| 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: 32, displayed: 1 – 20
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes 15
Parchment · III + 108 + II ff. · 17.7 x 13.5 cm · Naples · middle of the 14th century
This incomplete liturgical psalter was made between 1335 and 1350 in Naples. The unusual decorations are the work of the artist Christoforo Orimina. Because the manuscript contains three different coats of arms, the original owner (a member of the Angevin court in Naples) can not be definitively named. After changing hands many times during the 19th and 20th centuries, the manuscript was acquired in 1968 by the owner of the collection "Comites Latentes" ("Hidden Friends") held by the Bibliothèque de Genève.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes 124
Parchment · 227 ff. · 16,0 x 11,0 cm · Tours · about 1500
This richly decorated book of hours was illuminated in Tours in about 1500, for an owner from Toulouse. In the 15th century, the city of Tours and the Loire valley region were home to the court of the kings of France. This manuscript is closely connected to that glorious past era. The name of court painter Jean Bourdichon (ca. 1457-1521) is associated with two of the miniatures in this book of hours. The other 35 miniatures were painted by three book painters from the atelier of Jean Poyer (+ before 1504), also well-established in Tours.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes 145
Paper · 672 pp. · 21.0 x 15.0 cm · Ottoman empire · 15th century
The greater part of the manuscript (pp. 21-598) is a compendium by Joseph b. Elijah Tirshom titled Sefer Shoshan Yesod Olam that includes 2174 numbered paragraphs, containing, inter alia, a book of magic called Harba de-Moshe (Sword of Moses) and other texts. Copied in the Ottoman empire in a 15th century Byzantine script with additions in later hands.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes 269
Parchment · V + 72 + V ff. · 18 x 12 cm · Italy, Naples · 1467 and 1468
This volume is a collection of letters, made in 1467 and 1468 in Naples for Roberto da Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, contains letters by Diogenes of Sinope, Brutus and Hippocrates, who were regarded during the middle ages as the true authors of these letters. They were translated into Latin by Francesco Griffolini Aretino and Ranuccio of Arezzo. This book was presented for sale several times during the 20th century and passed through the hands of prestigious collectors.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 1/1
Parchment · 216 + I ff. · 42.7 x 31.0 cm · Paris · ca. 1400-1450, additional pages XVI-XVII
The Bible Historiale is a Bible edition translated by Guyart de Moulins into French prose at the end of the 13th century. It is presented in the form of biblical stories and combines the Vulgata of Jerome with the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor. It was quickly supplemented with the second volume of the Bible du XIIIe siècle (“Thirteenth-century Bible”). Because it was widely disseminated during the 14th and 15th centuries, today there are 144 known examples, both complete exemplars and fragments.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 1/2
Parchment · I + 214 ff. · 42.7 x 31.0 cm · Paris · ca. 1400-1450, additional pages XVI-XVII
The Bible Historiale is a Bible edition translated by Guyart de Moulins into French prose at the end of the 13th century. It is presented in the form of biblical stories and combines the Vulgata of Jerome with the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor. It was quickly supplemented with the second volume of the Bible du XIIIe siècle (“Thirteenth-century Bible”). Because it was widely disseminated during the 14th and 15th centuries, today there are 144 known examples, both complete exemplars and fragments.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 64
Parchment · 375 ff. · 35.5 x 28.0 cm · about 1480
This universal history, which contains biblical and secular stories, is one of the most extensvie works of its type from the middle ages. The date of the manuscript can be fixed in the third quarter of the 15th century; it was decorated by the Flemish illuminator Wilhelm Vrelant, a producer of top quality miniatures.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 77
Parchment · (I-II) + 450 + (III-IV) ff. · 45.5 x 32.0 cm · France (Paris) · beginning of the 15th century
At the request of Jean II of France, between 1354 and 1356, the Dominican Pierre Bersuire (Petrus Berchorius) undertook this translation of the three decades (I, II and IV) of Ab Urbe condita by Titus Livius that were known at the time. This history of Rome extends from the founding of the city to the war between the Romans and the Celtiberians. The exemplar held by the Bibliothèque de Genève was produced at the beginning of the 15th century and carries the Ex libris of the Duke of Berry. Paintings are by the "Maître des Cleres femmes" of the Duke of Berry and by artists working in the style of the "Maître du duc de Bedford".
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 85
Parchment · I + 248 + II ff. · 41.0 x 30.0 cm · about 1460-1465
This history of the Crusades is a translation of Guillaume de Tyr's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum into the Flemish French dialect. The manuscript was decorated by Simon Marmion, one of the most significant illumination artists of the 15th century.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 167
Parchment · II + 188 + II ff. · 33.5 x 24.5 cm · 1536
This parchment manuscript contains the mystical text of the Kabbala in cursive script, illustrated by numerous highly colorful drawings with allegorical, cosmological, and liturgical themes.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 169
Parchment · (I-II) + 104 + (III-IV) ff. · 37.5 x 26.0 cm · ca. 1485
At the end of the 1480s Gaston Febus wrote a tract, in French and in prose, on hunting, known under the title Livre de la chasse. This tract describes the various methods of hunting and trapping game. Gaston Febus dedicated his work to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, who was well known for his fondness of the hunt. At this time, there are 44 known medieval manuscripts of this work.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 178
Parchment · I-II + 191 ff. · 29 x 21 cm · Paris · 1353
The Roman de la Rose is a poetic work of approximately 22,000 octosyllabic verses. The first part of this allegorial romance (over 4,000 verses) was written by Guillaume de Lorris in about 1230 and completed by Jean de Meun some forty years later. Although the work was originally conceived as a courtly tale, the second part gives itself over to a wide variety of excesses and expressly criticizes the mythos of the rose according to Guillaume de Lorris. The Testament is a poem consisting of 544 four-line alexandrine monorhyme stanzas expounding the spiritual development of Jean de Meun.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 180
Parchment · II + 135 ff. · 28.0 x 20.0 cm · second half of the 15th century
Christine de Pisan, a writer and poet of great renoun, was the author of numerous works and was personally involved in the design and production of manuscripts of her works. This hold true for this codex, which contains an account of the building of a utopian city by and for women.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 189
Parchment · (I-III) + 247 + (IV-VI) ff. · 45.5 x 34.0 cm · ca. 1470
Tristan in Prose is a 13th century prose romance of which a multitude of copies were made over the course of the medieval period. This work of knightly character is strongly influenced by the Lancelot en prose, which was written at the end of the first quarter of the 13th century. In this collection, which refer to the myths of Tristan and Arthur, Tristan is portrayed as the perfect lover and as the perfect knight, who as a Knight of the Round Table participates in the search for the Holy Grail. The Geneva manuscript is incomplete. It ends with the jousting competition between King Arthur and Tristan, in which the latter unseats the King and Yvain from their saddles. The defeated pair then returns to Roche Dure (Volume 3 of the Philippe Menard edition, 1991). At this time there are 82 known manuscripts and manuscript fragments of this work.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 190/1
Parchment · (I-III) + 179 folios + (IV-VI) ff. · 40.5 x 29.5 cm · France (Paris) · about 1410
Laurent de Premierfait translated De casibus virorum illustrium by Giovanni Boccaccio into French in about 1400. The work described the tragic fates of illustrious personages, mostly figures from antiquity. The translator presented a second version to the Duke of Berry in 1409, after expanding it with notes based on extracts from Latin historians. The Geneva exemplar, which carries the Ex libris of the bibliophile duke, transmits the second version. It is richly decorated with historiated vignettes, attributable mainly to the "Maître de Luçon".
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 190/2
Parchment · (I-III) + 189 folios + (IV-VI) ff. · 40.4 x 29.5 cm · France (Paris) · about 1410
Laurent de Premierfait translated De casibus virorum illustrium by Giovanni Boccaccio into French in about 1400. This work describes the tragic fates of illustrious personages, mostly figures from antiquity. The translator presented a second version to the Duke of Berry in 1409, after expanding it with notes based on extracts from Latin historians. The Geneva exemplar, which carries the Ex libris of the bibliophile duke, transmits the second version. It is richly decorated with historiated vignettes, attributable mainly to the "Maître de Luçon".
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 16
Papyrus and parchment · 4 + 53 + 2 ff. · 32 x 22 cm · Lyon or Luxeuil (?) · 7th / 8th century
This manuscript contains homilies by Augustine in uncial script, written by a single hand in the late 7th or early 8th century. The outer sheet of each quire (Quinio) is parchment, while the remaining sheets are papyrus. These 53 leaves (7 quires) were unbound from an original volume containing 30 quires (between 304 and 308 sheets). 63 additional sheets (8 quires) are held in Paris (Paris, BnF, lat. 16141), one addition sheet, originally between f. 26 and f. 27, constitutes St. Petersburg NLR, Lat.F.papyr. I.1; all other sheets have been lost. During the 9th century the volume was part of the library of Florus of Lyon, who added numerous marginalia in this manuscript in his own hand.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 18
Paper · 7 + 425 + 1 ff. · 27 x 19.7 cm · 15th or 16th century
This manuscript from the 15th or 16th century unites texts by various authors: Isidore of Seville, Jerome, Eusebius of Caesarea as translated by Rufinus of Aquileia, Paulus Orosius and St. Bernard, presented in one codicologically unified volume.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 22
Parchment · (I-III) + 175 + (IV-VI) ff. · 28.0 x 21.0 cm · Atelier of Reims, (France, Marne) · about 830
This manuscript, written in an atelier in Reims in about 830, contains the biblical commentaries of Hrabanus Maurus on the Books of Judith and Esther and the Book of Maccabees. The manuscript is valuable for its age as well as for the picture poem inserted into the commentary on the Book of Judith. It depicts Queen Judith, the wife of Ludwig the Pius, sanctified by the hand of God.
Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 30b
Parchment · VII + 6 + 288 + I ff. · 36.0 x 27.0 cm · about 1460
Urbain Bonivard, prior of Saint-Victor in Geneva from 1458 to 1483, produced this missal in 1460. The missal follows the liturgical practices of Cluny; the miniatures are the work of Janin Luysel and Guillaume Coquin. During the Reformation the manuscript disappeared from Geneva and only came to light again in 1912 when the city of Geneva bought it at an auction in Munich.