Pontifical rites for Johannes Feierabend, Abbot of the Cloister at Muri from 1500 through 1508. On July 12, 1507 Pope Julius II conferred the pontifical upon Abbot Johannes Feierabend and his successors.
Online Since: 11/03/2009
A richly illustrated Swiss chronicle in three parts, or books. The newest and most comprehensive book (Part I) contains the origin and history of the Confederation up to the 14th century. The oldest book (Part II) contains a description of the Burgundian wars of the 15th century. The subsequent book (Part III) describes selected events from the history of the Confederation during the 15th and 16th centuries, such as the deposition of Hans Waldmann (1489) and the Battle of Marignano (1515), and contains an illustrated catalog of ordnance captured in the Swabian War of 1499.
Online Since: 11/03/2009
A richly illustrated Swiss chronicle in three parts, or books. The newest and most comprehensive book (Part I) contains the origin and history of the Confederation up to the 14th century. The oldest book (Part II) contains a description of the Burgundian wars of the 15th century. The subsequent book (Part III) describes selected events from the history of the Confederation during the 15th and 16th centuries, such as the deposition of Hans Waldmann (1489) and the Battle of Marignano (1515), and contains an illustrated catalog of ordnance captured in the Swabian War of 1499.
Online Since: 11/03/2009
The Eidgenössische Chronik by Werner Schodoler (1490-1541) is in chronological order the last of the illustrated Swiss Chronicles of the late Middle Ages. It was written by private initiative between 1510 and 1535 and took as its model primarily the Official Bernese Chronicle - Amtliche Berner Chronik - by Diebold Schilling and the Chronicle - Kronica - by Petermann Etterlin. This volume, the third and last of the Chronicle, presents the events of the Burgundian Wars and the Swabian War; it ends with the Italian military campaigns, among others the Battle of Marignano on September 13th and 14th 1515, in which presumably the author himself took part. The volume is illustrated with 196 uncolored pen sketches by an anonymous artist. Today the three volumes are held in different libraries: the first volume is in the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, the second in the City Archives in Bremgarten, and the third in the Cantonal Library of Aargau.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This composite manuscript consists of an incunable from Freiburg i. Br. from 1494 and two parts in manuscript, which were copied in 1498 and 1499 by Brother Johannes Bengel, Conventual at Alpirsbach Abbey in the Black Forest. The three texts on scholastic logic are by Peter of Spain and by Petrus Tartaretus, a contemporaneous Parisian philosopher whose mnemonic device, a logical figure called pons asinorum has also been copied.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript from the second half of the 13th century is written in early Gothic minuscule; it consists of five parts. Among other items, it contains the Beniamin minor by Richard of Saint Victor, various writings by Hugh of Saint Victor, the De sermone domini in monte secundum Matthaeum by Augustine and the De cognitione humanae conditionis by Bernard of Clairvaux. The last page contains notes about recipes and healing blessings.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
A comprehensive collection of the most important legal records and documents of Wettingen Abbey, written by Peter Numagen in about 1490. The table of contents and prologue are followed by legendary accounts of the abbey's founding and copies of the papal, imperial and regal grants of privilege. It also contains the grant of privilege of the order and copies of records of assorted legal transactions related to ownership of real property. Adorned with the coat of arms of the founding patrons, abbots and benefactors.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
On 86 leaves of parchment, the Silver Book of the Land contains the statutes of the entire region of Appenzell. It is an assemblage of older legal texts; at a later time more recent statutes were added to it. Following the division of the region of Appenzell that took place in 1597, the book became the property of the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden and remained valid into the 19th century. Rich decorations consisting of miniatures and initials indicate the great importance attributed to this volume.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The family register of the pharmacist Hans Friedrich Eglinger (1608-1675) from Basel provides insights into 17th century pharmacy and its networks. The book contains mostly German, French and Latin sayings by various authors, addressed to Eglinger. In some cases, they are splendidly illustrated. One illustrated entry by Jacobus Mozes on f. 53r depicts a very large mortar in the center. The title page is decorated with a baroque tempera painting.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This family register of the pharmacist Emmanuel Ryhiner (1592-1635) from Basel provides insights into 17th century pharmacy and the relations among pharmacists. It contains mostly Hebrew, ancient Greek, French and Latin sayings by various authors, addressed to Ryhiner. In some cases, they are splendidly illustrated. The register page dedicated to him by his classmate Matthaeus Colomanus in 1612 dates back to Ryhiner's student days. The picture (242v) of an idealized apothecary shop, open to the street, was created by the miniaturist Johann Sixt Ringle of Basel. It depicts a pharmacist standing in front of shelves abundantly filled with colorful wooden containers, dispensing medication to a lady.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Postil on Jeremiah, Daniel, Maccabees and Judith, written in 1393 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 53 half- to whole-page, partly framed colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-4, 6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Gospel of Matthew and on the treatise on chess by Jacobus de Cessolis, written in 1392 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 13 single-column colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6 and 11-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Gospels of John, Luke and Mark as well as on Tobias and Baruch, written in 1392-1393 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 3 whole-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6, 10 and 12-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This libellus of John the Evangelist from the Gnadental Convent of the Poor Clares was completed in 1493. The manuscript contains texts by and about John the Evangelist, among them exempla, sermons, sequences, lections, and the Revelation in German. A pictorial cycle with scenes from the legend of the Evangelist decorates the vita of John at the beginning of the manuscript.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
15th century devotional volume, mostly written by the Carthusian Johannes Gipsmüller and owned by the Carthusian monastery of Basel. On the verso side of a parchment leaf, inserted as f. 57 into the paper manuscript, there is a full-page image of Christ on the cross with Mary and John. A peculiarity is a collection of Bible passages in Latin and sayings in German by Petrus Wolfer, which are said to have been written on a wall of the Carthusian monastery, surrounding a crucifixion.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This late medieval book of devotion and prayer is named for its first owner, Margret Zschampi, Dominican at Klingental Convent in Basel. It is a typical manuscript for edification, in German, as they were customarily used and written at the end of the Middle Ages for private devotion, especially in women's convents and in lay communities. Margret Zschampi donated the manuscript to the Carthusian monastery of Basel, where it became part of the library for lay brothers. As part of this Carthusian library, the devotional book reached the university library of Basel in 1590. This is the only completely preserved known manuscript from the Dominican Convent of Klingental.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This small-format paper manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel is mostly by the hand of the librarian Georg Carpentarius, who for the sake of daily spiritual exercises compiled prayers for various occasions, hymns, meditations and other theological texts. Among the identifiable authors are great ones such as Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as lesser known names such as Basilius Phrisius. Two colored prints are glued in the covers: St. George with the dragon (front pastedown) and the Mass of St. Gregory (back pastedown).
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, written by various 15th century hands, is decorated simply. The manuscript contains a miniature; on a torn out page, only remnants of a second miniature can be discerned. In two places, musical notes are added to the text. The texts collected in this volume consist almost exclusively of prayers, most of which are quite short, sometimes taking up no more than half a page of the already small-format manuscript. Some prayers are in prose, others are in verses.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Famous for the two portraits of Gregory of Nazianzus and Elias of Crete, as well as for a unique cycle of illustrations in honor of Gregory (of which 5 have been lost), this codex is also noteworthy for its content (19 commentaries by Elias of Crete, still unpublished in Greek) and for the story of its creation. The commentaries were copied around the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century, a project that did not provide for miniatures on the frontispiece. These were added a short time later, together with a prologue. The codex still retains the binding that was created in Constantinople between 1435 and 1437 during a restoration for its new owner, the Dominican John of Ragusa, who brought the codex to Basel in 1437.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains semester and annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students, thus providing an important resource for the history of the University of Basel. In addition, Vol. 1 contains records in illustrations and text of the opening of the university. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
This second volume of the medical faculty's register contains a list of successful doctorates from 1571 to 1806 and of registered students from 1570 to 1814, as well as an overview of exams and Disputationes and of lectures during the break for the (dog days of) summer. The entries are preceded by a full-page miniature of the seal of the medical faculty of the University of Basel.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This richly illuminated manuscript is a Greek Tetravangelion of Italo-Byzantine origin copied in the eighth or ninth century in a biblical uncial script. Some scholars have connected the uncommon style of its decoration with, on the one hand, Byzantine art of the Iconoclastic Period, and on the other hand, with the aesthetic of churches and artefacts from the period of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. In the fifteenth century, John of Ragusa, legate of the Council of Basel, bought the codex in Constantinople, and then bequeathed it on his death to the Dominicans of Basel.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
In this twelfth-century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, divided in two parts (without the Apocalypse), the Epistles and Acts were surprisingly placed before the Gospels. Magnificently illuminated, this codex has initials that represent the epistolographers of the New Testament; one miniature depicts John the Evangelist and Christ's descent into Hell (f. 265v). In the fifteenth-century, John of Ragusa, a delegate from the Council of Basel, bought the codex in Constantinople; he then bequeathed it on his death to the Dominicans of Basel. The codex passed into the hands of Johannes Reuchlin, as well as those of Erasmus for his first edition of the Greek New Testament (1516).
Online Since: 09/26/2024
A German Psalter, written in 1485 by Johannes Waltpurger, perhaps in Augsburg. The ornamental page decorated with vine scroll with the beginning of the first prologue is almost identical to one in a Cambridge manuscript by the same scribe. The back pastedown, glued to the cover, depicts a landscape showered in blood. It is not clear how this manuscript came to Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
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
Missal for the Diocese of Basel, created around 1460. This richly illustrated volume was part of a donation by the widow Margaretha Brand († 1474) to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. It was used at the altar of the holy Virgin in the small cloister of the Carthusian Monastery. In terms of art history, the manuscript can be assigned to the "Vullenhoe-Gruppe."
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This Gospel Book, written in an accurate Carolingian book hand, was probably created in the Marmoutier abbey by Tours. It features richly decorated initials and artistically designed frames for the canon tables. The manuscript was a gift to the Carthusians of Basel from the former dean of Rheinfeld, Antonius Rüstmann, in 1439.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript, written by various, difficult to distinguish copyists during the 10th century, contains the homilary of Paulus Diaconus for the winter season. It is decorated with two interesting full-page pen drawings (6r and 68v) and numerous flower-adorned initials in the St. Gall book decoration style. It belonged to the Charter House at Basel and, like B III 2, was a gift from Pierre de la Trilline, Bishop of Lodève near Montpellier (1430-1441), who served in various capacities at the Council of Basel.
Online Since: 02/17/2010
This manuscript, completed in 1479 by Johannes Gipsmüller, contains the Consuetudines Ordinis Cartusiensis, collected and approved by Pope Innocent; these are the “customs” of the Carthusian monks. It also contains the Statuta antiqua and the Statuta nova, additional decisions and regulations established by the general chapter. Bound into the front of the volume is a depiction of the martyrdom of St. Barbara.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This small-format manuscript in Latin is from the Carthusian monastery of Basel; in particular, it treats the Passion of Christ. The devotional image on the front pastedown takes up this topic, as do the texts, which are by, among others, Ludolph of Saxony, Bonaventure and Eckbert of Schönau. The manuscript's first text, a long devotional text De vita et passione Iesu Christi, may have been written by Heinrich Arnoldi, Carthusian of Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This small-format parchment manuscript is from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, where it was completed in 1478 by the scribe Johannes Gipsmüller. The numerous devotional texts on various female saints have mostly been passed down anonymously; some – such as those on Margareta, the patron saint of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel – can probably be attributed to Heinrich Arnoldi. The codex is decorated with full-page illustrations of saints treated in the text as well as numerous initials, the latter in a variety of styles.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
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.
Online Since: 07/04/2012
Ten illustrated leaves with the second part of the prophecies about the popes from Boniface IX to Eugene IV. These pages were created at the time of the Council of Basel; originally they were part of a composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, with Council documents. The expressive pen and ink drawings suggest the influence of the Basel workshop of Konrad Witz, one of the most important painters in the Upper Rhine region during the late Gothic period.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
One of the Isidore codices from the Monastery of Fulda; the codex escaped destruction because it reached Basel during the 16th century, before the abduction and destruction of the library during the Thirty Years' War. There it apparently was to serve as a textual source for a planned edition of Isidore's works. This codex was created in Fulda at the end of the 9th century and still retains its Carolingian binding in a parchment cover. In addition to the works of Isidore, it contains the oldest catalog of the Fulda library, the so-called Basel recipes in Old High German, and an astronomic-computistic cycle of illustrations.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
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 manuscript with the Middle High German epic poem "Laurin" about Dietrich of Bern came to the Basel University Library in a truly adventurous manner. As the head librarian Ludwig Sieber (1833-1891) himself notes in the manuscript, the codex was found on the banks of the Rhine in Basel in 1878. It was then donated to the university library by Ludwig Sieber and his predecessor Wilhelm Vischer (head librarian 1867-1871). The place of discovery left its mark on the manuscript: In parts, the paper and binding are very damaged and fragile and show water damage in various places, especially at the edges of the leaves. The text, however, is still very legible, although incompletely preserved. Fragments of documents in the binding and the pen-and-ink drawing of a flag with a Basel staff make a reference to Basel as a possible place of origin.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
Famous collection of wise sayings attributed to the caliph ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (deceased 661). Each proverb in Arabic is followed by its translation into Persian in Maṯnawī verses in Ramal meter. The sentences are also known by the title Ṣad kalima or Miʾat kalima and have been translated into Persian several times. This version does not name the translator. This copy was prepared by a well-known calligrapher from Shiraz, Ḥusayn al-Faḫḫār; it was completed in Rabīʿ II 952 h. [= June-July 1545]. The manuscript is from the bequest of the turkologist and scholar of Islamic studies Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960).
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This Persian-Arabic manuscript, written in Herat by ʿAbdallāh al-Harawī and completed Middle of Šaʿbān 871 h. [= end of March 1467], contains genealogical information about the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants, as well as about people important to the subsequent history of the eastern part of the Islamic world and of Central Asia, among them the Khan of Moghulistan, Tughluq Timur († 1363). Sayyid Ǧalāladdīn Mazīd Bahādur is named as the person who commissioned the manuscript; he probably was part of the local upper class. Interspersed in the text are quotations from the Koran, prayers and poems; an appendix gives exact death dates for three people who passed away in the year 869 h. and who may have been part of the circle of the man who commissioned the manuscript. The decoration of the manuscript is incomplete, as can be seen from an only partially completed rosette (3r) and a missing family tree (26v). The manuscript was owned by Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960).
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript was copied in the 10th century at the monastic Lavra of Stylos on Mount Latmos in Caria by the scribe “Michael”. It contains Victor of Antioch's commentary on Mark as well as the catena of Andreas on the Catholic Epistles. There are two unfinished miniatures, one representing the Virgin enthroned with the Christ child (V3v), and the other with Christ in glory (V4r). During the Turks' invasion of Caria ca. 1079, Christodoulos of Patmos first transferred the codex to Constantinople, and then to the island of Patmos. During the Renaissance, the manuscript appeared in Worms with Johannes Camerarius, and then in Basel in the possession of Nicolaus Episcopius.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This miscellany, compiled in 15th century Ashkenaz, is a handbook chiefly composed of a plethora of texts on astronomy, astrology, prognoses, popular medicine and medical-astrology, related to illnesses and bloodletting, to which are appended other texts on a variety of subjects: calendrical tables and treatises, ethical and liturgical poems, 13th century halakhic and scholastic philosophical material translated into Hebrew. Furthermore, a small but significant discovery in the manuscript helps to pinpoint the city of Cologne or its surroundings, as a possible location for the production this miscellany.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
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
The Liber de laudibus Sanctae Crucis (Veneration of the Holy Cross) consists of Carmina figurata by Abbot Hrabanus Maurus of Fulda. This exemplar, most likely produced in 831, is arranged to display an image portraying each episode on the left (23 of the 28 Figures are included), with the corresponding prose portrayal on the right. The second portion, also a prose text, is missing.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Manuscript from Brittany with the texts of the four Gospels, as well as the prologues and the chapter indexes for Mark, Luke and John. The artistic decoration comprises the 12 pages of the canon tables, the pictures of the evangelists dressed in priestly vestments, as well as initials at the beginning of each chapter and each Gospel. The rich interlace ornamentation suggests insular influences.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The Aratea, translated into Latin by Germanicus, describe the 48 ancient constellations and the myths concerning their origins. They are among the most popular picture cycles of medieval monastery schools. The Bernese codex, produced in St. Bertin, is a descendant of the Leiden Aratea and contains scholia which have survived only in this codex.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
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
Extraordinary compilation of various texts by Isidore on secular (Etymologiae, De natura rerum) and ecclesiastic topics (Prooemia biblica, De ortu et obitu patrum; Allegoriae), as well as pieces on the Latin language (Differentia, Synonyma, Glossaria). This composite manuscript contains three full-page family trees as well as astronomical and geometric figures. Originally written in the scriptorium of Bishop Theodulf of Orléans, probably in Saint-Mesmin-de-Micy, this volume was soon held in Strasbourg, as attested by various Formulae iuris as well as a glossary of herbs and an incantation. From the holdings of Jacques Bongars, the volume came to Bern in 1632; here the original early 8th century flyleaves (Bern Burgerbibliothek, Cod. A 91.8) were removed around 1870.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
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
Evangelary from Fleury, with the texts of the four Gospels, each preceded by two chapter indexes. Attached to the beginning is a quaternio with letters from Jerome to Pope Damasus and from Eusebius to Cyprian. The artistic decoration includes 15 canon tables as well as a picture of the hand of God with the symbols of the evangelists.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The so-called "Berner Parzival" is the last dated manuscript of Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic poem about the Holy Grail, created between 1200 and 1210; moreover, this textual witness is adorned with illustrations. Presumably the Bernese merchant Jörg Friburger commissioned the manuscript in 1467 from the scribe Johann Stemhein of Konstanz, who edited and stylistically modernized the text of his model to match the tastes of a late medieval urban public. In addition, he gave directions for illustrations, which were later executed by a painter who created 28 colored pen and ink drawings. The further history of this manuscript,which today consists of 180 leaves, is unknown; it must, however, have reached the Bernese municipal library in the early years of the 19th century, where it is attested at least since 1816.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
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 first volume contains the early history of Bern from the founding of the city until the year 1421, based on the older chronicle by Konrad Justinger, following the version by Bendicht Tschachtlan. 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 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 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 third, artistically richest volume contains Schilling's own description of the Burgundian wars, together with that of the preceding period, up to the year 1480. It is closely related to the Grosse Burgunderchronik (Great Burgundian Chronicle) currently held by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. 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 missal following the practice of the Diocese of Constance was written for the church in Hochdorf (Lucerne) in 1474-1475 by Johannes Dörflinger, prebendary of Beromünster. The manuscript was commissioned for the new chaplainry of Sts. Peter and Paul, probably by its founder, the parish priest and dean Johannes Teller. It contains delicate filigreed initials at the beginning of the various liturgical sections and a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion (f. 106v), which introduces the Te igitur. Several pages originally left blank hold copies of the most important documents concerning the establishment of the prebend of Sts. Peter and Paul in Hochdorf (f. 78r-82v).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The Eidgenössische Chronik by Werner Schodoler (1490-1541) is the last of the illustrated Swiss chronicles of the late Middle Ages. It was written on private initiative between 1510 and 1535 and took as its primary models the Official Bernese Chronicle - Amtliche Berner Chronik - by Diebold Schilling and the Chronicle - Kronica - by Petermann Etterlin. This volume, the second of the three volumes of the chronicle, consists primarily of an account of the Old Zurich War and is illustrated with 130 colored pen sketches. Today the three volumes are held in different libraries: the first volume is in the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, the second in the City Archive in Bremgarten, and the third in the Cantonal Library of Aargau.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The upper half of the illustrated side contains a naked Job and his three friends, the lower half shows the author, Gregory the Great, inspired by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and a Benedictine monk, portrayed in the usual manner of Petrus Diaconus, the latter probably drawn by a different artist. On the back is a Leonine couplet, which attributes the leaf unambiguously to Engelberg. The leaf is, according to P. Karl Stadler's 1787 description, the original opening of the first volume of the Moralia Iob by Gregory the Great (Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 20, here immediately before f. 1). In the mid-19th century it was owned by Jacob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck (1811-1903) and was faithfully reproduced in his book Trachten des Mittelalters (1840-54, Vol. 1, Plate 57, p. 76f). In November 1953 the leaf was purchased from the J.H. Wade Fund for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
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.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
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.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
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.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This Armenian manuscript was written in 1606 at the church of Saint Nikoghayos in Istanbul. It contains the Four Gospels, the Apocalypse of Saint John, and a Gospelindex devised for liturgical use written by another scribe in the same century. The silver binding was probably made a century after the manuscript writing. Special attention should be drawn to the illuminations of the canon tables painted according to the text of the “Commentary of the Canon Tables” of Stepanos Syunetsi (8th century), where the author thoroughly expounds the animal, floral and geometrical motives, as well as the symbolism of numbers and colors of each of the canon tables. The painter has interpreted the symbols and motives used in all ten canon tables by placing the explanations below each of them.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
At the beginning of the 17th century, a book of black magic was published, attributed to the mythical Faust and known by the title Höllenzwang. The library in Weimar owned a manuscript of this text, which Goethe was aware of. In 1949 Martin Bodmer was able to purchase a similar manuscript. This document, which is difficult to date, is written in cabalistic signs and, according to a German gloss, contains a series of magic spells for exorcists, which can be used in particular to call up the seven evil spirits.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Carolingian reform efforts responded to a desire to regularize religious orders by creating a unified rule for monastic life, the Concordia regularum of Benedict of Aniane. In the resulting course of events, an effort was made during the turn from the 9th to the 10th century to dinstinguish the monastic status from the canonical. In 816 Ludwig the Pious made the results of the Council of Aix public; the first part of the Institutio canonicorum presents the statutes of the church fathers and the previous councils, the second part explains the resolutions of the council. The task of putting this work into writing was long attributed to Amalarius of Metz, a student of Alcuin and advisor of Charlemagne; however, another author must be acknowledged for this work, which totals 118 chapters, some of which are extremely comprehensive: Benedict of Aniane is also supposed to have been a contributor. The manuscript held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer was copied only a few years after the original publication of the text (in the first half of the 9th century) in a very fine Carolingian script, and it belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Jacob in Mainz. A full-page drawing portraying the crucifixion was added in the 12th or 13th century at the end of the book.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This Gradual was produced in 1071 by the archpresbyter of the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere; it contains the musical scores for assorted liturgical songs. These melodies set down in written form make CB 74 the oldest record of Roman song.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
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
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Raimundus Lullus, who established Catalan as a literary and scholarly language, was born in Majorca, where Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures are mingled. Manuscript CB 109, produced by several different copyists in the 14th century, collects philosophical and theological works by Catalonian thinkers. It is decorated with pictures and diagrams.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The two texts brought together in this manuscript, De rebus bellicis (ff. 5r-17v) and Notitia dignitatum (ff. 19r-94r), date back to antiquity. The first work presents war machines used by the Roman army, while the second text depicts the late Roman military organization in both the Western and Eastern Empires. From the outset, that is between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century, these texts were designed with illustrations, the oldest known copy of which, dating back to the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, was held in the library of Speyer Cathedral (today only a single leaf remains of that copy). The Speyer copy was borrowed by Cardinal Pietro Donato in 1436, when he was at the Council of Basel, where at least two copies were made and illuminated by Péronet Lamy (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canon. Misc. 378; Paris, BnF, lat. 9661). The Fondation Bodmer's manuscript is a more recent copy of these, made less than a century later. It may have been used for the edition of these two texts (including the images), which was undertaken by Sigismundus Gelenius and published in 1552 by Froben in Basel.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This codex was produced in the opening years of the 16th century. Though it was created at a time when book printing had already proven its usefulness, this manuscript serves to demonstrate a high level of achievement in the calligraphic and illuminatory arts. Copied by Bartolomeo Sanvito, who also produced four other manuscripts of the Canzoniere and the Triumphi by Petrarch, CB 130 was written using a well-balanced, simplified script and refined illuminations. The beginning of the manuscript contains three full-page illustrations on parchment.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
"De Balneis Puteolanis", a didactic poem by the Salerno physician Petrus de Ebulo, describes the health benefits of about thirty healing springs found in the region around Pozzuoli and Baia, Italy. This work was widely disseminated in Latin as well as in Italian and French translations. It describes baths that were destroyed by an earthquake in 1538. The manuscript is decorated with full-page illustrations and was probably produced in the artistic circle of Robert d'Anjou.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
These two illuminated maps probably were part of an atlas of nautical charts of the Mediterranean, also called Portolan. The first map is north-facing and shows a part of the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Mediterranean on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, between the Canary Islands and northern Italy. The second map is western-facing and shows the islands of the Aegean Sea between Crete (Candia) and Thessaloniki, Greece and Asia Minor, with Troy and Constantinople sketched in anachronistically. A scale for the latitudes on the first map, graduated distance scales near the margins, rhumb lines, and wind roses decorated with fleurs-de-lis accompany the red and black coastal toponyms written perpendicular to the coasts. Their very stylized arrangement emphasizes the headlands and estuaries, and the cartographer also depicted some rivers, albeit without great precision. In the interior and rather vaguely placed are miniature pictures of cities with banners, mountains, and trees. At sea, a few ships and a marine animal appear on both maps. The names of the regions are written on banners or in larger letters. The particular style of the design of the cities, the decorations, and the writing refers back to the work of Giovanni Battista Cavallini or his successor Pietro Cavallini, who worked in Livorno between 1636 and 1688.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript contains the Romuleon, a collection of anonymous Latin texts about the history of Rome attributed to Benvenuto da Imola. CB 145 was written in France in about 1440, probably during the lifetime of Charles VII, whose portrait can be found on fol. 6v. There is a series of noteworthy miniatures at the beginning of the manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript contains the tract Le Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance by King René of Anjou. This allegorical poem, composed in 1455, invites people to live a holy life by means of a dialogue between soul and heart about abstinence from unsatisfying earthly things. CB 144 is decorated with eight full-page miniatures made by Jean Colombe in about 1470.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
Tristan, written by Pierre Sala of Lyon in the years 1520-1528, derives from the medieval Italian tradition of the Tristan and Lancelot story cycles in prose about the knights of the round table. Stories about the idealized friendship between Tristan and Lancelot shift between the adventures of the knights of the round table and their romantic intrigues. A mere two manuscripts transmit this Renaissance work by Pierre Salas. The codex held by Fondation Bodmer is the dedication copy made for King Francis I of France. It is illustrated with twenty-six pen and aquarelle drawings.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
This late Renaissance Italian humanist manuscript contains excerpts of various works by Latin and Greek authors, among them Pliny, Cicero, Silius Italicus, Plautus, Livy, Horace, Sallust, Plutarch, Seneca and others. Pellegrin, following Tammaro de Marinis, attributes the writing to the copyist Gian Marco Cinico, who worked for the kings of Naples between 1458 and 1494. The different parts are introduced by golden initials with bianchi girari, only partly completed (ff. 1v, 4v, 20r, 22r, 50r, 186v). Some of these bianchi girari are left unfilled on a blue, red, green or black background, others are colored pink, green or blue on a black or golden background. The vine scrolls are inhabited by putti and animals such as rabbits, stags, butterflies or birds. Numerous frames show putti engaged in hunting or other playful activities (e.g., ff. 55r, 79r, 139r, 169r).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This ethical work by Boccaccio, originally written between 1353 and 1356 and expanded in 1373, addresses the subject of the unevenness of fate. Manuscript copies of the work were frequently made; it was issued in print and translated into many languages. It enjoyed great popularity in Europe. The French translation by Laurent de Premierfait for Jean de Berry was equally popular, as evidenced by the 68 manuscript copies of this text still in existence. Unlike the Latin version, the French manuscripts display a rich iconographic accompaniment, most likely produced by Laurent de Premierfait himself. This is also the case with CB 174, which was produced during the 15th century in France. Each book opens with a small illustration (150 in all) portraying the “pitfalls” described in the text that follows.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The Rhetorica, a work in Latin recording ten years teaching by Guillaume Fichet, is a witness to this „Art of Speaking“, treatments of which would soon disappear. This richly illuminated manuscript was written in 1471 at the Sorbonne in Paris (in the same year as the printed edition of the text). The manuscript begins with a large miniature portraying the author presenting his book to Princess Yolanda of Savoy.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The 13 large illustrations in this French manuscript, written in the 15th century, were produced by one of the most important book decorators of the late middle ages : Jean Fouquet (BnF, ms. fr. 247). They are richly decorated with gold and cover two thirds of a page; a large number of initials adorned with flowers round out the illustrator's iconographic program. The first page, which is missing, also certainly held a decorative illustration (Adam and Eve?). At the beginning of a prolog is a small miniature portraying the author writing the book. The Antiquitates iudaicae recounts the history of the Jewish nation from Genesis to the year 66 according to the modern western calendar.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
A luxurious copy of the Life of Aesop, part historical and part legendary, that was compiled around 1300 by Maximos Planudes. These pages once constituted the first part of a manuscript of Aesop's Fables , which today is held primarily in New York. It was written in Florence between 1482 and 1485 by Démétrios Damilas, one of the main scribes at the court of the Medici, for Lorenzo the Magnificent's young son Piero II de' Medici, who was 10-12 years old at the time. On the splendid frontispiece one can recognize the portraits of Planudes and Piero II.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This manuscript contains the Dragmaticon, a work by the scholar Wilhelm de Conches, a member of the School of Chartres. It is possible that the codex was produced in about 1230 in the area of Cologne in a scholastic circle and that it is among the oldest surviving texts of the Dragmaticon, which is transmitted in a total of about 70 medieval manuscripts. The portable format, assorted schemata and tables provided, and the script used (Gothic cursive) indicate that the manuscript was intended for university use. The first section of the manuscript contains a computus for determining when movable feast days should fall.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This manuscript, written in Persian, contains a selection of the “One Hundred Sayings by Ali,” a collection of sayings and proverbs traditionally attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth rightly guided Caliph as well as cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. Among the Shiites (from šīʿat ʿAlī, the “party of Ali"), Ali plays an important religious role as the first imam. This manuscript was written in 1559 by the calligrapher Jalal ibn Muhammad in Bukhara. For the text he used the Nastaliq script, a calligraphic script widely used for the Persian-Arabic alphabet; for the titles, however, he used the ordinary Arabic Nasḫī script. The six full-page miniatures, highlighted in gold, were added in the second/third quarter of the 17th century. Noteworthy on p. 9v at bottom center is the rare depiction of a figure turning his back to the observer, of whom one can see only the back of the head. On the same page at the left, behind several musicians, two Europeans can be recognized by their clothing.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This is a Panjabi adaptation of the 10th book of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, in Punjabi/Braj language, in Gurmukhī script. It is a collection of stories of the life of the god Kṛṣṇa, written in verse (caupaī, kabitā, soraṭhā and others). Contrary to the Sanskrit version, the text has no clear chapter structures and has a continuous numeration (880 verses). It is richly illustrated with scenes from the life of the god Kṛṣṇa (more than 200 miniatures), and it is a free verse rendering of the ancient Sanskrit text that was written in ślokas (shlokas), which was extremely popular in India.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This is an 18th century manuscript of the text called Kedārakalpa, representing itself as a part of the Nandīpurāṇa. The manuscript describes and depicts in its 61 exquisite miniature paintings a religious pilgrimage in Himalayas, Kedarnath region, as done by a group of yogis. It is a śaiva text, i.e. main deity is god Śiva, and the main purpose of the text is to incite people to go on that sacred śaiva pilgrimage.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This is a composite manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script bearing the influence of the Kashmiri style, bringing together a number of ritual texts dealing with the worship of Viṣṇu. 1. (ff. 1_1r-1_6r) preparatory texts and rituals (without a single name or title), starting with a likely Pāñcarātra-influenced set of ritual practices, namely, nyāsas, and dhyānas, i.e. assignment of deities, and syllables to various parts of the body and the visualisation of the main deity. 2. (ff. 1_6r-1_149v) Bhagavadgīta: the main text in this miscellaneous collection. The Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord" - Viṣṇu/ Kṛṣṇa), which is a part of the Mahābhārata, book 6 from 18, is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition, and this part of the Mahābhārata epic survives in a huge number of manuscripts. 3. (ff. 2_1r-2_107v) Copies of other parts of the Mahābhārata, Śāntiparvaṇ, which all are related to Viṣṇu. 4. (ff. 3_1r-6_31v) 2 parts of Pāñcarātrika Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, plus mantras including (ff. 4_1r-4_21r) Pāṇḍavagītāstotra, (ff. 5_1r-5_20v) Gopālapaṭala, (ff. 6_1r-6_23r) Gopālalaghupaddhati and other texts. 5. (ff. 7_1r-7_37v) Parts of the tantras, a. Saṃmohanatantra, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, i.e. Gopālasahasranāmastrotra; b. Gautamītantra, the part called Gopālastavarāja. 6. (ff. 8_1r-10_8r) Two different texts: 1. Niṃbarkakavaca, which is a production of the Nimbarka worship lineage of Vaiṣṇavas. 2. Part of ritual texts of Sāmaveda, dealing with the 5 saṃskāras, plus various vedic mantras, such as Gāyatrī, in its vaiṣṇava forms. 7. (ff. 11_1r-11_11v) Part of the Bhaviṣyotarapurāṇa dealing with the worship of the stones related to Viṣṇu from the Gaṇḍakī river (common name is shaligram). The manuscript contains 3 illuminated titles and 12 miniatures, most of which depict Kṛṣṇa. According to the colophon (ff. 11_11v-11_12r), the text was written in Kashmir, in a monastery called Ahalyamath, in 1833 Saṃvat, that is 1776 or 1777 CE, by a person called Gaṇeśa[bhaṭṭa?] Nandarāma. The second part of the colophon (partially missing), however, links the history of the manuscript to Vrindavan.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This Mexican Codex, written in Nahuatl, is part of the so-called Techialoyan Manuscripts. It is from Santa María de la Asunción Tepexoyuca, near San Martín Ocoyoacac, in the Toluca Valley in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The manuscript is an altepeamatl,"Village Land Book" or tlalamatl, "Land Manuscript", which records the territorial boundaries between the village of Tepexoyuca and its neighbors and lists the toponyms of the boundary markers. The manuscript signatories are eight key town figures at the time: among them don Esteban Axayacatl, "captain", don Miguel Achcuey, "fiscale", and don Simón de Santa María, "mayordomo".
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Testeriano denotes catechism manuscripts in a pictographic script attributed to the Franciscan friar and missionary Jacobo de Testera (16th century). Writing had already developed in 12th century Central America as a mixture of ideograms, pictograms and phonetic symbols, but the original handwritten witnesses thereof were destroyed in the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. In order to communicate with the indigenous population, Christian missionaries later adopted this writing system, but they invented many symbols since the goal was to communicate a new, Christian content. For instance, three crowned heads represent the Trinity and thus God, while two crowned heads with key and sword represent the apostles Peter and Paul. The manuscript is read from left to right across both pages; different parts are separated by decorative vertical vignettes. The manuscript contains several short prayers (among them pp. 1v-2r Persignum, 2v-4r Ave Maria, 4v-8r Credo) and a long prayer (pp. 27v-35r) which represents a repetition of the Christian doctrine.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This register, consisting of 275 leaves, contains the coats of arms of the canons of the diocese of Basel, from the election of Bishop Christoph von Utenheim in 1502 to the last prince-bishop, Franz Xaver von Neveu in 1794. Over three centuries, painters added to these parchment sheets over 2,300 coats of arms in color. From 1682 on, complete family trees appeared, which proved that the church dignitaries had the requisite sixteen quarters of nobility (sixteen noble ancestors in the generation of the great-great-grandparents).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A copy of the four Gospels with commentaries by Jerome, produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the 10th century (before 950).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Commentary on the first eight epistles of Paul. This is a copy of a (lost) exemplar which, according to tradition, was written before 945 by Abbot Thietland († around 964). The text depends to a great degree upon the Pauline commentary of Bishop Atto of Vercelli (885-961).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This Codex comprises the oldest complete surviving neumed mass antiphonary; it includes assorted appendices (such as Alleluia verses, Antiphons and Psalm verses for the Communion Antiphons). Because the mass antiphonary is complete, the manuscript remains important to this day as a resource for Gregorian chant research. The second part of the codex contains the Libyer Ymnorum, the Sequences of Notker of St. Gall. Recent research has established that the codex was written in Einsiedeln itself (in about 960-970), most likely for the third abbot of the cloister, Gregor the Englishman.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This collection contains, together with other texts, a collection of Canons of ecclesiastical law called the Collectio Quesnelliana. It was probably produced in a scriptorium in northeastern France and was later held by the Court Library of Charlemagne. In the 11th century it was placed in the Cologne Cathedral library, where it was annotated by Bernold von Konstanz. It was later owned by suffragan bishop of Constance Jakob Johann Mirgel (1559-1629) before making its way, together with a group of his books, to the cloister at Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This manuscript, together with Cod. 247(379), 248(380) and 249(381), constitutes the four volumes of a collection of lives of the saints and passions of the martyrs, arranged according to the liturgical year. Without a doubt these four volumes were used in Einsiedeln, where most likely they also were produced. Each life is introduced with a large rubricated initial, and numerous glosses and maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz were inserted along the margins. The original endpapers, now removed, left traces of a liturgical text with neumes on the inside of the cover and traces of an illuminated initial on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
The devotional book of Abbot Ulrich Rosch of St. Gall contains various prayers, timetables and calendars, is decorated with elaborate initials and was written in the year 1472.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Boethius is the author of the two treatises preserved in this 10th century manuscript: De geometria (1-22) and De musica (23-145). The two texts are surrounded by numerous sketches and marginal as well as interlinear glosses.
Online Since: 03/22/2017