Basel, Universitätsbibliothek
This codex, which consists of several parts, contains primarily decrees, bulls, letters and decisions related to the Council of Basel (1431-1448), by various hands in Latin and German. Later hands added occasional notes, corrections and additions. Historiographic information is included with the so-called “Grössere Basler Annalen” and Latinized excerpts from the Rötteln Chronicle and the German Chronicle of Jakob Twinger von Königshofen. This manuscript came from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel and then became part of the holdings of the Basel University Library.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
Ten illustrated leaves with the second part of the prophecies about the popes from Boniface IX to Eugene IV. These pages were created at the time of the Council of Basel; originally they were part of a composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, with Council documents. The expressive pen and ink drawings suggest the influence of the Basel workshop of Konrad Witz, one of the most important painters in the Upper Rhine region during the late Gothic period.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This very extensive codex with the acts of beginning of the Council of Basel (i.e., the years 1431-1435) was written in large part by two hands. One of the hands has been identified as being of Francesco della Croce (1391-1479), who was an envoy from Milan to the Basel Council, and who, among other things, had participated in writing the Council manuscript E I 8. The volume belonged to the Basel Charterhouse and probably in 1590 was transferred to the University Library along with the rest of the convent’s collection.
Online Since: 04/03/2025
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 was the property of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; in a German translation, it transmits the legend of the Three Magi by John of Hildesheim, the legends of the Desert Fathers known as the “Vitaspatrum“ and the Athanasian Creed.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript was owned by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide, who donated it to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; it contains a collection of speeches and letters by renowned humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini and Enea Silvio Piccolomini— among them an original letter from Johannes Reuchlin to Jakob Louber— with texts by Greek and Oriental authors in Latin translation. Parts of the manuscript are written by Heynlin and Reuchlin.
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
Two Metaphysics from the library of the Basel Charterhouse: Aristotle’s Metaphysics in the thirteenth century Greek-Latin translation by William of Moerbeke, copied personally by the previous owner of the manuscript Johannes Heynlin von Stein, and the so-called Metaphysica by Avicenna/Ibn-Sīnā, in the twelfth-century Arabic-Latin translation produced at Toledo, copied by an otherwise unknown Wilhelm Hartung von Offenburg, probably on commission from Heynlin. The paper in both parts is the same; the different watermarks support the hypothesis that the manuscript was produced at Paris in the third quarter of the fifteenth century and came to Basel with Heynlin, but it is likely was first bound after his entry into the Basel Charterhouse.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This Aristotle manuscript from the library of the Basel Charterhouse contains the Organon along with Porphyrius’ introduction and the usual supplements, translated into Latin, mostly by Boethius. Four of the five parts were copied personally by the manuscript’s owner Johannes Heynlin von Stein, almost certainly from another, older exemplar from the rich collection of books, in different scripts, that he acquired in Paris. The last part, probably not copied by him, is dated at the end to 1463 (f. 482r). The paper comes from French mills, and is largely identical to that used by Heynlin for his personal copy of the Metaphysics (F I 4, part 2).
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This slender parchment volume from the Dominican Monastery of Basel contains Books I-V of De vegetabilibus et plantis by Albertus Magnus. This work – actually in seven books, two of which are missing here – represents a small part of the extraordinarily extensive opus by the Doctor of the Church and universal scholar, whose fame was surpassed soon after his death by that of his student Thomas Aquinas. The worn binding shows traces indicating that this was a liber catenatus.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
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
This composite manuscript with content regarding astronomy, bound in crimson sheepskin, was owned by Heinrich Amici († 1451), city physician of Basel, who bequeathed it to the city’s Carthusian monastery. In addition to calculations of planetary conjunctions and eclipses, the volume also contains astronomical treatises by Pierre d’Ailly or Petrus de Alliaco (around 1350-1420). D’Ailly was a scholar and church politician and infused his theological works with astrological justifications.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This composite manuscript, consisting of two 13th century parts, contains a Latin translation of the first two books of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. A first hand, using a Textura script tending towards cursive, wrote the first nine leaves, while the main part of the manuscript was written by a second scribe, who used a formal Textura. The manuscript contains numerous 13th century glosses and marginal notes, some of which, relating, among others, to the translation of the Aristotle text, are highlighted by means of rubrication. The codex presents some old shelfmarks that create a connection to the Dominican Convent of Basel. The 14th/15th century binding was originally chained and had two clasps. 13th and 14th century paper and parchment fragments were used as pastedown and flyleaf.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
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
In this Northern Italian manuscript from the first half of the 11th century, Virgil’s works (Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis) are accompanied by the commentary of Servius. This manuscript belonged to the influential Florentine humanist Coluccio Salutati, who added his own comments on Virgil’s works in the margins. This manuscript probably came to Basel with the Dominican John of Ragusa, who held a leading position in the Council of Basel. After his death, the manuscript went to the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The composite manuscript of works by or ascribed to William of Ockham, written a few decades before the production of this copy, has been extensively studied and nearly entirely edited. It is also the only known witness of one of his works. Its origin has not been definitely established; similar bindings come from the Dominican convent of Basel, but the Franciscan convent has already been suggested as its place of origin.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This copy of the Summa Logica, produced in Oxford during William of Ockham’s lifetime, comes from the remnants of the Franciscan library in Basel. Listed as a previous owner is Otto of Passau, then perhaps a more famous author, but today nearly forgotten. In any case in cypher (f. 121r). After the Franciscan Ockham’s Summa of logic, the volume also contains a list of charges against him at the papal curia in Avignon, as well as short reports on the individual points. The text of this manuscript, along with the readings of a second Basel collective volume from the fourteenth century (which probably did not come from the Franciscan convent), which still has its original binding (F II 24), was used in the twentieth century for the critical edition. Its binding was replaced in the nineteenth century.
Online Since: 09/26/2024