A superior quality St. Gallen copy of the work De fide ad Gratianum contra perfidiam Arrianorum from the 9th century, from the original by the early church Father Ambrose (about 339 - 397). The 9th century Carolingian binding remains intact.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the exegesis of the Gospel of Matthew by the Church Father Jerome († 420). This codex, produced during the second half of the 8th century at the Abbey of St. Gall and written partly in Insular Minuscule, begins (pp. 3 and 6) with an Antiphon (?) with neumes, continues with the Our Father in Latin and five Latin alphabets; the last page contains a pen test with neumes. Corrections and additions to the text are inserted on sewn-in strips of parchment.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This composite manuscript from the monastery ofSt. Gall consists of three originally independent parts. It contains 1) a 10th century copy of the exegesis of the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians by the Church Father Augustine; 2) a 12th century copy of the Contra haeresim cuiusdam Berengarii by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury († 1079); as well as 3) a copy of the book "The Shepherd of Hermas" (Liber pastoris) by St. Hermas (2nd century A.D.), written in the second half of the 9th or the first half of the 10th century.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A copy of lessons or disquisitions 55 through 124 by Augustine on the Gospel of John, made at the Abbey of St. Gall in about 900.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
The main content of this codex is a copy of sermons on the Gospel of John by the church father Augustine, produced sometime after 800. In the front is a Latin version with neumes of the now lost Old High German "Galluslied" (the translation into Latin was done by the monk Ekkehart IV in the first half of the 11th century), originally composed by the monk Ratpert before the year 900. In the back are verses by Ekkehart IV about the paintings in the Romanesque cloister walk at St. Gall. Includes textual glosses by Ekkehart IV.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of Augustine's work Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri II, written during the second half of the 9th century, probably at the Abbey of St. Gall. In the year 2009, a strip containing a portion of text from the Vetus-Latina version of the Gospels from the early 5th century was detached from page 258 of this codex; it is now included with other fragments from the same original manuscript in Cod. Sang. 1394 (pp. 51-88).
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This codex consists mainly of copies of letters written by the church father Augustine († 430), produced in the second half of the 9th century, possibly in Mainz. A small section at the front and some pages at the end, however, were produced in the 11th century, during the tenure of Ekkehart IV († um 1060), in the Cloister of St. Gall; these sections contain a Latin version of the Old High German "Galluslied" (originally written by the St. St. Gall monk Ratpert), translated by Ekkehart IV, and various excerpts of mathematical and astronomical content.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the work De vita contemplativa by the Gallic priest Julianus Pomerius (5th c.), incorrectly ascribed to Prosper of Aquitaine, produced in the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall, in part by the monk Rihpertus, who included his name in a secret script.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Gregory the Great, 22 homilies on the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. Copy dating from the time of Hartmut (dean ca. 850-872).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A carefully written manuscript of the Dialogi of Gregorius Magnus (p. 2-417). P. 1 contains a table of contents and pen tests with neumes. Decorated intials on p. 2, 78, 156, 279. The manuscript contains four Alemannic textual glosses. It was probably read from during meals and shows signs of heavy usage, especially in Book II (the life of Benedict).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The Book of Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis) by Gregory the Great, St. Gall copy dating from around 800, bound in a splendid enamel binding from Limoges dating from around 1210/30.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Incomplete copy of the widely distributed Book of Pastoral Care Regula pastoralis by Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), written by several hands in Carolingian minuscule toward the end of the 9th century, probably in the Monastery of St. Gall. Various pages were already missing around 1553/64. The manuscript contains numerous Old High German glosses and several Latin glosses, which were added in St. Gall. At the very front, on a page with pen trials, a skillful hand from the late 10th century wrote the hymn Felix mater Constantia in honor of Pelagius, patron saint of the city of Constance.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Copy of Pope Gregory the Great's Regula pastoralis, carefully written by a practiced hand at the monastery ofSt. Gall around the middle of the 9th century. The manuscript contains a great number of glosses in Latin and Old High German made by quill and stylus.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
School manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall. A collection of works: diverse (often glossed) early medieval educational texts from the 8th to the 11th century (Aldhelm of Malmesbury, Aenigmata, Sedulius, Carmen paschale) and – preserved only here – the Stephanus hymn by Notker Balbulus and a musical treatise in Old High German by Notker the German.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Collection of Astronomical-computistical tables and charts with high-quality pen drawings of the constellations.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A copy of the commentary by the Venerable Bede (d. 735) on the Canonical Letters, produced in about 900 at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This composite manuscript from the 9th century was probably produced in Tours. It contains various theological works by Alcuin of York (around 730-804): De virtutibus et vitiis; De fide sanctae et individuae trinitatis; De trinitate et ad Fredegisum quaestiones XXVIII; De animae ratione ad Eulaliam virginem. Also included in the manuscript are the Epitaphium Alcuini (carm. 123) and Alcuin's Carmen 112 Dum sedeas laetus (an inscription for an unknown abbey church), which has been preserved only in this manuscript. On p. 245 there is a brief historical note regarding Charlemagne's Divisio Regnorum from 806. This note is written in the same hand as Alcuin's Carmen 112 and contains a reference to the date of the writing: Anno dcccvi ab incarnatione domini indictione xiiii anno xxxviii regnante karolo imperatore viii idus februarii die veneris divisum est regnum illius iter filiis suis quantum unusquis post illum habet et ego alia die hoc opus perfeci. On p. 247 there is a pen trial of the antiphon Quid vobis videtur de Christo? Cuius filius est? (Hesbert, Corpus antiphonalium officii, no. 4533), the first four words of which are marked with neumes.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The manuscript consists of two codices bound together (p. 1-149 and 150-279). The first part dates from the second half of the 9th century, the second from the middle of the 9th century. The volume was privately owned by the St. Gall Abbot Grimald (841-872); however, it was probably written not in St. Gall, but at least in part at a scriptorium in the southern region of Germany. It contains various works by Alcuin of York (about 730-804): De fide sanctae et individuae trinitatis; De trinitate et ad Fredegisum quaestiones XXVIII; De animae ratione ad Eulaliam virginem; Dialogus de rhetorica et de virtutibus (with diagrams p. 210-217); De Dialectica (with diagram p. 270). The codex further contains excerpts (chapters 2-11) from De perfectione iustitiae hominis by the Church Father Augustine (in the codex under the titel Adnotatio interrogationum caelesti pelagiani et responsionum sancti augustini). On p. 148 there is a 13th century pen trial of the alleluia Conversus Iesus ad mariam dixit ei fides tua te salvum fecit vade in pace (with neumes); on p. 218 (11th/12th century) the antiphon Conspicit in celis mens prudens Ezechielis (with neumes) as well as the responsorium Martir sancta dei quae flagrans igne fidei (without neumes). On p. 271 there is the figure of a man with sword and shield etched with a stylus; an almost identical figure can be found in Cod. Sang. 175, p. 356 (there as a pen sketch).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Latin biblical glossary (Latin terms explained in Latin), written in a Carolingian minuscule script in about 900, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall. There are numerous quill tests at the beginning and the end of the glossary.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This volume consists of two more or less equally old codices. On pp. 3-94, the first codex collects glosses on Genesis and on Leviticus, drawing on patristic sources such as the works of Gregory the Great and Augustine, as well as on the Leviticus commentary by Hesychius of Jerusalem. On pp. 95-279, the second codex contains an anonymous commentary on Matthew. Several initials are multicolored, e.g., p. 278, p. 279. In the 14th century, a table of contents was added on the last page, p. 280, which had originally been left blank.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
The second part of the commentary on the Psalms, Expositio super psalmos, by Walahfrid Strabo (808/09-849), scholar and Abbot of Reichenau with commentaries on Psalms 77 through 150; produced at the abbey of St. Gall around the year 1000.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A collection of liturgical materials, containing computational texts and tables, a breviary with incipits of the spoken and chanted texts for the Mass for the principal feast days of Saints, a gradual with neumes and a sacramentary. Illustrated with several miniatures, executed in the monastery of St. Gall around 850. Between two sections, on page 304: Old High German confession and creed ("St. Galler Glauben und Beichte III").
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Antiphonary, dating from around the year 1000, with Calendar and Gradual (written and provided with fine neumes probably by the monk Hartker), Ordo Missae and Sacramentary. An invaluable monument of music history.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted Sacramentary of St. Gall from the time of Abbot Norpert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass. With Calendar, Gradual and Sacramentary, illustrations include five full-page, high-quality miniatures of the principal feast days of the liturgical year (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Earliest complete extant gradual of St. Gall. The different parts of the manuscript date from different periods. Illustrated with numerous initials and several pen drawings (especially in the Sacramentary part).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This plenary missal, produced in St. Gall, which contains all chants and prayers of the Mass, consists of the following parts, written partly in the 11th and partly in the 14th century: liturgical calendar; sequences (without melodies); gradual; Masses (with prayers, readings, and chants for the Proper of the Mass); Canon of the Mass; sacramentary; lectionary. On p. 232 (opposite the Te igitur), there is a full-page picture of the crucifixion with two kneeling monks.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Sequentiary containing sequences without neumes by Notker Balbulus (pp. 1-14), a calendar (pp. 15-20) and a sacramentary (p. 21-182), beginning on p. 21 with a beautiful initial ‘M' (a vine scroll contoured in red on a blue and green background) and from p. 22 the Canon of the Mass with a Te igitur-initial with the Crucifixion.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This missal was most likely written for the Grossmünster of Zürich (from a comparison with the Grossmünster's Liber Ordinarius); it contains the proprium de tempore, proprium de sanctis (with the major feasts of Zürich), commune sanctorum and votive masses. The chants are written in smaller letters throughout, but only on a few pages do they appear together with melodies in neumatic notation. The canon missae (pp. 73–83) begins with a simple drawing of a canon. With that exception, the decoration is limited to at most two-line red lombards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Lectionary from the Abbey of St. Gall with numerous sermons on various Gospel selections by the church fathers, produced by a number of different hands in the 10th century in St. Gall. This little studied volume also contains benedictions and oratory prayers. Appended at the back (in small script in two columns) is a Psalter. The manuscript has become extremely soiled with intensive use; it features assorted addenda and supplements from the 11th and 12th centuries.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The incomplete Gelasian Remedius-Sacramentary, composed in Chur in about 800, at the time of the Chur Bishop Remedius, one of the most important liturgical texts from that time, containing the prayers used by bishops or priests during the Mass and administration of the sacraments, at the same time also one of the masterpieces of Retro romansh scribal culture in the Carolingian age, decorated with numerous fantastic initial capitals, still influenced by Irish models. Verifiably present in the monastery of St. Gall by about 850.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The manuscript is bound in a cardboard binding of the eighteenth/nineteenth century. It has two parts written at different times. The first part (pp. 3–120) begins with a fragmentary gradual (it starts on the Wednesday after the Third Sunday in Advent), written in the thirteenth century. The melodies are noted in staffless neumes. Following the Sundays after Pentecost, the part concludes with alleluia-verses (pp. 118–120). The second part (pp. 121–186), containing sequences without melodies, comes from the fourteenth century. In two parts of the codex is bound a quire from a gradual probably written in the thirteenth/fourteenth century: pp. 11–26 (in the middle of the introitus to the feast of the Holy Innocents), the propers for the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday after Christmas; pp. 159–174 (in the middle of the All Saints' sequence), the chants for the period from the Wednesday after the first Sunday of Lent to Holy Saturday.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Pontifical missal of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript consists of two parts: the first part (p. 5-102) was written by the Wiblingen conventual Simon Rösch, the second part (p. 103-236) was perhaps not added until after the death of Abbot Ulrich Rösch. Only the prefaces (p. 83-102) have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 5 lines. There is also the abbot's coat of arms (p. 5) and an image of the crucifixion with medallions of the four evangelists (p. 70). Several pages have book decorations in the form of borders and initials, sometimes with gold leaf.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Pontifical-missal of the St. Gall Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564) – the finest 16th century manuscript in Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The so-called "Cantatorium of St. Gall", the earliest complete extant musical manuscript in the world with neume notation. It contains the solo chants of the Mass and constitutes one of the main sources for the reconstruction of Gregorian chant. Written and provided with fine neumes in the monastery of St. Gall between 922 and 926. Bound in a wooden box with an ivory panel on the front cover, most likely Byzantine c. 500, depicting scenes from the fight of Dionysos against the Indians. The ivory panel was once the possession of Charlemagne.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
A St. Gall Processional from about 1150, carried in processions, both within the cloister itself and also around the surrounding area which now comprises the city of St. Gall; bound in a long wooden protective case to protect it from the effects of the weather. It contains hymns and litanies to be sung during processions, most of them composed by the monks of St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries; includes neumes.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the first half of the 12th century. It contains the solo chants of the Mass, with finely executed neumes and some illuminated initials. Preceded by a Calendar with necrological notes from the monastery of St. Gall dating from between the 13th and 15th century and at the lower margins a catalogue of relics from the 14th century.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Epistolary originating from Reichenau/St. Gall, illustrated with a portrait of the epistle-writer Saint Paul and five painted Christological miniatures from the third quarter of the 11th century.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of feast day masses in the monastery of St. Gall, written and illustrated with numerous initials around the middle of the 11th century. Contains a gradual with neumes and a Lectionary with the readings for the liturgical year.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the 12th century, with two illustrations of the monk Luitherus.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of the Mass in the monastery of St. Gall, dating from 1050/70, containing sequences of the St. St. Gall monk "Notker the Stammerer" (died 912).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Musical manuscript in small format from the monastery of St. Gall containing a calendar, a computus, a tropary, a sequentiary, an antiphonary, offertory and tractus from the middle of the 11th century as well as an appendix with sequences from the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Small music manuscript from the middle of the 11th century containing an (incomplete) calendar, computus, tropary and sequentiary in an elegant hand, with delicate neumes.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Versiculary, Hymnal, Tropary and Sequentiary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and provided with neumes around 930, possibly by a monk named Salomon. The small-sized, undecorated manuscript contains the St. Gall repertoire of the chants sung in the monastery and works by the monks Notker Balbulus, Tuotilo, Ratpert, Waltram and Ekkehart I. Counts among the foremost monuments worldwide in the history of early medieval music.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
An incompletely preserved musical manuscript from the 11th century, written in the monastery of St. Gall, with added supplementary leaves up to around 1400. Contains a Tropary, a Versiculary and a Sequentiary.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Tropary and Sequentiary in point-like square notation with exceptionally fine monophonic and polyphonic music from the great repertoire of the school of Notre-Dame at Paris. Written before 1250 in Western Switzerland, probably at the Cathedral of Lausanne. Probably in St. Gall by 1300.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Breviary consisting of several parts: 1) Capitula and orationes for the period from the first of Advent until the octave of Pentecost as well as for Sundays and weekdays (pp. 3–48). 2) Proprium de tempore (with readings, excerpts from sermons, antiphons, responses and hymns) for the period from the first of Advent until the Saturday after Pentecost (pp. 49–280). The antiphons and responses have neumes. 3) Proprium de sanctis (pp. 281–419), these chants do not have neumes. It begins with St. Andrew (30 November) and ends with St. Petronilla (31 May). 4) Proper for Easter until the second Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 421–466). 5) Responses and antiphons De sanctis in pascali tempore (pp. 466–468). 6) Lectiones per totam ebdomadam for weekdays of the third and fourth week after the octave of Easter (pp. 469–484). 7) Capitula for Nocturns, Sext and None at Easter (p. 485). 8) Orationes for Nocturns, Sext and None on weekdays usque ad ascensionem Domini (pp. 486–487). 9) Capitula and orationes for Vespers, Lauds and Sext for the first until the fourth Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 488–489). 10) Hymns (and sequence Cantemus cuncti melodum, p. 504) (pp. 502–504 and 506). Parts 1-3 were for the most part written in the 13th century (with numerous additions and corrections on erasure up until the 15th century). Parts 4-6 are from the 14th century, parts 7-10 from the 15th century. Property of the Monastery of St. Gall at least since the 15th century (perhaps 1450, cf. p. 1).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Summer portion (Holy Saturday through the end of the church year) of a breviary written at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1022 and 1047 (with readings, prayers, extracts from homilies, antiphons, responses and hymns for the monastic liturgy of the hours), includes additions made as late as the 14th century. The sung sections include neumes. Preceding materials include a fragment of a collections of homilies, a calendar, and computistical texts and tables. The corresponding winter portion of this breviary is found in Cod. Sang. 413. It is among the oldest surviving breviaries produced at St. Gall.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
Antiphonary from St. Gall for the liturgy of the divine office, as sung by St Gall monks, dating from the 12th century, with addenda until the late 14th century. Illustrated with several initials and (at the beginning) with a miniature of the crucified Christ with Mary and John.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Antiphonary from the XIIIth century containing chants for the liturgy of the Hours. The melodies are noted using neumes without lines. Essentially, this is a copy of Cod. Sang. 390/391 (“Hartker antiphonary”) completed by saint's days added after the completion of the Hartker antiphonary.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Winter volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Summer volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains principally the chants for the liturgy of the Hours (response and antiphones), and also some chants of the Ordinary (in a part with tropes), hymns, and sequences, and spiritual chants in Latin and German. In all, six chants (p. 87-89, 103, 107) are for two or three voices. In this case, the voices are not noted one under another, but one after another. The spiritual chants are written with a mensural notation, and the other liturgical pieces in German plainsong notation, the so-called German “Hufnagelnotation”.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The manuscript contains: p. 1-17 a calendar (probably written before 1047: Wiborada, canonized in 1047, is added by a 13th century hand); p. 17-19 a list of the Abbots of the Monastery of St. Gall (in a first hand until Nortpert, 1034-1072, additions by three further hands until Berchtold von Falkenstein, 1244-1272); p. 22-162: Rule of St. Benedict; p. 162-163 excerpt from the Book of Proverbs (Prv. 20, 18ff.); p. 165-345 rituals: benedictions, exorcisms, Ordo ad monachos faciendos , instructions for penance, visitation of the sick, anointing of the sick, comforting the dying (Obsequium circa morientes), Office of the Dead (the antiphons and responsories therein with neumes).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Incompletely preserved benedictional, written on strong parchment in the Monastery of St. Gall in the first half of the 11th century. This volume contains prayers and benedictions for various liturgical ceremonies, for example for the blessing of the chalice, for the blessing of salt and water for driving out demons, for the consecration of monks and secular priests, for the blessing of plants on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, etc. In three places (p. 23-26, p. 65-66, p. 90-94) the manuscript contains litanies in which the names of saints of St. Gall appear. Before the pagination around 1780, pages were cut out of the manuscript in five different places; the manuscript shows signs of use into the 15th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
The Pontificale contains the rites for liturgical celebrations by the bishop, among them rites for performing the tonsure, for the consecration of the lower orders (Cantor, Lector etc.), of the higher orders (deacon, priest, bishop), for the consecration of abbots, abbesses and nuns, for the consecration of a church, of a cemetery and of liturgical objects. Several incipits of liturgical songs are annotated with adiastematic neumes. In the margins on pp. 110/111 there are two Greek alphabets and a Latin alphabet in capital letters; they are part of a rite for the consecration of a church. The saints named in the litany on pp. 98–100 (among them Corbinian, Ulrich, Walpurga) suggest that the manuscript originated in a Bavarian diocese.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This is a collection of liturgical works from the monastery of Disentis, written in the second half of the 12th century, most likely around 1200. In sequence, the volume contains a calendar (pp. 2-13), a psalter (pp. 15-90) and a hymnary (pp. 91-110), a (mixed) capitulary and collectarium (pp. 116-186), as well as an antiphonary, a lectionary, and a homiliary (pp. 203-638). Highlights from the point of view of manuscript decoration include the initial “B” at the beginning of the psalter (p. 15) and a picture of the crucifixion (p. 89). This breviary is one of the very few surviving medieval manuscripts from the monastery of Disentis. The manuscript came to Kempten around 1300; as early as the 15th century, the Disentis Breviary was held in the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary written in the monastery of St. Gall between 1034 and 1047 (with readings and chants for the liturgy of the divine office), with addenda until the 14th century. Prefaced by a Calendar and computational tables. The corresponding summer part of the Breviary can be found in Cod. Sang. 387. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gallen.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary for the divine office, written around 1030 with addenda until the 14th century. Contains, in addition to a large Lectionary and Antiphonary, a Calendar and computational tables. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gall.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
This breviary, which is missing its end, contains the proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent through Saturday after the third Sunday after Easter (pp. 1–384). Then follows the commune sanctorum (pp. 384–386), the proprium de sanctis from Tiburtius and Valentianus (April 14) to Primus and Felicianus (June 9), and then the proprium de tempore continues from the fourth Sunday after Easter. The breviary cuts off in the middle of the fifth Sunday after Easter. Since there are only three, and not, as was common in the Benedictine Order, four readings per nocturn on Sundays, the breviary cannot have come originally from the Abbey of St. Gall. The codex, which shows signs of heavy use, is written by several hands on thick parchment with many holes, sometimes with stitches. Several pages are cut below the text-block. The antiphons and responsories appear with staffless neumes, which themselves were written by many hands. The decoration consists of red lombards and initials, including a few zoomorphic ones (p. 172: dragon; p. 217: bird with two heads; p. 231: dragon). Numerous fragments of a late-medieval liturgical manuscript are used as quire-guards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
The summer portion of a Lectionarium officii containing scripture lessons to be sung by a choir, produced during the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Lectionary for the period from Christmas through the second Sunday of Lent, with 32 homilies (Predigten) for Sundays and feastdays, written mostly by the church fathers (Ambrosius, Augustine, the Venerable Bede, Fulgentius and Leo the Great, among others), most likely produced at the Abbey of St. Gall in the 10th or early 11th century. The name of one scribe, Egilolfus, added later, can be found on page 85 of the manuscript. The front pages of the manuscript are in exceedingly poor condition, having suffered water damage. The text breaks off on page 177, in the course of a tract by Leo the Great.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The manuscript contains the readings for the nocturns of matins, the nightly office, on Sundays, feast days and weekdays. It includes the proprium de tempore from the first of Advent to the end of the ecclesiastical year (including the saints' feasts between Christmas and Epiphany). As the Matutinale does not have four readings per nocturn on Sundays, as was the practice in the Order of Saint Benedict, but only three, it cannot have been originally written for the Abbey of St. Gall. On the margins of p. 233/234 appear numerous additions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the feast of the Trinity. Decoration consists of red lombards and simple initials, partially with incipient pen-flourishes (e.g., p. 75). The parchment has numerous holes, some of which have stitches. Numerous pages are trimmed below the text block. Strips from an eleventh-century liturgical manuscript are bound around the first and last quire of the codex as reinforcement (the back half of the strip around the last quire is paginated as p. 414/415). On the front board appears the offset of a page of a thirteenth-century psalter; on the back board, the offset of an eleventh-century sacramentary (?).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This codex, written in the 13th century, contains a lectionary for Matins for the saints' days and an antiphonary for the entire liturgical year. The antiphonary bears the title In nomine domini incipiunt antiphone secundum morem Marbacensis ecclesie. Nevertheless, this is probably not a manuscript from the reformed monastery of Marbach in Alsace. Based on the offices, which indicate a connection with St. Gall, it must rather be assumed that the manuscript originated in the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Lawrence in Ittingen, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, but which followed the Consuetudines of Marbach. The fly leaf (p. 2/1) contains a large part of the Office of St. Gallus, probably from a manuscript from the 10th/11th century. Readings as well as chants (the latter ones with neumes) are recorded. The order of the responses and antiphons does not match that of the Hartker antiphonary, Cod. Sang. 391.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This manuscript probably was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript's principal part consists of a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium), and hymns, followed by the Pater noster, the Credo, biblical Cantica, the Te Deum, a litany und more Cantica. The final part, from fol. 135v, consists of a hymnal, which also contains a Sequence (Cantemus cuncti melodum). Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on fol. 1v (a man fighting a dragon and a bird of prey).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The pontifical vesperal of St. Gall Abbott Diethelm Blarer (1530–1564) contains the prayers, psalms with antiphones and responsories, as well as hymns for the high holidays of the church year. Except for the incipits of the antiphones of the Magnificat, which are written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on five lines, the manuscript contains no melodies. The scribe of this volume was Father Heinrich Keller (1518–1567), subprior of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book's decoration - 20 historiated initials and several richly decorated borders with pictures - is the work of an unknown artist from the region of Lake Constance, who also illuminated Cod. Sang. 357 and 442.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491) (dating on f. 227r: 1467). Its content corresponds substantially to that of Cod. Sang. 438: a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium) and hymns are followed from f. 148v by Cantica, and from f. 172v by a hymnal. Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures (sometimes extending over several pages) and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on f. 104v (David with a harp).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Liber Ordinarius from the second quarter of the 15th century with liturgical instructions for the mass of the monks of St. Gall during the presence of reformist monks from the monastery ofHersfeld between 1430 and 1439. The Liber Ordinarius, dated 1432 (p. 36), seems to have been made for the monastery ofSt. Gall following a model from Hersfeld (in the northeast of Hesse); however, some parts are not yet adapted for the monastery ofSt. Gall. The calendar at the beginning of the manuscript can be unambiguously located in St. Gall. Between the various parts of the manuscript, repeatedly there are empty pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Martyrologium by Ado of Vienne († 875), the main part of which probably was not written in St. Gall, although the manuscript was kept there since the 11th century (supplements to the patron saints of St. Gall). At the end of the volume, there are annals-style notes about the comet of 1264, calendar dates, notes regarding the construction of the cities of Milan and Alexandria, the founding of the Cistercian Monastery of Wettingen, the discord between Emperor Frederick II and his son Henry VII around 1236 as well as the latter's imprisonment, and hexameters regarding the correct preparation of eucharistic bread (p. 601-602).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Song collection of St. Gall organist Fridolin Sicher; 49 songs for three to five voices in 16th century mensural notation without texts. Among the composers are, among others, Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez and Jacob Obrecht. Several pieces give the name of the composer and the beginning of the text (in French, Italian, Flemish or Latin). Usually one piece fills a double page, less frequently all (three or four) voices are arranged on a single page
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The song book of Chaplain Johannes Heer of Glarus: a collection of 88 folk-, students-, love-, drinking- and joke songs, among them 40 unique items; from the pre-reformation period (1510-1520).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Songbook compiled by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) from the middle of the 16th century. The volume contains 215 musical scores in measured notation using the five line staff, mainly by contemporary French, Dutch, and German composers such as Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Obrecht, Heinrich Isaac, and Ludwig Senfl. The descant (or soprano) parts are found on the left-hand pages, with the alto (or tenor) parts on the right-hand pages.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Songbook owned by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) of Glarus; together with Tschudi's estate, it became the property of the Abbey Library of St. Gall in 1768. This volume contains in one binding the part-books for bass and descant voices for 17 motets and chansons in five or six parts by contemporary composers such as Josquin Desprez or Loyset Compère, written in mensural notation using the five line staff. This songbook was written by several hands, among them Tschudi himself, who added notes about modes on fol. 12r–v and 24v–25r (the schemata on fol. 25v likely are by Heinrich Glarean). Except for one piece, all the compositions in Tschudi's songbook also appear in Cod. Sang. 463; therefore these part-books seem to be drafts for the final collection.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The manuscript contains the antiphons, invitatories, and responsories for certain offices of saints, and then the Alleluia verses and sequences for the feast-days of some saints. The majority of the chants are provided with adiastemmatic neumes. A note on p. 112, written before the turn of the 15th century, has neumatic notation on staves. As the leather covering on the spine and the back cover is entirely missing, the Gothic cover joint is very visible from the outside. According to the ownership note on p. 3, in the eighteenth century the manuscript was in the Abbey of St. Johann in Toggenburg.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Important musical manuscript in very small format containing the repertory of tropes, Ordinary chants and sequences in use around 930/940 in the monastery of St. Gall. With discrete texts and compositions by numerous St. St. Gall monks (Notker Balbulus, Tuotilo, Ratpert, Notker Physicus, Waltram and others). The manuscript was intended for the cantor who indicated the melody to the other singers.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
The manuscript contains antiphons, verses, and responsaries, followed by sequences. The chants are accompanied by square notation on four red lines. The script, a small textualis, comes from a fourteenth-century hand. The manuscript and binding (with leather-covered wooden boards) are kept to the smallest possible format.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Most likely intended for the convent of Dominican nuns of St. Catherine in St. Gall, this tiny psalter (11 x 8 cm) reveals its Dominican use already in the calendar (ff. 2r-7v), which includes Dominican saints, such as Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr. Copied in a single column of textualis by a regular hand, the text is punctuated by alternating red and blue initials, sometimes with pen flourishes, and in different sizes according to the textual divisions (psalm, verse). In addition to Latin notes, the margins contain instructions in German on how to recite the Psalms. After the litany of saints and prayers (ff. 151r-159v), a paper quire has been added, dating from the end of the fifteenth century and containing hymns (ff. 160r-170v).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This small-format prayer book of Franz Gaisberg, who later became Abbot of St. Gall (abbot 1504–1529), only contains prayers in Latin. It begins with a calendar (f. 1r–12v) and a computistic table (f. 13r/v), followed by prayers about the passion (f. 14r–29v), prayers and antiphons to Mary (f. 31r–49r) and other saints (f. 49r–80r), as well as to the Commune sanctorum (f. 81v–83v), various other prayers (f. 83v–107r), as well as the liturgy of the hours for the passion and for the souls of the deceased (f. 107v–140r). There is no decoration except for initials with simple scroll ornamentation in red ink that stretch across two to four lines.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This manuscript, probably from a nuns' convent in St. Gall, contains a cycle of prayers and meditations through the liturgical year, beginning with Advent and on through Christmas, Easter, Pentecost to the Assumption of Mary. The visions of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden and a rosary, among others, are interspersed. This codex is written by a single hand which, along with others, can also be found in the sister manuscript Cod. Sang. 510.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Composite manuscript containing mainly theological texts and, as the largest part (pp. 61–212), the Vocabularius Ex quo. The remaining works are a commentary on the hymnal, where each verse of a hymn alternates with the corresponding explanation (pp. 1–56), a short treatise De humani cordis instabilitate (pp. 57–60), sermons (pp. 212–229, 240–268 and 268–273), the life of Albert of Trapani (Albertus Siculus) (pp. 230–239), the Speculum humanae salvationis (pp. 274–335), a short treatise on virtues and vices called Etymachia or Lumen animae (pp. 335–345), excerpts from Jerome, Augustine and others (pp. 346–368), as well as the Speculum ecclesiae by Hugo de S. Caro (pp. 370–391). The latter is written on a parchment palimpsest , the underwriting (“scriptio inferior”) is in Rotunda script. Four red and bleu fleuronné initials from the underwriting have survived (p. 372, 373 and 375). The last pages contain responsories for Christmas (Descendit de celis deus verus), the Feast of Saint Mark (Beatissimus Marcus discipulus) and Commune plurimum martyrum (Viri gloriosi sanguinem fuderunt), and also the Easter trope (Quem queritis) with melodies in square notation on four lines (pp. 392–394). The manuscript consists of parchment and paper, sometimes even mixed within one quire. This codex has been at the monastery of St. Gall at least since 1553/64 (library stamp p. 60).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
An organ tablature by the St. Gall cathedral organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546). Starting in 1512, while he was a pupil of the organist Hans Buchner in Konstanz, Sicher gathered 176 pieces by 94 composers (including Paul Hofhaimer, Hans Buchner, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Desprez, Matthaeus Pipelaere) together in this volume. Two thirds are sacred vocal pieces, the rest are originally secular songs. The descant is in measured notation on a five line staff, while the remaining vocal parts are indicated with alphabet letters and rhythmical symbols. Some of the compositions may be found only in this particular organ book.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This large-format antiphonary from the Cloister of St. Gall, produced in the year 1544 at the request of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), contains songs to be sung during the liturgy of the hours on holy days throughout the year. The scribe who wrote this volume was the cleric, cathedral organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546), the illuminator who made the 22 figured initials and the full-page double illustration at the beginning of the antiphonary is unknown.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
An opulently illustrated large-format gradual containing four-part vocal pieces, from the Cloister of St. Gall, written and illuminated in the year 1562. By order of Prince-Bishop Diethelm Blarer, the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed these challenging vocal pieces, Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text, and the manuscript illustrator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on the Bodensee illuminated the first pages with the important holy days of the church year. The volume has richly ornamented borders and numerous miniatures, among them five of full-page size, and contains the heraldic shields of St. Gall monks living at that time; the ornamented pages include many depictions of musical instruments of the period (some of which are no longer known).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Large-format antiphonary with chants in four parts, written and illuminated between 1562 and 1564. By order of Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed the pieces for four voices - antiphons, responsories, hymns and psalms for the principal feast days of the liturgical year as well as passions according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text and the illuminator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on Lake Constance created a full-page All Saints picture with Christ on the cross (f. IVr), as well as a donor portrait with the coats of arms of the then-living members of the St. Gall monastic community (f. 1r).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This Psalter contains the psalms in liturgical sequence with antiphons, followed by biblical canticles and a hymnal. The codex was written in 1545 (colophon f. 102v) by the organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546) by order of Prince Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564). Large parts were rewritten by numerous later hands, probably after the reform of the liturgy following the Council of Trent. The Psalter contains several figurative initials by an unknown illuminator.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Antiphonary for the entire church year, written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on four lines. The volume probably originated in a French or Burgundian-Flemish Benedictine monastery; at least since about 1510, it has been part of the library of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book decoration consists of several large initials painted in opaque colors with scrolls and numerous cadels decorated with faces or animal motifs.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Great collection of St. Gallen tropes and sequences by Father Joachim Cuontz († 1515), compiled for Abbot Franz Gaisberg (1504-1529) shortly before the beatification of the St Gall monk Notker Balbulus († 912) in the year of 1513. Important document of late medieval choral history. Many of the melodies are, for the first time in St. Gall, provided with musical notation on five staves.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
A collection of vitae of 13 saints, among them – preserved only here – the vita of St Germanus of Moutier-Grandval in the canton of Jura, Switzerland, written by Bobolenus of Luxeuil ca. 690. A copy from the early 10th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
A collection of vitae of various saints from around 900, among them the vita of St. St. Gall monk Notker Balbulus from the early 13th century, written by an unknown monk. The manuscript also contains the so-called "St. Galler Schularbeit" (earlier known as "Ruodpert's Letter") from the 11th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
A composite manuscript containing the lives of the 12 Apostles and lives of additional ancient Roman saints, produced in about 900, probably not at the Abbey of St. Gall. The second and third parts were written in St. Gall during the 11th century and include, respectively, three Sermones (homilies) and two fragmental texts with liturgical content.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Hagiographic manuscript collection containing the lives of numerous saints, especially the Benedictine saints, written and compiled in the Cloister of St. Gall between the 10th and 13th centuries. Among other items it contains the lives of saints Remaclus, Gangold, Willibrord (originally written by Alcuin of York), Ulrich of Augsburg (originally written by Abbot Bern of Reichenau) and Magnus (older and newer lives). Between the newer and older versions of the lives of Magnus is a pen sketch of the healing of a blind person in Bregenz on the Bodensee.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
Vitae of ancient Roman saints, among them – preserved here only – the Life of Pope Gregory the Great, composed by a monk from the English monastery of Whitby.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Manuscript compilation from the second half of the 9th century, predominated by lives of the early Christian and early Frankish saints. The codex contains, among other items, the life history of St. Augustine written by Possidius as well as a catalog of the writings of Augustine, a copy of the life history of St. Remaclus with dedicatory letter and prologue (from the 11th century), and the lives of Saints Sualo (an Anglo-Saxon who lived at Einsiedeln), Pelagius, and Purchard.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the Life of the Saint and Pope Gregory I. by Johannes Diaconus (825-880/882), produced at the Abbey of St. Gall around the year 900.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Manuscript collection produced at the monastery of St. Gall, containing the oldest known surviving version of the Casus sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert, in a copy from about 900. Additional longer texts, written down between the 9th and 13th centuries contain sermons by the early Church fathers, a register of the abbots of St. Gall from the 7th through the 13th centuries, hymns, and excerpts from the Collectio Canonum by Pseudo-Remedius as well as the Micrologus by Bernold of Konstanz.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the excerpts made by Junianus Justinus from the lost history of the world (Historiae Philippicae) by the Roman historian Pompeius Trogus, produced in the 9th century, probably at the Abbey of St. Gall. At the end of the text is the famous Old High German St. Gallen scribal verse: Chumo kiscreib filo chumor kipeit.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Hegesippus/Flavius Josephus, Jewish War. Copy from the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Manuscript compilation containing a collection of fables (Ulrich Boner's Edelstein), decorated with simple pen drawings, farcical stories – preserved only here – by the so-called "Swiss Anonymous" as well as chronicle notes on the history of Zurich and Glarus.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This voluminous paper manuscript was written by Gallus Kemli († 1480/81) approximately in the period 1466 to 1476. It transmits tools, compendia, and summaries of theology, canon law, liturgy, and confession and penance, as well as prayers and chants with German Plainchant (Hufnagel) notation for the mass, a rituale, and, finally, further prayers, blessings, sermons and exhortations, partly in Latin and partly in German. The manuscript is bound in a limp wrapper with a red leather cover. Gallus Kemli, monk of Saint Gall, who led an erratic itinerant life outside the abbey, left at his death a large collection of books, including this one.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This two-part manuscript was written in Italy in the period between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. It preserves writings concerning procedural law, among them the little known Ordo iudiciarius Quoniam ut ait apostolus, as well as finding aids and surveys on decretal law. The manuscript probably came into the possession of the St. Gall citizen Johannes Widembach († 1456) from a Canon from Zurich, and has been held by the Abbey Library at least since the 16th century.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This codex contains the best-known work by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius, his epic poem about the war of the Seven Against Thebes (Thebais), along with metrical argumenta on lib. II–IV. Two quires containing lib. IV, V. 578 – lib. VII, V. 30 (between pp. 75 and 76) are missing, as well as a bifolium with lib. IX, 671–751 and lib. X, 5–84 (between pp. 128 and 129 as well as 132 and 133). The beginnings of the books and of the metrical argumenta (p. 3, 21, 40, 58/59, 92, 112, 132, 173) are accentuated with initials, partly in two colors (red/green). There are numerous marginal and interlinear glosses, mainly from the 12th and 13th century. On pp. 196–197, probably in the same hand, is the Planctus Oedipodis, Inc. Diri patris infausta pignora (Oedipus' lament about the death of his sons). The poem comprises 21 rhyming stanzas of four lines each, the first of which has neumes on a staff of four lines. This form of notation argues against the manuscript's originating in St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/22/2017