While both parts of this manuscript are more than a thousand years old, they were probably first bound together in the fifteenth century. They come from the monastery of Murbach and could have entered the Basel Franciscan convent with Conrad Pellikan. Like the few other surviving volumes from this convent, this collection of writings by the Church Father St. Augustine is not a typical Franciscan manuscript. Part one contains a copy of the catalogue-like De haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum, written around 429 and introduced by letters on the history of its composition, as well as a Regula ancillarum (Letter 211). Part two is one of the oldest witnesses of the 395 treatise on free choice (De libero arbitrio), although limited to book 1: Unde malum. (mag)

Copied by the same hand as the Postilla super Psalmos from the same library (B IV 3), this volume, with Nicholas of Lyra's postils on New Testament texts, on the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, and the Apocalypse, is also decorated with pen-flourished initials in the so-called Upper-Rhine Style, and had the same previous owners, Hugo and Johannes Münch of Münchenstein, members of the Basel Dominican Convent and contemporaries of Nicholas of Lyra. Hugo, attested several times as Prior of the Convent, and Nicholas, probably both died in the same year, 1349, while Johannes, Hugo's younger brother, was still prior in 1365. (mag)

This volume is from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; it contains the first part of the Collationes Patrum by John Cassian (360/365-432/435). It also contains assorted excerpts on the life and work of Cassian from various sources, as well as a letter on the way of life at the Abbey of Monte Cassino under abbot Desiderius (1058-1087). This manuscript was produced in Lorsch and forms a unit together with B V 14. It has supplements and signs of use up to the15th century.  (flr)

This manuscript, along with volume B V 13 together with which it forms a unit, was produced in Lorsch and later reached the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. It contains the second part of the Collationes Patrum by John Cassian (360/365-432/435), Cassian's conversations with the Desert Fathers. In comparison with B V 13, there are relatively few corrections and annotations.  (flr)

This Interpretatio evangeliorum, attributed to an Epiphanius Latinus, is a compilation of excerpts from the commentary on the gospels by Fortunatianus of Aquileia and from a collection of sermons by an Italian author from the period of late antiquity (whose name may have been Epihanius); it was compiled between the 7th and the 8th century. This manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains only the homiletic part (without introduction) in chapters 18-62). (flr)

This manuscript from the Carthusian monastery of Basel, whose shelfmark was changed several times, consists of three originally independent parts. The first, homiletic, part contains a series of Sermones and interpretive Expositiones on the Gospel readings of the day. The second part consists of a treatise on the ten commandments by the Augustinian Hermit Heinrich von Friemar (1245-1340) and an anonymous commentary on the Latin version of the Physiologus Theobaldi. In the third part of the manuscript, in addition to instructions for leading a God-pleasing life, there is a dispute between angel and devil about the seven deadly sins.  (flr)

This codex contains high quality excerpts of nearly all known Latin writings by the Dominican Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260 – ca. 1328), which are available overall in no more than a dozen manuscripts. Although the scribe, who probably belonged to the circle of the Dominican Monastery of Cologne, seems to have compiled the excerpts “mechanically and without understanding” (Koch), the texts are of high quality. The manuscript was purchased in 1386 by the Westphalian priest Gottschalk Kamenschede, who later donated it to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (flr)

This twelfth-century manuscript of the Septuagint contains the Book of Job and the Sapiential Books. The margins contain liturgical notes on reading the writings during the office. The text of Job is also accompanied by excerpts from the catena of Nicetas of Heraclea. In one of the margins appears a drawing of the face of Christ or of a saint. John of Ragusa, the envoy of the Council of Basel, purchased this manuscript in Constantinople between 1435 and 1437, and bequeathed it after his death in 1443 to the Dominican convent in Basel. In 1559 it was transferred from there to the library of the University of Basel. (mal)

The front part of this parchment manuscript was written in the thirteenth century; the back part (from p. CLI) and the index at the front were written in the fifteenth century. In addition to authentic and pseudoepigraphical texts of Bernard of Clairvaux, the codex contains the Stimulus amoris. The older part is decorated with numerous, precisely painted initials with simple ornamentation. In the fifteenth century, the volume belonged to the Basel Charterhouse, when the ownership marks were partially written on top of older, erased entries. (stu)

This manuscript from the lay library of (the Carthusian Monastery of) Basel transmits two texts from the Teutonic Order: the legend in rhyme “Martina” by Hugo von Langenstein, as well as the “Littauer” by Schondoch. The “Martina” survives only in this manuscript and is considered the oldest sacred poetry of the Teutonic Order. As a third text, the codex contains the “Mainauer Naturlehre.”   (stu)

This parchment manuscript, perhaps produced in Basel, transmits the descriptions of the lives of the “Alemannischen Vitaspatrum” in the arrangement of a not-identified Peter der Mul. This manuscript from the third quarter of the 14th century belonged to the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; however, given its age, it certainly was not created there. (stu)

The greatest part of this manuscript consists of two texts by Rudolf von Biberach – Sermones super cantica and De VII itineribus aeternitatis. They were originally created in the 14th century as two separate pieces; later they were bound together into the current volume at the Carthusian monastery of Basel, whose library owned the manuscript from the 15th century on. Still in the 14th century, a German translation of De VII gradibus contemplationis was added as a supplement to the second part. Probably only at the time of binding the manuscript was the beginning of the Abstractum-Glossars added as a last page, bound in upside down; the transcription of this text also dates from the 14th century and therefore could not have been produced at the monastery.  (stu)

This manuscript, completed in 1479 by Johannes Gipsmüller, contains the Consuetudines Ordinis Cartusiensis, collected and approved by Pope Innocent; these are the “customs” of the Carthusian monks. It also contains the Statuta antiqua and the Statuta nova, additional decisions and regulations established by the general chapter. Bound into the front of the volume is a depiction of the martyrdom of St. Barbara. (flr)

This manuscript, which has been decoratively sewn with silk thread in many places, was donated to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel in the 15th century by Johannes Obrest, chaplain of St. Martin in Basel. It contains, in addition to several short texts of pastoral and medical character, the Summa poenitentialis by the English theologian and subdean of Salisbury, Thomas of Chabham (ca. 1160-1233/36). (flr)

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)

This small-format parchment volume from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel is composed of three originally separate fascicles. The first is decorated with three initials (1r, 53r, 58r) and contains the Stimulus dilectionis by Eckbert of Schönau along with prayers, Penitential Psalms and a Litany of the Saints. This is followed by the fragment of a prayer book, which is missing the beginning as well as the end. The third part contains a compilation from Bonaventure's Soliloquium and Hugh of St. Victor's De vanitate mundi. The heavy soiling of pp. 24-53 (Agenda defunctorum and Penitential Psalms) should be noted; it indicates intensive use of this part of the codex. (mue)

This composite manuscript is from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; it contains the first part of the Orationes et meditationes de vita Christi by the mystic Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471), one of the most important representatives of the Devotio moderna. The script and decoration of the fascicle indicate a Dutch school. A central printed part is followed by a collection of supplications and prayers in Latin. (flr)

This manuscript originally consisted of at least two books, as can still be seen from the separate original foliation. The first part was written in the 13th century by several very similar hands; it contains numerous sermons, among others some by Gilbertus Tornacensis and Bonaventure. The second part, written by a main hand from the 14th century, contains a vast collection of exempla of various origins. This plain manuscript belonged to the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, as confirmed by numerous notes of ownership, two old title labels and various old shelfmarks. (flr)

This small-format parchment volume contains the seven penitential psalms as well as three more psalms in Hebrew. It was owned by the Amerbach family and later probably passed into the hands of Johann Buxtorf (the elder?). The manuscript is decorated in a restrained manner with ornamental initials and pen sketches in the blank spaces; the text is vocalized. (flr)

This small-format manuscript in Latin is from the Carthusian monastery of Basel; in particular, it treats the Passion of Christ. The devotional image on the front pastedown takes up this topic, as do the texts, which are by, among others, Ludolph of Saxony, Bonaventure and Eckbert of Schönau. The manuscript's first text, a long devotional text De vita et passione Iesu Christi, may have been written by Heinrich Arnoldi, Carthusian of Basel. (stu)