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The title page of this manuscript (p. V3), mimicking the appearance of printed works, provides, in addition to the title of the work, the names of the dedicatee, Bishop Jacques Sigismond de Reinach-Steinbrunn (1737-1743), and of the copyist, Jean-Baptiste Grillon, the place it was copied, Saint-Ursanne, and its date, 1738. The text, ascribed by a later hand to Père Sudan, appears in two manuscripts produced in the previous century (A1399 and A1399a) and treats the history of the bishopric of Basel between 1623 and 1638. Before the text properly speaking appears the dedication to the bishop, dated and signed by Grillon (pp. V7-V12), as well as a full page decorated with a wash drawing of the episcopal coat of arms of Jacques Sigismond de Reinach-Steinbrunn (p. V5), reproduced in the armorials of the ancient bishopric of Basel (N.C.6, f. 16 and A3754, f. 15). A long index rerum (pp. N1-N37) finishes the manuscript.
Online Since: 12/11/2025
This manuscript, with an imposing binding, bears the title “Schlacht-, Nammen-, Schilt- und Waappen-Buoch von denen noch bewusten Graffen, Freyen, Edlen, Ritter und Knechten, welche mit Hertzog Leopoldo II. von Oesterreich auff St. Cirilli den 9.ten Tag Iulij 1386 vor Sempach umbgekommen und erschlagen worden” (Book of the battle, name, escutcheon and coat of arms for the known counts, freemen, nobles, knights and soldiers who perished or were slain along with Leopold II, Duke of Austria on St. Cyril, the 9th day of July 1386 at Sempach). Joseph von Rudolphi (1717−1740), abbot of St. Gall, commissioned this copy in 1738, because, after studying the Chronicon Helveticum, the great historical work by the scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) of Glarus, and a copy thereof that he had arranged to have made for his monastery shortly before from the exemplar at Schloss Gräpplang near Flums (Cod. Sang. 1213−1220), he had found certain discrepancies with an older copy of the “Wappenbuch von Sempach”. A colorful painting of the battle has survived as a sort of frontispiece on a parchment bifolio (pp. 6−7); it is similar to the painting in the Schlachtkapelle (“battle chapel”) of Sempach and, according to Franz Weidmann's manuscript catalog (Cod. Sang. 1405, p. 2002), it was “von einem gar alten Kupferstich getreülich abgemalet worden” (faithfully copied from a quite old copperplate print). Apparently Joseph Leodegar Bartholomäus Tschudi (1708−1772), a descendant of Aegidius Tschudi, is responsible for the book decoration (p. V1). After extensive introductory comments, the volume's rich ornamentation with the coats of arms begins with a portrait of Duke Leopold III (p. 34).
Online Since: 06/22/2017