On 123 paper pages, this codex contains copies of seven chronicles on the Reformation in the region of Appenzell as well as on the division of the canton in the 16th century. The codex was compiled around 1700 by an unknown scribe.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This booklet contains a collection of recipes for producing medications, home remedies and foodstuffs. The presentation of the recipes ranges from lists of ingredients to detailed texts that describe the processing of the ingredients. The manuscript does not have an index. A page from a manuscript - probably 14th century - serves as book cover. Its visible text is about the geometry of triangles (De triangulo). In the first half of the 20th century, the book was purchased at the bookstore Helbing & Lichtenhahn by Theo Baeschlin and then donated to the Pharmaceutical Institute of Basel.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This copy of Burkart von Hallwyl's (1535-1598) pharmacopoeia is a collection of medications and recipes for treating everyday problems. The length of the recipes ranges from a single sentence to detailed texts containing instructions and lists of ingredients. The manuscript is organized with an alphabetical index, which is followed by more entries.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Those wishing to study at the University of Basel, founded in 1460, had to enroll in the rector's registry, take an oath of loyalty and obedience, pay the tuition fee and — only with this did the matriculation become valid — had to enroll in their faculty's register. In addition to the entries made by the deans, the theological register of 1462-1740 contains the old as well as the new faculty statutes.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The first part of this volume contains registers of the deanships from 1461 to 1529 with the respective accounts of the faculty's funds as well as the lists of docents; the second part of the volume almost exclusively contains entries regarding doctorates granted from 1533 to 1921. Among the writers are, among others, Sebastian Brant, Basilius Amerbach, Remigius Faesch and Niklaus Bernoulli.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This volume of registers from the faculty of arts contains, as its oldest and originally sepa-rate part, the statutes of the faculty. At the end of the 15th century, they were bound toge-ther with an academic calendar and with two registers containing the names of students and graduates (‘baccalaureates') matriculated since 1461. Quires originally left blank for this purpose continue the list of degrees (‘magister' and ‘baccalaureate') awarded until 1848.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
List of foreign students registered between 1599 and 1837 at the theological faculty in Basel for basic (undergraduate) studies in artes liberales as a preliminary stage for graduate study in theology, law or medicine. The list ist divided by deans; from 1665-1800 it also gives the names of the “Corregens” of the Alumneum, the residence hall of scholarship holders. In addition, the volume contains regulations concerning admission to the faculty and the text of the oath upon matriculation.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
In addition to the new statutes of 1594 and various decrees, this volume lists the students from Basel as well as the foreign students of the lower college from 1599-1623 and from 1733-1789. During restoration, the original simple limp binding made of parchment manuscript waste was reused as endpapers.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This volume of the medical faculty's register is richly decorated; it covers the period of deanships from Heinrich Pantaleon (1559) until Werner de Lachenal (1799). The entries are mostly made by the deans and are accompanied by their respective emblems. Preceding the reports are remarks by Heinrich Pantaleon on the history of the faculty from 1460 until 1559.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This second volume of the medical faculty's register contains a list of successful doctorates from 1571 to 1806 and of registered students from 1570 to 1814, as well as an overview of exams and Disputationes and of lectures during the break for the (dog days of) summer. The entries are preceded by a full-page miniature of the seal of the medical faculty of the University of Basel.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This volume, composed and also partly written by Theodor Zwinger around 1720, is a collection from the registers, the Decreta medica and other, in part now lost, documents from the University of Basel's faculty of medicine. In addition to the deans' reports from 1559-1724, this manuscript contains remarks by Heinrich Pantaleon on the history of the faculty from 1460 until 1559, copied from AN II 20.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
This handwritten Haggadah Comites Latentes 69 was created in Vienna in 1756. It is decorated with black ink and masterfully imitates copper engraving. The author is the famous scribe and illustrator Simmel ben Moses from Polna (active between 1714 and 1756), who produced about thirty dated manuscripts that have survived until today, of which, however, only 17, including CL 69, are autographs. His works of art are among the most remarkable examples of Hebrew manuscript decoration in 18th century Central Europe. The Song of Solomon, copied by later hands, concludes this magnificent manuscript.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
Collection of prayers in the form of litanies (awrād), attributed to a Šayḫ Wafāʾ. The manuscript must have been completed before 1746, because in this year it was consigned to a religious foundation by Bašīr Āġā, a dignitary of the Ottoman court. The author cannot be conclusively ascertained since there are several people known by the name Šayḫ Wafāʾ. This manuscript probably belongs in the context of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), which was firmly established as an institution in the Ottoman-Turkish society of the period. The manuscript comes from the collection of the Islamic scholar and turkologist Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960).
Online Since: 12/14/2017
Legendary biography of the founder of the Bektashi Order, Ḥāǧǧī Bektāş Velī from Khorasan (Eastern Iran/Afghanistan), written in Ottoman Turkish. The manuscript was written by ʿAbdallāh Ibn Aḥmad el-Merzīfōnī and was completed on 20. Ǧumādā II 1165 h. [= 5 May 1752]. It was part of the collection of oriental manuscripts of the Islamic scholar and turkologist Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960), from where it came to the University Library Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
At the beginning of the 17th century, a book of black magic was published, attributed to the mythical Faust and known by the title Höllenzwang. The library in Weimar owned a manuscript of this text, which Goethe was aware of. In 1949 Martin Bodmer was able to purchase a similar manuscript. This document, which is difficult to date, is written in cabalistic signs and, according to a German gloss, contains a series of magic spells for exorcists, which can be used in particular to call up the seven evil spirits.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This is a Panjabi adaptation of the 10th book of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, in Punjabi/Braj language, in Gurmukhī script. It is a collection of stories of the life of the god Kṛṣṇa, written in verse (caupaī, kabitā, soraṭhā and others). Contrary to the Sanskrit version, the text has no clear chapter structures and has a continuous numeration (880 verses). It is richly illustrated with scenes from the life of the god Kṛṣṇa (more than 200 miniatures), and it is a free verse rendering of the ancient Sanskrit text that was written in ślokas (shlokas), which was extremely popular in India.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This manuscript comprises a collection of four different texts. The main text is the Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord"), a part of the Mahābhārata epic, book 6, which consists of 18 chapters, written here in Devanāgarī in a Kashmiri-influenced style (f. 1v-165r). It is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition and survives in a huge number of manuscripts. Painted portraits of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna alternate in opening its 18 chapters. The Bhagavadgītā is preceded by the Prayāgatīrthasnānasaṃkalpa, apadoddhāraṇastotra (V2r-V4v),"a promise to take bath at Prayāga (Allahabad)", and followed by the Pañcavaktrahanumatkavaca (N1v-N7v), a protective mantra of Hanuman, and finally the Stavarāja (N8r-N8v), a "king of praises", serving also as a sort of colophon to the whole collection of these miscellaneous texts. These three subsidiary texts are all written in common Devanāgarī script. A partly readable note dated 29 August 1781 identifies the manuscript as a “prayer book of a bramin [i.e. brahmin]” given to the unidentified possessor of the manuscript “on his departure from India” (V1r).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This is an 18th century manuscript of the text called Kedārakalpa, representing itself as a part of the Nandīpurāṇa. The manuscript describes and depicts in its 61 exquisite miniature paintings a religious pilgrimage in Himalayas, Kedarnath region, as done by a group of yogis. It is a śaiva text, i.e. main deity is god Śiva, and the main purpose of the text is to incite people to go on that sacred śaiva pilgrimage.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This is a composite manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script bearing the influence of the Kashmiri style, bringing together a number of ritual texts dealing with the worship of Viṣṇu. 1. (ff. 1_1r-1_6r) preparatory texts and rituals (without a single name or title), starting with a likely Pāñcarātra-influenced set of ritual practices, namely, nyāsas, and dhyānas, i.e. assignment of deities, and syllables to various parts of the body and the visualisation of the main deity. 2. (ff. 1_6r-1_149v) Bhagavadgīta: the main text in this miscellaneous collection. The Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord" - Viṣṇu/ Kṛṣṇa), which is a part of the Mahābhārata, book 6 from 18, is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition, and this part of the Mahābhārata epic survives in a huge number of manuscripts. 3. (ff. 2_1r-2_107v) Copies of other parts of the Mahābhārata, Śāntiparvaṇ, which all are related to Viṣṇu. 4. (ff. 3_1r-6_31v) 2 parts of Pāñcarātrika Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, plus mantras including (ff. 4_1r-4_21r) Pāṇḍavagītāstotra, (ff. 5_1r-5_20v) Gopālapaṭala, (ff. 6_1r-6_23r) Gopālalaghupaddhati and other texts. 5. (ff. 7_1r-7_37v) Parts of the tantras, a. Saṃmohanatantra, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, i.e. Gopālasahasranāmastrotra; b. Gautamītantra, the part called Gopālastavarāja. 6. (ff. 8_1r-10_8r) Two different texts: 1. Niṃbarkakavaca, which is a production of the Nimbarka worship lineage of Vaiṣṇavas. 2. Part of ritual texts of Sāmaveda, dealing with the 5 saṃskāras, plus various vedic mantras, such as Gāyatrī, in its vaiṣṇava forms. 7. (ff. 11_1r-11_11v) Part of the Bhaviṣyotarapurāṇa dealing with the worship of the stones related to Viṣṇu from the Gaṇḍakī river (common name is shaligram). The manuscript contains 3 illuminated titles and 12 miniatures, most of which depict Kṛṣṇa. According to the colophon (ff. 11_11v-11_12r), the text was written in Kashmir, in a monastery called Ahalyamath, in 1833 Saṃvat, that is 1776 or 1777 CE, by a person called Gaṇeśa[bhaṭṭa?] Nandarāma. The second part of the colophon (partially missing), however, links the history of the manuscript to Vrindavan.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This Mexican Codex, written in Nahuatl, is part of the so-called Techialoyan Manuscripts. It is from Santa María de la Asunción Tepexoyuca, near San Martín Ocoyoacac, in the Toluca Valley in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The manuscript is an altepeamatl,"Village Land Book" or tlalamatl, "Land Manuscript", which records the territorial boundaries between the village of Tepexoyuca and its neighbors and lists the toponyms of the boundary markers. The manuscript signatories are eight key town figures at the time: among them don Esteban Axayacatl, "captain", don Miguel Achcuey, "fiscale", and don Simón de Santa María, "mayordomo".
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The comedy The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro is a vivid satire of society during the Ancien Régime and of aristocratic privileges; it was first performed on April 27, 1784 and presaged the beginning of the French Revolution, which it doubtlessly helped bring about. After the fall of the monarchy in 1792, the comedy was again performed on several Parisian stages, albeit the concluding songs were modified by Beaumarchais. The final stanza of the stuttering judge Don Gusman Brid'oison, which in 1784 had concluded Tout fini-it par des chansons, was adapted to the difficulties of the period: Pour tromper sa maladie, / Il [the people] chantoit tout l'opera : / Dame ! il n'sait plus qu'ce p'tit air-là : / Ca ira, ça ira... However, after the fall of Robespierre and the Thermidorian Reaction, these words roiled young Muscadins just as the previous ones had caused the Sansculottes to react. Since the performances were disrupted by such turbulent audiences, Beaumarchais entrusted La Rochelle, the actor who performed the role of Brid'Oison, with an alternative ending that could be recited en cas de bruit (in case of noise). This variant, which remained unpublished until recently, was a praise of freedom of speech and of the sang froid de la raison (the cold blood of reason) against the stratagème (wiles) of ideological cabals.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The Lettres écrites de la montagne are the last work that was published during Rousseau's lifetime. For the first time, the philosopher becomes directly involved in the affairs of Geneva. Beyond fundamental proposals, the letters contain further developed thoughts on the spirit of the Reformation as well as a defense of the Contrat Social. Letter VII, where this page comes from, supports the right of representation when it comes to correcting abuses of the Small Council, and it recommends that citizens convened in the General Council reject all new elections of magistrates if these should insist upon overstepping the rights given them by the Constitution. The Lettres were censored in Geneva as well as in Paris. This document is from the collection of Ch. Vellay (purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1926) and contains a draft of two passages from the Lettres. The first of these was published in the original edition (Amsterdam, M. M. Rey, 1764), the second in the edition of the Œuvres complètes of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The Mémoire présenté à M. de Mably sur l'éducation de M. son fils is Rousseau's first writing related to his experience as an educator. In 1740 he took up a difficult position as tutor in the family of the notable Jean Bonnot de Mably, provost general of police in the Lyon region. This position came to an end after only one year. Two young children with little inclination to study had been entrusted to his care: François-Paul-Marie Bonnot de Mably, called Monsieur de Sainte-Marie, five and a half years old, and Jean-Antoine Bonnot de Mably, called Monsieur de Condillac, four and a half years old. The long Mémoire, dedicated to the older boy, emphasizes the “educational mission” and experience with practical education: it is presented as a plan and a synthesis; its writing has been dated around December 1740. The young tutor addresses M. de Mably and makes known to him the plan and structure for the education of his son in order to shape “the heart, the judgment and the spirit.” This is not the natural education, which later on will be advocated in 'Émile. Did Rousseau really present this Mémoire to M. de Mably? Known is only that he gave this manuscript of the Mémoire to Mme Dupin, his employer in 1743, and that since then it has been kept with the “Papers of Mme Dupin.” It was published for the first time in Paris in 1884 by G. de Villeneuve-Guibert in Le portefeuille de Madame Dupin. The Fondation Bodmer's manuscript is the only one in existence. A Projet d'éducation, much shorter, more clearly structured and of unknown date, was found among Rousseau's papers at the time of his death (this manuscript, now lost, was first published in Geneva in 1782). It is very similar to the Mémoire and seems to have been written
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This register, consisting of 275 leaves, contains the coats of arms of the canons of the diocese of Basel, from the election of Bishop Christoph von Utenheim in 1502 to the last prince-bishop, Franz Xaver von Neveu in 1794. Over three centuries, painters added to these parchment sheets over 2,300 coats of arms in color. From 1682 on, complete family trees appeared, which proved that the church dignitaries had the requisite sixteen quarters of nobility (sixteen noble ancestors in the generation of the great-great-grandparents).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript contains the translation into Romansh of “Jerusalemer Reise“ (Journey to Jerusalem) by the parish priest and later abbot of Disentis, Jacob Bundi (pp.1-122); this is the oldest of the about 25 manuscripts of this translation from 1701 known so far. Following an originally blank page, there is a page with a German alphabet (p. 124), then 88 paginated pages in German script with instructions on planting various plants. According to the end page (p. 212), this is a copy of a work that was “Getruckt zu Cölln / Bey Heinrich Netessem (= Nettesheim) / in Margarden gaßen Im/ Jahr 1601. Geschriben im Jahr 1719 / den 5. Martij / P.C. Berchter“.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
The state archives of Fribourg owns a whole series of registers of citizens(Bürgerbücher). The first two of these registers are the most important ones; they cover the period from 1341 to 1769 and are presented here in digitized form. The registers present the citizens of the city of Fribourg as they change from a citizenry that is very open for economic reasons at the turn of the 15th century to one that gradually closes itself off and then becomes a privileged patriciate in the 18th century. ‘Bürgerbücher' were a means of controlling the enrollment of new citizens through lists, which from the very beginning could be in book form. This allowed mostly large and medium-sized German cities that had achieved a certain political and economic development to react to and to regulate demographic trends and immigration during the late Middle Ages, after and even before the great plague (mid-14th century). The second register was created in 1416 by the deliberate designs of city clerk Petermann Cudrefin, who had kept the first register since 1396 and had found it very disorganized.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
The Bibliothèque de Genève's Ms. lat. 55 is an exceptional document because it consists of six wax tablets listing the expenditures for the royal household of the French King Philip IV the Fair for the years 1306-1309. Over time, the wax turned black and hard, which makes it harder to read. But the images of the tablets are accompanied by a transcription and by a facsimile prepared in 1720-1742 by the Genevan Gabriel Cramer. Preserved as „Ms. lat. 55 bis,“ this handwritten facsimile makes it possible to access the content of the tablets and to compare the current state with that of 1720-1742 and thus to recognize the loss of pieces of the wax.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This composite manuscript in thirteen volumes consists of drawings of plants which resulted from the Sessé & Moçiño expedition to the region of Mexico and Central America from 1787 to 1803. Of the 1300 drawings contained in these volumes, about 300 are originals from the expedition, the remaining 1000 were copied in Geneva in 1817 by artists and amateur botanists, most of whom were women from Geneva. The entire collection is usually referred to as Flore des Dames de Genève.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This manuscript is a copy of only one of six extant manuscript exemplars and an old print of this work (1743) worldwide. Its author is the famous Bohemian rabbi, astronomer and mathematician R. David ben Salomon Gans (1541-1613). In his 1974 monograph about David Gans, André Neher referred to this copy as the Manuscrit de Genève. A colophon in the manuscript gives the date as 1613, but a current study on the history of the transmission of this work suggests that it is an 18th century copy.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
The Sworn Letter (“Geschworener Brief”), drawn up for the first time in 1252, consists mainly of provisions of criminal law for the sake of maintaining internal peace. It soon attained the status of a social contract that was periodically revised, and the town assembly was sworn into office each year with an oath on this document. COD 1075 presents the last version in a special form: The text was elaborately arranged in calligraphy by chancery clerk Josef Corneli Mahler; the articles are introduced by artistic initials and are accompanied by figures (which bear no reference to the themes of the text). For the binding, the wooden boards are covered in blue and white velvet and have protective book corners, clasps and bosses made of silver.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
As part of a great lawsuit against necromancers and treasure seekers, the Lucerne authorities in 1718 confiscated this meticulous copy of the Schlüssel Salomos, a book of spells that had evidently been widely read in certain quarters and of which various versions had been in circulation. Through the rituals for conjuring spirits described in the book, people around the priest Hans Kaspar Giger hoped to become wealthy. The volume was labeled “superstitious” by the authorities, was sealed and placed in the archives.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
Manuscript of the first three books of the Confessions and part of the fourth. In comparison with the other two recorded copies, this one contains numerous corrections and variations. Parchment half-binding (spine and corners); the shelfmark 23 is handwritten on the cover, which has a permanent protective covering of acid-free paper. The introductory text was omitted from the published version.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
First complete handwritten edition, with a number of deletions and cross-references. Each booklet consists of 12 bifolia. The pages were numbered by Rousseau. The recto of the pages contain the text, the verso corrections and additions. In his Dictionnaire de musique, Rousseau takes up again the approximately four hundred articles he had written in 1749 for the Encyclopédie. Starting in 1753, in answer to attacks and criticism brought on by his articles, he begins to revise and rewrite them. Because he strives for lexicographic completeness in the field of music, the author composes more and more new entries, reaching close to nine hundred terms. In 1794 the manuscript is donated to the Neuchâtel Library by Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou (1729-1794) from Neuchâtel, Rousseau's friend and publisher.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Carefully handwritten copy of the first seven Promenades (of the ten that make up the published text), with several crossed out and deleted passages. Each booklet consists of 12 bifolia. From page 1 to 83, the pages were numbered by Rousseau, from page 84 by Th. Dufour. In Les Rêveries, Rousseau performs one last introspection in the form of philosphical thoughts and reflections, which he himself characterizes as an appendix to his Confessions. In the fifth Promenade, he describes with nostalgia the moments of solitary happiness he experienced on St. Peter's Island in Lake Biel. The Rêveries are Rousseau's last text; after the philosopher's death, they were retained by his friend and publisher Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou (1729-1794) from Neuchâtel, who in his testament bequeathed the manuscript to the Neuchâtel Library.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Small notebook with an 18th century cardboard binding that was covered in parchment. Double numbering by Théophile Dufour. Ink and pencil. The heavily corrected manuscript contains the draft of walks eight through ten of the Rêveries du Promeneur solitaire as well as parts of the Dialogues. It also contains references to botany.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Pencilled note in the margin of a printed page, which was found in the binding of a draft of the Rêveries (Promenades 8 -10).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
First this manuscript contains the translation into Romansh of the statutes and laws of the district of Bergün in the revision from the year 1614 (pp. V5-V7 and 1–23). On pp. 41-76 follow the laws and statutes of the district of Bergün from 1680, followed by supplements from the years 1690-1724 (pp. 77–86); from 1719 (p. 83) on in a different hand. A new numbering begins on p. 109 with the translation of the Federal Charter of the three leagues in the 1544 version (1-7). This is followed by a table of contents, labeled "Register," to the laws (9-12); the last entries are by a second hand. As conclusion to these texts, there is a 1716 statute for the use of forests (pp. 15f), by the first hand again. Peidar P. Juvalta, ord. 1682, † 1724, signs as scribe; in 1719 he executed a second copy for a different commissioner (StAGR A 51).
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This manuscript contains the civil statutes (ff. 1-128), criminal statutes (ff. 130-163), and marriage statutes (ff. 165-170) for the Upper Engadine district from 1665, with supplements up to 1762; the supplements for 1762 are written in another script. Next is a translation of the Federal Charter from 1524 (ff. 172-177) and of the testamentary agreement with the Counts of the Tyrol from 1518 (ff. 178-185). The statutes conclude with a register (ff. 187-197). This is followed by a list of officials of the Upper Engadine district from 1563-1729 (ff. 210v-226r).
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This paper manuscript, copied by a single scribe, has various materials related to the history of the Diocese of Basel. The title on the spine reads: “Catalogue des Evêques d. Bâle”. It begins with general information on the history and organization of the diocese, including a list of roles at the episcopal court (pp. 9-11) and another one of the vassals of the bishopric (pp. 11-13). Then, after a table of contents listing the bishops of the diocese, from Saint Pantalus to Joseph Guillaume Rinck de Baldenstein (pp. 14-16), there follow summaries in German of the deeds done under their episcopates, dating from 238 to 1747 (pp. 17-131). As the ex libris on the front pastedown states, this work belonged to Pierre Joseph Koetschet (1800-1869) when he was director of the Collège de Delémont.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This paper manuscript contains multiple texts by Marcel Moureau, described in a table of contents (p. 436-s25). The author, after having studied at the Jesuit College of Porrentruy, entered the Cistercian abbey of Lucelle, where he taught philosophy and theology, as he did later at Hauterive and at Neubourg (Alsace). From 1782, he served as priest in Folgensbourg (Alsace), and this is the title that he uses at the bottom of the title page of the first text in this collection – Introductio in Historiam Patriam Veterum Rauracorum… (p. V3) – dedicated to his history of Rauracia, its etymology, its locales, its language (particularly the patois), etc. (pp. 1-76). Written in Latin as a dialogue, the six parts of this history were dedicated in 1784 to Bishop Sigismond de Roggenbach (pp. V5-V9). Then follows the history of the monastery of Neubourg, also by Marcel Moreau (pp. 81-101). Afterwards appear a series of copies of letters sent to the National Assembly, in connection with the efforts to preserve the religious orders and to prevent the alienation of ecclesiastical property (pp. 105-131; 133-144; 149-160; 165-168), followed by the “Correspondance d'un Suisse avec un Rauraque relativement à la révolution operée dans la principauté de Porrentruy en 1792 et 1793…” (pp. 173-216). These are the same years covered by the next text of Moreau, “Bulletin des faits arrivés dans l'Évêché de Bâle” (pp. 225-372). Then follows a second series of letters, these pastoral in nature, from the bishop of Alès, Louis-François de Bausset (p. 373 ff.) and from the titular bishop of Lydda, Jean-Baptiste Gobel (p. 393 ff.). Marcel Moreau's final texts, laid out in epistolary style, describe an “Itinéraire de la Suisse septentrionale” (pp. 436-s1-436-s23) and a “Promenade fatigante mais agréable du Pichoux” (pp. 437-502).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
Marcel Moreau (Delémont 1735-1804), the author of this manscript, entered the Cistercian abbey of Lucelle in 1755, teaching theology there, and then at Hauterive, and Neubourg (in Alsace). After refusing to give the constitutional oath during the Revolution (1791), he took refuge in Hauterive, and then was named director of the Cistercian nuns of La Maigrauge. During these years, he wrote memoirs on contemporary events, as attested by this manuscript, which describes what happened between 21 April 1792 (p. 5) and 27 January 1793 (p. 138). The concluding index (pp. 139-150-s2), in chronological order, establishes the correspondence between the events treated on the manuscript's pages and their dates.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This catalog of the residents of the college of Belleleay was drawn up in 1791, as indicated by the label on the front cover of the manuscript. Nevertheless, it contains the names of residents who attended this institution from 1772 to 1797, at which point 464 names were registered. On the last five written pages, dated 1835, M. Jean de Montherot (no. 305) provides numerically ordered notes regarding the careers of some them.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume contains the first part of a series of notes by Father Grégoire Voirol (Les Genevez, 1751 – Porrentruy, 1827) – the second part can be found in A2044/2. Among the texts copied between 1770 and 1823, there is a Journal de 1790 à 1792; two Supplementum directorii ecclesiastici ad usum Ecclesiae Bellelagiensis, one for the year 1777 (pp. 363-374), the other for the year 1787 (pp. 375-395); Remarques sur la retraite les 28, 29, 30 et 31 décembre 1770, etc. Inserted into these handwritten notes is a print (pp. 401-440): Ordo officii divini juxta rubricas breviari praemonstratensis annus 1789, published in Charleville in 1787.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume contains the second part of a series of notes by Father Grégoire Voirol (Les Genevez, 1751 – Porrentruy, 1827) – the first part can be found in A2044/1. The notes and the copies of texts primarily refer to the Premonstratensian Bellelay Abbey. Some pages from a printed work, including a part of a calendar, have been inserted into the manuscript (pp. 117-124), and ten loose leaves have been added at the end.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Paper volume containing the renewals of vows of the canons and abbots of the Premonstratensian Bellelay Abbey between 1735 and 1797.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript contains numerous notes by Abbot Grégoire Voirol (Les Genevez, 1751 - Porrentruy, 1827). The notes differ in content and in language (Latin or French); they were bound together at an unknown date. Among the notes are various obituaries from the Premonstratensian Bellelay Abbey and from Roggenburg Abbey in Bavaria, where Voirol fled after the French invasion of 1789, the catalog from the library of Bellelay, historical souvenirs, letters, etc.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This work has the title Théologie de Bellelay written on a piece of paper that is glued to the page containing the original Latin title: “Cursus logica compendiarius data collegio Bellagensi S.R.S. Gregorio Voirol professore anno supra millegissimum septingentesimum octogesimo quinto“. It is the notebook of a student, L'Hoste (p. 131), who followed a shortened course in logic by Abbot Grégoire Voirol (1751-1827), probably when the latter taught at the Premonstratensian Bellelay Abbey.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
List of the “titres d'acquisitions, les permutations, obligations, sentences, transactions, jugemens [sic] compromissorials [sic], lettres de fiefs, d'admoniations, etc.” (p. 1), found in the archives of the Abbey of Lucelle, followed by a place index at the end of the manuscript (N32-N36). Ex-libris on the title page: “Par moi Jean Baptiste Etienne, archiviste”.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This list was drawn up by Jean-Baptiste Etienne (N5-N6), director of the archives, to give the abbey an overview of its assets and its duties. It begins with a summary of the founding of the abbey. Ex-libris on the title page: “J. Baptiste Estienne, profès en l'Abbaye de Lucelle, directeur des archives”.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript, also called “Cartulaire de Lucelle no 2”, is the second volume of a collection of documents containing the transcriptions of the titles of goods and temporal privileges of the Abbey of Lucelle. The texts are in Latin and German.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript contains records as well as documents “tirés de l'insigne Chapitre de Moutier-Grandval”, collected mainly by J.P. Voirol. These documents concern the rights and duties of citizens towards their ruler.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Indictment by the ecclesiastical body of Moutier-Grandval Abbey to the Prince-Bishop of Basel against persons of public life in order to recover goods stolen from the abbey over time: “Mémoire pour l'Eglise Collégiale de Moutier Grandval contre Monsieur le Procureur général de la Chambre des finances de Sa Rev. Illustr. Monseigneur le Prince Evêque de Bâle prince du Saint Empire, servant de réponse à son plaidoyer fait le 19 décembre 1785 pardevant le Conseil aulique dudit Prince Evêque”. The indictment was written by Jean-Germain Fidèle Bajol, canon of the Chapter of Moutier-Grandval (V5).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Contains copies of regulations and agreements signed between the Priory of Moutier-Grandval and various regions of French-speaking Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This manuscript, written in French, tells the story of Moutier-Grandval Abbey: "où sont rapportés les événements les plus remarquables qui sont arrivés dans l'Evêché de Bâle depuis l'origine et fondation du monastère de M.G.V. jusqu'à nos jours". This is followed by a Latin print, "Pièces justificatives" (pp. 103-220). It contains an index (pp. N1-N4), and, at the end of the volume, four pages titled: "Mémoire des liaisons helvétiques du chapitre de Moutier-Grand-Val" (pp. N5-N8). The document was most likely written by Jean Germain Fidèle Bajol, who was largely inspired by the Latin manuscript Historicum insigni ecclesiae collegiatae Monasterii Grandis-Vallis by François Jacques Joseph Chariatte (see A2445).
Online Since: 12/10/2020
A collection of rights, revenues and customs of Moutier-Grandval Abbey, introduced by a table of contents (p. V1-V2), occupies the first part of this manuscript (pp. V1-1_0135). This is followed by an "Extrait des protocoles du chapitre de Moutier Grand Val depuis l'an 1500 jusqu'en l'an 1788" (p. 1_0138).
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This manuscript contains a topographical description of the region of Moutier-Grandval, decrees tracing the political history of Moutier-Grandval Abbey, and isolated articles on the role of the Priory of Saint-Ursanne. The text was written in Latin and translated into French in the second column.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Alphabetical inventory of all the rules governing life in general at the Chapter of Moutier-Grandval, be it the life of the canons or relations with the villages of the Chapter. They include, for example, the dress code for the canons on certain occasions, the notary's salary, the mills, etc., for the period from 1499 to 1759.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This document lists the rules that govern the relationship between the Diocese of Basel and the Chapter of Moutier-Grandval, with regard to, for example, watercourses, hunting, forests, tributes, borders, minerals, etc., as well as the characteristics of each local community of the Chapter, for the period between 1462 and 1731.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This Latin chronicle was written by ninety-six successive hands. Until the abolition of the Jesuit Order in 1773, these annals, present the application of the Jesuits' pedagogical principles in a pragmatic manner and over a long period of time, and also provide interesting information about the people.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Divided into three parts, this manuscript relates year by year all noteworthy events regarding the monastery. The document contains the religious vows, the deaths of the sisters as well as their obituaries, all of which are significant elements of the religious history of Porrentruy at this time.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The volume contains two registers of the Jesuit personnel of the province of Upper Germany, dated 1765 (pp. 3-250; 251-358). The title page is printed (p. 3, 251), as is the checked table that extends across the double page. In the first catalogue, the table is divided into five columns on the left page and three on the right, with the following columns: surname and given name (nomen et cognomen), origin (patria nat. dioecesis), age (aetas), date of entry into the Order (tempus societatis), time spent in study (tempus stud.), previous and actual roles (ministeria obita), university degree (gradus in liter.) and category of oaths taken (gradus in societ.). In the second catalogue, the division of the columns differs, with the loss of the categories of time spent in study and university degree, and the gain of a category related to office (conditio). What is handwritten is the names of the Jesuits, classified according to alphabetical order of the given name. Although dating to the same year, these two catalogues do not have the same series of names. Although such works were intended to be sent to the Company of Jesus headquarters in Rome, this one appears in Delémont in the possession of the Jura historian Louis Vautrey (1882-1886), as the ex libris (p. 1) states.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This manuscript has a register of persons who professed at the Jesuits of Porrentruy from 1669 to 1788 (pp. 1-122). As opposed to the two semi-printed catalogues in the volume A2610, this one is entirely handwritten. Ordered chronologically, it is signed by different members of the Order and ends in 1788. An index of names organized by year rounds out the volume (pp. 169-178). It later belonged to the Jura historian Louis Vautrey (1829-1886) in Delémont (p. VI).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
Diary with daily notes about life in the Jesuit seminary in Porrentruy between 1727 and 1754.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
Diary with daily notes about life in the Jesuit seminary in Porrentruy between 1754 and 1771.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
The manuscript contains the cumulative list of the Jesuits of the congregation of the Purification of the Virgin of Porrentruy. The title page, particularly detailed, imitates contemporary typographical decoration for initials (p. 1). Since the period covered by the list stretches from 1603 to 1707 (p. 240), the names are written by several different hands. A chronological and alphabetical index (pp. 241-270) lists all the names, which are further classified according to roles (prefect, assistant, secretary, etc.). The second part of the manuscript, introduced by a title page written in capital letters and dated 1641 (p. 271), enumerates in chronological order the names and various roles of the Jesuits of Porrentruy (up to 1681). The pages that follow contain, among other things, the annual lists of students at the Jesuit college of Porrentruy, up to 1720 (p. 402). The old pagination of the manuscript is discontinuous, because a certain number of pages have been removed.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
Begun in 1620 by Jean Henri Vest when he was living in Freiburg-im-Breisgau (p. 1), this collection was originally conceived as a Stammbuch (family book) recording the genealogy and the marriages of the Vest family, with corresponding coats of arms. The enlarged coat of arms granted honorifically by Emperor Rudolph II in 1582 to the Count Palatine Jean Vest, father of Jean Henri, is repeated many times. Humbert Henri Vest brought the collection to Porrentruy in 1667; after the marriage of his daughter, Marie Hélène Vest (1693-1761), the last member of the local branch of the family, to Fréderic François Ignace Xavier Grandvillers (1690-1727) in 1716, the collection passed into the hands of the Grandvillers family. The Grandvillers added their coat of arms and those of related families (pp. 51-85 and 138-139, etc.). Born and died in Delémont, the lawyer Conrad de Grandvillers (1813-1880), great-great-grandson of Marie Hélène Vest, and the last to carry the name, was the last of his family to possess this volume, as the signature “de Grandvillers avocat” indicates (p. 1). Perhaps he is the one who, in the nineteenth century, added some other coats of arms without a family connection (pp. 277-281), possibly with the idea of transforming the volume into a liber amicorum or, more broadly, into an Armorial jurassien, as stated in the title added on the binding, probably in the nineteenth century. The fact that some coats-of-arms connected to the Vest family have been cut out and glued on other pages (pp. 89-95) suggests a major working of the volume at an unknown date.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This paper manuscript, paginated 108-286, is one of four surviving copies of the writings of Nicolas Godin (Besançon, 1727 – Porrentruy, 1805), surgeon for the last four archbishops of Basel. His 24 medical-surgical “observations” are followed by a last one, which consists of a “description abrégée” (abbreviated description) of the principality of Basel, with a medical topography and meteorological observations (p. 236-283).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This volume contains two distinct works. The first is a copy of the formulary of the Basel Church Court, in use circa 1640 in the office of the diocesan officialis, at the time based in Altkirch and led by Johannis Georgius Goetzmann (p. V9). It was copied in Altkirch in 1753 by Johannis Theobald Roeslin, Apostolic Notary to the Episcopal Court of Basel. The formulas are chiefly in Latin, but also in German and more rarely in French (pp. 1-365). The style of script changes according to the language used. An alphabetical index finishes the first part (pp. 369-374). The second text, in French, was copied by a certain “Vannesson”, clerk to the Episcopal Court (p. 382), contains the judicial formulas for “conducting criminal proceedings against ecclesiastics” (pp. 383-465). These formulas have been copied with blanks to be filled in with names, places, and dates of the offenses to be tried. The tables at the end refer to the original pagination in Roman numerals (pp. 467-470).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
A two-column dictionary compiled by Ferdinand Raspieler, parish priest of Courroux (? – 1762). A note at the beginning of the dictionary indicates that it was written in order to serve justices and clergy in the Bernese Jura, who were impeded in their work because they did not know the dialect.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This volume contains “année après année tout ce qui s'est passé de remarquable dans cet établissement [the Collège de Porrentruy] depuis 1588 à 1771” (p. 1). So reads the title page of this paper manuscript, which moreover provides information on its provenance. Property of the Jesuit priest Voisard (1749-1818), at his death the manuscript was bequeathed to Henri Joliat (1803-1859), who deposited it in 1856 in the library of the Collège de Porrentruy. The text begins in 1588 with the establishment of the Collège directed by the Jesuits; this volume concludes in 1661. The years that follow are treated in a second volume, MP 4-2. These excerpts from the annals are probably the French translation and summary of the volume in Latin in the Jura Cantonal Library (A2597).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This paper manuscript contains the conclusion of the “Extraits des annales du Collège de Porrentruy” (MP 4-1). It begins in 1662 and ends in 1762, somewhat before what was announced (1771) on the title page of the first volume (MP 4-1, p. 1).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
According to the preface (pp. 5-8), the Jesuit François-Humbert Voisard (1749-1818) wrote the Abrégé as the first history in French of the bishops of Basel and dedicated it to his students. Entirely focused on the ecclesiastical history of Basel and Porrentruy, the text's structure reveals its pedagogic nature: a short question introduces each chapter, and the text that immediately follows provides a more or less lengthy reply to the question. According to Gustave Amweg's Bibliographie du Jura bernois, Voisard's Abrégé survives in five copies and has not been published to this day. This manuscript has been corrected, annotated, and ends with an index of the bishops and the clerical institutions of the Basel episcopacy (pp. 459-460). Ownership notes inscribed on the front pastedown document its provenance: “Ce livre appartient à Henri Joliat, étudiant en rhétorique. Porrentruy, le 3 mai 1819 / Et / Schwartzlin Père / et /à l'abbé Vautrey à qui il a été remis par M. l'abbé Marquis en 1813”.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
One of the five copies of the Abrégé de l'histoire des évêques de Bâle by the Jesuit, François-Humbert Voisard (1749-1818), a history textbook organized according to questions and responses and dating from 1781. Except for the address of the dedication, the preface of this volume uses nearly the same terms as those in a second copy in the Bibliothèque cantonale jurassienne (MP 10 / A 3269). It differs, however, in lacking annotation and correction. In addition, the copy is incomplete, since it stops suddenly at the beginning of the fourth part, dedicated to the bishops of Basel and of Porrentruy (p. 360). Before coming to the library of the Collège de Porrentruy in 1842, the manuscript belonged to a certain Quiquerez (back pastedown), probably Jean-Georges, mayor and notary of Porrentruy, and then to his son, Auguste (1801-1882), a Jurassien engineer, historian, archeologist, and geologist, as indicated by his ex-libris (p. V1).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
The Porrentruy lawyer François-Joseph Guélat (1736-1825) is one of the most well-known chroniclers to have described life in the Jura at the moment of the Revolution. Divided into three manuscript volumes, the text was published in 1906 by B. Boéchat et Fils in Delémont, with the title Journal de François-Joseph Guélat 1791-1802. The second volume starts in 1793 and runs to the end of December 1795. It uses the same layout as the previous volume, which is hardly surprising, since at the beginning they formed a single unit, as shown by the older, continous pagination. Likewise, the long table of contents at the end refers to both volumes (pp. 125-163).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
The Porrentruy lawyer François-Joseph Guélat (1736-1825) is one of the most well-known chroniclers to have described life in the Jura at the moment of the Revolution. Divided into three manuscript volumes, the text was published in 1906 by B. Boéchat et Fils in Delémont, with the title Journal de François-Joseph Guélat 1791-1802. The third volume runs from 1796 to 1802, and, like the preceding volume (MP 15 / A1451-2) concludes with a table of contents (pp. 159-177).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
The Porrentruy lawyer François-Joseph Guélat (1736-1825) is one of the most well-known chroniclers to have described life in the Jura at the moment of the Revolution. Divided into three manuscript volumes, the text was published in 1906 by B. Boéchat et Fils in Delémont, with the title Journal de François-Joseph Guélat 1791-1802. The first volume starts in 1791 and runs to 1793 (28 July). The year is given at the top of each page, above the left margin, where are mentioned the days and events related to the adjacent text.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This volume contains copies of various documents, which were meticulously collected by the pastor of Tavannes, Théophile Rémy Frêne (1727-1804), over a period of several decades, but especially in the last third of the 18th century. It thus gathers memories, correspondence, numerous documents and even lists which reveal the pastor's diverse scholarly activities, especially in the areas of history, geography and politics. The collection allows us to grasp his most personal interests. These writings, organized in thematic series, focus mainly on the Principality of Basel and the region of Neuchâtel. The volume thus would attest an extensive project describing the Principality of Basel, which in the end Frêne did not publish - some of the information the pastor gathered have been included by Charles-Ferdinand Morel in his Abrégé de l'histoire et de la statistique du ci-devant Evêché de Bâle (Strasbourg, 1813). It also reflects the fundamental role that pastors held in the second half of the 18th century as promoters of regional knowledge.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This leather-bound album contains about 35 dedications and drawings by people with whom the coppersmith and wine merchant Christoph Fischer (1691-1770) from Schaffhausen was in touch during his lifetime. Based on the entries in Latin, German, French and English, it is possible to reconstruct two trips that Fisher took to London, during which most of the dedications occurred: 1747-1750 via Geneva, Lyon, Paris to London and 1758 via Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam to London. Several entries are by members of the Schalch family of Schaffhausen, who were relatives of Fischer; among these is an undated watercolor by the artist Johann Jakob Schalch (1723-1789) (p. 122), who lived in London and Den Haag from 1754-1773. After Fischer's death, the album was continued: entries from 1773 (p. 65) and 1820 (p. 215). Several pages of parchment (pp. 1-2, 19-20, 47-48, 115-116, 181-182) are bound into the paper manuscript, and several pages of paper were added later (pp. 39a-b, 55a-b, 147a-b) or were covered with pasted-on illustrations (p. 43, p. 125, p. 127). The entries are not in chronological order and alternate with numerous blank pages.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This leather-bound paper manuscript with gold embossing (digits of the year 1791 in each of the four corners of the book) is the memory album of Johann Conrad Fischer (1773-1854), coppersmith, metallurgist, entrepreneur and politician from Schaffhausen. His cast steel factory, founded in 1802, developed into the current Georg Fischer Ltd. The album contains dedications and illustrations by about 70 people with whom Fischer was in touch during his lifetime, among them his math teacher Melchior Hurter (1735-1811) (p. 1), Professor Johann Georg Müller (1759-1819) (p. 49), the physician Johann Balthasar Zwingli from Zurich (1764-1817) (p. 164), the writer Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848) (p. 175), Fischer's great–uncle Lorenz Spengler (1720-1807), head of the Royal Art Chamber in Copenhagen (p. 43), and his son Johann Conrad Spengler (1767-1839) (p. 105). The majority of the entries are in German, French, English and Danish and date from his years of travel as a journeyman coppersmith in 1792-1795, when he traveled via Frankfurt, Chemnitz, Dresden to Copenhagen and on to London. Occasional further entries continue until 1841. The entries are not in chronological order and alternate with pasted-in pages (pp. 3a-b, 48a, 111a-d) and numerous blank pages. The numbering of the pages is from the time of the creation of the album.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
In this magnificently illustrated manuscript of unusual content, the Italian architect and town planner Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839) describes the casting of the Campanone, the largest bell in St. Peter's Basilica, in a text featuring 14 watercolored pen and ink drawings. The Vatican had commissioned the bell from the foundry of his father, Luigi Valadier, who passed away in 1785, before the work on the bell was completed. The son Giuseppe completed the commission and in 1786 prepared a manuscript about this work, pairing each drawing with a written explanation in the form of a legend. First Valadier shows the foundry building (2v-7r); then, in an almost photographic wealth of detail and in vivid colors, he shows the process of producing the bell including the technique of the false bell and the casting in bronze (8v-21r). Finally the finished bell (22v-23r) is transported through the streets of Rome on a wooden sled (24v-25r) and is blessed by Pope Pius VI (26v-27r). – The manuscript was purchased in Bern in 1948.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This paper manuscript, produced around 1700, mentions in its title Emperor Leopold (I, reigned 1658-1705). The identity of Giovanni Baptista Coene from Passau, named as author, remains obscure; no further information is available about him. — The names of metals and other materials that Coene used in experiments are not written out in the text, but are represented by alchemic symbols (planetary signs, etc.). Because these occur in large numbers, the text is not easily readable or understandable. Further evidence that the manuscript is rooted in alchemy comes from the fact that Coene refers to Paracelsus (1493/94-1541), e.g., in the short final chapter with the title “Che cosa il Balsamo Samech di Paracelso” (pp. 101-102). Coene also mentions the “Testamentum” (pp. 99-100) and names Raimundus Lullus (1232/33-1315/16) as its author; today it is considered a pseudo-Llull text. — Within the chapters, individual paragraphs are numbered, but in the last quarter of the manuscript this numbering seems to have been added later (pp. 81-102). At the end of the manuscript, the numbering is incorrect (instead from p. 70ff. it should read correctly p. 97ff.). — The manuscripts was purchased in Italy in 1952.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript, with an imposing binding, bears the title “Schlacht-, Nammen-, Schilt- und Waappen-Buoch von denen noch bewusten Graffen, Freyen, Edlen, Ritter und Knechten, welche mit Hertzog Leopoldo II. von Oesterreich auff St. Cirilli den 9.ten Tag Iulij 1386 vor Sempach umbgekommen und erschlagen worden” (Book of the battle, name, escutcheon and coat of arms for the known counts, freemen, nobles, knights and soldiers who perished or were slain along with Leopold II, Duke of Austria on St. Cyril, the 9th day of July 1386 at Sempach). Joseph von Rudolphi (1717−1740), abbot of St. Gall, commissioned this copy in 1738, because, after studying the Chronicon Helveticum, the great historical work by the scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) of Glarus, and a copy thereof that he had arranged to have made for his monastery shortly before from the exemplar at Schloss Gräpplang near Flums (Cod. Sang. 1213−1220), he had found certain discrepancies with an older copy of the “Wappenbuch von Sempach”. A colorful painting of the battle has survived as a sort of frontispiece on a parchment bifolio (pp. 6−7); it is similar to the painting in the Schlachtkapelle (“battle chapel”) of Sempach and, according to Franz Weidmann's manuscript catalog (Cod. Sang. 1405, p. 2002), it was “von einem gar alten Kupferstich getreülich abgemalet worden” (faithfully copied from a quite old copperplate print). Apparently Joseph Leodegar Bartholomäus Tschudi (1708−1772), a descendant of Aegidius Tschudi, is responsible for the book decoration (p. V1). After extensive introductory comments, the volume's rich ornamentation with the coats of arms begins with a portrait of Duke Leopold III (p. 34).
Online Since: 06/22/2017
In 1669, Georg Franz Müller (1646−1723) from Alsace traveled for eleven months from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta) and then spent 13 years on various Indonesian islands as a soldier in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Cod. Sang. 1278, which supplements his illustrated travel diary (Cod. Sang. 1311), gives a chronological account of his travels; in addition, there are detailed descriptions of people, plants and animals he encountered in the Far East and on his voyage there (pp. 1-457). This copy, completed by two scribes at the Monastery of Mariaberg near Rorschach between 1701 and 1705, contains in an appendix (pp. 460-489) two smaller-format collections of documents with the listing “souvenir pieces”, which Georg Franz Müller brought back to Europe from his stay in East India. In various places, Müller corrected and/or completed this copy.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
During his time as librarian (1729-1732), Fr. Aemilian Zeller (1691-1730) compiled a catalog of manuscripts, ordered alphabetically by author. He quietly omitted from the catalog all manuscripts where an author was not given, such as copies of the Bible, or Psalters, or texts by unknown authors. The manuscripts bear the signatures of the older manuscript catalog by Father Hermann Schenk (1653-1706) from the period before 1700 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1280; circa Class. 1, n. 44). Father Pius Kolb, Abbey Librarian from 1748, added the new signatures introduced by him (cf. Cod. Sang. 1400 and 1401, circa D.n. 88). to the earlier signatures in the Zeller mansucript catalog. The catalog offers no indications regarding the age, type of script, or availability of the individual manuscripts.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
A composite manuscript that is very instructive about the history of the library; it is made up of various documents, written between 1680 and 1780 and then bound together. Part 1 (pp. 7-121): manuscript catalog by Fr. Hermann Schenk (1653-1706) from the period around 1700. Around 1750, Fr. Pius Kolb (1712-1762) added his new catalog signatures. Kolb also noted missing manuscripts in Schenk's catalog. Most of these had been taken to Zurich in 1712 (deest). Part 2: (pp. 127−153 and pp. 162−167): register of abbey library benefactors (Monumentum gratitudinis dedicatum benefactoribus Bibliothecae), begun in 1680 and continued until 1780. Extraordinary donations to the library were entered retroactively to 1567, such as (p. 133) the “donation” of a large terrestrial and celestial globe by the pharmacist Lukas Stöckli from Constance. Such mentions often concern objects from the library's cabinet of curiosities and rarities. Part 3 (pp. 155-161): books that were acquired between 1717 and 1737 under Abbot Joseph von Rudolphi (1717-1740). Part 4 (pp. 169 and pp. 175-187): books from the estate of Prince-Abbot (1687-1696) and Cardinal Cölestin Sfondrati, which after his death were integrated into the library by Fr. Hermann Schenk. Part 5 (pp. 191-234): collection of larger format volumes from the abbey library from the period around 1700. Part 6: (pp. 237−270; separate loose documents): list of the abbey library's most beautiful books from the period around 1750, composed by Fr. Pius Kolb and entitled Ilias in nuce. Part 7 (pp. 275-280; collection of loose pages): list of manuscript signatures by Fr. Pius Kolb.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
In an elegant binding decorated with gold, Abbey Librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756-1823) compiled for his Abbot Beda Angehrn (1767-1796) a list of new acquisitions and accessions between 1780 and 1792: Verzeichniss der Handschriften, Bücher, Kunst und Naturprodukte, welche seit dem 23. Oktober 1780 bis Ende Mayes 1792 der Stift St. Gallischen Bibliotheke sind einverleibt worden. This volume thus is a unique document of the acquisition policy and practice of the Monastery of St. Gall. In barely twelve years, a total of 335 incunabula and postincunabula, around 4,000 later printed works, as well as 146 manuscripts were integrated into the library. Most of these manuscripts came to the current abbey library (in exchange for printed literature of ascetic-spiritual character) from St. Gall women's cloisters such as the Benedictine nuns of St. George, the Capuchin nuns of Altstätten or the Dominican nuns of Wil. Accessions to the coin collection, the natural history collection, and the cabinet of curiosities, new acquisitions of paintings and prints, as well as alia quaedam bibliothecae illata (diverse other acquisitions of various types such as chairs made of Spanish cane or a new library seal) are mentioned. Also listed are general expenditures for bookbinding as well as monetary contributions owed to the library by those officials and clergy onto whom the abbot had newly conferred a secular office or a parish.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
The best critical manuscript register of the 18th century: the St. Gall Manuscript Catalog of librarian Pater Pius Kolb (1712-1762) in two volumes (together with Cod. Sang. 1401) from the years 1755/59. The front matter of this first volume consists of an account by Pius Kolb of his work with manuscripts and the first detailed account of the history of the Abbey Library of St. Gall. The manuscripts are ordered by subject area; this first volume contains individual manuscript listings, together with critical commentaries, for the Bibles, the Bible commentaries, the works of the church fathers, the works written by St. Gall authors, the Council records as well as the Rules of the Order and commentaries upon those Rules. In the back of the volume is a manuscript concordance indicating the previous and the new library signatures for each volume. This catalog was produced in conjunction with the application of a new library signature scheme to the manuscript collection.
Online Since: 12/23/2008