Sub-project: The Virtual Abbey Library of Saint Gall
January 2008 - December 2009
Status: Completed
Financed by: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (http://www.mellon.org/)
Description: As of the end of 2009, over 300 manuscripts written before the year 1000 and held by the Abbey Library of St. Gall had been made available on e-codices. The web application had also been further developed using the most up to date informatics tools, allowing users to gain access to the website database faster and more easily. Financial support for this sub-project was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York).
All Libraries and Collections
Copy of the first book of the work Instructiones by Eucherius of Lyon († about 450) as well as a small portion of his work Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae, the Libri differentiarum by Isidore of Seville, and the commentary of Jerome on the Old Testament book of Daniel, written in an Alemannic minuscule script at the Abbey of St. Gall near the end of the 8th century. This codex, still in its original Carolingian binding, represents the base manuscript of the commentary by Jerome.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Gallic Bishops' letters from late antiquity: unique to this manuscript - the correspondences of Bishop Desiderius of Cahors (about 590 - 655), and Ruricius of Limoges (about 445 -511). A frequent correspondent: Bishop Faustus of Riez (about 410 - 511). On pages 1 and 37 the manuscript contains the so-called “St. Galler Bienensegen”, the oldest known invocation for bees in the Latin language.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the catalog of authors assembled by the Church father Jerome (347-420) De viris illustribus (a list of 135 Christian authors from Simon Peter to Jerome himself) together with a list presented in the catalog of authors by Gennadius of Marseille (d. 496) De viris illustribus, with biographies of more than 90 important Christian authors of that time. Produced in the 9th century, though not at the Abbey of St. Gall; already listed in the holdings of St. Gall by 1000.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
An impressive palimpsest-manuscript (with pages containing duplicate texts) of the oldest known texts of the Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets. Upper script in Retro-Romanish minuscule from the time around 800 (from Rätien or St. Gall): sermons of Caesarius of Arles (470/71-542), further homilies and sermons, tracts, prayers and lessons. Lower, sometimes difficult to read script in Roman half uncial from northern Italy: fragmentarily preserved Latin bible texts from the Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Early homiletic manuscript collection from the monastery of St. Gall, written on stiff, poorly smoothed, unevenly cut and damaged parchment, already previously used, overwritten in the first half of the 8th century with the sermons of Caesarius of Arles and the Synonyma of Isidore of Seville. Underlying script (Merovingian): a significant copy of the Old Testament Books of Wisdom, written in about 700 in southern France or Spain. This is among the oldest books preserved by the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of a tract by the north African theologian Fulgentius Ferrandus (second half of the 6th century) in letter form, addressed to Count Reginus, with a collection of rules for conducting a Christlike life. This copy was made at the Abbey of St. Gall in about 800.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Educational manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall, produced in the second third of the 9th century; contains mainly the poems (Carmina) of the early Christian Merovingian poet Venantius Fortunatus († 600), with four pattern poems on the Cross, as well as a copy of the Aenigmata (riddles) of a poet named Symphosius or Symposius.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This composite manuscript, of particular significance in terms of textual history study, consists of at least four distinct parts, written during the 9th and 10th centuries, primarily in the Cloister of St. Gall. The manuscript volume contains, among other items, a Latin prose narrative about the Trojan war from a Greek point of view (De excidio Troiae historia), generally associated with the pseudonym Dictys Cretensis; the 5th century "Troja-Roman" or Trojan epic (Historia de excidio Troiae) published under the pseudonym Dares Phrygius; a copy of the work De spiritalis historiae gestis by Avitus of Vienna; poems by Salomon, Abbot-Bishop of St. Gall (890-920) dedicated to Dado of Vienna, and the Carmen paschale by the Latin-Christian poet Sedulius (5th century). On page 122 is an illustration of the labyrinth of the Minotaur in Knossos on Crete.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
A copy of the works Libelli de spiritalis historiae gestis and Versus de consolatoria castitatis laude by Alcimus Avitus von Vienne (d. 518), produced in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall (?), includes pen tests as well as Latin and Old High German glosses.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Palimpsest Manuscript with texts from the 8th (upper script band) and 5th (lower script band) centuries. The manuscript consists of a fragmentary copy of great importance in the field of textual study, from Italy, written in Roman Uncial script, containing passages from books 1 through 6 of the work Divinae institutiones (Divine Instructions) by Roman author Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius (about 250 - 325) made in the 5th century. To these the Dialogs of Gregory the Great and shorter theological texts by Augustine, Isidore of Seville and additional (mostly unknown) authors were added in the 8th century, probably in St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
42 fragmentary leaves containing an extremely early copy of portions of the four books of the Dialogs of the church father Gregory the Great, produced in north-eastern France in a Merovingian chancel script from the time around 700. Additional fragments from this Dialog manuscript can be found in the Zentralbibliothek (Central Library) Zürich (Ms. C 184) and in St. Paul in Lavanttal.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Manuscript compilation from the late 8th and early 9th centuries, opening with the oldest extant St. Gall copy of the Regula Pastoralis of Gregory the Great from the last third of the 8th century, followed by a medical-pharmaceutical compendium. The latter, parts of it badly bound, consists of the folded reference manual of a wandering physician from northern Italy, the so-called St. Gall Botanicus, and the St. Gall Bestiary.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Manuscript compilation from the monastery of St. Gall, written out in early Alemanian Minuscule script between 760 and 797 with a wide variety of different texts about synonymy (Isidore of Seville, Differentiae), Exegetics (Eucherius of Lyon, Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae), computation, healing arts, hagiography (for example the oldest version of the life stories of the patron saints of Zürich, Felix and Regula), etc.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The sole papyrus manuscript held by the Abbey Library of St. Gall. The 23 pages, written after 650 in southern France, contain the closing of the second chapter of the Synonyma of Isidore of Seville as well as two exhortations aimed at monks. After being preserved over a very long period in a wooden case, these 23 pages were mounted between two glass plates in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin in 1899/1900.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This manuscript contains a collection of Patristic texts with selections from works by Isidore of Seville (d. 636; Sententiae and De officiis), Gregory the Great (d. 604; Homiliae in evangelia) and Augustine (Sermones, most of them not actually written by Augustine, but ascribed to him), a list of regions and cities where remains of the apostles may be found, and selections from an anonymous commentary on the four gospels (only the commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and John are included), produced in about 800 or shortly before, not in the Abbey of St. Gall, but in northern Italy, probably in Monza or Verona.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This copy of the Sententiae by the church father Isidore of Seville is important to textual history; it was produced in about 800, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall, and expanded in the course of the 9th century. The Sententiae are regarded as one of the most important works by Isidore of Seville.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A manuscript compilation produced outside of St. Gall in about 800, written and illuminated unusually colorfully with numerous small initials, possibly at the Cloister of St. Denis near Paris. It consists of a large number of texts and excerpts, especially from the works of Isidore of Seville (Liber Sententiarum, Liber Differentiarum, Etymologiae), but also including texts by Augustine, Caesarius of Arles, Defensor (Liber scintillarum), Jerome, Gregory the Great, Eucherius (Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae) and many other authors. Near the end is an incomplete copy of the life story of St. Dionysius.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of books VI through VIII and XII through XV of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (d. 636), copied from a northern Italian model at the Abbey of St. Gall in or shortly after 800.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A copy of books XII through XX of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, produced in about 800 at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
St. Gall copy of books XI through XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville from the second half of the 9th century. Contains (on page 89) a famous and beautifully drawn early medieval world map (terrae orbis, T-O, or Noachid map) that serves as an illustration for the description of the continents .
Online Since: 12/09/2008