| Country | Location, Library | Manuscripts |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Überlingen, Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek | 1 |
| Austria | St. Paul in Kärnten, Stiftsbibliothek St. Paul im Lavanttal | 1 |
| Country | Location, Library | Manuscripts |
|---|---|---|
| France | Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France | 1 |
| United States of America | Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art | 1 |
| Russia | St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia | 1 |
Number of manuscripts: 13
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 9
Parchment · 24 ff. · 42 x 34.5 cm · central- or southern France · beginning of the 11th century
The Liber de laudibus Sanctae Crucis (Veneration of the Holy Cross) consists of Carmina figurata by Abbot Hrabanus Maurus of Fulda. This exemplar, most likely produced in 831, is arranged to display an image portraying each episode on the left (23 of the 28 Figures are included), with the corresponding prose portrayal on the right. The second portion, also a prose text, is missing.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 218
Parchment · 103 ff. · 29.5 x 21 cm · France: Ile-de-France (Sens?) · 1371
Guillaume de Marchaut was one of the most important poets and composers of the middle ages in France. His work is represented in the collection of the Burgerbibliothek Bern by a manuscript of the highest quality: the 13 column-width miniatures and many of the initials are polychromatic and accented with gold leaf. Notation provided with some of the songs makes this manuscript, easily datable by its scribal colophon, important to the study of music history.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 318
Parchment · 131 ff. · 25,5 x 18 cm · Reims · about 830
The Physiologus is an early Christian collection of naturalistic and allegorical descriptions from which the medieval beastiaries are derived. Bern Cod. 318, which originated in the School of Rheims, contains, in addition to the Physiologus (fol. 7r-22v), the life of St. Simeon (fol. 1r-5r), the so-called “Chronicle of Fredegar” (fol. 23r-125r) as well as a pericope from the Gospel of Matthew with Latin translation by Ephraem of Syria (fol. 125v-130r). Owners of the manuscript included the humanists Pierre Daniel and Jacques Bongars, among whose library holdings this manuscript came to Bern in 1632.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 360
Parchment · 12 ff. · 24.0 x 18.0 cm · Venice · 1564
A catalog of the Greek manuscripts in the library of Jean Hurant de Boistaillé (†1572), which he collected between 1561 and 1564, while serving in Venice as the ambassador of the King of France. For the purpose of assembling and cataloging this collection, Jean Hurault employed the services of Zacharias Scordylios (second half of the 16th century), a Greek theologian, priest, book printer and publisher, who lived in Venice. Although this catalog has been published several times, reference back to the original is necessary in the case of certain entries.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 402
Paper · 144 ff. · 23.5 x 15.5 cm · Venetia · about 1480-1500
Sometime during the last 20 years of the 15th century, this manuscript was copied and annotated by the humanist and well-known professor of Aristotelian philosophy in Padua, Nicolaus Leonicus Thomaeus (1456-1531). (He should not be confused with his contemporary Leoniceno Niccolò [1428-1524], a physician, philosopher and professor in Ferrara.) This manuscript has a key role in cultural history, as the texts by Theoprastus and most of the Aristotelian texts it contains served as the basis for the Aldine edition of 1497. Similarly, it served as the basis for the translation of Aristotle's Mechanica published by the manuscript's owner in 1525 in Venice. In the margin of the manuscript one can see the efforts of Nicolaus Thomaeus to devise figures to illustrate the translation.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 459
Paper · 96 ff. · Paris; Padua · second third of the 16th century and 1552 and second half of the 16th century
A manuscript consisting of three production units. The first dates back to the second half of the 16th century and was made by Jakobus Diassorinos (†1563), a Greek copyist from Rhodes who was then working in the library of Fontainebleau. The second was copied, probably in 1552, in Padua by the young Parisian humanist Henri Estienne (ca. 1531-1598), whose signature in Greek is found at the bottom of fol. 47r. The third part still has not revealed the secret of the circumstances of its production.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 596
Paper · 240 ff. · 20.0 x 14.5 cm · about 1540
A manuscript containing the Byzantine chronicle in modern Greek, generally known as the Anonymum Byzantinum chronicon, still unedited. At the end of the 19th century Karl Praechter (1858-1933), an instructor and later, from 1889 to 1907, a professor at the University of Berne, used this manuscript to retrieve the Chronicle from its previously shadowy existence.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 703
Paper · 104 ff. · 13.5 x 9.0 cm. · Paris (parts A and B) · end of the 15th century and last quarter of the 15th century
A manuscript consistiting of three production units. The first two were copied in Paris, probably around the end of the 15th century, by the famous professor of Greek, Georgius Hermonymus of Sparta (†1511-1516). They contain prayers and liturgical pieces, particularly from the Abbey of Saint Denis in France, including an as yet apparently unpublished translation of a Mass formula for Saints Dionysius, Rusticus and Elutherius into Greek. The last part, an addition to the others, is the work of a single hand, very similar in appearance to that of Hermonymous, perhaps that of one of his pupils.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. A 95.10
Parchment · 8 ff. · 32 x 24 cm · France · End of the 14th century
This fragment contains two texts that were popular in France at the time: the French translation of the Consolatio Philosophiae by Boethius and of the confort d’ami by Guillaume de Machaut. The 8 pages are from a rich collection of fragments in the Burgerbibliothek of Bern; they were digitized as a complement to the library’s magnificently decorated Machaut manuscript (Cod. 218).
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss.h.h.I.1
Parchment · 235 ff. · 40–40.5 x 28–28.5 cm · Bern · 1478-1483
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than 600 large illustrations. The first volume contains the early history of Bern from the founding of the city until the year 1421, based on the older chronicle by Konrad Justinger, following the version by Bendicht Tschachtlan. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss.h.h.I.2
Parchment · 186 ff. · 38–39 x 27–27.5 cm · Bern · 1478-1483
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than 600 large illustrations. The second volume contains accounts of events from the years 1421 through 1466, based for the most part on Benedicht Tschachtlan’s edition of Fründ's work. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss.h.h.I.3
Parchment · 472 ff. · 38 x 27.5–28 cm · Bern · 1478-1483
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than 600 large illustrations. The third, artistically richest volume contains Schilling’s own description of the Burgundian wars, together with that of the preceding period, up to the year 1480. It is closely related to the Grosse Burgunderchronik (Great Burgundian Chronicle) currently held by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss.h.h.I.16
Paper · 407 ff. · 37 x 26 cm · Bern · 1484/85
The Spiezer Chronik by chronicler Diebold Schilling, named after its longtime home city of Spiez, is also known, because it was privately commissioned by Rudolph von Erlach, as the Privater Schilling. It contains the early history of Bern from the founding of the city to events that took place in the mid-15th century. Unlike Schilling’s three-volume official chronicle, the Amtliche Berner Chronik (Bern, Burgerbibliothek Mss.h.h.I.1-3), it remains incomplete (the Burgundian wars are not included).