This small-format composite manuscript is decorated simply; it is from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, probably from the library of the lay brothers. It is written in various 15th century hands and contains Penitential Psalms, meditations, liturgical texts, a spiritual treatise, prayers and poems to Mary; judging by the signs of wear, the manuscript was used intensively.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This composite volume, originally composed of ten fascicles, was at least partly written in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. One of the writers is Hans Lesser, a brother from St. Gallen. The small-format manuscript was part of the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel and contains various German-language prayers and devotional texts, some of which refer explicitly to the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This small-format manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains prayers to and about the saints and martyrs Margaret of Antioch, Barbara of Nicomedia and Catherine of Alexandria. The Meditationes were composed by the Carthusian Henricus Arnoldi of Basel; the small-format manuscript was written by his fellow monk Johannes Gipsmüller.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
The first part of this composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains Aristotle's writing on the soul, De anima, in William of Moerbeke's translation, copied in Paris in 1459 by the scholar Johannes Heynlin. The main text, decorated with artistic initials with gold leaf as well as fleuronné initials, is closely surrounded by commentary in marginal and interlinear glosses, written in a small, compact semi-Gothic script. Bound into this volume as the second part is Aristotle's De animalibus, printed in Venice in 1476; this text's uncharacteristic lack of decoration at least raises the question of whether it was also part of Heynlin's library.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This legal manuscript was owned by the Basel jurist Arnold Zum Luft (1453-1517). The manuscript was produced in Bologna in the second half of the 13th century and contains the Digestum vetus, the first part of the tradition regarding existing laws, dating from late antiquity, together with the explanatory glosses compiled by Franciscus Accursius. In addition to Arabic and Roman numerals, the manuscript also presents a vigesimal numeral system.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Like C I 1, this 14th century legal manuscript was produced in Bologna and was owned by Arnold Zum Luft (1453-1517). It contains the Digestum novum with Accursius' glosses, i.e., the fourth and last part of the corpus of the Digest of ancient Roman legal literature. The manuscript is richly decorated with title miniatures and figure initials.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This manuscript, written by several Northern Italian hands, contains the Lectura super codicem by the legal scholar Guilelmus de Cugno or Cuneo, who gave lectures in Toulouse in 1316-1317. The original must have been divided into quires, at least there are annotations in the manuscript that are similar to those of the pecia system. In 1383, this volume was owned by a converted Jew in Trier; later it became part of the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This 14th century parchment manuscript contains the commentaries of the legal expert and canonist Johannes Andreae (around 1270-1348) on the Liber Sextus Decretalium Bonifacii, the third part of the Corpus iuris canonici. The volume came into the possession of the Carthusian monastery of Basel during the Council (1431-1449).
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Canonistic manuscript with Dominicus de Sancto Geminiano's Lectura super librum sextum Decretalium. This volume was written in 1439 by Johannes Berwenstein for Peter Zum Luft, who was teaching at the university of the Council of Basel and who later left his extensive book collection to his nephew Arnold Zum Luft.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This manuscript from the second quarter of the 15th century contains the Lectura super Clementinas by Johannes de Imola; it is from the extensive library of the Basel jurist Arnold Zum Luft (1453-1517). This volume, originally a catenatus, contains initials by the same hand as in C I 21.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
For efficiency, writings of law and canon law were often copied using the pecia system, where a model was divided into quires and distributed to several copyists. In the same manner, this commentary on the decretals by ”Abbas antiquus“, only later identified as Bernardus de Montemirato, was created in three pieces. The sparingly decorated manuscript is written in a littera bononiensis and was owned by the library of the Carthusian monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript, a composite manuscript of legal content, has as its main text the Summa super rubricis decretalium by the Italian legal scholar Godefridus de Trano (deceased 1245). This is a textbook on the Compilation of Decretals commissioned by Pope Gregory IX, which was widely distributed. The text is decorated with five small figure initials, probably of French origin.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This volume, written in littera parisiensis in the middle of the 13th century, contains Avicenna's De anima in a translation by John of Seville, as well as parts from the Metaphysica, translated by Dominicus Gundissalinus. It also contains the first two books from part 2 of Al-Gazali's libri metaphysicae et physicae, also in a translation by Dominicus Gundissalinus. This manuscript came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel as part of the book collection of Johannes Heynlin, who had purchased the manuscript in 1461.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The core of this manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel is a copy of the Flores temporum, a Latin world chronicle from the 13th century that was widely used in Alemannic areas. The copyist, Nicolaus Gerung de Blauenstein, supplemented this chronicle with a self-written, partly German appendix on events from the region around Basel as well as a chronicle of the Basel bishops. Shorter texts such as treatises on councils or on the Carthusian order and lists of emperors, cathedrals, kingdoms and languages in various parts of the world round off the collection.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript from the first half of the 15th century contains the German Chronicle of Jakob Twinger von Königshofen (Chap. 6, 1-5), the Rötteln Chronicle, and the Libellus de magnificentia ducis Burgundia in Treveris visa conscriptus (German). It served as model for the University Library Basel's manuscript E I 1h. Later it was the property of the Amerbach family.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This manuscript, although incomplete due to leaf loss, contains the Alexander novel by the German-Bohemian poet Ulrich von Etzenbach (c. 13th century). The text was written in 1322, presumably in Bavaria or Austria judging by the dialect characteristics. The elaborate decoration with initials at the beginning of the individual books shows Upper Rhine characteristics as they also appear in Lower Austria at the beginning of the 14th century. In the margins, there are numerous 19th century explanations of words as well as annotations by Johann Jakob Spreng (1699-1768), who copied the manuscript in the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript from the first half of the 15th century contains the German Chronicle by Jakob Twinger von Königshofen (chap. 1-3, 5) and the Anonymous Bernese Chronicle (truncated due to loss of pages). Both texts are preceded by a comprehensive table of contents. The manuscript later was the property of the Amerbach family.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
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 manuscript, of French origin, came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel after having been the property of Johannes Heynlin. The massive volume contains Aristotle's six works on logic, some with commentary, which were assembled into the so-called “Organon“ only after the time of Aristotle. The decoration and science are complementary: each of the books of the main text begins with an elaborate ornamental initial; the commentary, if there is one, is grouped closely around the main text and is mostly unadorned.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This 14th century manuscript, possibly produced by means of the Pecia System, contains the Super ethica and De causis et processu universitatis by Albertus Magnus. The Pecia System is a method for the quick handwritten reproduction of an original: instead of copying the text as a whole, it is divided into several sections so that several scribes could simultaneously work on creating a copy. This volume belonged to the Dominican Johannes Tagstern and thus became part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel was written by various hands; it contains primarily astrological writings, among them texts by Abraham ibn Esra, Al-Zarkali and Hermes Trismegistus translated from the Arabic, Hebrew and Greek. In the margin of f. 120r there is a blessing against worms, on f. 145v medical advice in a blend of German and Latin. In addition to handwritten parts, the volume also contains three prints. One of the two original leather clasps is still intact.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
Since the 9th century, Aristotle's Historia animalium, an orderly description of various creatures, had been available in an Arabic translation, which Michael Scotus translated into Latin in 1220. The decoration of the initials in this manuscript, which Johannes Heynlin purchased in Paris and bequeathed to the Carthusian monastery of Basel, is rich in drolleries. Throughout the volume, there are annotations by various hands.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript was written by Johannes Heynlin during his time in Paris between 1469 and 1471. It contains three "classic works for education", the (annotated) Bucolics, the Georgics, and the Aeneid by Virgil, as well as a whole series of pseudo-Virgilian works. The volume is finely decorated with figural initials from a Parisian studio with scenes from Virgil's works. The manuscript was probably bound in Basel, perhaps at the instigation of the Carthusian monastery, into whose possession it came when Heynlin entered the monastery.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
One of the Isidore codices from the Monastery of Fulda; it survived because it reached Basel in the 16th century, before the library's destruction in the Thirty Years' War. There it apparently served as a possible textual source for a planned edition of Isidore's works. The codex consists of several parts. A German Anglo-Saxon manuscript from the second half of the 8th century containing the second book of Isidore's Synonyma was supplemented in the first third of the 9th century, probably in Fulda, with the first book of the same work by Isidore. Very early already, this was bound together with another item containing Admonitio ad filium spiritualem by Pseudo-Basilius as well as various excerpts, which probably were also written in Fulda around 800.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
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. The codex originated in England in the 8th century and retains its binding from the 8th or 9th century in a parchment cover. It is considered one of the most important textual witnesses of Isidore's De natura rerum.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript, written in a 13th century textura, was the property of the cleric and historian Dietrich von Niem (1340-1418), who provided it with numerous marginal notes. The volume, which was passed on to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, contains, among others, Seneca's Naturales quaestiones, the discussion Cur deus homo? by Anselm of Canterbury, and the astrological work De radiis stellarum by the Arab philosopher and scientist Alkindi. It also contains the article De probatione virginitatis beatae Mariae from the so-called "Suda", a Byzantine encyclopedia widely used in the Latin translation by Roberto Grosseteste.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
Probably written in Schongau and later acquired by the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, this volume is part of the vast tradition in manuscript and in print form of the so-called Vocabularius Ex quo. This alphabetically ordered dictionary was intended as a resource for users with limited knowledge of Latin and remained enormously popular in the German-speaking region until the end of the 16th century.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This French manuscript from the third quarter of the 15th century contains two works from ancient times. Nonius Marcellus (4th/5th century) offers linguistic and factual explanations on Latin authors mainly from the time of the Republic, partly in alphabetically-ordered lemmas; M. Terentius Varro († 27 BC) addresses linguistic questions concerning the Latin language.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Various Aristotelian writings in the Latin translation of Boethius as well as treatises by Boethius, written in a small 13th century script; they were bound together with two 15th century additions, probably for the scholar Johannes Heynlin from Basel, who bequeathed the volume to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. Noteworthy for codicological reasons are the back pastedown and flyleaf, a parchment leaf that had been prepared for a prayer book. It consists of two bifolios with upside down text that should have been folded before binding, as was usual for printed sheets. However, the two bifolios were excluded and were not used in the prayer book; therefore there are no pinholes in the fold.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Pierre d'Ailly (Latin: Petrus de Alliaco) was a scholar, church politician and productive writer. His geographic work Imago mundi became famous; Christopher Columbus used it in order to plan his voyages of discovery. This Basel exemplar belonged to the city physician of Basel, Heinrich Amici († 1451), who bequeathed it to his city's Carthusian monastery.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This volume contains texts that are related to late medieval, early humanistic school practice; i.e. on the one hand, works intended for school practice (grammars, word lists) and on the other hand, theoretical treatises of didactic-pedagogical content. This volume, bound at the Carthusian monastery of Basel, brings together several originally independent parts. The first part, the prose version of Alexander of Villedieu's versified grammar, is from the Carthusian monastery of Mainz and was donated to the Carthusian monastery of Basel. The last part, the grammar of Giovanni Sulpizio, here in a version printed by Johannes Amerbach, came to the monastery library as a gift from the printer.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
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
This large-format 11th century manuscript by Martianus Capella transmits the first two books of his work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, one of the most widely-read books of the Middle Ages, together with Remigius of Auxerre's commentary, which was written for instruction. Noteworthy is the contemporaneous original binding: the quires are attached to the parchment cover with thin strips of parchment (cf. Szirmai).
Online Since: 03/19/2015
As its main part, this manuscript, completed in 1474 by Henricus de Bacharach, contains a copy of the widely transmitted Latin-German Vocabularius Ex quo, which was very popular through the end of the 16th century; in addition, it contains a calendar, an astrological table and several short texts by other hands. The main text was decorated by the scribe himself with naive but partly very imaginative initials and drawings. This paper codex came to the UB (Basel University Library) along with the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Composite manuscript of philosophical content, owned by Jakob Lauber and even partially written by him. Jakob Lauber from Lindau studied at the then newly founded University of Basel from 1466 until 1475, first in the Faculty of Arts, then canon law in the Faculty of Law. After serving as rector for a short period, he entered the Carthusian Monastery of Basel in 1477; as its prior from 1480 on, he expanded it significantly and reorganized its library. When he entered the monastery, Lauber's library became the property of the monastery.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This worn paper manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains several treatises (in part with commentaries) for calculating the annual calendar, in particular for determining the movable holidays, such as the Computus chirometralis of Johannes of Erfurt or the Computus Nerembergensis. In addition, the volume contains a series of Old Frisian and Low German texts: sermons for weddings, recipes, a Latin-German glossary, as well as a short version of the “niederdeutsche Apokalypse”.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This manuscript, which was written in part by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide and which came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel with him, contains Johannes de Fonte's florilegium Auctoritates Aristotelis, a collection of quotations in alphabetical order, two anonymous treatises, as well as treatises by the Franciscan Francis of Meyronnes, by the pseudo John Duns Scotus and by Johannes Breslauer de Braunsberg. A print (5 leaves) of the Tractatus de memoria augenda by Matheolus Perusinus is also bound into this volume.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
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
The extensively glossed Rhetorica ad Herennium in the front part of this composite manuscript was copied by Johannes Heynlin, who also brought this book with him to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. The text from the 1st century BC represents the oldest surviving theory of rhetoric in Latin; it was very popular during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as attested by a vast tradition of more than 100 manuscripts as well as translations into numerous European languages. The volume transmits principles of rhetoric that have remained valid until to this day.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Leaf from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Chuniberti, the Vita s. Trudonis and the Vita s. Severini; they were probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel(1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 3rd volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
Bifolio from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the volume's front matter (calendar for the month of June, an editorial introduction, and indexes for the months of May and June). The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
Bifolio from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the volume's front matter (calendar for the month of December). The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 3rd volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
Mutilated bifolio from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the vita of Boniface by Otloh of St Emmeram and was probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
These twelve leaves are what have survived from a large-format gradual that was produced around 1460 in the Upper Rhine region (probably in Basel); they contain chants for the mass, changing according to the liturgical year. The decoration with initials and miniatures (e.g., the birth of Christ, the entry into Jerusalem, or the depiction of the resurrection) refer to the respective liturgical holiday, whereas the initial for Ecce advenit dominator dominus wrongly depicts the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Its decoration places this gradual in the later circle of the so-called “Vullenhoe-group”.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This composite manuscript of theological content originally belonged to the patrician family Gossembrot of Augsburg (late 15th century); via Johannes Oporin († 1568), Eusebius Merz († 1616) and Remigius Faesch († 1667), it finally became part of the university library of Basel in 1823. Except for a single remaining woodcut, various miniatures and woodcuts pasted into the manuscript have been torn out.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
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
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. 27 is partially glossed; at one time it contained 31 superb miniatures, of which today twenty have been lost.
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 manuscript was created in Fleury; the first page is magnificently decorated with two large interlace initials, which represent a special type of insular decorative art. In addition to smaller pieces, this composite manuscript contains the epic poem De bello civili (Parsalia) by Lucan (middle of the 1st century) as well as a version of the Orestes myth by the African poet Dracontius (5th century). For the latter, this codex constitutes by far the oldest textual witness. The beginning of Lucan's text by is provided with an abundance of scholia; because of Cod. 370, which contains only scholia, they are known as the Commenta Bernensia.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
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
This composite manuscript contains a total of 21 texts of Old French literature; in part these are unique records that survive only in this manuscript. The major part consists of romances from the great saga cycles such as the Garin le Loherain, Perceval, etc., which often comprise several thousand verses; the manuscript also contains several prose chronicles such as Ernoul's history of the crusades and other smaller pieces of varied content. The manuscript is richly illustrated with several hundred large initials; it probably originated in Picardy.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
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
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 manuscript, which originated in the Benedictine Abbey St. Trinité de Fécamp, contains various works by Augustine: De opere monachorum; De fide et operibus; Contra Donatistas; De bono virginitatis; De bono conjugali; De bono viduitatis; De symbolo bono (sermo 215); De oratione dominica (sermo 56). The manuscript is significant as important testimony of French manuscript illumination of the 11th century as well as, due to its history, of the exchange of manuscripts among Norman monasteries.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This magnificent complete edition of the works of Virgil (Bucolics, Georgics, Aeneid) was given to the Benedictine Monastery of St. Martin in Tours by the Levite Berno (note and book curse on f. 1v). Virgil's text is interspersed with numerous commentaries (scholia) from late antiquity by Servius and Donatus, which have been transmitted in this form almost exclusively in manuscripts from the Bongarsiana collection. However, Cod. 165 does not present the true Scholia Bernensia as in Cod. 167 und Cod. 172, but rather a collection by various scholiasts which was compiled in Tours — hence the name Scholia Turonensia.
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
The manuscript contains the second part of the Chronicle of Eusebius in the Latin translation and continuation of Jerome. The tables, generally laid out as double pages, are in the majority of cases condensed onto a single page. The book decoration is a superb example of pre-Carolingian manuscript illustration from the Frankish Empire and Northern Italy. From the detailed information on the title page, one can deduce that the text was written in 699; the Bernese Chronicle of Eusebius therefore is Switzerland's oldest dated manuscript.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This late 13th or early 14th century fragment of a French Trouvère manuscript probably was once part of the same codex as Paris, BN français 765. It contains 20 chansons, among them 14 by Thibaut de Champagne; all chansons are attested in a parallel version. 14 songs include square notation.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
The Arba'ah Turim is a work of legal nature and is divided into four books, the first of which is found in MS Cod. 253 is the Tur Oraḥ Ḥayim or ‘Path of Life' and encloses laws on daily Jewish practices of blessings (i.e. washing hands in the morning, tefilin, tsitsit), prayer and laws on the Sabbath, festivals and Torah readings. This section also includes aspects of the Hebrew calendar relative to the annual liturgy.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
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
A very interesting, completely edited and corrected manuscript of the three books of the Sententiae by Isidore of Seville. Compared to the main tradition, the form of the text is substantially different and contains numerous transpositions and additions. The manuscript was written at the Abbey of Saint-Mesmin, Micy, as evidenced by ownership labels (ex libris) written along the text area of each quire. In the middle there is a subsequently inserted binion (11th century), which contains, among others, parts of the Sermones by Fulbert of Chartres.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Physiologus is an early Christian collection of naturalistic and allegorical descriptions from which the medieval beastiaries are derived. Bern Cod. 318, which originated in the School of Rheims, contains, in addition to the Physiologus (fol. 7r-22v), the life of St. Simeon (fol. 1r-5r), the so-called “Chronicle of Fredegar” (fol. 23r-125r) as well as a pericope from the Gospel of Matthew with Latin translation by Ephraem of Syria (fol. 125v-130r). Owners of the manuscript included the humanists Pierre Daniel and Jacques Bongars, among whose library holdings this manuscript came to Bern in 1632.
Online Since: 07/04/2012
This manuscript is famous primarily for its rich collection of Old French Fabliaux, a considerable number of which survive only in this manuscript; it also is considered among the most important textual witnesses for the fragment of the Sept sages de Rome and for Perceval. Because of its great importance to French poetry, it was lent to Paris at the beginning of the 19th century, was temporarily lost, and had to be re-bought by the municipal library of Bern at great expense in 1836.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
A manuscript consistiting of three production units. The first two were copied in Paris, probably around the end of the 15th century, by the famous professor of Greek, Georgius Hermonymus of Sparta (†1511-1516). They contain prayers and liturgical pieces, particularly from the Abbey of Saint Denis in France, including an as yet apparently unpublished translation of a Mass formula for Saints Dionysius, Rusticus and Elutherius into Greek. The last part, an addition to the others, is the work of a single hand, very similar in appearance to that of Hermonymous, perhaps that of one of his pupils.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
Bifolium from a manuscript of Ambrose's Hexameron from the Upper Rhine area/Switzerland, later used as a book binding material. Provenance and acquisition of the fragment are unknown.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single sheet of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volume perhaps came into the possession of the Sterner family in Biel and further to Bern via the antiquarian bookshop Max Müller (BBB Mss.h.h.XXXIV.35).
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Single sheet of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volume perhaps came into the possession of the Sterner family in Biel and further to Bern via the antiquarian bookshop Max Müller (BBB Mss.h.h.XXXIV.35).
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Important remnants of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volumes perhaps as part of a bequest of books by the Venner [standard bearer] Jürg Schöni in 1534, became part of the Bern library. Around 1945, Johannes Lindt detached the fragments from the host volumes.
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Important remnants of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volumes perhaps as part of a bequest of books by the Venner [standard bearer] Jürg Schöni in 1534, became part of the Bern library. Around 1945, Johannes Lindt detached the fragments from the host volumes.
Online Since: 07/14/2021
The two fragments come from the previous binding of Cod. 125, from which they were removed during restoration; presumably they contain parts of a plenarium with musical notation.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Fragment from a choir book with neumes (Proprium Sanctorum) for Benedictines in the Diocese of Constance, with a large initial H for the Matins of Candlemas (f. 1vb). This leaf is from a manuscript that was perhaps produced in Engelberg for the monastery of Augustinian Canons Regular at Interlaken; since the 16th century it served as the cover of a book of accounts in Meiringen. In 1940 it was acquired by the City Library of Bern through an exchange with the State Archives of Bern.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Single leaf with a splendid initial from a richly illustrated manuscript of Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates Iudaicae from the monastery of Engelberg; around 1600 it was sold by Abbot Andreas Hersch or Abbot Melchior Kitz to the Zurich bookseller and bookbinder Johann Felix Haller (active 1603-1637) and was then used by him as manuscript waste for a historical work by Hans Felix Grob the Younger (1572-1653). It is unclear when this volume reached the City Library of Bern and when it was assigned the shelf mark Mss.h.h.XXIa.25; the binding manuscript waste was removed by Johann Lindt in 1941.
Online Since: 07/02/2020
Monumental Bible in one volume, which reveals Spanish tradition and which is related to the so-called ‘Theodulf-Bibles.' At the beginning there is a binio with the coena nuptialis in the version of Rabanus Maurus. Inserted into the text are a version of the Sibylline Oracles, a vita of John, as well as an oath regarding the rights of the church and a catalog of the bishops of Vienne; at the end are remnants of the Psalmi iuxta Hebraeos. The greater part of the manuscript's many initials has been cut out.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This Österreichische Chronik der 95 Herrschaften was copied around 1479 by Clemens Specker in Königsfelden Monastery. It is followed by a song about the War of Aargau, texts about King Frederick III, Konrad Pfettisheim's story of Peter von Hagenbach, a song about Charles the Bold, the Swiss Annals by Clemens Specker, as well as pasted woodcuts of the Nine Worthies. It is richly decorated with miniatures and coats of arms. A copy of Cod. A 45 from 1597 can be found in BBB Mss.h.h.VI.74. After the dissolution of the monastery, the codex passed into private hands in Bern in 1528, and in the 17th/18th century, it became part of the Stadtbibliothek of Bern.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Large-format bifolium from a manuscript of Dioscorides that was probably produced in Fleury. Other parts of it are conserved in Paris, BnF, lat. 9332. The script and decoration display Insular characteristics. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Ten leaves from a manuscript in two parts containing the medical treatises of Isaac Judaeus and Johannes Afflacius. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Four bifolia from a manuscript probably produced in Eastern France, containing a collection of greco-latin glossaries whose central part is transmitted in this form only here. This fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the bequest of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium of a latin glossary of the type beginning with Abstrusa, probably from Septimania. The fragment, written in a Western Gothic minuscule, contains a beautiful decorated initial G on f. 2va; in 1632 it came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Two bifolia from a manuscript produced in France containing Horace's Odes; on f. 1r there is a collection of Latin sayings. The fragment came to Bern in 1632 from the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Three bifolia of a humanistic manuscript perhaps produced in Italy. This beautifully illuminated fragment contains the beginning of Cicero's De amicitia and came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium from a manuscript produced in France. The fragment contains the accessus to Cicero's De amicitia as well as the beginning of a glossed version of Horace's Ars poetica. It came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Two bifolia from a manuscript produced in France. The fragment contains, in addition to Walter Map's Praedicatio Goliae and the beginning of Hugh of Saint Victor's De quinque septenis, one or two homilies that have not yet been identified. The fragment came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Three large-format leaves from a manuscript produced in Eastern France and containing the Instituta coenobiorum of John Cassian. The fragment, probably taken from a medieval book binding, came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
18 leaves (two whole quires and one bifolium) from a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Vauluisant. Additional parts of the manuscript are in Paris, BnF latin 2820. The fragment contains the end of Aelred of Rievaulx's Compendium speculi caritatis and the beginning of Alcuin's Compendium in cantica canticorum. In 1632, it came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Two bifolia from a manuscript produced in France and containing the last part of Petrus Alphonsi's Disciplina clericalis. In 1632, it came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
7 leaves of a manuscript probably produced in Eastern France and containing Peter Lombard's Prologus in Isaiam and other prologues to various biblical books. In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Sixteen leaves (= two whole quires) from a manuscript probably produced in France and containing Bernard of Pavia's Summa decretalium. In 1632, the fragment, illuminated in the Cistercian style, came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
5 bifolia (=1 quire) from a manuscript produced in France and containing the beginning of Constantine the African's Viaticus. In 1632, the simply-decorated fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium from a magnificently-illuminated manuscript produced in France and containing Boethius' Institutio musica, which once was in the library of the Sorbonne, as attested by the other parts of the same manuscript in Paris, BnF latin 16652 (olim Sorbonne 909). In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
An extensive part (18 leaves) of a large-format homiliary, probably coming from the Loire area, and decorated with various initials in a Romanesque style. The leaves, which belong to at least three different quires, are today heavily damaged and bound together. In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars. In the 20th century, a leaf was lost and was found again in Zurich in 1944.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
A single leaf in two halves from a manuscript probably produced in the Metz region and containing Gregory the Great's Homiliae in Evangelia; another part of the manuscript can be found in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 168 (flyleaf). In 1632, the fragment, with a beautiful initial, came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Former flyleaf of Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 111, an anthology with saints' lives from the Cistercian abbey of Pontiffroy (Moselle départment). In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars and was detached from its host volume probably between 1854 and 1875.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium of a manuscript probably produced in the area of Soissons, which contained a Marian miracle of Hugo Farsitus as well as an excerpt of the Vitae patrum. According to an ownership mark, the bifolium was later in the Carthusian monastery of Arvières-en-Valromey (Ain). In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Fragment of a panegyric on Queen Blanche of Navarre (1331–1398), consisting of almost 400 verses. The author Robin Comtet - who mentions himself toward the end of the piece - is not otherwise known. The poem seems to have been preserved only in this copy and has not yet been published.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Single leaf of a manuscript probably produced in Micy with the miracles of saint Maximinus. The fragment subsequently belonged to Pierre Daniel and later came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Bifolium of a Liber poenitentialis, not further identified, probably produced in Eastern France. It contains parts of book 24, as suggested by the running number written in the upper margin. In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
Four bifolia (perhaps 1 quire) containing parts of the statutes of the Parisian confraternity of the Twelve Apostles. Due to the unusual writing, there have been some uncertainties regarding the classification and dating of the text. In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021