass); Canon of the Mass; sacramentary; lectionary. On p. 232 (opposite the Te igitur), there is a full-page picture of the crucifixion with two kneeling monks.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Praeparatio ad missam (p. 2-63) and Benedictiones (p. 66-177), written by a single hand. This undecorated liturgical manuscript contains scarcely any corrections or later additions and shows slight signs of usage.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Pontifical-missal of the St. Gall Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564) – the finest 16th century manuscript in Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the first half of the 12th century. It contains the solo chants of the Mass, with finely executed neumes and some illuminated initials. Preceded by a Calendar with necrological notes from the monastery of St. Gall dating from between the 13th and 15th century and at the lower margins a catalogue of relics from the 14th century.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
German language lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings according to the Church year (Proprium de tempore; Proprium de sanctis and Commune sanctorum) from the Dominican Cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, copied in the year 1483 from a model belonging to the Cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg by Elisabeth Muntprat, one of the convent's most diligent scribes. Texts from the manuscript were read aloud during the Dominican nuns' meals. Several colored woodcuts are pasted into the manuscript, which came to the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1780.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
According to new research, the so-called Evangeliary of Wolfcoz - an early masterpiece from the second quarter of the 9th century - was created not at the St. Gall Monastery, but instead in the scriptorium at Reichenau under the librarian Reginbert. This new conclusion was reached on the basis of paleographic studies as well as later-added pericopes on the Reichenau saints George, Mark and Pancras (p. 201-219).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Epistolary originating from Reichenau/St. Gall, illustrated with a portrait of the epistle-writer Saint Paul and five painted Christological miniatures from the third quarter of the 11th century.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This manuscript contains the epistles, the readings from the Old Testament and the readings from the Gospel for the period from Christmas Eve until Easter Sunday (pp. 1-144), from the Thursday after the first of Advent until the end of the Advent season (pp. 145-155), and for the saints' days (pp. 156–218). Several quires seem to have come out between pp. 144 and 145, since the greater part of the readings for Easter Sunday, for the feasts between Easter and the last Sunday after Pentecost, as well as for the first Sunday of Advent are missing. The decoration consists of several initials with scroll ornamentation in red ink (pp. 1, 4, 131, 144 and 156). 15th century entries (foliation, references, neumes in the Passion according to Matthew, pp. 98–104) attest that this codex was in use for a long time.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of feast day masses in the monastery of St. Gall, written and illustrated with numerous initials around the middle of the 11th century. Contains a gradual with neumes and a Lectionary with the readings for the liturgical year.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Musical manuscript in small format from the monastery of St. Gall containing a calendar, a computus, a tropary, a sequentiary, an antiphonary, offertory and tractus from the middle of the 11th century as well as an appendix with sequences from the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
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
Antiphonary from St. Gall for the liturgy of the divine office, as sung by St Gall monks, dating from the 12th century, with addenda until the late 14th century. Illustrated with several initials and (at the beginning) with a miniature of the crucified Christ with Mary and John.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Winter volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
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
This breviary dating from the second half of the 15th century contains assorted offices of the Proprium de sanctis in two parts as well as the text In dedicatione ecclesiae, a short collection of sermons for the celebration of church dedications (Richard of Saint Victor, Augustine, Eusebius ‹Gallicanus›, Bernard of Clairvaux) and the Creed. This manuscript displays the hand of Cordula von Schönau, the Dominican nun from the cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, whose hand is also found in codex Wil, Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Katharina, M 3.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary for the divine office, written around 1030 with addenda until the 14th century. Contains, in addition to a large Lectionary and Antiphonary, a Calendar and computational tables. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gall.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Lectionary. The first part, written in the 11th century, contains readings for the nocturns of the matins (for the entire church year, beginning with the first of Advent; first de tempore, then de sanctis). Readings from the gospels are indicated only by short text incipits and are augmented with homilies primarily by church fathers (among others Origen, the Venerable Bede, Gregory the Great). The second part, written in the 12th century, begins on p. 184 and contains readings from the Old and New Testaments for weekdays and holidays in ordinary time throughout the liturgical year. The manuscript contains several multi-line initials, among them a representational initial of a composite animal on p. 12.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
105 sermons from the first Sunday in Advent (end of November / beginning of December) to Annunciation Day (March 25).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
60 sermons for Lent and for Holy Week.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
146 sermons from Easter to the last Sunday after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Deluxe manuscript with numerous outstanding, perfectly executed initials and an excellent image of dedication (Saint Augustine), containing mostly sermons for the principal saints' days.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Sermons for the Sundays after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This codex, written in the 13th century, contains a lectionary for Matins for the saints' days and an antiphonary for the entire liturgical year. The antiphonary bears the title In nomine domini incipiunt antiphone secundum morem Marbacensis ecclesie. Nevertheless, this is probably not a manuscript from the reformed monastery of Marbach in Alsace. Based on the offices, which indicate a connection with St. Gall, it must rather be assumed that the manuscript originated in the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Lawrence in Ittingen, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, but which followed the Consuetudines of Marbach. The fly leaf (p. 2/1) contains a large part of the Office of St. Gallus, probably from a manuscript from the 10th/11th century. Readings as well as chants (the latter ones with neumes) are recorded. The order of the responses and antiphons does not match that of the Hartker antiphonary, Cod. Sang. 391.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The pontifical vesperal of St. Gall Abbott Diethelm Blarer (1530–1564) contains the prayers, psalms with antiphones and responsories, as well as hymns for the high holidays of the church year. Except for the incipits of the antiphones of the Magnificat, which are written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on five lines, the manuscript contains no melodies. The scribe of this volume was Father Heinrich Keller (1518–1567), subprior of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book's decoration - 20 historiated initials and several richly decorated borders with pictures - is the work of an unknown artist from the region of Lake Constance, who also illuminated Cod. Sang. 357 and 442.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Liber Ordinarius from the second quarter of the 15th century with liturgical instructions for the mass of the monks of St. Gall during the presence of reformist monks from the monastery ofHersfeld between 1430 and 1439. The Liber Ordinarius, dated 1432 (p. 36), seems to have been made for the monastery ofSt. Gall following a model from Hersfeld (in the northeast of Hesse); however, some parts are not yet adapted for the monastery ofSt. Gall. The calendar at the beginning of the manuscript can be unambiguously located in St. Gall. Between the various parts of the manuscript, repeatedly there are empty pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A composite manuscript consisting mainly of calendars and texts with chronological content, produced in the second half of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th century, for the most part not at the abbey of St. Gall. The main items are a calendar, possibly of northern Italian origin, and excerpts from the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede († 735).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The second-oldest surviving chapter office book of the Abbey of St. Gall, begun in the 12th century and maintained, with the addition of many entries, until early modernity. This volume contains, among other things, lists of the bishops of Constance (736-1318) and the abbots of the cloisters at Reichenau (724-1343) and St. Gall (719-1329), records of brothers who became members of the Abbey of St. Gall, readings and homilies for Sundays and holy days in the chapter assembly of the monchs, a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict, a martyrology complete with death records, tables and explanations for figuring the dates for Easter, and a copy, with continuation, of the St. Gall Annals found in Cod. Sang. 915. At the very back: two printed lists of St. St. Gall monks from 1757 and 1798.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
A copy of the martyrology of Ado of Vienne († 875). As an appendix the manuscript also contains vitae of ancient saints, possibly written by Notker Balbulus himself around 880/890.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Computational/scientific compilation manuscript with numerous tables, schematics, and texts about calendar computation, produced in the monastery of St. Gall around the end of the 9th century and beginning ot the 10th. The volume also includes a St. Gallen calendar and the Annales Sangallenses brevissimi (a short history of St. Gall). Two early medieval maps of the world (terrae orbis or T-O maps) precede the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Song collection of St. Gall organist Fridolin Sicher; 49 songs for three to five voices in 16th century mensural notation without texts. Among the composers are, among others, Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez and Jacob Obrecht. Several pieces give the name of the composer and the beginning of the text (in French, Italian, Flemish or Latin). Usually one piece fills a double page, less frequently all (three or four) voices are arranged on a single page
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The song book of Chaplain Johannes Heer of Glarus: a collection of 88 folk-, students-, love-, drinking- and joke songs, among them 40 unique items; from the pre-reformation period (1510-1520).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Book of hours of high-quality production and stylistically well-written (pp. 1-193, following four paper flyleaves). The miniature on p. 24, representing St. Veronica with the veil, is particularly noteworthy. Christ's face was later damaged. A full-page miniature on p. 163 is at the beginning of the Office for the Dead. The manuscript's initials are decorated with gold leaf, as well as the pages with miniatures - for example pp. 24, 38, 52 and 132 - containing figural decorative elements such as representations of animals. In the 16th century the manuscript seems to have reached the Eastern Alemannic-speaking area and have come to St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This prayer book contains prayers from the collection of William III, Duke of Bavaria (ff. 1v-16r), prayers to the Virgin Mary (ff. 17r-39r), prayers for Holy Mass and others (ff. 39v-45v) as well as for Communion (ff. 80r-88v). In between are St. Bernard's verses (ff. 46v-50v) and various other texts of blessings and prayers (ff. 51v-78v). According to a colophon on f. 81v, the texts were written and decorated with pen-flourish and Lombard initials by the professional scribe Simon Rösch. On ff. 89 and 90 (glued onto the back cover), another poem was added in a different hand. The language of the prayers is Swabian. Numerous feminine forms of names suggest a female commissioner, probably a convent of nuns in St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This small-format prayer book of Franz Gaisberg, who later became Abbot of St. Gall (abbot 1504–1529), only contains prayers in Latin. It begins with a calendar (f. 1r–12v) and a computistic table (f. 13r/v), followed by prayers about the passion (f. 14r–29v), prayers and antiphons to Mary (f. 31r–49r) and other saints (f. 49r–80r), as well as to the Commune sanctorum (f. 81v–83v), various other prayers (f. 83v–107r), as well as the liturgy of the hours for the passion and for the souls of the deceased (f. 107v–140r). There is no decoration except for initials with simple scroll ornamentation in red ink that stretch across two to four lines.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This Breviary can be associated with the Order of the Celestines based on the rubric on fol. 122r. According to the scribe's notes on fol. 211v, 271v, and 319v, it was written by Brother Johannes Mouret from Amiens. The manuscript, executed in tiny handwriting, is decorated with numerous fine pen-flourish initials, as well as a few small pen drawings of faces and dragons in the margins.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript, probably from a nuns' convent in St. Gall, contains a cycle of prayers and meditations through the liturgical year, beginning with Advent and on through Christmas, Easter, Pentecost to the Assumption of Mary. The visions of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden and a rosary, among others, are interspersed. This codex is written by a single hand which, along with others, can also be found in the sister manuscript Cod. Sang. 510.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This small-format prayer book in German contains prayers to Christ, on the Passion and on Communion, to Mary, Mother of God, and to various saints, further prayers on various topics, reflections on the Passion, and devotions according to Johannes Gerson. On f. 38v and 39r there are two full-page miniatures. They depict Christ on the cross with Mary and John (f. 38v) and the Pietà with the instruments of torture (Arma Christi, f. 39r). The manuscript was probably written for a women's convent or for female users, although some male forms also appear in the prayers. According to the ownership note on f. 185r, in the 17th century the book was owned by the Benedictine Convent St. Wiborada in St. Georgen above St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Lectionary for feast days of saints, written at least partially by St. Gall Abbey Librarian Anton Vogt (around 1486-1529), by order of Prince-Abbot Franz Gaisberg (1504-1529). The illumination (scrolls with flowers and animals, numerous ornamental initials, among them six portrayals of figures) is by the illuminator Nikolaus Bertschi from Augsburg. A calendar (f. Ir-Xv) precedes the lectionary (f. 1r-130r), which then is followed by readings for the commemoratio of the patron saints of St. Gall and of Mary, and by collects for feast days of saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This large-format antiphonary from the Cloister of St. Gall, produced in the year 1544 at the request of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), contains songs to be sung during the liturgy of the hours on holy days throughout the year. The scribe who wrote this volume was the cleric, cathedral organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546), the illuminator who made the 22 figured initials and the full-page double illustration at the beginning of the antiphonary is unknown.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
An opulently illustrated large-format gradual containing four-part vocal pieces, from the Cloister of St. Gall, written and illuminated in the year 1562. By order of Prince-Bishop Diethelm Blarer, the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed these challenging vocal pieces, Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text, and the manuscript illustrator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on the Bodensee illuminated the first pages with the important holy days of the church year. The volume has richly ornamented borders and numerous miniatures, among them five of full-page size, and contains the heraldic shields of St. Gall monks living at that time; the ornamented pages include many depictions of musical instruments of the period (some of which are no longer known).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Large-format antiphonary with chants in four parts, written and illuminated between 1562 and 1564. By order of Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed the pieces for four voices - antiphons, responsories, hymns and psalms for the principal feast days of the liturgical year as well as passions according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text and the illuminator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on Lake Constance created a full-page All Saints picture with Christ on the cross (f. IVr), as well as a donor portrait with the coats of arms of the then-living members of the St. Gall monastic community (f. 1r).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This Psalter contains the psalms in liturgical sequence with antiphons, followed by biblical canticles and a hymnal. The codex was written in 1545 (colophon f. 102v) by the organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546) by order of Prince Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564). Large parts were rewritten by numerous later hands, probably after the reform of the liturgy following the Council of Trent. The Psalter contains several figurative initials by an unknown illuminator.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Antiphonary for the entire church year, written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on four lines. The volume probably originated in a French or Burgundian-Flemish Benedictine monastery; at least since about 1510, it has been part of the library of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book decoration consists of several large initials painted in opaque colors with scrolls and numerous cadels decorated with faces or animal motifs.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This rather hefty tome (weighing nearly 17 Kilos) compiled around 1200 contains copies in Latin of major works of world-, church- and ethnic history; examples include the History of the World by Orosius, the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius of Caesarea, the Summa of Biblical history (Historica Scholastica) of the early Parisian scholastic Peter Comestor († ca. 1179), the history of the first crusade by Robert of Reims, the history of the Langobards by Paulus Diaconus, the History of the English Church and People by the Venerable Bede, and Einhard's Life of Charlemagne.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
A collection of vitae of 13 saints, among them – preserved only here – the vita of St Germanus of Moutier-Grandval in the canton of Jura, Switzerland, written by Bobolenus of Luxeuil ca. 690. A copy from the early 10th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Sulpicius Severus (ca. 363-420), Vita of Saint Martin of Tours. One of the most elaborate hagiographic texts in the St. Gallen library.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A collection of lives of ancient Roman saints (among them Sebastian, Agnes and Emerentia, Agatha, Lucia, Blandina) as well as a copy of the Vita of Saint Vedastus, Bishop of Arras, by Alcuin of York. The manuscript contains the sermon De ieiunio (On fasting) by St. Ambrose. The codex was written in about 900, most likely at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Contains, among other items, the most reliable texts of the vitae of saints Richarius, Dionysius, Gregory the Great, Leodegarius, Vedastus, Nazarius, Mark the Evangelist, Kosmas and Damian.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A carefully crafted copy of the life stories of St. Gall patron saints Gallus, Otmar and Wiborada from the first half of the 12th century, written in a late Carolingian minuscule script and ornamented with several elaborately decorated oversize initials.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Hagiographic manuscript collection containing the lives of numerous saints, especially the Benedictine saints, written and compiled in the Cloister of St. Gall between the 10th and 13th centuries. Among other items it contains the lives of saints Remaclus, Gangold, Willibrord (originally written by Alcuin of York), Ulrich of Augsburg (originally written by Abbot Bern of Reichenau) and Magnus (older and newer lives). Between the newer and older versions of the lives of Magnus is a pen sketch of the healing of a blind person in Bregenz on the Bodensee.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
A careful copy of the Vita of St Sylvester (Pope, 314-335) and the legend of the finding of the Cross by Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, written in the monastery of St. Gall around 900.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Contains, among other items, the only extant version of the Life of Saint Ambrose, composed by an unknown monk from Milan around 870, and the principal manuscript of Seneca's (1 BC - 65 AD) Apocolocyntosis, a satirical pamphlet on the Roman emperor Claudius (41 - 54 AD).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This rather plain (in comparison to Codices 560, 562 und 564) copy of the lives of St. Gall's patron saints Gallus and Otmar by Reichenau Abbot and scholar Walahfrid Strabo, was made in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Part I of The conferences (Collationes patrum I-X) composed by John Cassian († about 435). This copy was made in St. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The St. Gall Passionarium novum: a large-format manuscript containing the lives of early Christian, early German and Carolingian saints, written in the cloister at St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries. This volume includes the oldest known, and indeed the best surviving copies of the life histories of saints Meinrad, Odilia, Hilarius, Trudpert, Verena, Leodgar and Pirmin.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A manuscript compilation written in the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript contains, among other items, the Lives of monastic father Antonius (by Athanasius), Paulus, Hilraion and Malchus (all by the church father Jerome), 12 homilies (Predigten) of Caesarius of Arles, additionals tracts by Caesarius and by Pseudo-Caesarius as well as the dicta of Martin of Braga addressed to Polemius entitled De correctione rusticorum3. The manuscript contains a very large number of quill tests, including two alphabetical verses (“Adnexique globum…” and “Ferunt ophyr…”) and a scribal saying: Scribere discce puer…
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript, probably produced in the 14th century in the area around Lake Constance, contains a copy of the main part of the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 5−691), as well as small parts of the so-called Provincia appendix (p. 691−701). On the last three pages a sermon for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29) has been added. The area of Lake Constance is suggested by remains of a document glued to the front and back inside covers (probably parts of the writing “Konstanz”) and also by an ownership note on p. 704 dated to the late 15th or the early 16th century from a community of sisters near Stammheim (Vnnser frouwen ze niderstamhem ist das …). This could refer to the community of Beguines of Haslen in the municipality of Adlikon in the Zürcher Weinland (wine country of Zurich), which was dissolved during the Reformation. This volume has been the property of the library of the monastery St. Gall at least since the middle of the 18th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The oldest German language version of the life history of St. Gall patron saint Notker Balbulus († 912), produced by Hans Conrad Haller (1486/90-1525), a member of the St. Gall religious community, for the Benedictine nuns of the Cloister of St. George above St. Gall in the year 1522. With decorated initials and borders. Following the vita are German prayers as well as a German translation of the tract Exhortationes ad monachos ("Von der geistlichen Ritterschaft der Mönche" or the "Exhortations to Monks") by Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim (1462-1516).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This manuscript contains German-language lives of the saints: the “Lives of the Fathers” (Vitaspatrum) (pp. 5a–482a), the Life of Saint Meinrad (pp. 482a–501b) and the Life of Saint Fridolin, a translation of the Latin Vita of Fridolin written by Balther von Säckingen (pp. 502a–541a). The main scribe of this codex was Johannes Gerster, citizen of Säckingen, who identifies himself on p. 361 and p. 541, each time including a date. Several pen drawings: tree with blossoms and fruit (p. 361), young man in secular clothing (p. 482), sketches of dragons (p. 528 and p. 541), rosette (p. 541). In the 17th century, this manuscript was in the possession of the Convent of the Poor Clares in Freiburg i. Br. (note p. 3); only in the 18th century was it purchased for the Monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
Collection manuscript, 15th century, from the Dominican convent of St. Katharina in St. Gall. This German-language manuscript is made up of five fascicles and contains a treatise on the Passion of Christ (“Vierzig Myrrhenbüschel vom Leiden Christi‟): the story of the foundation of the Dominican convent of St. Katharinental near Diessenhofen; the "Diessenhofener Schwesternbuch" and the "Tösser Schwesternbuch"; the legends of saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Margaret of Hungary, Ida of Toggenburg and Louis of Toulouse as well as a short excerpt from the Liber specialis gratiae of Mechthild of Hackeborn in German translation.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This manuscript, probably written in the Benedictine Allerheiligen Abbey in Schaffhausen, contains, besides many shorter, often later added texts, a number of German-language lives of the saints (Maurice and the Theban Legion, Mary Magdalene, Elizabeth of Hungary), meditative texts (on Maundy Thursday, on the Passion of Christ, the Steinbuch of a certain Volmar), and the Book of Founders of Allerheiligen Abbey. The latter is a free adaptation of the 12th century legend of the founding of the Abbey on the Rhine. Using the cut leather (cuir-ciselé) technique, an artist cut central figures of the foundation legend (probably St. Benedict, Eberhard of Nellenburg, Burkhard of Nellenburg, Wilhelm of Hirsau?) into the front and back of the cover. On p. 204, there is a pen sketch of the saints Benedict and Bernard. At an unknown date, the manuscript came into the possession of the scholar Aegidius Tschudi of Glarus and, together with his literary estate, was bought by the Monastery of St. Gall in February 1768.
Online Since: 12/13/2013