This is a copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the Historia Longobardorum (History of the Langobards) by the Langobard monk and author Paulus Diaconus († 797/799), who was active in Montecassino. It was written in northern Italy, possibly in Verona, around 800 by a variety of hands. The volume has been at the monastery of St. Gall since the 9th century already.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A copy made in 1520 of the so-called “Klingenberger Chronik” (Klingenberg Chronicle) originally composed in 1450. It is the history of the Appenzell Wars (1401-1429) and of the Old Zurich War (1440-1446) from the point of view of the losing side: the eastern Swiss nobility. Illustrated with several color sketches of battle scenes and coats of arms. In addition this codex contains copies of legal documents, chronological notes, songs, and in the very front an incompletely preserved 1520 Strasbourg print edition by Sebastian Brant (1457/58-1521) of the biographies of Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian. This volume was obtained by the Abbey Library of St. Gall from Glarus humanities scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) in 1768.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The oldest copy of the Chronicle of Konstanz by Gebhard Dacher, made between 1458 and 1472 by the author himself and illustrated with a series of colored pen sketches, among them the oldest known view of the city of Konstanz. Obtained by the Abbey Library of St. Gall in the 18th century, at the latest.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Important early textual witness of the Decretum Gratiani, probably even the earliest known version. As opposed to the later widespread version of 101 Distinctiones (Part I), 36 Causae (Part II) and De consecratione (Part III) with ca. 4000 Canones in all, the Decretum in this manuscript consists of only 33 Causae with ca. 1000 Canones. The numbering, however, was soon adapted to the later commonly used division into 36 Causae and preceding distinctions. This version includes some sections of text not found in later versions. The Decretum is followed by an extremely heterogeneous collection of excerpts.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This ecclesiastical law manuscript contains a collection of papal decretals generally known as the Breviarium extravagantium or Compilatio prima, compiled by Bernhard of Pavia, the first decretalist, in about 1189-1190. In addition to older glosses of unspecified origin, on some pages next to the two columns of the Textus inclusus there are extracts taken from the first review of a set of glosses by Tankred of Bologna, which he issued in about 1210-1215. The text, the initials, and the glosses date from the end of the 12th century or possibly the beginning of the 13th century in France.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The manuscript was written at the turn of the fourteenth to fifteenth century. It transmits a collection of charters and formularies for the ecclesiastical benefice and courts system, secular money transactions and sales, the feudal system, and so on. The notes at the end of the manuscript identify its owner as Johannes Pfister of Gossau († 1433?), imperial notary and cleric of the bishopric of Constance, who was in the service of the city and abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript subsequently belonged to the city clerk of St. Gall Johannes Widembach († c. 1456), who placed his coat of arms on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The manuscript chiefly transmits a 1481 Landgerichtsordnung (procedural and penal ordinances) for the Abbey-Principality of Kempten, which was possibly copied before the end of the fifteenth century. The manuscript was used by Ulrich Degelin, Chancellor under Abbot Johann Erhard Blarer von Wartensee (1587–1594) and author of a new Landgerichtsordnung for Kempten. Thereafter, the manuscript passed successively into the possession of the Lindau legal scholars Johannes Andreas Heider († 1719) and Johann Reinhard Wegelin († 1764), before Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger acquired it for St. Gall Abbey between 1780 and 1792.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Universal chronicle from Saturn of Crete to Brenno, legendary Duke of Swabia (col. 3a-17a). This is followed by the Schwabenspiegel (mirror of the Swabians) with common law according to the first systematic order, in 79 sections up to article 343 (col. 17a-264b); and feudal law up to article 158 (col. 264b-347a). A table of contents for the entire manuscript can be found at the end (pp. 350-361).
Online Since: 12/18/2014
Schwabenspiegel (mirror of the Swabians), common law, articles 1-86 (col. 7a-58a), articles 155-219 (col. 59a-100b), and articles 220-377 (col. 101a-187b); after article 40, common law article 40§1 (col. 33a) from the Deutschenspiegel is inserted; the common law is followed by feudal law, articles 1-120 and 122-154 (col. 187b-284a) and article 159 (col. 284a-285a).
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This parchment manuscript essentially contains Summae of most parts of the Corpus iuris civilis, namely books 1–9 of the Codex, the Institutions and the Digest. The vast majority of these textbook-like summaries have been ascribed to the Bologna jurist Azo Portius († 1220). The manuscript, produced in Northern Italy in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, presents at the beginning, on p. 7a, two larger painted initials, one of which features a dragon, and then follows numerous smaller pen-flourished initials.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Copy of the commentary on the first twelve books of Artistotle's Metaphyiscs by the philosopher Nicholas Theoderici of Amsterdam († before 1456 in Greifswald), completed on 21 May 1459 (fol. 203v). Following the text, there is a table of contents on fol. 204r−205r. According to the note of ownership on fol. 209v (Liber monasterii sancti Galli), this volume probably was part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1500. Prior to that the volume probably was held in Eastern Switzerland, as suggested by notes on fol. 1r (naming Wernher Müntzmaister; Jakob Grübel; Albert von Glarus). From 1422 on, Theoderici was professor of the theological faculty at the universities of Rostock, Leipzig and Greifswald; it has been verified that in the 15th century there were students from St. Gall in Leipzig.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
The Latin-Old High German Rule of St Benedict, one of the oldest monuments of the Old High German language.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
This only surviving copy of the prose story Frau Tugendreich was written by an unknown author in the circle of Emperor Maximilian I in the second decade of the 16th century. The text is a mixture of a ‘Zeitroman' (a novel giving a critical analysis of an age) and a debate about the value of women or the lack thereof. An external narrative frame presents a discussion between a young narrator beholden to the courtly ideal and his more experienced master, who clings to a traditional view of women, about the value, significance and conduct of women. Unfortunately from p. 196 on, essential parts of the text have been lost due to missing pages. This copy, written in East Swabian dialect by scribe A. S. (p. 219), is dated 1521.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The five parts of this manuscript were written by various scribes, among them the St. Gall Conventual Hans Conrad Haller (1486–1525), who was calligrapher, priest and, from 1523 until 1525, librarian of the monastery of St. Gall; he wrote various works such as a missal and other spiritual literature, as well as a life of Notker Balbulus. In Cod. Sang. 1006 Haller frequently left colophons, e.g., on p. 531 and p. 540. The five parts of the manuscript contain the following texts: part I (pp. 13–45) Prayers on the Passion and – partly in fragments – liturgical plays, among them the Ludus ascensionis on pp. 33-44. Part II (pp. 46–65) a prayer to St. Dorothea, which, according to the scribe, was translated from the Latin and written down in 1430 (pp. 61-62). Part III (pp. 66-80) Der Seele Klageby Heinrich der Teichner. Teil IV (pp. 81–95) liturgy of the hours on the Passion of Christ. Part V (pp. 96-762) a wide variety of devotional texts such as prayers and meditations, among them on pp. 188-190 Ein babst lag uurmals an dem tod, pp. 406–486 St. Anselmi Fragen an Maria and pp. 508–524 a German Salve Regina in rhyme.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This large-format manuscript, which forms a unit with Cod. Sang. 1757, contains chants for the Mass – Proprium de tempore, Ordinarium missae (partially troped), Sequences and votive Masses - in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") in a four line-system. Multiple pieces have been deleted and replaced with other pieces. Together with Cod. Sang. 1757, this codex presents the oldest systematic St. Gall records of sequences on a musical staff. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials (several exquisite filled initials, some with gold leaf) and borders. Heavy decorative fittings with animal heads and mythical creatures. Until 1930, the manuscript was kept in the choir library (first of the St. Gall monastery, later of the St. Gall cathedral).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Graduale de tempore, commissioned by Prince-Abbot Franz Gaisberg (1504–1529, coat of arms p. 1) and illuminated by the book illustrator Nikolaus Bertschi from Augsburg (initials, miniatures and borders with vine scrolls and animals). The banderole on p. 55, which ends with etc. 156, may give a (false) indication regarding the dating (1506 or 1516?). The chants for the Mass are written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on a five line staff. This codex is the largest of the St. Gall Abbey library's manuscripts. Originally it was even larger; for re-binding, the pages were severely trimmed, as can be discerned from the folded lower margin on p. 1 or from the trimmed border on p. 444. Binding with heavy fittings on a red velvet background.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
A copy of the so-called Engelberger Predigten. Homilies in German for a variety of occasions during the church year, written in about 1400 in a Dominican cloister, possibly at St. Katharinental near Diessenhofen, where the manuscript was held for several centuries.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
Late medieval prayer book. The first part contains an incomplete Office of the Virgin (fol. 1r-45v) with variants for Advent and for the time period between Christmas and Candlemas (fol. 46r-51v), Absolutions, Benedictions, Orations and other short prayers (fol. 51v-68r). The Office of the Dead (fol. 69r-98v), including Vespers, Vigil, and prayers for the anniversaries of the deaths of priests, abbots and other deceased persons, is followed by prayers of indulgence (fol. 99r-111v). The beginning of the Office of the Virgin as well as possibly a calendar preceding it have been lost. The fact that the patron saints of St. Gall, St. Gall and St. Othmar (fol. 56r-56v; fol. 58r-58v), are the only saints mentioned other than Mary and St. Benedict suggests a provenience from the Monastery of St. Gall. The manuscript is written in Gothic script; it is decorated with numerous initials executed in gold leaf and with colorful vine scrolls in the margins of individual pages. The beginning of the Office of the Dead (fol. 69r) is adorned with a small miniature of a catafalque bordered by two Benedictine monks, one of which is holding a prayer book in his hands. The cut leather binding with the monogram S, created by a master whose name is unknown, is particularly noteworthy. The covers show the two Princes of the Apostles, Peter (front cover, with book and key) and Paul (back cover, with book and sword), surrounded by rich vine scroll ornamentation. The Abbey Library of St. Gall was able to acquire this manuscript in June 2006 at a Christie's auction in New York from the collection of the American brewer Cornelius J. Hauck (1893−1967) from Cincinnati (Ex Libris on the inside front cover).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This Engelberg codex, currently held in Carinthia, typifies the painstaking yet unostentatious method of manuscript production practiced under Abbot Frowin (1143-1178), to whom the volume is dedicated on 1r. At the beginnings of the primary texts are indications for planned initials (1v, 103v), or completed initials in red and black ink (2r), with incipits in red ink. Otherwise there is little book decoration other than a few decorative capitals (including the one at the beginning of the last text on 145r). The artful application of patches to damaged sections of the parchment, typical for Engelberg, is also evident (18, 59, 62, 141, 154).
Online Since: 07/04/2012
This manuscript, as yet almost unknown, contains an epistolary following the Ambrosian Rite. It was commissioned in 1342 by the priest Giacomo de Parazo for a church dedicated to St. Fermo not further identified. This manuscript probably reached Tesserete (Canton of Ticino), an area where the Ambrosian Rite was used, in the 15th/16th century; here it was taken apart and rebound, at which time was added a copy of a testament of dubious authenticity written in 1078 by Contessa from the city of Milan for the benefit of the church of S. Stefano in Tesserete. In the 17th century, the manuscript was the property of the Verdoni family of notaries; since the 20th century, it has been held by the parish of Tesserete. On the initial page, St. Ambrose, the patron saint of the diocese of Milan, is represented in an illuminated initial.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This martirologio-inventario (an annal followed by an inventory of property) of the Church of S. Stefano in Torre in the Blenio Valley in Ticino, was written in 1568 at the request of the vicini (the original members of the municipal corporate body) of Torre and Grumo, in order to replace the older version. It contains the list of annuali, i.e., of the annual celebrations for the death days of deceased members of the Church, the inventory of movable and immovable property, of the monacharia and of the luminaria, that is, the requisites for illuminating the church. At the beginning of the manuscript there is a watercolor drawing of the church patron St. Stephen.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The design concept of this manuscript, both the text and the execution, typify the Parisian 'Horae' tradition of the early 15th century ('Boucicaut-Meister'). The top-level organizational elements in the book's decorative program are seven pages decorated with miniatures; multi-line colorful initials mark the secondary textual divisions. The extremely squared illustrations on the decorated pages include scenes with figures enclosed on three sides by staffs entwined by tendrils with decorative gold, red and blue thorny leaves which completely fill the broad parchment margin. Four lines of text, introduced by a large colorful initial, are inserted between the illustration and the lower decorative staff. The beginning of each of the various offices is marked with such an ornamental page. This book of hours is not only the oldest item in the Carl Meyer collection in the Cantonal Library of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, it is one of its best and most valuable items. It is not know who originally commissioned the manuscript.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
The origin of this manuscript in the northern French-Flemish border region can be determined from its liturgical features, its leather binding with stamped designs and the inscription Robiers Plovrins as well as by a comparison with stylistically similar manuscripts. Another book of hours illustrated by the same artist is held at Claremont near Berkeley, California (USA). This exemplar is a somewhat cruder imitation of the style of scribe and book illustrator Jean Markant, who was quite popular around 1500 in Lille. The commissioner of this volume is unknown.
Online Since: 06/08/2009
A book of hours following the liturgical custom of Rome, with a calendar containing a selection of saints for Langres. The manuscript was illuminated and dated in 1524 by a Master of Bénigne Serre, who was known by the name of his client, a highly-ranked official of the King of Burgundy. The artist was a hitherto unknown illuminator from the circle of the “1520s The Hours Workshop,” which framed the miniatures with Renaissance architecture or added naturalistic flowers and animals to borders. This manuscript contains a number of unusual images, e.g., for the Lauds of the Office of the Virgin, the meeting of Joachim and Anna at the city gate of Jerusalem replaces the usual image of the Visitation. In the 18th century, the manuscript was owned by the family Bretagne of Dijon, whose family members wrote a „Livre de raison“ on several appended pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
After the city council of St. Gall ended the enclosure of the convent of Dominican sisters at St. Katharina on May 2, 1528 and the convent gradually broke up, only Regula Keller and two sisters remained in its buildings, where they continued to work throughout 1543, copying the Augustinian Rule and Constitutions. The reading of the Rule and the Constitutions was more strongly emphasized in the reformed cloisters, in keeping with the character of their religious observance.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains various liturgical and ascetic texts. The volume was written by various more or less practiced hands; one wrote a date .I.5.I.3. with his initials J. ae. (f. 47v), another only his initials J. h. L. (f. 101v). A parchment fragment of a document from the bishop of Konstanz from the year 1441 was used as binding.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This Rituale originated in the Monastery of Münsterlingen (Canton of Thurgovia); it contains a collection of sermons and chants sung by the nuns for processions in the monastery, followed by a long requiem (54v-72v). The latter is introduced by a miniature depicting St. Michael weighing the souls of the dead. The rubrics are written partly in German and partly in Latin. The style of the three initials in the text is associated with the area of Lake Constance. During a restoration around 1973, two sheets of parchment, which originally were glued to the inside cover of the binding, were removed; they come from an lectionary in pre-caroline minuscule, that can be dated to the beginning of the 9th century (Mohlberg: 11th. century).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Breviary in two volumes, created in 1493 for Jost von Silenen († 1498), the Bischop of Sion from 1482 until his dismissal in 1497. Richly decorated, the miniatures are the work of an itinerant artist active in Fribourg, Bern and Sion during the final decades of the 15th century and known by the name Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen. At the beginning of the 16th century, he continued his work in Aosta and Ivrea, where he took the name Master of George of Challant.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
Breviary in two volumes, created in 1493 for Jost von Silenen († 1498), the Bischop of Sion from 1482 until his dismissal in 1497. Richly decorated, the miniatures are the work of an itinerant artist active in Fribourg, Bern and Sion during the final decades of the 15th century and known by the name Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen. At the beginning of the 16th century, he continued his work in Aosta and Ivrea, where he took the name Master of George of Challant.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The present Codex contains the complete text of the Dialogus (ca. 1110–1120) of Petrus Alfonsi, a converted Jew from Huesca (since 1096 Kingdom of Aragon). The Dialogus is a polemic and apologetic work, introducing (for the time) innovative, in view of the author «rational» argumentation against Jewish religion and Islam. The work spread quickly and had significant influence on Christian polemics especially in the 13th and 14th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
This elegant illuminated copy of the Sefer Moreh Nevukhim (Guide to the Perplexed) by Moses Maimonides was produced in Christian Spain in 1292. It is a copy of the Hebrew translation of the work made in 1204 by Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon (1150-1230). The manuscript arrived in Italy either after the Jewish persecutions of 1391 or the ensuing expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula in 1492. It was in the possession of the renowned Bolognese Sforno family before reappearing in the early 17th century in the hands of the Italian Jewish apostate and inquisitor Renato da Modena. After more than a century, the manuscript reappeared in the possession of Johann Caspar Ulrich (1705-1768) a Protestant theologian, who donated it in 1762 to the Bibliotheca Ecclesia Carolina, the chapter library of the reformed Grossmünster church of Zurich. In 1835, when the chapter was dissolved, the books and manuscripts of the chapter library became part of the new Cantonal Library in Zurich. Finally in 1917, the holdings of this library, among others, formed the new Zentralbibliothek, where the manuscript still remains today.
Online Since: 03/19/2020
This well-preserved pocket-sized Siddur, enclosing the statutory prayers of the Jewish liturgical year (daily, sabbath and new month prayers, Ḥanukkah, Purim, Pessaḥ, Shavuot, Rosh ha-Shanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret), is a precious witness of the production of these small prayer books for personal use in 15th- century Italy.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Illuminated biblical and ethical miscellany produced in Italy in 1322. This small format manuscript, with an exquisite 16th-century white leather binding blindstamped with the coat of arms of the city of Zurich, is divided into two groups of texts. The first section is made up of the biblical texts of the Five Megillot, accompanied by three commentaries on them, composed by the great medieval scholars, Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), Avraham ibn Ezra and Joseph Qara. The second section is of ethical nature and consists in the Mishna tractate of the Pirqei Avot or Ethics of the Fathers and its commentaries. The first is an anonymous one ; the second is entitled Shemonah Peraqim by Maimonides, as translated by Samuel ibn Tibbon, and the third is a commentary by Rashi placed in the margins of the latter. In addition, this handbook is interspersed with aggadic, midrashic, mystical and philosophical material.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This pocket format 15th century Hebrew Book of Psalms from Ashkenaz, is representative of private use hand copies, which are more seldom preserved in separate textual units rather than incorporated in the Hagiographs section of Hebrew bibles and liturgical manuscripts. Nonetheless, this genre of biblical literature is already attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Additionaly, Ms Or. 159 contains 149 Psalms, rather than the canonical 150, which is only one among many configurations found in early and late medieval Hebrew manuscripts, enclosing between 143 and 151 Psalms. Lastly, two medieval Hebrew manuscript fragments of an Esther Scroll have been reused as flyleaves for the 16th century leather tooled binding, protecting this little exquisite Book of Psalms.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This richly illustrated manuscript of Rudolf von Ems' Chronicle of the world was written in the 1340s, probably in Zurich (in the same writing workshop as the 1346 book of statutes of the Zurich Grossmünster). Its iconographic program is closely related to that of the Chronicle of the World currently held in St. Gall (Vadian Collection Ms. 302). Ms. Rh. 15 came to Zurich in 1863 from the library of the dissolved Rheinau Abbey.
Online Since: 03/29/2019