| 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: 101, displayed: 1 – 20
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 3
Paper · 55 ff. · 21 x 14.3 cm · end of the 15th century
The prolific poet Aeschylus dominates the history of Greek tragedy. His artistry reaches its high point in the writing of Persae (5th century BC). This piece, which has served to pass on its author's name for posterity, is the oldest known surviving text.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 5
Paper · 96 ff. · 21.0 x 15.4/15.6 cm · ca. 1491
Although the Aesopian tradition enjoyed great popularity during the middle ages, thanks to the dissemination of Latin translations, the Greek text of the fabulist was first rediscovered during the Renaissance. CB 5, which was written on paper near the end of the 15th century, is a collection of some 150 fables ascribed to the poet, which served as an inspiration for La Fontaine. Following are, among other things, the Delphic prophecies of Pseudo-Pythagoras, which transmit the well-known aphorism "Know thyself!", and The Clouds, the comedy that made the Athenian writer Aristophanes famous.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 6
Parchment · 48 ff. · 28.8 x 18 cm · England? · 14th-15th century
The Historiae de preliis Alexandri Magni forms a part of the vast body of Latin literature devoted to Alexander the Great during the middle ages in the occident. This manuscript, written on parchment during the 14th or 15th century (perhaps around 1400), is most likely of English origin, judging by its extremely rounded Gothic script. The titles are rubricated, and contemporaneous glosses and corrections have been added in the margins.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 7
Parchment · 59 ff. · 20.8 x 14.2 cm · Italy, Naples · 15th century
This Latin manuscript on astronomical topics includes works by Germanicus, Pliny the Elder and Hyginus. The codex features numerous pen and ink drawings, including a planisphere (rotatable star chart) consisting of five golden concentric circles containing constellations portrayed as people or animals. These drawings, dating from the 15th century, have been attributed to Antonio di Mario of the Neapolitan region.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 8
Paper · 247 ff. · 33.0 x 22.4 cm · ca 1541
Multiple treatises by Archimedes are brought together in Codex Bodmer 8, notably On the Sphere and Cylinder and The quadrature of the Parabola. This manuscript, which was written in about 1541 on paper, also includes commentaries on the work of the celebrated mathematician by the geometer Eutocius, followed by a treatise on instruments of measurement by Heron of Alexandria.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 9
Parchment · I + 81 ff. · 19.8 x 12.3 cm · [France] · 11th/12th century and 12th century
During the entire middle ages in the occident, the texts of Aristotle and Boethius were well circulated and inspired a large number of thinkers. These two great philosophers are brought together in this volume, written in a variety of different hands. The first portion, which can be dated sometime in the 11th or 12th century, contains the works of Aristotle. It also includes an extremely interesting schema (fol. 27) and initials accented in green and decorated with scrollwork. The text of Boethius, which is dated somewhat later, was copied during the 12th century. In this text one also finds some contemporaneous corrections as well as glosses from the 14th century.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 10
Parchment · 251 ff. · 26.6 x 19.3 cm · France · 13th century
Manuscript CB 10 was probably intended for educational use, it contains works of Aristotle, Avicenna, Nicolaus Damascenus, Qusta Ibn-Luca and Alexander Aphrodisiensis. This manuscript, written on parchment during the 13th century, presumably belonged to a student of the Faculty of Arts in Leipzig, as may be concluded from a list of lectures attended during the year 1439 which is included in the codex. The list contains the names of the professors, titles of the texts covered, lecturers' fees, and starting and ending dates for the lecture periods.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 11
Parchment · 80 ff. · 26.3 x 18.0 cm · 13th century
The Estoire de la guerre sainte, attributed to Ambroise d’Evreux, informs us that the Chanson d’Aspremont was read aloud during the winter of 1190 to entertain the soldiers of Richard the Lionhearted and Philip Augustus, who were stationed in Sicily. This heroic epic (chanson de geste) in rhymed decimeter and Alexandrines tells of the campaign of Charlemagne in Italy against the pagan king Agolant and his son Helmont. The Anglo-Norman manuscript held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer was produced in the 13th century and contains interlinear and marginal corrections, added in a second hand at a slightly later date than that in which the text was written. Because the additions were doubtless made with the help of a proofing manuscript, we can thus measure the complex effort that was required for the dissemination of this text.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 14
Parchment · 263 ff. · 43.5 x 27.2 cm · Italy, Bologna (?) · 14th century
This Latin parchment manuscript from the 14th century contains a comprehensive commentary by jurists of Bologna on the "Corpus Iuris Civilis" as well as on others, such as the "Codex Justinianus" and the "Digests".
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 18
Parchment · II + 268 + II ff. · 30.0 x 20.0 cm · Abbey of Tongerloo, Diocese of Cambrai, Deanery of Antwerp · end of the 13th century
In the middle of the 12th century the Latin works of Statius and Virgil as well as adaptations of Homer were translated into the vernacular. At the same time these Latin texts were being brought into the "romance" language (French), the first examples of the French poetic form called the "Roman" or Romance were being written. CB 18, a parchment manuscript, contains two such works, the "Roman de Troie" by Benoît de Sainte-Maure and the anonymously authored "Roman de Thèbes".
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 19
Parchment · 66 ff. · 10.6 x 8.0 cm · Cistercian Abbey of Maulbronn (Diocese of Speyer, Württemberg) · 1480
This manuscript, produced in 1480 at the Cistercian Abbey of Maulbronn (Diocese of Speyer, Württemberg, cf. f. 44r), contains texts written by Ekbert of Schönau, the brother of St. Elizabeth of Schönau, as well as prayers to Mary written in another hand.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 21
Parchment · 347 ff. · 28 x 23.5 cm · Spain (?) · 13th century
The Hebrew text of the Old Testament in CB 21 originated in Moorish Spain: Al-Andalus. Unlike most similar surviving manuscripts, it does not belong to the Ashkenazic tradition, but rather is an artifact of the Sephardic book culture of the 13th century. The decoration is strongly influenced by calligraphic art.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 25
Parchment · (2) 196+23 bis (2) ff. · 31.9 x 24.8 cm · Constantinople and Smyrna · end of the 10th century
A remarkable manuscript from the end of the 10th century, undoubtedly produced in either Constantinople or Smyrna, CB 25 presents all four Gospels together in Greek. The biblical text is accompanied by commentaries by Peter of Laodiceia (an exegetical chain) written in cursive. The volume is decorated with two valuable full-page miniatures representing Luke and Mark against gold backgrounds.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 28
Parchment · 416 ff. · 35.7 x 25 cm · Northern France (?) · 13th century
Copied in the 13th century, probably in the north of France, this Latin Bible unifies in one volume the books of the Old- and New Testaments, most of them preceded by prologues. It transmits the standard Vulgate text, called the Paris version, with the chapter divisions attributed to Stephen Langton, and its last thirty pages provide a glossary of Hebrew names. Historiated initials open the various biblical books and give the volume its structure. A smaller script than usual in this volume has been used on fol. 1 for the Commentary on the Tree of Consanguinity, a text usually transmitted in juridical works, augmented here by an illustration of such a tree.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 30
Parchment · 163 + 16 ff. · 22.7 x 15.7 cm · Southern Germany · about 1200 and 13th/14th centuries
This codex from southern Germany is composed of two parts bound together in one German binding in 1569. The first part of the manuscript contains about a hundred leaves from the 12th and 13th centuries. It begins with a calendar featuring numerous constellations and full page illustrations. Following are prayers and liturgical songs. The second part consists of thirty leaves containing a series of Latin prayers in carefully wrought late 14th century Gothic script.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 39
Parchment · 95 ff. · 26.5 x 17.2 cm · Italy · 1467
The Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, dedicated to "women in love", describes in the first person the feelings of the young Neapolitan Fiammetta, who has been left by her beloved Panfilo. The Elegia, a prose work written by Boccaccio in his youth, praised for the subtlety of its psychological approach, mixes autobiographical elements and obvious references to Latin literature. It is preserved here in a manuscript copied in 1467 by Giovanni Cardello da Imola, whose regular calligraphy is set off by decorations in bianchi girari (white vine-stem).
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 40
Parchment · II + 122 + II ff. · 17.6 × 12.4 cm · France · end of the 13th century
Jean Bodel, who was a member of the Brotherhood of Buskers and a bourgeois (middle-class resident) of Arras, wrote his Chanson des Saisnes (Song of the Saxons) during the last third of the 12th century. This epic in Alexandrine verse tells of the war prosecuted by Charlemagne against the Saxon King Guiteclin. The Chanson exists today in three manuscripts (a fourth was completely destroyed in the fire at the library of Turin) which present different versions of the text. The long version held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer is in a small-format manuscrit de jongleur or performer's script. It was probably produced around the end of the 13th century and is a simple piece of work, without miniatures, written on parchment, much of which was poorly cut, and it is roughly sewn together.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 43
Parchment · III + 208 + III pp. · 27.0 x 19.0 cm · England · end of the 15th century
This parchment manuscript from the end of the 15th century contains the "Chronicle of London" as well as a version of the paraphrase text of the "Chronicle of Reims" by Robert of Gloucester found only in this manuscript, CB 43. The dialect used in the text indicates that the manuscript was written by a scribe from the southern Midlands.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 44
Parchment · 132 ff. · 33.6 x 23.0 cm · Italy, probably Naples · about 1480
This copy of Cesar's "Commentarii" from about 1480 attests to the great popularity this text attained during the early Renaissance (there are more than 240 surviving manuscripts of the "Commentarii" from the 15th century). This manuscript was produced in the atelier of the illuminator Cola Rapicano in Naples. The "bianchi girari" (white vine) book decoration and the illuminated initial capitals which mark the beginning of each book are of a type often found in codices containing humanistic works. The illuminated initial capital on fol. 1r, on the other hand, portrays the Roman ruler in an unusual way, as an armored horseman.
Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 45
Parchment · 301 ff. · 23 x 33 cm · Spain · about 1470
A collection of Spanish poems, addressed to Don Alvar Garcia de Santa Maria, advisor to King John II of Castille. The collection includes all the Proverbios of Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana, and poetry by Juan de Mena, Diego del Castilla, Fernando de Escobar, Gomes Manrique, Juan Angras, Juan De Dueñas, Juan Rodrigues de la Camera, and others. The manuscript was commissioned by Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, first Count of Haro, one of the most powerful personalities of the 15th century, well known as a statesman, independant scholar, poet, and bibliophile.