This manuscript by the Italian architect and town planner Guiseppe Valadier (1762-1839) vividly illustrates various aspects of architecture and technology. The manuscript contains 127 panels of pen and ink drawings in vivid colors that were created before 1828 (Tav. CI to Tav. CCXXXV, many panels are missing). Partly the panels are grouped thematically by material (e.g., wood (fol. 1r-8r), iron (fol. 9r-24r), copper (fol. 25r-31r), bronze (fol. 32r-58r)), partly by construction themes (e.g., construction of walls fol. 103r-117r). These drawings served as models for part of the total of about 320 panels presented in the two volumes of panels of Valadier’s work „L’architettura pratica dettata nella scuola e cattedra dell’insigne Accademia di San Luca“, printed in Rome in 1828-33 and based on lectures he had given at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. The numbering of the panels in the manuscript corresponds to that in the printed work. — The manuscript was purchased in Italy in 1956. (ruh)

Online Since: 10/08/2015

This patent manuscript contains the details of the regulations put in place to manage the mining and forestry operations in the region of Carinthia in the year 1553. It begins with a statement establishing the authority of Ferdinand von Habsburg [1503-1564], who ruled over the Archduchy of Austria and ordered these regulations to be drawn together (fol. 1r-2v). There follows a series of 208 numbered articles. These take into account a broad number of factors concerning the manner in which mines were to be established, but also include the rights for fishing and hunting on lands designated for mining and forestry (fol. 4v), as well as arrangements for the processing of highly valuable mining products such as silver (fol. 81r). This section of the manuscript concludes with a closing statement (fol. 85v) and a complete reference list of articles (fol. 86r-91v). The manuscript was purchased in Rome in 1952. (zol)

Online Since: 06/18/2020

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. (pil)

Online Since: 03/24/2006

This manuscript is a collection of notes, which were compiled by Hermann Wedding (1834-1908), later professor of ferrous metallurgy at the Bergakademie Berlin (mining academy), during his visits to the smelteries in Freiberg (Saxony) in 1856/57. The notes were taken while he was a student at the Freiberg mining academy and include his own observations of the procedures at the various silver and lead smelteries around Freiberg. The notes also contain copies of relevant scientific publications about metallurgical procedures that were used in Freiberg. (ham)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This travel journal was kept by Hermann Wedding (1834-1908), later a professor of ferrous metallurgy, during his study tour in August and September of 1858. At this time, he was a student at the mining academy of Freiberg and Berlin. The objective of the trip was to visit the centers of the German mining industry that were emerging in the middle of the 19th century, especially in the region of the Saar and the Ruhr. Wedding’s daily entries document his visits to coal mines, smelteries and metal processing companies. He describes the operating facilities and production processes of the plants he visited. The journal reveals his deep scientific interest in the geological conditions in which the plants he describes are embedded. (ham)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This manuscript documents several trips by Hermann Wedding (1834-1908), later a professor of ferrous metallurgy, to Great Britain in the years 1860 and 1862. Wedding undertook these trips as a referendary for the Prussian mining administration. On his way to Great Britain via Belgium, he noted his observations regarding operating facilities and production processes at smelteries and mining operations in daily entries. Among the plants he described are the ironworks at Seraing (Belgium), the metallurgical works in South Wales that were considered especially advanced in the middle of the 19th century, and the first steelworks that made use of the Bessemer process. The journal entries also reveal Wedding’s connections with contemporary specialists in his field. (ham)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This paper manuscript contains copies of 70 notarial documents that have a relation to the city of Bollène in the Vaucluse department of Southern France. The thematic focus is on trip hammers. — The manuscript was purchased in Paris in 1955. (ruh)

Online Since: 10/08/2015

This paper manuscript, produced around 1700, mentions in its title Emperor Leopold (I, reigned 1658-1705). The identity of Giovanni Baptista Coene from Passau, named as author, remains obscure; no further information is available about him. — The names of metals and other materials that Coene used in experiments are not written out in the text, but are represented by alchemic symbols (planetary signs, etc.). Because these occur in large numbers, the text is not easily readable or understandable. Further evidence that the manuscript is rooted in alchemy comes from the fact that Coene refers to Paracelsus (1493/94-1541), e.g., in the short final chapter with the title “Che cosa il Balsamo Samech di Paracelso” (pp. 101-102). Coene also mentions the “Testamentum” (pp. 99-100) and names Raimundus Lullus (1232/33-1315/16) as its author; today it is considered a pseudo-Llull text. — Within the chapters, individual paragraphs are numbered, but in the last quarter of the manuscript this numbering seems to have been added later (pp. 81-102). At the end of the manuscript, the numbering is incorrect (instead from p. 70ff. it should read correctly p. 97ff.). — The manuscripts was purchased in Italy in 1952. (ruh)

Online Since: 10/08/2015

Produced either by the hand or name of Johann Nikolaus Freiherr von Grandmont [?-1689] (p. 11) in 1661, this manuscript summarizes the regulations that had been put in place for iron mining operations in Fricktal, between the Rhine and Jura mountains, then a part of Further Austria (Canton Aargau in present day). It describes the form and scope of the operation of a highly specialized industrial economic activity in an area that had been devastated in the preceding decades during the Thirty Years War. The document focuses upon eight regulations, put in place between 1629 and 1649, and also refers to regulations dating from July 1653. Included is a summary list of the regulations with their dates of implementation (pp. 27-28). The manuscript was donated to the Iron Library by Prof. Dr. K. Schib (Schaffhausen) in 1952. (zol)

Online Since: 06/18/2020

The author of this manuscript gives his name at the outset (p. 3): Wok Pňovsky von Eulenberg (Czech: Vok Pňovický ze Sovince) comes from the Moravian noble family von Eulenberg (Czech: ze Sovince), whose coat of arms is depicted in the manuscript (p. 130). Wok is documented between 1499-1531; from 1518-1525 he held the position of chief justice of Moravia. In 1526 with this manuscript he produced an early exemplar of a “Probierbuch” (assay book), which treats several procedures for analyzing and further processing various ores and metals. The first part of the manuscript is divided into 40 chapters (pp. 4-130); in the second part of the manuscript, the sections are not numbered (pp. 133-420). Added at the end is a later (17th century?) table of contents (pp. 429-444), which offers short summaries of the chapters. Assaying was of great importance to the practice of early modern mining and metallurgy. Near Eulenburg castle (Czech: hrad Sovinec), the ancestral home of the family in Northern Moravia, Wok himself was engaged in the mining of precious metals (Papajík 2005, pp. 198-200). In Wok, therefore, the mining entrepreneur and the assayer coincided in one person. Before 1924 the manuscript was part of the holdings of the library of the museum of the ‘Gymnasium’ or preparatory school (Czech: Knihovna gymnazijního muzea) in Troppau (Czech: Opava), a predecessor institution of the present library of the Silesian Museum (Czech: Knihovna Slezského zemského muzea). The manuscript has been lost since 1924. After a devastating fire in the spring of 1945, in which all accession books were destroyed, no documentation about the manuscript exists in the museum library today (information from 07-16-2015). David Papajík summarizes the current state of Czech research: “Vok also addresses theoretical aspects of mining. In 1526 he authored an extensive German language work of 420 pages on the topic, which, while it survived until the recent past and was held in the library of the museum of Opava, it was lost by 1924. We only know a description from 1881, produced by Josef Zukal. It is a great pity that this unique document about the understanding of mining of that time, has not survived into the present” (Papajík 2005, p. 200). The above-mentioned description from 1881 offers the following additional information “«Ms. chart. sec. XVI. Kl. Oct. bound in black leather without decoration, 420 pages […]. Mining flourished in the area of Eulenburg in the 15th and 16th century; thus the present work owes its creation to practical need. Without doubt it is Wok’s original manuscript and offers an interesting insight into the state of metallurgy of the time. The index in a different hand was added at a much later time; this fact as well as the great wear indicate that the book was in use for a long time (Zukal 1881, p. 15 f.). The manuscript was purchased in New York in 1955. (ruh)

Online Since: 03/17/2016

This large-format manuscript (the translation of the Russian title is “Bridge-building project across the Neva River to accommodate the passage of ships at all times, 1802”) presents a bridge-building project across the Neva River in St. Petersburg. Following the title page with a decorative frame in a gray color wash (fol. 2) and the table of contents (fol. 3), there are twelve panels of watercolored drawings that give an overview and a detailed view of the project. Seven illustrations are two-sided, one of them has a fold-out page. All texts in this manuscript are in Russian and in Cyrillic script. — The bridge was designed by Charles Baird (1766–1843), a Scottish engineer who had set up a business for metal casting, machine construction and shipbuilding in St. Petersburg and who had built a cast-iron bridge nearby in 1805/06. The manuscript’s bridge project, however, calls for a combination of a floating bridge and a drawbridge: the floating bridge, resting on pontoons, splits into two branches, which end in two drawbridges near the shore (fol. 4a-5), so that it is possible to cross the bridge even while a ship passes beneath it. Other panels show, for example, the lifting mechanism hidden in the pillars (fol. 14a, 16, 17) and one of the boat-like pontoons anchored in the bed of the Neva River (fol. 20a-21). – The manuscript was purchased in Copenhagen in 1978. (ruh)

Online Since: 10/08/2015

This manuscript contains the complete statutes of the community of Sils i.E. from 1591, 1601, 1606, 1617, 1621 and 1626. The corrections and additions to the statutes for the year 1596 were integrated into the statutes for the year 1591, those for the year 1611 were integrated into the statutes for 1606, and those for the years 1631 and 1636 were added on several pages to the statutes of 1626. After each statute, there is a list of property appraisals. The manuscript also contains the community’s annual statement of accounts for 1606-1651, as well as other resolutions of the municipal assembly. (dar)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

The Statutes of Valais or Landrecht of 23 May 1571 (Statuta et decreta inclitae patriae Vallesii noviter sedulo recognita, multis in loci aucta et in subsequentem ordinem redacta), written under the episcopate of Hildebrand I von Riedmatten, represent the codification of old customs as well as a new law for Valais, with Roman influence and valid from then on for the entire territory of the diocese of Sion. According to Jean Graven, a leading expert on ancient law, these statutes are “par leur valeur intrinsèque et par leur aspect, la pièce royale, l'honneur et le couronnement de notre législation valaisanne.” After it was written, the document received numerous supplements, additions and commentaries, which were officially confirmed by the Diet of Valais in its final report. A comprehensive revision was not carried out until 1780. This “cantonal” law remained in force for 200 years, until the difficult phase during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, a sign of its unusual permanence. The Statutes of Valais contain aspects that are purely legal (procedures, organization of the judiciary, position of notaries) as well as criminal (offenses against the state, against faith, against individuals; punishments and penalties) and civil (relations between individuals, family law, obligations, property, inheritance). The nine wax seals, which are kept in metal boxes, are the symbols of authority of the seven Zenden (‘tithings,’ districts of the County of Valais), the bishop, and the Cathedral Chapter of Sion. (ren)

Online Since: 12/10/2020

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. (ber)

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). (amm)

Online Since: 12/13/2013

Missal preceded by a calendar of the Diocese of Sion. The decoration consists of pen-flourish initials at the beginning of the most important holidays (e.g. 8r, 14v, 82r, 92r) and an image of the crucifix in the Canon of the Mass (101r). Thomas Züren of Unterwassern, one of the three copyists, explains in the colophon (193vb) that the volume was produced on the order of Clemens of Ulrichen for the altar of the Virgin in Aragno (Ernen). (ber)

Online Since: 10/13/2016

This impressive gradual contains the sanctorale, the Commune Sanctorum, votive masses and a Kyriale. The registered feasts for the two saints Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua, the most important saints of the Franciscans, prove that it is intended for the use of the Friars Minor. The first of the eight decorated initials (f. 1r, 7v, 29r, 32r, 34v, 43r, 46v, 121v) also confirms the Franciscan use: the D(ominus secus mare) contains the name of Jesus in the form of the trigram "yhs" surrounded by rays of sunlight, which is the attribute of the Franciscan preacher, St. Bernard of Siena (1388-1440). The beautiful initials on a gold ground extend into the borders with leaves, multicolored flowers and gold dots arranged in a fan shape, some of which even contain birds and butterflies (f. 1r, 34v, 46v). The origin of the manuscript is completely unknown. At best it can be compared with another manuscript from the State Archives of Valais, the Franciscan Antiphonary AVL 507, since both works were bound in the same workshop in the 18th century, an indication that their common origin is probable. The binding has since been restored by Andrea Giovannini (1989). (rou)

Online Since: 12/10/2020

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). (rou)

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. (ber)

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. (rou)

Online Since: 12/10/2020