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This manuscript contains a collection of prayers in Bohemian; eight prayers are attributed to Johannes of Neumarkt (around 1310-1380), an early representative of Bohemian humanism. The manuscript is decorated with several red and blue initials. An image of the Arma Christi used to be glued onto f. 39r, of which only residue remains.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This 14th century parchment volume is of Franciscan origin and consists of two different parts. The first part is an incomplete cycle of sermons for the feasts of the Lord and the feasts of the saints; the second part contains the Moralia by the Parisian philosopher Francis of Meyronnes.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This Pharmacopoeia is an unorganized collection of prescriptions in German for diseases of all kinds, interspersed with recipes for cooking and with short medical treatises. Several prescriptions and treatises mention medical authorities such as Mesue, Bartholomew, Hippocrates and Galen, Heinrich Fründ, Johannes Minnch, Meister Heinrich and Vitalis de Furno. Various scribes contributed to this manuscript during the third quarter of the 15th century.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This Liber benefactorum, the book of benefactors of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, was written gradually between the 1430s and the 1520s. The main part of the manuscript, a calendar created in the early 15th century, contains the names of over 800 benefactors. The manuscript was designed from the beginning as a Liber benefactorum and has close ties to an annal from the Basel charterhouse that was written during the tenure of Prior Heinrich Arnoldi (StABS, Klosterarchiv Kartaus N).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
These 14 leaves were removed from a composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel around the end of the 19th century. The 11 colored woodcuts with the respective handwritten text transmit a German Ars moriendi, a type of text on the art of dying well that was very popular during the late Middle Ages.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
These 21 leaves with Conrad of Gelnhausen's Epistula concordiae originally were part of a composite manuscript of theological content from the Dominican monastery of Basel. The text was written in Paris in 1397 by Heinrich Jäger from Ulm. The content takes up a proposal elaborated at the suggestion of King Charles V of France for the resolution of the Great Schism of 1378; Conrad of Gelnhausen proposes the convocation of a general council.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
List of foreign students registered between 1599 and 1837 at the theological faculty in Basel for basic (undergraduate) studies in artes liberales as a preliminary stage for graduate study in theology, law or medicine. The list ist divided by deans; from 1665-1800 it also gives the names of the “Corregens” of the Alumneum, the residence hall of scholarship holders. In addition, the volume contains regulations concerning admission to the faculty and the text of the oath upon matriculation.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This manuscript, produced in the first half of the 9th century in Fulda, contains two astronomical texts: several excerpts of the Aratus latinus and the Aratea by Germanicus with explanatory scholia, illustrations of the 34 constellations and a (now removed) drawing of the entire night sky. The Aratea, based on the astronomical didactic poem by Aratus of Soli, served as illustrative source for the astronomical background knowledge required for teaching the computus (calculating the date of Easter) at the school of the Fulda Monastery.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This Eusebius manuscript is from the 14th century and was already part of the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel under Heinrich Arnoldi (prior between 1449 and 1480). The manuscript is made of high quality calfskin vellum; it is carefully written and rubricated, in part with pen-flourish initials. The manuscript contains various 14th and 15th century additions; the binding is from the 19th century.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This composite manuscript from the Basel Dominican Convent, one of several from the estate of Johannes Tagstern, was rebound in 1952 and contains texts on optics and geometry, such as the Dietrich of Freiburg's treatise on rainbows, with several clear, compass-and-ruler-drawn schemata. The first part was written on parchment in the fourteenth century, while the other, newer parts can be dated more precisely on the basis of the watermarks of the paper used to the end of the fourteenth century or to the beginning of the fifteenth century, that is, to the period in which the previous owner, Tagstern, is attested on the last page (f. 157v) as a member of the Dominican Convent.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This 15th century composite manuscript was produced in Italy and contains humanist occasional poems and short treatises. The various parts, written in humanist minuscule and humanist cursive, are written by different scribes. This volume belonged to the Basel book printer Johann Oporin († 1568); after his death it remained in the possession of scholars in Basel, until it was given to the library in the 17th/18th century.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
These five bifolia with fragments from The Song of the Nibelungs are from a mid-14th century manuscript; they were preserved because they were reused as binding material. Discovered in 1866 by a clergyman from Fanas/Prättigau, they came into the hands of the Basel philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel and today are part of the Basel University Library. The leaves show restrained rubrication; the margins are decorated with occasional reddish-brown pen and ink drawings (particularly in the shape of dragons and dragon-like creatures).
Online Since: 10/10/2019
Early modern composite manuscript containing the only manuscript textual witnesses for several writings by archbishop Hincmar of Reims (845-882), for example for the treatise De ordine palatii, important for the constitutional history of the Carolingian period.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This slim volume belonged to Remigius Faesch (1595-1667), jurist and rector of the University of Basel; together with his vast collection of art and curios, the book became part of the university library in the 1820s. As noted by Remigius Faesch in his catalog under the Libri manuscripti in 4º antiqui, the codex contains “Etliche Teutsche Sermon unn Predigen”, mostly by the Dominican preacher and mystic Johannes Tauler (1300-1361).
Online Since: 10/10/2019
During the Middle Ages, travel to Italy, the so-called “Itinera Italica“, was undertaken primarily for religious reasons (pilgrimages) or for professional purposes (business or commercial travel). But after the Reformation, travel for the sake of education became more common, in Basel as well; its main purpose was an interest in Italy itself and its sights. With this, there came to be travelogues like this one from 1621 by the jurist and rector of the University of Basel, Remigius Faesch (1595-1667).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This manuscript with excerpts from a ‘Martinellus' and from Sedulius' Carmen Paschale was produced around the turn from the 8th to the 9th century in the German-Anglo-Saxon area; in the 16th century it apparently came from Fulda to Basel, a center for printing. The manuscript originally included a Vita s. Eulaliae virginis, which has been lost. Remarkable are the scanning aids at the beginning of the Carmen Paschale.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
The Avqat Rokhel is a selection of eschatological writings arranged in three ‘books' with several sections each, attributed to Makhir ben Isaac Sar Hasid of Toledo (14th c.), a student of Judah ben Asher (1270-1349), son of Asher ben Yehiel (Rosh, c.1250-1327). Only its title is identical with a later work on responsa by Joseph Caro (1488-1575) (Ed. Princ. Salonica, 1791). The title of the work is taken from a verse of the Songs of Songs 3: 6 [Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant/ perfumer (אבקת רוכל)?] and can be translated as “The perfumer's powders”.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Latin Bible, designed as a pandect (i.e. in one volume), following the recension of Alcuin of York. Several copies of these Alcuin Bibles, manufactured in the scriptorium of St. Martin of Tours, have survived; with their finely graded hierarchy of scripts and harmonious proportions, they are considered monuments of Carolingian book production.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Latin Bible, designed as a pandect (i.e. in one volume), following the recension of Alcuin of York. Several copies of these Alcuin Bibles, manufactured in the scriptorium of St. Martin of Tours, have survived; with their finely graded hierarchy of scripts and harmonious proportions, they are considered monuments of Carolingian book production.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This Old French Bible du XIIIème siècle was compiled in Paris in the second half of the 13th century. The two parts (Cod. 27/28), kept in the Bugerbibliothek of Bern, are among the oldest surviving copies; independent of one another, they probably originated in Southern France. Cod. 28, whose traces of use point towards Valencia, at one time it contained 52 superb miniatures, of which today six have been lost.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This composite manuscript contains various texts in chronicle form, some of them rare, regarding worldly and ecclesiastical rulers. It is a heavily edited and corrected manuscript from the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Mesmin de Micy, which contains characteristic writings in various black and brown inks and which is richly decorated with many calligraphic initials in different styles. Based on various supplements, the time of its writing can be dated quite exactly to the middle of the 11th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
The so-called Liber ad honorem Augusti by Peter of Eboli is one of the most famous and most requested manuscripts in the Burgerbibliothek Bern. The manuscript is exceptionally richly illustrated; it is from a workshop in the circle of the imperial court in southern Italy. Neither the scribe nor the illustrator is known, but, the text was doubtlessly corrected by the author himself. The text, an epic poem in Latin in about 1700 distichs that has survived only in this manuscript, is divided into three books. The first two books describe the prehistory of Sicily and its conquest by the Staufers; the third book contains a poem in praise of the parents — Emperor Henry VI and his wife Constance, daughter and heir of King Roger II of Sicily — of the famous Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II, who was born on 26 December 1194 in Jesi near Ancona.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Composite manuscript consisting of three parts, bringing together French translations of classic reports of voyages to the Far East. The manuscript, especially its first and third parts, is richly adorned with gold decoration and delicate scroll ornamentation in the margins, yet it contains no illustrations. Hand-painted coats of arms make it possible to identify the family de Pons de Saint-Maurice from the Périgord as a previous owner; later the codex was purchased by Jacques Bongars, who, towards the end of his life, was preparing a volume of source materials about travels to Asia.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This complete edition of the works of Virgil (Bucolics, Georgics, Aeneid) is connected to Auxerre. In the beginning the manuscript contains numerous paratexts to Virgil, such as the vitae, Argumenta, etc.; beginning on f. 6v, the inner column is reserved for the text, the outer one for the scholia. Virgil's text is interspersed with numerous commentaries (scholia) from late antiquity by Servius and Donatus, which in this form have been transmitted almost exclusively in manuscripts from the Bongarsiana collection. Cod. 167 presents the true Scholia Bernensia, but only the left column, not the right column of Cod. 172; whether it was copied from the latter remains in dispute.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This complete edition of the works of Virgil is from Fleury. This manuscript contains only the Bucolics, the Georgics and the first five books of the Aeneid; the second part with books VI to XII is now in Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 7929). In the beginning the manuscript contains the so-called Vita Donatiana and various slightly later texts. It is made with great calligraphic care so that the central column is always bordered on the right and on the left by a column of scholia. Cod. 172 is the principal textual witness of the scholia (commentaries) by Servius and Donatus, which have been transmitted in this form almost exclusively in manuscripts from the Bongarsiana collection.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Cod. 207, presumably created in Fleury (St. Benoît-sur-Loire), is one of the few and by far the richest representative of a style that evolved in Fleury towards the end of the 8th century; with its extremely rich and high-quality artistic decoration, consisting of three ornamental pages and almost 140 initials, it is an outstanding example of the creative evolution that the insular language of forms underwent in the important cultural centers of the continent. The manuscript, consisting of 197 leaves in Bern as well as 24 leaves in Paris (BNF, lat. 7520), is the oldest grammar manuscript from Fleury; it contains an early medieval corpus of Roman grammarians from antiquity and from the early medieval period: Bede, Donatus, Maximus Victorinus, Julianus Toletanus, Servius Honoratus, Asper minor, Sergius, Petrus Pisanus, Isidore, as well as numerous other anonymous treatises and excerpts.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This codex consists of two parts that were united in the 9th century already. The first part, written in Mainz (ff. 1-110), contains the second book of Cassiodorus' Institutiones, which is devoted to secular knowledge; since the 9th century, it has been preserved in several manuscripts in an interpolated version that contains Cassiodorus' remarks on grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy, supplemented with excerpts from Quintilian, Boethius, Augustine and others. The second part, written in Mainz or in Saint-Amand (ff. 111–126), contains the picture poems of Optatianus Porphyrius as well as some from the beginning of the reign of Charlemagne. A note in Jacques Bongars' own hand indicates that the manuscript - like many others - came into his possession from the chapter library of Strasbourg Cathedral.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This compilation of various legal texts, also known as Breviarium Alarici, probably is from the Upper Rhine area; it is preceded by two excerpts from Isidore's Etymologiae, which also pertain to laws, and by two full-page family trees. At the end there is a Latin-Hebrew-Greek glossary. This is an exceptionally colorful manuscript that gives the impression of being antique; it has a splendid title page, and it served as model for Johannes Sichard's edition of the Breviarium Alarici (which he considered to be the Codex Theodosianus), published by Heinrich Petri in Basel in 1528. The volume came to Bern in 1632 from the holdings of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
The richly illustrated Prudentius manuscript, created around 900 in the region of Lake Constance, is counted among the outstanding examples of Carolingian book art. It contains all seven poems published by Prudentius in the year 405 as well as a later added eighth work. The codex was given to the episcopal church of Strasbourg by Bishop Erchenbald of Strasbourg (965-991) and later came into the possession of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
One of the earliest and most famous manuscripts of Valerius Maximus; its importance lies in the autograph reworkings by Lupus of Ferrières. Lupus himself wrote the Exempla and the comment on the sometime "flyleaves" (f. II-III), repeatedly collated the main text, added supplements from the parallel transmission of Iulius Paris (an abbreviator of Valerius Maximus) and also its accompanying text (Gaius Titius Probus: De praenominibus; f. 158va-159r). In making the fresh description a hitherto unnoticed letter- or charter-like text was discovered on the last page (f. 159v).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
One of the oldest and most important manuscripts of the Alexander story by Curtius Rufus; it probably was copied on the initiative of Lupus of Ferrières at the local abbey. A quire bound in the front contains a collection of excerpts from the Pseudo-Isidorian papal letters (= false decretals) which has been preserved only here. This collection is larger than the related partial collection by Hinkmar of Laon and most probably stems from the common 'legal invention', which was thought to have been lost. The final pages of the manuscript contain a geographical index of the late Roman administration and notes on the city of Rome. This volume came into the possession of Pierre Daniel, who annotated it extensively; in 1632 the manuscript came to Bern as part of Jacques Bongars' collection.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This Merovingian composite manuscript, which was created in Bourges, originally consisted of six independent parts, which were written by different, often not very practiced hands in various phases. Most of the close to thirty individual pieces are texts from grammatical, patristic, computistic and medical works. The longer pieces are interspersed with further excerpts, partly written in Tironian notes. One quaternio from the only partially preserved third part is today held in Paris (BN lat. 10756). Noteworthy is the palimpsest in the fifth part, whose undertexts were probably written in Italy in the 7th century and in the second half of the 5th century respectively.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
The only textual witness for certain letters by Salvianus of Marseille, the complement of which is preserved in Paris BN lat. 2174, f. 113–115. This non-illuminated fragment probably came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
Fragment of the Boethius' On Arithmetic, containing numerous schematic drawings; it probably came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
Two bifolia from an Isidore manuscript that was probably produced in the Loire region. The fragment contains, among others, a carefully sketched wind rose as well as astronomical texts at the end that, in the context of the Aratea, are known as the “Scholia Bernensia”. It probably came to Bern in 1632 as part of the collection of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
Fragment of a manuscript in uncial script containing medical texts; it was probably written in Spain and came to the library of Chartres Cathedral perhaps via Italy. The remaining parts are preserved in Paris BN lat. 10233. Based on an entry by the Bernese librarian Samuel Hortin, the fragment in all likelihood came to Bern in 1632 as part of the Bongarsiana collection.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
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 six hundred 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.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
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).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This martirologio-inventario (annal) was written in 1554 at the request of the vicini (the original members of the municipal corporate body) of Castro and Marolta in the Blenio Valley (Ticino) in order to replace an older one that was destroyed in a fire. It contains the list of obligations toward the parish and toward the community for bequests and anniversaries of deaths. The first page is decorated with an illuminated initial and has in its bottom margin a painting of the coat of arms of the canton of Uri. At the time, the Blenio Valley was governed ruled by the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Obituary of the Parish of S. Ambrogio of Chironico (Ticino), written by the priest Ambrogio Rossi of Chironico, who copied an older obituary that was probably damaged or had no more space. The Ambrosian type calendar lists the stipends for annual masses or for anniversaries, the solemnities, the indulgences and notes regarding the pledges to the parish and to the entire valley. On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the commemoration of the Battle of Giornico (Battaglia dei Sassi Grossi, 1479) is recorded.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This codex from Italy contains Gregory the Great's Homiliae in Ezechielem. The anathema Quicumque eum vendiderit vel alienaverit vel hanc scripturam raserit anathema sit is on f. 1r, as well as a partially erased ex libris that mentions a Convent of St. Agnes. The codex was purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1962; earlier perhaps it belonged to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and then to Abbot Celotti, to the library of Thomas Phillips, and to Sir Sydney Cocherell.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
This Hebrew manuscript from the 15th century combines liturgical texts and contains commentaries on the rites that provide the framework for the observation of the Passover. This Pesach Haggadah, adorned with miniatures and rich illustrations, contains the complete liturgical version of the Exodus story. The first part of the manuscript contains the text of the Italian rite, the second part that of the Ashkenazi. The manuscript was written and illuminated by Joël ben Siméon, who signed his work with a colophon (f. 34r): I am Joel ben Simeon, called Veibusch Ashkenazi – blessed be his memory – and I am from Cologne, which is on the banks of the Rhine.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
A legal manuscript, probably incomplete, which contains an extensive collection of texts. Among the most important are four laws, the Lex Salica, Lex Ribuaria, Lex Alamannorum and Lex Baiuvariorum; a short and fragmentary collection of capitularies issued by Charlemagne; excerpts from De legibus, from Isidore of Seville's Sententiae, from the Codex Theodosianum and from the Rule of Saint Benedict. The text of the Lex Baiuvariorum also contains legal terms in Old High German. In 1789 the codex was acquired by Count Johann-Christian Solms, who resided in Klitschdorf Castle near Bunzlau (Silesia) - his coat of arms can be found on f. 1r - which is why the codex is known in the literature as the "Codex Klitschdorf" or "Codex Solmsianus.” In 1960 Martin Bodmer purchased this codex from the New York antiquarian book dealer H. P. Kraus.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Of all the 19 surviving manuscripts and fragments containing the Prophesies de Merlin, only CB 116 transmits the entire text. The manuscript thus clarifies which episodes from the Arthurian tales comprise the complete body of the work.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
The approximately 40 surviving manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied attest to the important position held by this text during the middle ages. The copy in CB 117 (the "Maihingen manuscript") was produced in the 15th century by three different scribes. The first five adventures have been abridged by the removal of about 100 supplementary strophes. The "Lament of the Niebelungen", which recounts the mourning of heroes who died in battle, forms the closing section of the manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript was written on paper in Northern Italy. It contains two ancient historical texts that were copied independently of one another: the Epitome of Roman History by Florus and the History Against the Pagans by Paulus Orosius. These texts enjoyed great success during the entire Middle Ages and would be found in any library of even minor importance. According to the 15th century ex-libris (f. 147r), this copy was the property of the Abbey of the Augustinian Hermits of San Pier d'Arena near Genoa.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
German Psalter. The psalms are preceded by rubrics that indicate the occasion when the psalm should be recited. The manuscript also contains several canticles, the Te deum and the Litanies of the Saints. The names in the litanies indicate a Benedictine origin. The manuscript was written in 1421 by Othmar Ortwin. In 1839 it was purchased by the Einsiedeln monk and librarian P. Gallus Morell from the Cistercian Wurmsbach Abbey on Lake Zürich.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This composite manuscript of homiletic content was written in Überlingen in 1495. Not only the place of origin of the manuscript, opido ùberlingen, but also the name of its author – scribebat Stephanus hamgarter nomen –, Stephanus Hamgarter von Stein (former parish assistant in Seefelden near Überlingen), can be gathered from the explicit (f. 38vb). The composite manuscript contains the Sermones dominicales de tempore (ff. 1ra-38vb) by Peregrinus de Oppeln (ca. 1260-1335), a Sermo de passione domini (ff. 59ra-66va), and further sermons (ff. 66va-82v). The volume was restored by “Hans Heiland und Sohn” in 1965, who also provided it with a new green leather binding.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Few works of antiquity had as profound an influence on the Middle Ages as did Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae. This exemplar contains valuable information which allows it to be placed in an interesting historical context. The Fribourg cleric Pierre Guillomin finished copying the manuscript on Christmas Eve 1447 in Dijon. The colophon, which states these details, also names the recipient of the manuscript, Jacques Trompettaz († 1503), a compatriot of the copyist. The latter was careful to include in several passages of the text, in addition to his own name and that of the addressee, the names of two more Fribourg friends, Claude de Gruyère and Jacques Sutz, Monk at Hauterive.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This Cistercian manuscript, datable to the first half of the 13th century, contains only a part of the Old Testament, that is, the Books Isaiah to and including Malachi. This book must have changed libraries for historical reasons. After being held in the Cistercian Abbey Frienisberg in the Canton of Bern, it reached Hauterive when the Bernese Monastery was dissolved during the Protestant Reformation. The last Abbot of Frienisberg, Urs Hirsinger, is said to have arrived at the Fribourg Abbey with a handful of manuscripts.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The colophon at the end of the manuscript establishes with certitude that it was copied at the Cistercian abbey of Hauterive during the thirteenth century. Its author, or the one who commissioned the work, dobutless wanted to “gather together the works of two Cistercian authors who exercised important functions in the region: Henry, Abbot of the neighboring monastery of Hautcrêt, and Amadeus, bishop of the diocese of Lausanne” (from Ciardo). Henry, whose biography is still a subject of debate, chose the learned title Pentaconthamonadius (“the fifty-first”) to designate a sermonary composed of 17 groups of three sermons intended for the liturgy of the White monks. Amadeus of Clermont, a Cistercian monk who became bishop of Lausanne (1145-1159), is the author of eight homilies in honor of the Mother of God, which achieved lasting success as liturgical texts because used in the breviary of the diocese of Lausanne.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This manuscript contains the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The Samaritan community, an Israelite community that still lives in the West Bank and the Israeli city of Holon, recognizes only these five books as holy scripture. The Hebrew text is written in Samaritan characters and features various cryptograms. One of them contains the name of the copyist, Ya'akov ben Yossef ben Meshalma, who completed his work in the year 901 of the Hegira (1495 AD) in Damascus. Some pages of this neat manuscript have stains (e.g., f. 132r, 170r), which were caused by a special ritual during which the parchment is touched with bare hand. The origin of this manuscript is partly unknown: it was sold in Cairo in 1902 and not until 2000 did it reappear in a private collection, whereupon the Cantonal Library of Fribourg acquired it.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This composite manuscript, much used by Friedrich von Amber, contains material about the history of the religious order in the first part (f. 1r-100v). In the second, probably more important part (f. 109r-165v), it contains treatises, questions and polemics from the time of the conflict of Pope John XXII with Louis IV (called the Bavarian) who resided in Munich and with the Franciscan Spirituals who had fled to that city. Several of these writings are preserved only in this manuscript, among them a treatise on the Visio beatifica of 1332-1333 (f. 127v-153r) which, according to Annelise Maier can possibly be attributed to William of Ockham, as well as a polemic (f. 153r-160r) in which Louis IV is warned against too hastily making peace with the Pope in Avignon.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Codex 62 is typical of composite manuscripts from the time around 1400 found in Franciscan convents. It contains sermonic material by known and unknown authors in the form of complete sermons, thematic selections and exempla. It is made up of 15 codicological units. Friederich von Amberg (ca. 1350-1432) assembled this collection, added a table of contents, and had it bound in Fribourg (Switzerland). The most valuable part of this miscellany consists of a set of 16 sermons on pennance by the Dominican St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), delivered by the sermonist between March 9 through 21, 1404 in Fribourg, Murten, Payerne, Avenches, and Estavayer. Friedrich von Amberg made a fair copy and incorporated it as the 6th codicological unit (fol. 45r-97v) of this composite manuscript.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript was probably written in the 15th century in the Waldensian Valleys of Piedmont (Italy). As also with a large part of the remaining Waldensian manuscripts, now dispersed across various European libraries, this is a collection of various treatises, sermons and upraising or doctrinaire texts. This manuscript probably reached Geneva around 1661, where it was brought, together with other manuscripts, by the Waldensian pastor Jean Léger. Classified as a Spanish manuscript by Jean Senebier in 1779, it was not recognized as Waldensian until the middle of the 19th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript consists of two originally separate parts: The first part contains various prayers; the second part, dated 16 November 1517, contains the “Grosse Gebet der Eidgenossen” (the great prayer of the Swiss confederates).
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This prayer book presumably is from the Bickenkloster St. Klara in Villingen. In addition to prayers, it contains various reflections and sermons, among them two new year's addresses by Ursula Haider for the years 1496 and 1500.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This manuscript is from France; certainly from the 14th century onward it has been part of the Libraria secreta of the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi, as attested by an entry in the library inventory. This inventory was written in 1381 by Brother Giovanni Ioli, who saw to its reorganization between 1377 and 1384. The manuscript, which originally contained not only the Liber sapientiae but also the third and fourth parts of Peter Lombard's Sentences, belongs to an important group of French manuscripts, some richly decorated, that were purchased by the monastery since the founding of the library. When the manuscript was owned by the antiquarian Leo Olschki, it was still complete; but it was already divided in 1960, when the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne purchased it from the Geneva antiquarian Nicolas Rauch.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This book of hours, donated to the library of the Academy of Lausanne in 1779, is a typical example of such devotional books from the late Middle Ages. The calendar is for use in Paris: each day has its saint assigned to it, without any of them being highlighted. The masculine form of address of the Obsecro te could have been for a book of hours made for the book market as much as it could designate the actual recipient of the manuscript. Some prayers in French, such as the XV joies de Notre Dame, Les sept requêtes à Notre Seigneur, and a prayer to the Holy Cross, conclude the work. All illuminations marking the beginning of each of the Offices, probably full-page decorations, have disappeared. The only remaining traces of book decoration can be found in the margins and in the decorated initials in the secondary divisions of the same Offices.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This parchment manuscript, which was created around 1460, is in small octavo format and consists of 14 leaves with writing. The central part of the manuscript contains the Story of the Holy Blood, which was written in Latin around 1460 by Hans Rabustan, chaplain of Santa Maria. The event described is said to have occurred in the time of Abbess Adelheid I (1211-1233). According to the account, important to the history of piety, the nun Agnes, daughter of a knight from Sent in the lower Engadine, received the Eucharistic Host one Holy Thursday, with a dubious conscience; she did not eat it however, hiding it instead in her veil and then storing it in her little chest. Thereafter the host transformed into flesh and blood. This is the origin of the pilgrimage to the Holy Blood at Müstair. Appended to the narrative text are regesta of documents concerning the cult of the Holy Blood.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This small work contains suggestions for receiving Holy Communion with devotion. They are imbued with the spirit of German mysticism and thus have as their goal the union with God.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This paper manuscript from 1509 is written in a late Gothic minuscule with initials executed in red. The ritual for the profession was adopted by another Benedictine monastery. It contains all elements of the ceremony, such as the formula for profession, the litany of saints and the orations. The rubrics (instructions) are in German, while the prayers are in Latin.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript contains the Adhortaciones sanctorum patrum (ff. 13-96v) and the De miraculis (ff. 97r-158r), a collection of miracles assembled by Peter the Venerable, reformer and last of the great abbots of Cluny. The front flyleaves contain a notarial document from the 14th century, while the rear ones contain assorted notes, possibly notices of ownership, which seem to have been obliterated.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
Missal following the liturgical custom of the Diocese of Basel, datable to around 1300. In the 15th century, a part containing the Ordo Missae was added, preceded by a Crucifixion miniature. The binding was restored in 1992 and replaces the unpreserved original binding.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Missal following the liturgical custom of the Diocese of Basel, commissioned by Christoph of Utenheim, prince-bishop of Basel between 1502 and 1527; he had his coat of arms, crossed with that of the Diocese of Basel, painted in the lower margin of f. 2r. The Canon of the Mass, decorated with a historicized initial depicting the Mass of St. Gregory, is not original but was added later. The border with flower decoration in the side margin and the presumed miniature of the Crucifixion in the beginning were removed.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Obituary of the Parish of SS. Pietro e Paolo of Quinto (Ticino), written by the priest Ambrogio Rossi of Chironico, who copied an older obituary that was probably damaged or had no more space. The Ambrosian type calendar lists the stipends for annual masses or for anniversaries, the solemnities, the indulgences and notes regarding the pledges to the parish and to the entire valley. On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the commemoration of the Battle of Giornico (Battaglia dei Sassi Grossi, 1479) is recorded.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This Officium parvum BMV was written by Johannes Höfflin and is dated to June 9, 1478.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript was probably created in Engelberg Abbey around 1175, as the type of writing and a note within the manuscript (c. 8va) seem to confirm. It contains additions and annotations from around 1400. The manuscript's main text contains a copy of the so-called Reichenauer Kaiserchronik by Hermannus Augiensis (or Hermannus Contractus) and of the Excerpta of the continuation of the Chronicle by Bertholdus Augiensis. Among the notes added in the first half of the 14th century is one attesting to the transfer of the diocese from Windisch to Constance at the time of King Dagobert (29v). The last page contained notes about the history of Muri Abbey in the 14th and 15th century, which were probably removed in the 19th century. This manuscript is mentioned in the 1744 list of Muri manuscripts, but probably it was already held by the abbey around 1500.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This cycle of miniatures from the first half of the 12th century is the work of two artists. The cycle was bound after having already been cut to create a volume; it is likely that it originally preceded a psalter.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
This manuscript from the island monastery of Iona (Hy) in Scotland contains the oldest and best surviving version of the biography of the Irish saint Columba, composed between 608 and 704. In this work, Adamnan, the ninth abbot of Iona, tells the life story of monastery founder Columba (Columcille in Old Irish), who lived from 519/522 to 597. This manuscript can be dated to the time between the writing of the original text and the death of Iona's Abbot (or Bishop) Dorbbene in the year 713. It is the oldest codex containing a single biography in Latin, and is among the few datable manuscripts written in the Insular script during the 7th and 8th centuries.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This handy paper manuscript contains the Franciscan Marquard of Lindau's Eucharist treatise. On f. 137r, the copyist, from the second quarter of the fifteenth century, identifies himself as Nicolaus Sinister. The name could be the Latinized version of the contemporary Nikolaus Linck, who served as a priest in Owingen and Urnau on the northern shore of Lake Constance. On the originally blank leaves of the first and last gatherings a later hand has added mystical texts, including a sermon that has only survived in this manuscript and was formerly ascribed to Meister Eckhard (ff. 1v-6v), a spiritual song by Heinrich Laufenberg from the Friends of God (ff. 6v-7v), and the rhyme-legend “Das zwölfjährige Mönchlein” (ff. 139r-148r). The cursive bookhand is adorned with two- to three-line red lombards at the beginnings of chapters. Eichenberger dates the later hand A to the third quarter of the fifteenth century; she recognizes similarities between the later hand B and the manuscript Colmar, Bibliothèque de la ville, Ms. 305, which came from the workshop of Diebold Lauber and can be dated to 1459.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This manuscript consists of four parts from different eras. The first part (ff. 1r-59v, 2nd half of the 13th century) contains Bonaventure's Breviloquium; the second part (ff. 60r-153v, 13th-14th century) contains excerpts from the Talmud; the third part (ff. 154r-239v, 14th century) contains sermons by the Franciscan Gualterus de Brugis as well as the text Pharetra by Pseudo-Bonaventure; finally, the fourth part (240r-268v, first half of the 14th century) contains the collection of sermons Rusticani by the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg. The Extractiones de Talmud are especially interesting since they represent the largest surviving corpus of Latin translations of the Talmud and since they were produced in Paris in 1244/1245, at the time of the revision of the condemnation of the Talmud, which had been proclaimed in 1240/1241. The version in this codex has the translations organized not following the order of the treatises, but instead thematically, according to the various arguments. The binding from the last century, for which parts of an old binding were reused and which shows traces of a chain, indicates that the manuscript originated in the Franciscan monastery of Schaffhausen.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
Cassiodor's commentary on the Psalms is the oldest manuscript in the Ministerial Library. The script suggests St. Gall as the location of origin, the name of the scribe, "Wolfgisus presbyter", suggests Constance. Includes a memorandum of loan or presentation to Abbot Wilhelm von Hirsau, who reformed the Allerheiligen (All Saints) monastery at Schaffhausen in 1080.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This Pontifical contains, in addition to the characteristic liturgical texts, instructions (ordines) for the bishops in case of election, appointment and coronation of a king, or for the coronation of an emperor or empress. The manuscript contains three full-page pen drawings: A dedication picture (2v), a coronation scene (29r) and, on the verso of the coronation scene, a depiction of an emperor enthroned (29v). The mention in the text of St. Nonnosus, whose relics were transferred to Freising Cathedral around the middle of the 11th century, suggests that the manuscript originated at a Benedictine monastery in southeastern Germany. The manuscript has been held in Schaffhausen for more than 900 years, where it is mentioned in the manuscript catalog of Allerheiligen around 1100.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
The first part of a breviary intended for use by a Franciscan, perhaps a Poor Clare, was referred to as Horae canonicae in earlier literature. It was written in 1459 on high quality parchment by the well known scribe Johannes Frauenlob. The coats of arms of Constance families Schatz and Guldinast allow us to make inferences about who commissioned it. Rich book decoration includes gold-grounded initials, filigree, and margin borders. About 30 figured and illustrated initials by two stylistically distinct hands, of which the first is distinguished by particular virtuosity: «Der mit zahllosen Farbpunkten vorgenommene Farbauftrag, die heitere Rankenmalerei […] und auch das geschärfte Verständnis für Fernwirkung bei Landschaftsdarstellungen sind beinahe einzigartig für diese Zeit in der Bodenseemalerei.» (Bernd Konrad).
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The second part of a breviary intended for use by a Franciscan, perhaps a Poor Clare, was referred to as Horae canonicae in earlier literature. It was written in 1459 on high quality parchment by the well known scribe Johannes Frauenlob. Rich book decoration includes gold-grounded initials, filigree, and margin borders. 12 figured and illustrated initials by two stylistically distinct hands, of which the first is distinguished by particular virtuosity. Together with the preceding volume Min. 98, this manuscript is considered «zu den schönsten Büchern des 15. Jahrhunderts am Bodensee». (Bernd Konrad)
Online Since: 12/19/2011
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.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
The codex is a collective volume of different liturgical texts. It contains a gradual with neumes, a calendar with a series of computus tables, a sacramentary, a lectionary, and a ritual. Twelve scribes participated in preparing the manuscript. The manuscript is decorated with two pen-drawings and strapwork initials. The large illuminations display an original iconography. The codex is an example of the transition from individual liturgical books to a missale plenarium.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This parchment manuscript produced in 1438/39 was commissioned by Solothurn mayor Henmann von Spiegelberg and his wife Margarethe von Spins as a Mass book for use on the St. George's altar in their chapel in the Cathedral of St. Ursen. The missal was probably produced in Solothurn. The Roman Missal (First printed in Milan in 1474 under the title Missale secundum consuetudinem Romane Curie still lacking the Rubricae generales and Ritus servandus) follows the Missale curiae, i.e., the Mass book created in about 1220 for the chapel of the papal palace.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
Johannes Aal (ca. 1500-1551), an erudite humanist, provost and dramatist, was a leading figure in the cultural life of Solothurn. During his studies in Freiburg im Breisgau, his teacher, the universal scholar Heinrich Loriti (Glarean, 1488-1563) on 17 May 1537 dictated him these comments on his De geographia liber.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This illustrated breviary for the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine was produced in 1470/1471 in Lombardy. The elegant script is characteristic of the Abbey of Santa Croce at Mortara. In the 17th century the volume was acquired by the patrician Wagner family of Solothurn, whose books were bequeathed to the city library in 1773.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This composite manuscript was compiled around 1560 in Obwalden; a Hans Werb is named as writer. In addition to medieval mystical texts (Rulman Merswin, Neunfelsenbuch; Henry Suso, Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit), it contains other spiritual texts such as prayers, meditations, prophecies, legends (among others about Nicholas of Flüe) and copies of contemporary pamphlets.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This composite manuscript brings together assorted treatises, mainly computistical and astronomical works (by Jakob Twinger von Königshofen, Johannes Münzinger, Johannes de Sacrobosco and others). It was written between 1388 and 1394 in Strassburg and in Rottweil on the Neckar (Wurttemberg) by Konrad Justinger and by Werner Mardersberger. One of the scribes, Werner Mardersberger was later director of the Solothurn Abbey School. The volume was acquired by the Solothurn Abbey Library in 1504.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The Cantatorium presents selections from the Gradual; it contains music for solo-voice elements of the Mass that are meant to be sung by the cantor. This manuscript from the late 15th century originated in the Abbey of St. Urs at Solothurn and was occasionally used in the parish of Biberist. Particularly noteworthy in this volume are German versions of two hymns.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The composite manuscript VadSlg Ms. 292 combines three independently produced parts, bound together in about 1460 at the Abbey of St. Gall. The first part is a Psalter from the 9th century; whether it was produced in St. Gall is questionable. The hymnal from the 12th century that comprises the second part contains a dedicatory illustration showing the scribe Eberhard presenting his book to Gallus, while Pope Gregory sits at a podium writing down songs that that a dove representing the Holy Spirit is whispering in his ear. The third part is a fragment containing prologues to the Psalter.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
These fragments from late antiquity are among the oldest surviving copies of the Gospels in the "Vulgate" Latin version edited by Jerome († 420). The manuscript was most likely produced in northern Italy before his death. In the early middle ages it came into the possession of the Abbey of St. Gall. These particular leaves were attached to the spine and inner side of the cover for reinforcement, as part of a new binding applied to VadSlg Ms. 292 during the reorganization of the library in about 1460.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This Evangelary with an unusual, nearly square format and full-page illuminated initials was written and decorated in the late 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. The binding, which was originally covered in bright silk brocade in red, yellow, and green, is equally unusual. Remnants of this material can still be found on the inner edge of the cover. The volume was annotated by Ekkehart IV during the 11th century; there are also some verses in his hand at the end.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
The Speculum humanae salvations is a work consisting of texts and illustrations of Biblical content. Each double page of the opened book shows four images, which usually juxtapose one scene from the life of Christ with three prefigurations from the Old Testament. In the present manuscript, this order has not been sustained consistently. The Latin text source has been translated into German verses, which earlier were erroneously attributed to Konrad von Helmsdorf. The Speculum is preserved as a composite manuscript of manuscripts and printed works; several pages are missing in the beginning.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Chronicle of Appenzell by Bartholomäus Anhorn (1566-1640, 1623-1626 priest in Speicher, 1626-1640 parish priest in Gais both in Appenzell Ausserrhoden). The manuscript describes events from the history of the undivided canton of Appenzell and the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Outer Rhodes), created in 1597, with special emphasis on the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The Rheinau Psalter, Ms. Rh. 167, is among the preeminent treasures of the Zurich Central Library. Its miniatures are a product of the highest level of artistry of the High Gothic painting of this period around 1260, which is also true for the sophisticated color and painting techniques that were used. In contrast, the script, while of quite good quality, cannot be counted among the highest examples of the art of writing. The commissioner of the manuscript must be sought in the area of Lake Constance, probably in the city of Constance, which was very important in the politics and church politics at the time of the interregnum. In 1817, Father Blasius Hauntinger purchased the manuscript from Melchior Kirchhofer in Schaffhausen for the Benedictine Rheinau Abbey; in 1863, the manuscript, along with the Rheinau Abbey Library, became part of the Cantonal Library (today Central Library) in Zurich.
Online Since: 12/20/2012