Bern, Burgerbibliothek
The Burgerbibliothek Bern is a cultural institute of the Burgergemeinde Berne, a Civic Community. The Burgerbibliothek in its current state was established in 1951 when the town and university library was transformed into a foundation. Today the Burgerbibliothek is open to the public. Its scientific archives hold and preserve numerous important and internationally renowned manuscripts, records and photographic files. Among the best known collections are those of the medieval manuscripts, the Bongarsiana-Codices, documents concerning Swiss and Bernese history as well as bequests of important people such as Albrecht von Haller or Jeremias Gotthelf. The Burgerbibliothek also acts in an archival capacity for the Burgergemeinde (Civic Community), the guilds and the Burger’s societies. As a scientific institute, the Burgerbibliothek is of service to researchers and is also open to the interested public. Its collection is accessible in a beautiful reading room and conveyed through publications, guided tours and exhibitions.
Two bifolia from Gregory the Great’s Regula pastoralis, possibly originating from central Switzerland. Donated to the City Library of Bern in 1914 by the historian and librarian Carl Josef Benziger (1877-1951) from Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
Single leaf from a Carolingian Bible, later used as book binding material. Place of origin unknown (possibly from southern Germany); also unknown are its provenance and the circumstances of how the fragment came to be in the Bern library.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Two fragments of leaves from a Thebaid manuscript by Statius, probably from Central Switzerland. Later used as binding manuscript waste for the print Hunger, Conrad: Unser liebe Frauw zue Einsidlen, Lucerne 1654, and owned by a Ueli Fässler around 1665. Acquired in 1920 by the student Ernst Burkhard at the Brockenhaus in Bern and donated to the City Library of Bern.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf from a manuscript of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Hiob, perhaps written in Northern Italy, later used as book binding material. Provenance and acquisition of the manuscript are unknown.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Remnants of a manuscript of the Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach. In August 1928, Hans Bloesch detached it from codex Mss.h.h.XIV.144.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Bifolium from a manuscript of Ambrose’s Hexameron from the Upper Rhine area/Switzerland, later used as a book binding material. Provenance and acquisition of the fragment are unknown.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf of a large-format manuscript of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Hiob, possibly made in Germany. Provenance and acquisition of the fragment are unknown
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf of a manuscript of Gregory the Great’s Homiliae in Ezechielem, probably written in Alsace (Murbach?). Of unknown provenance, the fragment reached the City Library of Bern before 1674, and here it was removed from the host volume (MUE Klein p 92), probably in the 1930s.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf of a manuscript that was probably written in France, containing letters by Pelagius. Origin unknown. As part of the collection of Leonhard Hospinian (MUE Hospinian 208), the fragment came to the City Library of Bern, where it was removed from the host volume in 1935.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Two fragments of a single leaf from a manuscript of Flavius Josephus’ Antiquitates Iudaicae. Place of origin and provenance of the fragments are unknown.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf from a Bible that was perhaps produced in Eastern France; later it was used as binding for a 1561 printed volume from Strasbourg. Before 1674, the fragment came from unknown provenance to the City Library of Bern, where it was removed from the host volume (MUE Klein f 217) in October 1934.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf from a manuscript of unknown provenance containing Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Hiob. The fragment arrived in Bern in 1632 as part of a printed volume (MUE Bong IV 251) that had been the property of Jacques Bongars; it was probably removed from the host volume in the 1930s.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single sheet of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volume perhaps came into the possession of the Sterner family in Biel and further to Bern via the antiquarian bookshop Max Müller (BBB Mss.h.h.XXXIV.35).
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Single sheet of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volume perhaps came into the possession of the Sterner family in Biel and further to Bern via the antiquarian bookshop Max Müller (BBB Mss.h.h.XXXIV.35).
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Fragments (1 bifolium, 1 single leaf) from a manuscript of Clement of Rome’s Recognitiones, possibly from Germany; around 1495 Johannes Vatter, bookbinder for the Dominican monastery of Bern, used them as pastedowns for volumes printed in Basel. After the dissolution of the monastery in 1528, the host volume (MUE Inc. I.88) found its way into the Bernese library under unknown circumstances. In February 1935 the fragments were removed by librarian Hans Bloesch.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Remnants of an Alcuin's Bible from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volume (MUE Inc I 85) became the property of Eberhard Rümlang (ca. 1500–1551) and Wolfgang Musculus (= Müslin, 1497–1563), who donated the volume to the Bern library in 1556. Around 1945, the fragments were removed from the host volumes by Johannes Lindt. Reunification of the fragments : [sine loco], codices restituti, Cod. 5 (Biblia latina).
Online Since: 12/12/2019
Important remnants of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volumes perhaps as part of a bequest of books by the Venner [standard bearer] Jürg Schöni in 1534, became part of the Bern library. Around 1945, Johannes Lindt detached the fragments from the host volumes.
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Important remnants of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volumes perhaps as part of a bequest of books by the Venner [standard bearer] Jürg Schöni in 1534, became part of the Bern library. Around 1945, Johannes Lindt detached the fragments from the host volumes.
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Fragment of a manuscript of the Institutiones grammaticae by Priscian, probably from the South of Germany; 10 more leaves from this manuscript can be found in Paris BN lat. 10403. f. 6–15. These four single leaves, inserted into a printed version owned by Jacques Bongars, came to Bern in 1632, where they were detached from their host volume in the 20th century.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
These three documents are from the previous binding of Cod. 120 (now 120-1 and 120-2), from which they were removed during restoration. They are two documents from the imperial court of the tribunal of the Counts of Sulz in Rottweil (no. 1 and 3) and a fragment of a bill of sale issued in Strasbourg.
Online Since: 03/22/2018