The Italian Dominican Jacobus de Varagine, known as the author of the Legenda aurea, wrote not only lives of the saints, but also extensive cycles of sermons. This collection from the first half of the 14th century contains about 340 sermons for all Sundays and holidays of the church year. In 1553 it came to the library of Muri Abbey. (gam)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

The Legenda aurea by the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine (about 1228-1298) is one of the most widely known spiritual collections of the Middle Ages. This 14th century manuscript from Bologna preserves it along with further legends of the saints. The codex is written in a regular Italian Gothic script and, as a matter of routine, is carefully decorated; a large lacuna in chapter 45 (legend of St. Michael) was augmented by a 15th century hand. The volume belongs to the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (flr)

Online Since: 12/20/2016

This manuscript for regular use consists of four parts; it contains material for preparing sermons, including a register of sermon topics, an extensive corpus of legends and more than 100 exempla. The manuscript shows various signs of use and, on the back, it still has a title label from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, where it was held in the 15th and 16th century. (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

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). (lan)

Online Since: 11/04/2010

James of Voragine's Golden Legend, one of the most copied texts of the Middle Ages, appears here in a meticulous fourteenth-century copy. This copy is particularly noteworthy for its exceptional elegance and the refined stitchwork that fixes defects in the parchment (holes and tears); they bring to mind similar works from the double convent of canons and canonesses at Interlaken. The decoration resembles the output of a Zurich workshop. Little is known of the early history of the manuscript, but it as attested in the Cistercian monastery of Hauterive from at least the seveneenth century. (jur)

Online Since: 03/31/2011

This voluminous paper manuscript contains the sermons de tempore and de sanctis for the summer part, several hagiographic texts and exempla. The manuscript might have originally been from Zurich and was the property of the library of the Augustinian Hermits in Fribourg before it came to the Cantonal Library of Fribourg in 1848. (ber)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

The manuscript contains primarily the Sermones quadragesimales by the Dominican Jacobus da Varagine. It is from the same scriptorium as Cod. L 34 with the Legenda aurea by the same author, and it shows the same kind of repair to parchment damage, carried out with colored threads. This type of repair can also be found in similar execution from the Augustinian double monastery of Interlaken. The origin of the manuscript remains unknown, but it is attested to have been in the possession of the Cistercians of Hauterive since the 17th century. (ber)

Online Since: 06/18/2020

This paper manuscript, missing the beginning, contains the French translation of a compendium of the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine. Numerous ex-libris attest to changes in ownership among various persons in the area around Fribourg, among them Pierre Kämmerling the Elder († 1614) and Jean Muffat de Foncigny, resident in Fribourg (Switzerland). (ber)

Online Since: 03/19/2015

Codex 62 is typical of composite manuscripts from the time around 1400 found in Franciscan convents. It contains sermonic material by known and unknown authors in the form of complete sermons, thematic selections and exempla. It is made up of 15 codicological units. Friederich von Amberg (ca. 1350-1432) assembled this collection, added a table of contents, and had it bound in Fribourg (Switzerland). The most valuable part of this miscellany consists of a set of 16 sermons on pennance by the Dominican St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), delivered by the sermonist between March 9 through 21, 1404 in Fribourg, Murten, Payerne, Avenches, and Estavayer. Friedrich von Amberg made a fair copy and incorporated it as the 6th codicological unit (fol. 45r-97v) of this composite manuscript. (jor)

Online Since: 10/04/2011

The Legenda aurea is one of the most copied texts in all of the medieval Occident. In short texts, it blends sanctoral and temporal celebrations in the course of the year, following the order of the liturgical calendar. Popular not only in Latin but also in the vernacular languages, it had various uses, as a tool for preaching and as a source of moral edification through private reading for the layperson as well as the cleric. (hoc)

Online Since: 06/25/2015

This manuscript contains the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine. Lacunas in the manuscript are due to the loss of several sheets which probably contained historiated initials. The presence of the legend of St. Antidius as well as characteristics of the decoration suggest that the manuscript originated in Besançon. (rer)

Online Since: 04/09/2014

This manuscript has a binding with large and striking metal bosses; following a 15th century list of saints (f. Iv−IIv), it contains first the Latin Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine († 1298; f. 4r−262v) and then the so-called Provincia appendix, also in Latin (f. 263r−301r), which also contains short descriptions of the lives of the St. Gall patron saints Saint Gall and Saint Othmar. Later additions include blessings and reflections (f. 302v−304v). A note by an unknown scribe on f. 302v begins with the verses: Qui me scribebat, R nomen habebat. Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo… This manuscript was written by several (three?) hands; the book decoration consists of Lombard initials that extend over three lines. The decoration ends on f. 210v; however, space has been reserved for additional initials. (smu)

Online Since: 06/23/2016

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. (smu)

Online Since: 06/23/2016

Composite manuscript containing lives of saints in verse and other theological texts: life of St. Gall, in verse (Vita Galli metrice), possibly written by an Irish scholar (Moengal?) around 850 (pp. 3-175); miracles of Mary, in verse (Miracula Marie) (pp. 176-191); Vita sancti Viti, in verse (pp. 192-204); Vita scolastica by Bonvicinus de Ripa, in verse (pp. 205-241); Facetus de vita et moribus (pp. 242-267); Liber floretus by a Pseudo-Bernard (pp. 268-287); Sermones by Peregrine of Opole (pp. 306-352); Sermones by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 353-363); and Sermones dominicales, pars aestivalis et per totum annum by Peregrine of Opole and Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 368-452). (dor)

Online Since: 09/23/2014

The folio-sized volume transmitting a collection of legends from James of Voragine probably comes from the personal collection of Kemli, monk of St. Gall; in any case, it is expanded and corrected in his own hand. The arrangement of the manuscript is therefore not unitary. The older part is copied in two columns by a late fourteenth-century hand; the texts on the leaves inserted and annotated by Kemli are in a single column (pp. 2–20, 164–189, 210–211, 445–462, 471–474). The Legenda sanctorum (pp. 2–452) is supplemented by a Materia de exorcismo et coniurationibus (pp. 456–470) added by Kemli. To this text there are some additions, pp. 463–470, made in an another hand from the second half of the fifteenth century, which in turn were expanded by Kemli (p. 470). On pp. 471–473 follows the final text, written in Kemli's hand, containing a legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins; before the beginning of the text a half-page leaf was glued. Probably it was the woodcut with the ship of St. Ursula that Ildefons von Arx detached (Kemli-Kat., Nr. 31). The fifteenth-century binding has been repaired several times and has two leather covers and, on the front cover, a title label written by Kemli. (mat)

Online Since: 09/22/2022

Legendary of St. Gall: contains, among other items, the German lives of the St. Gallen Saints Gallus, Magnus, Otmar and Wiborada, illustrated with 142 vivid images. (smu)

Online Since: 06/12/2006

This manuscript contains around a third of the text of Jacobus of Voragine's Legenda aurea, where some texts appear twice. The first part (pp. 1–267) begins with Advent and ends with All Souls' Day and the consecration of a church. The title written over the first text (Sermo de adventu domini, p. 1) is misleading and has led to the misidentification of the manuscript's contents as sermones. The second part (pp. 271–665) begins with Matthias (24 February) and ends with Thomas (21 December). This collection has been supplemented with a few texts from the so-called Provincia-Appendix (Oswald, Ulrich, Pelagius, Verena, Gallus, Otmar, Konrad), which have been added at the appropriate place in the ecclesiastical year. Between the two parts (pp. 267–270) can be found seven short exempla, the first three of which are based on texts from the Verba seniorum. Two scribes took part in producing the manuscript. The change in hand on p. 382/383 (at the end of a quire, but in the middle of a word) is accompanied by a change in decoration; while in the preceding part only a few multi-line red initials are adorned with simple red pen-flourishes, in the following part the pen-flourishes are two-color (red/blue), more luxuriant and finer. The pen-flourishes resemble those in the manuscript Fribourg, BCU, ms. L 34, but in comparison is somewhat less refined. Noticeable in the first part are found multi-color decorative stitching and holes filled with needlework (p. 55/56, 75/76, 115/116, 123/124, 131/132, 143/144 und 147/148). On the upper margin of pp. 7–664 can be found an old foliation (III–CCCXXXI). The cardboard binding, covered in blank parchment and adorned with green-silk ribbons as clasps, dates from the eighteenth/nineteenth century. (sno)

Online Since: 04/25/2023