Part two (New Testament) of an illuminated three-volume bible (of which MsWettF 1 and MsWettF 2 remain), probably bequeathed to the cloister of Wettingen by Rudolph Schwerz, choirmaster of the Grossmunster Cathedral of Zurich and pastor of Altdorf. The origin of the Biblia Sacra is not documented, but it is assumed that it originated in the Zurich art circle. There is some text loss because certain initials have been cut out.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This late 15th or early 16th century calendar, consisting of only six leaves, contains in addition to the feast days and the saints also the Dedicatio Murensis. After the Reformation, the abbots Christoph von Grüt (1549-1564), Hieronymus Frey (1564-1585) and Jakob Meyer (1585-1596) used it to record the dates of their entry into the monastery, their election as abbot, the death of their successor and other events at the monastery.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Part (Genesis-Ezra) of an illuminated three-volume bible (of which MsWettF 1 and MsWettF 2 remain), probably bequeathed to the cloister of Wettingen by Rudolph Schwerz, choirmaster of the Grossmunster Cathedral of Zurich and pastor of Altdorf.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
The Cistercian Consuetudines from the middle third of the 13th century include the foundational Carta caritatis and the practices regulating worship, the life of the lay brothers, the general chapter as well as other areas, up to the placing of accents in manuscripts. Several scribes contributed to the writing of this copy. In the 13th century, another scribe added medical recipes in German on previously blank pages.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This volume is one of several manuscripts that are preserved in Basel and that contain records of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). The origin of the manuscript, which contains source material about sessions 1-45, is not known. The script suggests the third quarter of the 15th century; the binding is dated to the 18th century. Noteworthy is the dry-point ruling of the leaves by means of a ruling-board.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The Liber de laudibus Sanctae Crucis (Veneration of the Holy Cross) consists of Carmina figurata by Abbot Hrabanus Maurus of Fulda. This exemplar, most likely produced in 831, is arranged to display an image portraying each episode on the left (23 of the 28 Figures are included), with the corresponding prose portrayal on the right. The second portion, also a prose text, is missing.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This manuscript was created in Fleury; the first page is magnificently decorated with two large interlace initials, which represent a special type of insular decorative art. In addition to smaller pieces, this composite manuscript contains the epic poem De bello civili (Parsalia) by Lucan (middle of the 1st century) as well as a version of the Orestes myth by the African poet Dracontius (5th century). For the latter, this codex constitutes by far the oldest textual witness. The beginning of Lucan's text by is provided with an abundance of scholia; because of Cod. 370, which contains only scholia, they are known as the Commenta Bernensia.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This manuscript from Luxeuil contains the Geometry falsely attributed to Boethius, as well as geometric and gromatic excerpts from Cassiodorus, Isidore and the agrimensores. It probably formed a codex together with the Aratea (Cod. 88) and was given to the Strasbourg Cathedral by Bishop Werner I.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The Aratea, translated into Latin by Germanicus, describe the 48 ancient constellations and the myths concerning their origins. They are among the most popular picture cycles of medieval monastery schools. The Bernese codex, produced in St. Bertin, is a descendant of the Leiden Aratea and contains scholia which have survived only in this codex.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This manuscript, which originated in the Benedictine Abbey St. Trinité de Fécamp, contains various works by Augustine: De opere monachorum; De fide et operibus; Contra Donatistas; De bono virginitatis; De bono conjugali; De bono viduitatis; De symbolo bono (sermo 215); De oratione dominica (sermo 56). The manuscript is significant as important testimony of French manuscript illumination of the 11th century as well as, due to its history, of the exchange of manuscripts among Norman monasteries.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains the complete hagiographic works of Gregory of Tours, consisting of eight books of hagiographies. The manuscript is very close to Gregory's autograph (class 1a); it originated in the circles of the Reims scriptorium in the 9th century. Two pages of a Gospel of John in Merovingian script as well as a Vita of Paul of Thebes were bound into the volume.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Guillaume de Marchaut was one of the most important poets and composers of the middle ages in France. His work is represented in the collection of the Burgerbibliothek Bern by a manuscript of the highest quality: the 13 column-width miniatures and many of the initials are polychromatic and accented with gold leaf. Notation provided with some of the songs makes this manuscript, easily datable by its scribal colophon, important to the study of music history.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The manuscript consists of two parts. The first, Carolingian (fol. 1–12) with its original texts (fol. 1v–11v), reflects a meeting between Einhard and Lupus of Ferrières that occurred in June of 836 in Seligenstadt. Lupus received the arithmetic book (Calculus) by Victorius of Aquitaine along with a now widely known model alphabet for Ancient Capitals. Around 1000, texts by Abbo of Fleury on the ‘computus' (reckoning the date for Easter) were then added at the abbot's home monastery on the Loire (fol. 12–28), along with an abacus table (fol. 1r). The resulting collection of documents contains key items for and from Abbo's technical scholarship and offers a slightly divergent counterpart to the contemporaneous Floriacensis, Berlin, Staatsbibl., Phill. 1833.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This manuscript, which was probably produced in Fleury, consists of two independent parts. The first part (f. 1-47) comprises three commentaries on the Old and the New Testament; the second part (f. 48-192) consists of a total of 14 glossaries containing a total of about 25,000 lemmas. A particularity of this manuscript is that it shows different stages in the development of glossaries side by side. The first part represents an earlier stage with definitions of words in the order of the source text, also containing glosses in Old English and Old High German. In the second part the glossaries are already more developed with entries on individual authors or certain topics, ordered alphabetically by keywords.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
A very interesting, completely edited and corrected manuscript of the three books of the Sententiae by Isidore of Seville. Compared to the main tradition, the form of the text is substantially different and contains numerous transpositions and additions. The manuscript was written at the Abbey of Saint-Mesmin, Micy, as evidenced by ownership labels (ex libris) written along the text area of each quire. In the middle there is a subsequently inserted binion (11th century), which contains, among others, parts of the Sermones by Fulbert of Chartres.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript is part of a substantial Carolingian composite manuscript, the surviving parts of which today are held in the Burgerbibliothek Bern (Cod. 330, 347, 357), the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Ms. Lat. 7665), and in the Universitätsbibliothek Leiden (Voss. Lat. Q 30). Cod. 330 contains the last part of the volume with works on orthography by Cassiodorus, Alcuin-Bede, Caper, Terentius Scaurus, Agroetius, as well as several other texts.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Florus of Lyon († around 860) specialized in compiling patristic commentaries on the Epistles of Paul. This manuscript was written in France, probably in Auxerre, at the beginning of the 10th century, and is devoted exclusively to the compilation of the commentaries of Jerome and Gregory the Great. These two compilations are currently unpublished; however, the other two known texts have been digitized: Paris, BnF, lat. 1764 ff. 28r–97v and Paris, BnF, n.a.l. 1460 ff. 82r–169v.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript is part of a substantial Carolingian composite manuscript, the surviving parts of which today are held in the Burgerbibliothek Bern (Cod. 330, 347, 357), the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Ms. Lat. 7665), and in the Universitätsbibliothek Leiden (Voss. Lat. Q 30). Cod. 347 contains the first part of the volume with astronomical excerpts and diagrams from Macrobius and Pliny, as well as the beginning of Nonius Marcellus.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Evangelary from Fleury, with the texts of the four Gospels, each preceded by two chapter indexes. Attached to the beginning is a quaternio with letters from Jerome to Pope Damasus and from Eusebius to Cyprian. The artistic decoration includes 15 canon tables as well as a picture of the hand of God with the symbols of the evangelists.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This manuscript is part of a substantial Carolingian composite manuscript, the surviving parts of which today are held in the Burgerbibliothek Bern (Cod. 330, 347, 357), the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Ms. Lat. 7665), and in the Universitätsbibliothek Leiden (Voss. Lat. Q 30). Cod. 357 contains: on ff. 1–32, the second to last part of the volume with various glossaries and excerpts from Sallust; on ff. 33–41, the rest of Nonius Marcellus (continuation from Cod. 347), the oldest surviving textual witness of Petronius' Satyricon, as well as a fragment of a poem about weights and measures.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This textual witness of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, erroneously attributed to Cicero, was produced in the Loire area. The manuscript gained great attention in the 19th century already because it contains a short library catalog from the 11th/12th century, which probably refers to books from the Abbey of Saint-Mesmin de Micy. The claim that the manuscript originated in Fleury, proposed by many earlier authors, is uncertain and has been rejected several times in recent times. This volume came to Bern in 1632 from the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This Österreichische Chronik der 95 Herrschaften was copied around 1479 by Clemens Specker in Königsfelden Monastery. It is followed by a song about the War of Aargau, texts about King Frederick III, Konrad Pfettisheim's story of Peter von Hagenbach, a song about Charles the Bold, the Swiss Annals by Clemens Specker, as well as pasted woodcuts of the Nine Worthies. It is richly decorated with miniatures and coats of arms. A copy of Cod. A 45 from 1597 can be found in BBB Mss.h.h.VI.74. After the dissolution of the monastery, the codex passed into private hands in Bern in 1528, and in the 17th/18th century, it became part of the Stadtbibliothek of Bern.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
18 leaves (two whole quires and one bifolium) from a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Vauluisant. Additional parts of the manuscript are in Paris, BnF latin 2820. The fragment contains the end of Aelred of Rievaulx's Compendium speculi caritatis and the beginning of Alcuin's Compendium in cantica canticorum. In 1632, it came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
This fragment contains two texts that were popular in France at the time: the French translation of the Consolatio Philosophiae by Boethius and of the confort d'ami by Guillaume de Machaut. The 8 pages are from a rich collection of fragments in the Burgerbibliothek of Bern; they were digitized as a complement to the library's magnificently decorated Machaut manuscript (Cod. 218).
Online Since: 04/23/2013
Four bound bifolia from a medical manuscript, likely produced in Eastern France, containing excerpts from an antidotary and from Isaac Judaeus' De diaetis universalibus. The two leaves added at the end present excerpts from the Liber alter de dynamidiis, other excerpts of a theological nature, and medical recipes. In 1632, the fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
This small liturgical book was used in the Monastery of San Michele di Campagna near Verona during the 15th century. The work contains the rite of the profession of faith and of the consecration practiced on the occasion of the investiture of a Benedictine nun. It is valuable evidence of a ritual for women who take their vows.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This paper manuscript contains the prose version of the heroic epic Fierabras by Jean Bagnyon (1412-1497). As a lawyer in Lausanne, he wrote this adaptation around 1465-1470 at the request of Henri Bolomier, Canon of that same city (f. 117v). Divided into three books, the work begins with an outline of the history of the kings of France up to Charlemagne (Book I: f. 7v-19r), followed by the history of the “merveilleux et terrible“ giant Fierabras (Book II: f. 19v-93v), and a story about the Spanish War according to Turpin (Book III: f. 94r-117v). This copy and the Bibliothèque de Genève's copy (Ms. fr. 188) are the only two handwritten witnesses of this text, which experienced great success in print from the 15th century onward (1st printed edition by Adam Steinschaber in Geneva in 1478).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
In the middle of the 12th century the Latin works of Statius and Virgil as well as adaptations of Homer were translated into the vernacular. At the same time these Latin texts were being brought into the “romance” language (French), the first examples of the French poetic form called the “Roman” or Romance were being written. CB 18, a parchment manuscript, contains two such works, the Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure and the anonymously authored Roman de Thèbes.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This Armenian manuscript was written in 1606 at the church of Saint Nikoghayos in Istanbul. It contains the Four Gospels, the Apocalypse of Saint John, and a Gospelindex devised for liturgical use written by another scribe in the same century. The silver binding was probably made a century after the manuscript writing. Special attention should be drawn to the illuminations of the canon tables painted according to the text of the “Commentary of the Canon Tables” of Stepanos Syunetsi (8th century), where the author thoroughly expounds the animal, floral and geometrical motives, as well as the symbolism of numbers and colors of each of the canon tables. The painter has interpreted the symbols and motives used in all ten canon tables by placing the explanations below each of them.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, dedicated to "women in love", describes in the first person the feelings of the young Neapolitan Fiammetta, who has been left by her beloved Panfilo. The Elegia, a prose work written by Boccaccio in his youth, praised for the subtlety of its psychological approach, mixes autobiographical elements and obvious references to Latin literature. It is preserved here in a manuscript copied in 1467 by Giovanni Cardello da Imola, whose regular calligraphy is set off by decorations in bianchi girari (white vine-stem).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Jean Bodel, who was a member of the Brotherhood of Buskers and a bourgeois (middle-class resident) of Arras, wrote his Chanson des Saisnes (Song of the Saxons) during the last third of the 12th century. This epic in Alexandrine verse tells of the war prosecuted by Charlemagne against the Saxon King Guiteclin. The Chanson exists today in three manuscripts (a fourth was completely destroyed in the fire at the library of Turin) which present different versions of the text. The long version held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer is in a small-format manuscrit de jongleur or performer's script. It was probably produced around the end of the 13th century and is a simple piece of work, without miniatures, written on parchment, much of which was poorly cut, and it is roughly sewn together.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Boethius' De consolatione Philosophiae knew continuous success during the Middle Ages. This 14th century manuscript offers a complete copy of the Latin text with some interlinear glosses. The book decoration consists of a historiated initial with a half-length frontal portrait of the author as he points to his book (f. 1). From this initial sprouts a short leaf scroll. In addition there are very beautiful decorated initials placed at the beginning of the various books of the Consolatione (f. 8, 17, 30 and 41). Their style indicates that the manuscript was made in northern Italy, perhaps Bologna.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
The first part (4r-121r) of this paper manuscript contains a series of alliances made by the (Swiss) confederates, and the second part (130r-290r) contains the burgage (“Burgrecht”) alliances and contracts of the city of Bern. In the last part (300v-336r), the texts of alliances made in the 16th and 17th century by the confederates or by the individual cantons with Venice, Savoy and France were added at a later time and by a different scribe. Based on the kind of paper as well as on the script, this manuscript seems to have been produced around 1616 in Bern or in a territory under Bernese rule. The inside front cover holds the bookplate Baggrave Library, perhaps the library of the country house Baggrave Hall (Leicestershire), seat of the Burnaby family, including John Burnaby (1701-74), the English ambassador in Bern (1743-49). In 1970, the manuscript was purchased by Martin Bodmer.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
This paper manuscript from the second half of the 14th century contains Gregorius by Hartman von Aue, Marienleich by Frauenlob, and the Rossarzneibuch (Horse Medicine) by Meister Albrant.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This Gradual was produced in 1071 by the archpresbyter of the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere; it contains the musical scores for assorted liturgical songs. These melodies set down in written form make CB 74 the oldest record of Roman song.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Guillaume de Loris and Jean de Meung (Meun) are the authors of the Roman de la Rose, one of the masterpieces of medieval courtly literature. In a phantasmagoric and allegorical setting, the lover seeks entry to a locked garden which conceals a rose, the image of his beloved. The second part, written by Jean de Meung, provides a philosophical and moral lesson. This manuscript, written on parchment in the 14th century, contains many golden and gold-accented illustrations and borders as well as initials with blue and red extensions.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This parchment manuscript from the time around 1400 contains a work by the Dominican sermonist Jacques de Cessoles, using the game of chess as the allegorical basis for a lesson in morals. The same theme is carried out in 16 accompanying illustrations as well.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This text by Lucan is accompanied by marginal and interlinear glosses in various hands, which are partly contemporaneous, partly later; the most recent in an Italian hand that can be dated to the 14th/15th century. In the margin of f. 69v is a simple drawing of the mappa mundi. At least until the end of the 18th century, the manuscript belonged to the Carmelites of S. Paolo in Ferrara.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript, written in a humanistic script, contains the Epigrammata by Martial (ca. 40- ca. 102) in twelve books, followed by the usual two concluding texts, Xenia and Apophoreta. The first leaf of the manuscript is missing. Several epigrams were added, probably at the same time period, but by a hand different from that of the principal scribe (41v, 105v, 132r, 133v, 136v). In the absence of a title page, the decoration is limited to a series of initials, created by two different artists; one with bianchi girari, the other with interlace on a background of gold, sometimes referred to as “a cappio annodato.“ Each epigram begins with a simple initial in blue. Produced in Northern Italy in the middle of the 15th century, the manuscript was verifiably in France since the 18th century, in the hands of the Jarente de Sénas family; later it was owned by Ambroise Firmin-Didot. During the 19th century, ownership changed several times before the manuscript became part of the collection of Martin Bodmer.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This manuscript contains the tract Le Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance by King René of Anjou. This allegorical poem, composed in 1455, invites people to live a holy life by means of a dialogue between soul and heart about abstinence from unsatisfying earthly things. CB 144 is decorated with eight full-page miniatures made by Jean Colombe in about 1470.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
10th century manuscript of Italian origin, which contains numerous works of rhetoric: the Ars rhetorica by Fortunatianus, the Principia rhetorices by Augustine, the Praecepta artis rhetoricae by Julius Severianus and the Partitiones oratoriae by Cicero. In the 14th century, it became the property of Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), who, at various times of his life, added numerous marginal notes. The manuscript demonstrates the humanist's interest in the Oratores latini minores (minor Latin orators), which contributed to their rediscovery and proliferation.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains François Dassy's French translation of Carcel de amor by Diego San Pedro (1437-1498). This translation is also based on Lelio Manfredi's Italian translation, completed in 1513. Diego de San Pedro is a Spanish pre-Renaissance poet and storyteller; perhaps he was of Hebrew origin but converted to Christianity. Carcel de amor, one of his two best-known novellas, is a sentimental romance about the overcoming of passionate love through reason; it was first printed in Seville in 1492 and was translated into many languages. The manuscript is illustrated with 19 vignettes, most of which are surrounded by an architectural frame containing representations of figures in period clothing. This manuscript might have been created for Charles III de Bourbon-Montpensier (Charles de Bourbon) between 1521 and 1527 — his coat of arms is on f. 1v. Before becoming part of the Martin Bodmer collection, the manuscript was owned by the Demidow family, Count Alexis Golowkin and Sir Thomas Philipps.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The Theban and Trojan sagas held an important place in the literature of the middle ages. The contents of manuscript CB 160, written in 1469 on paper by Jacotin de Lespluc (« escript par la main de Jacotin de Lespluc »), form part of this tradition. This codex contains a prose version of the "Historia trojana" by Guido delle Colonne and a history of Thebes that closely follows the "Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César". The ink wash drawings are very similar to those found in Ms. 9650-52 of the Königliche Bibliothek of Belgium.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
In his De bello Peloponensium, Thucydides fully achieves the work of a historian, as he shows the origins of the Peloponnesian War and then relates its events year by year with great exactitude. This parchment manuscript is extraordinarily beautiful in its illustrations, especially the two "putti" and the human figure in the center of one initial, wearing a blue suit of armor and holding a sword. The humanistic script, a slightly angular cursive, is the work of a single scribe.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This 12th century French manuscript contains the first six books of Virgil's Aeneid, along with the Argumenta attributed to Pseudo-Ovid. Among the famous previous owners of this codex is Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755), whose ex-libris is on f. 1r. Later the manuscript was owned by Sir Thomas Philipps (1792-1872). Martin Bodmer acquired this manuscript in 1966, during one of the auctions of the Philipps collection.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The manuscript held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer contains the only exemplar of the long Anglo-Norman roman lignager (family history tale) Waldef. This text, originally written at the beginning of the 13th century, consists of some 22,300 octosyllabic couplets celebrating the lives of its hero and his sons; after a long preamble going back to the Roman occupation of England, the tale recounts love and separation, travels and battles using conventional imagery. This manuscript was copied near the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th century and is decorated with pen drawings in the margins; it also contains a second roman lignager, Gui de Warewic and a chanson de geste, Otinel.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The verse narrative Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach - one of the most important German authors of the Middle Ages - is a historical-legendary novel based on French heroic poems ("chansons de geste"). It tells the love story of Willehalm, Count of Toulouse, and Arabel, daughter of a Muslim king, and reflects the history of the conflict between these two medieval cultures. Since the 1360s it has been integrated into a unique cycle, together with the Arabel by Ulrich von dem Türlin, which tells the backstory, and the Rennewart, which tells the continuation. More than ten manuscripts and numerous fragments of this cycle have survived.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This exciting small manuscript from (northeastern) France was produced in the 9th century in the region of Paris-Reims and is notable for its fine script and rubricated title in Capitalis Rustica. In various places, individual alterations in a careful 12th century script are noticeable, such as on ff. 32-32v, as well as the additions of a few words (corrections?) on ff. 52v-53.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
This ethical work by Boccaccio, originally written between 1353 and 1356 and expanded in 1373, addresses the subject of the unevenness of fate. Manuscript copies of the work were frequently made; it was issued in print and translated into many languages. It enjoyed great popularity in Europe. The French translation by Laurent de Premierfait for Jean de Berry was equally popular, as evidenced by the 68 manuscript copies of this text still in existence. Unlike the Latin version, the French manuscripts display a rich iconographic accompaniment, most likely produced by Laurent de Premierfait himself. This is also the case with CB 174, which was produced during the 15th century in France. Each book opens with a small illustration (150 in all) portraying the “pitfalls” described in the text that follows.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The Rhetorica, a work in Latin recording ten years teaching by Guillaume Fichet, is a witness to this „Art of Speaking“, treatments of which would soon disappear. This richly illuminated manuscript was written in 1471 at the Sorbonne in Paris (in the same year as the printed edition of the text). The manuscript begins with a large miniature portraying the author presenting his book to Princess Yolanda of Savoy.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
In about 1310 the Bishop of Liège, Thibaut de Bar, commissioned Jacques de Longuyon to write the Vœux du paon, which extends the tradition of the Alexander romance. Thirteen miniatures and a number of filigreed initials adorn the alexandrine monorhyme stanzas of the poem.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
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
The "Schwesternbuch" (sister-book) of St. Katharinental was written in Katharinental near Diessenhofen in the first third of the 15th century. It belongs to the genre of monastic vitae literature and contains the life stories and the experiences of grace of 58 residents of the convent. The cover was inscribed by Antonia Bögin or Botzin (archivist, † 1763) from Kaufbeuren as follows: Lebensbeschreibung viler in allhiessigem gottshauss heylig-mässig gelebter closter-jungfrawen. The table of contents on the front pastedown, the chapter headings with the names of the St. Katharinental nuns mentioned in the book, and an enumeration of the nuns' vitae in the margins of the sheets are in a later hand. The two-column manuscript was written by two different hands. The main hand (pp. 1a-144a) wrote the lives of the nuns and a prayer. Another prayer (pp. 144b-154a) was written by the second hand. The parchment binding with fastening straps dates from the 18th century. The front flyleaf also contains a note of ownership: diss buoch ist schwester Margreten von Ulm († 1583) closterfrow in Sankt Kattrinen thal by Diessenhofen. For the year 1720, Sister Antonia is presumably registered on p. 104 as the new owner of the sister book.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This manuscript contains a complete monastic breviary. The decoration consists of red, blue and green initials with additional pen and ink drawings of floral, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs. Several initials on the first pages (ff. 8-11) were framed on a gold background, probably at a later time. Of French origin, this breviary was used in Payerne from the 12th century on; after the secularization of the priory, it passed into private ownership.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
Breviary for use in the diocese of Lausanne. Additions to the calendar attest that this manuscript was used in a Dominican monastery in Lausanne from the 14th century on. The decoration consists of initials with mostly floral ornamentation and drolleries in the margins. This codex was heavily trimmed when it was rebound in the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
A fragmentary gradual for the friars of the Order of the Hermits of Saint Haugustine, copied in 1539 by Jacobus Frank, who is depicted in the bottom margin of 51r. It contains many illuminations with coats-of-arms, mottos and monograms written by different hands from 1538 to 1594. Some of the illuminations have been excised and in some cases then glued back in the codex.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript is made from parchment of medium thickness, quite soiled. The 17th/18th century binding consists of wooden boards covered in black pressed leather with 5 brass bosses in the front and back (1 boss is missing from the back). Two clasp fragments. Evidence from paleographyas well as from the content suggests that the volume was produced in Hauterive.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This richly decorated book of hours was illuminated in Tours in about 1500, for an owner from Toulouse. In the 15th century, the city of Tours and the Loire valley region were home to the court of the kings of France. This manuscript is closely connected to that glorious past era. The name of court painter Jean Bourdichon (ca. 1457-1521) is associated with two of the miniatures in this book of hours. The other 35 miniatures were painted by three book painters from the atelier of Jean Poyer (+ before 1504), also well-established in Tours.
Online Since: 07/04/2012
The Roman de la Rose is a poetic work of approximately 22,000 octosyllabic verses. The first part of this allegorial romance (over 4,000 verses) was written by Guillaume de Lorris in about 1230, and it was completed by Jean de Meun some forty years later. Although the work was originally conceived as a courtly tale, the second part disgresses on a wide variety of themes and expressly criticizes the myth of the rose according to Guillaume de Lorris. The Testament is a poem consisting of 544 four-line alexandrine monorhyme stanzas expounding the spiritual development of Jean de Meun.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
This composite manuscript consists of three volumes and seven different codicological units. It transmits more than 30 works, Athanasian as well as pseudo-Athanasian, often in several copies. The texts were written in the 16th century in Northern Italy, in Switzerland or in Germany, perhaps on the initiative of Theodore Beza, in order for Peter Felckmann to prepare the first edition of the works of Athanasius in Greek, which was published in 1600-1601 by Commelin in Heidelberg. The manuscript preserves only late texts, but it is of great historical importance due to its status as the model for the editio princeps of Athanasius' works. It is the source of all the textual variants identified by Felckmann, that were then taken up by Montfaucon in 1686 and passed on by Migne.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This composite manuscript consists of three volumes and seven different codicological units. It transmits more than 30 works, Athanasian as well as pseudo-Athanasian, often in several copies. The texts were written in the 16th century in Northern Italy, in Switzerland or in Germany, perhaps on the initiative of Theodore Beza, in order for Peter Felckmann to prepare the first edition of the works of Athanasius in Greek, which was published in 1600-1601 by Commelin in Heidelberg. The manuscript preserves only late texts, but it is of great historical importance due to its status as the model for the editio princeps of Athanasius' works. It is the source of all the textual variants identified by Felckmann, that were then taken up by Montfaucon in 1686 and passed on by Migne.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This composite manuscript consists of three volumes and seven different codicological units. It transmits more than 30 works, Athanasian as well as pseudo-Athanasian, often in several copies. The texts were written in the 16th century in Northern Italy, in Switzerland or in Germany, perhaps on the initiative of Theodore Beza, in order for Peter Felckmann to prepare the first edition of the works of Athanasius in Greek, which was published in 1600-1601 by Commelin in Heidelberg. The manuscript preserves only late texts, but it is of great historical importance due to its status as the model for the editio princeps of Athanasius' works. It is the source of all the textual variants identified by Felckmann, that were then taken up by Montfaucon in 1686 and passed on by Migne.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This 13th century Byzantine manuscript contains a great number of scholia, which partially complete those of older manuscripts and which testify to the environment during production and to the habits of the manuscript's annotators and successive owners. To be distinguished among these are Theodorus Meliteniota, who restored and completed the already damaged manuscript in the 14th century, as well as Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus), who owned the manuscript in the second half of the 16th century and used it for his 1566 edition of Homer's poems, which remained the standard into the 18th century. With the exception of several accidental short lacunas or gaps, the manuscript contains a complete Iliad, including an interlinear paraphrase for the first twelve books.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This beautiful Mahzor for the High Holidays (Rosh ha-Shana and Yom Kippur) of the Jewish liturgical year, according to the north French rite (Nussaḥ Tsarfat) is accompanied by a great deal of liturgical poems (piyyutim). This manuscript preserves the liturgy recited by the once flourishing communities of medieval northern France. Several catchwords are surrounded by figurative ink drawings. The volume entered the Bibliothèque de Genève at an unknown date between 1667 and the end of the 17th century, having been previously owned by the physician of Andrea Doria, Condottiere of Charles Quint (1500-1558).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This paper manuscript which is dated thanks to its watermarks, is divided into two distinct textual units bound together. The first work is an Ashkenazi 14th century incomplete copy of the remarkable legal work Mishneh Torah by Maimonides (1135-1204), containing books 1, 2 and 5. The second text is an Italian 15th century anonymous lapidary entitled Inian ha-Avanim, followed by a text listing the carats of pearls and spinels, as well as the value of silver and gold in several cities and regions, including locations such as Paris, Venice, Genoa and Sicily. This miscellany entered the Bibliothèque de Genève at an unknown date between 1667 and the end of the 17th century.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript consists of four texts: an anonymous treatise on arithmetic and astronomy, an anonymous commentary on the Sefer ha-Mispar by R. Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1092-1167), the treatise She'elot Tiviot (Problemata Physica) attributed to Pseudo-Aristotle, and the ethical and didactic poem Musar Haskel by R. Hai ben Sherira Gaon (ca. 939-1038). The She'elot Tiviot, translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Moïse Ibn Tibbon (died ca. 1283), are especially important since Ms. heb. 10 contains a version in four chapters. Of a total of seven known surviving manuscripts in the entire world containing the She'elot Tiviot, only three other manuscripts comprise these four chapters.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This manuscript contains an anonymous Hebrew paraphrase of the first five books of Averroes' (Abu al Walid Muhammed Ibn Rushd, c.1126-1198) Commentaire Moyen (middle commentary) on the Organon attributed to Aristotle. From the 13th century on, Hebrew paraphrases and compilations of certain books of the Organon were written by intellectual Jews from Provence, such as Jacob Anatolio Abba Mari (ca. 1194-1256); more than fifty manuscripts of this work of his have survived. The anonymous paraphrase found in the Bibliothèque de Genève's Ms. heb.12 is part of the same series.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
Brought out by the Dominicans of Saint-Jacques in Paris, biblical verbal concordances are independent works that make it possible to locate all occurrences of a term in the Bible. Listed in alphabetical order, each word is referred to the abbreviated name of the biblical book in which it appears, followed by the chapter number – the division into chapters had been definitively established around 1200 – and a letter from A to G (since each chapter was arbitrarily divided into seven parts when the numbering of the verses did not yet exist). The Bibliothèque de Genève's copy belongs to the fourth version of the Dominican Concordances, in which the chapters are divided into four (from A to D) instead of seven parts. This copy, dated 1308, was a gift to the Dominican convent of Plainpalais in Geneva at the beginning of the 15th century (f. 394v).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This 15th century manuscript contains 137 letters from Pope Gregory the Great, who during the Middle Ages was known mainly for his Moralia in Job. The letters written during his tenure as Pope (590-604) are an indispensable source for the history of the High Middle Ages and were passed down continuously throughout the Middle Ages. Part of the Bibliothèque de Genève's collection at the end of the 17th century, this copy, carefully written on paper in small cursiva, has remained unfinished, as can be seen from the dozen blank sheets at the end and from the fact that the large initials at the beginning of each letter were not executed.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
In addition to the usual services, this small-format book of hours following the practice of Paris contains several texts in French (a prayer to St. Roch, Les quinze joies de Notre-Dame and Les sept requêtes à Notre Seigneur). It is richly illuminated with full-page as well as smaller miniatures attributed (Gagnebin, 1976) to the workshop of the Coëtivy Master (now identified as Colin d'Amiens). Although some illuminations are slightly damaged, they attest to the high quality of their execution, especially in the intercession of the saints (ff. 201r-220v). This book of hours was meant for a man (the prayers are addressed in the masculine, f. 21r and 25v), perhaps for a certain Jean Novelli, whose name, together with the date 1460, is mentioned on the 18th century binding.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This epistolary, produced in the cloister of St. Gall, was used for readings during the mass. The script is Carolingian minuscule and the initials are decorated with gold, silver, and minium. This manuscript may have been written and illuminated by Sintram at the beginning of the 10th century. The original binding was made of ivory. The manuscript apparently left St. Gall at the end of the 18th century, after being offered for sale. It only appeared again in the 1860s, when the heirs of Geneva physician Jean-Jaques de Roches-Lombard presented it to the Bibliothèque de Genève.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
‘Venerable' is the term that comes to mind for describing this manuscript. In fact, it can be considered ‘venerable' due to its age since it is dated circa 825. Furthermore, the author of the main texts copied herein is Beda Venerabilis or the Venerable Bede (672/674, † 735), who was a monk at Jarrow Abbey in England. Copied in the Benedictine Abbey of Massay (France, Cher, near Bourges), the manuscript contains several of the Venerable Bede's scientific works such as the Easter cycle, also known as Bede's cycle, the De natura rerum, the De temporibus and the De temporum ratione. Various other texts were also inserted: the Annales Petaviani and the annals of the Abbey of Massay, calendar, fragments on the computus, letters.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript contains the Decretum Gratiani with the Glossa ordinaria by Bartholomäus Brixiensis. It is a distinctive testimony to the masterly page layout of legal texts, where the main text is usually framed on all sides by its commentary. This copy is signed by the scribe, brother Adigherio (fol. 341v). The manuscript also is sumptuously decorated with large miniatures that introduce the main parts of the text as well as the various legal cases; in addition, there are numerous historiated initials, often very humorous (e.g. f. 2r, 127v), and figure initials. Two book illustrators from Bologna, the Master of 1346 and l'Illustratore, are the creators of this decoration that was carried out in the 1340s. In 1756, the Decretum Gratiani became part of the Bibliothèque de Genève with the bequest of Ami Lullin, who had purchased this copy from the collection of Paul and Alexander Petau.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This manuscript, produced in a Parisian workshop during the mid-13th century, contains books I through XVIII of the Digestum vetus by Justinian, in a textual variant different from that found in the version of the Digest most common at that time. An illustration in the form of a vertical band depicts the Emperor Justinian, standing among the five most important jurists of the early 3rd century, who are frequently quoted in the Digest.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
This manuscript, dated to the years 1170-1180, contains the text of the Alexandreis, a Latin epic poem written by Walter of Châtillon to tell the story of Alexander the Great. Dedicated to the Archbishop of Reims, the work quickly became a great success and remains known today as “the greatest epic poem of medieval literature”. In addition, the version preserved in this manuscript should be one of the oldest.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
One of the ancient authors best known in the Middle Ages doubtlessly was Cicero. Some of his speeches - the Orationes - were rediscovered by humanists, as is attested by this copy. The manuscript contains 27 of Cicero's speeches, written in a round Italian humanistic script. It begins with a miniature depicting a group of speakers in a discussion (f. 1r), painted by Péronet Lamy, an illuminator who is documented from 1432 until 1453 and who worked primarily for Amadeus VIII, the Duke of Savoy. It is likely that Péronet Lamy carried out this decoration when he was at the Council of Basel as part of the Duke's entourage. Also present there was Martin le Franc (1408-1461), ducal secretary and author of the Champion des Dames and the Estrif de fortune et de vertu; according to a scraped entry (f. 290r), he came into possession of this manuscript. Thereafter it belonged to Germain Colladon (back pastedown), a fellow student of John Calvin, who fled to Geneva in 1550. Around 1615, one of his daughters-in-law sold the manuscript, together with Ms. lat. 53, to the Bibliothèque de Genève.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This miniature book of hours (11.5 x 7 cm) for use in Rome was probably made in Bourges by the Master of Spencer 6 (active between 1490 and 1510). All 35 full-page and framed miniatures show identical composition, where the main scene, presented in close-up, is complemented with a predella containing small figures. The manuscript's owner, the Naville family of Geneva (coat of arms on f. 1v), donated it to the Bibliothèque de Genève in 1803.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
A total of eight manuscripts, written and illuminated in St. Gall in the period between 1022 and 1036 for Sigebert, Bishop of Minden (1022-1036), have survived until today. They are a complete group of liturgical manuscripts consisting of a sacramentary, an epistolary, an evangeliary, a gradual, a tropary-sequentiary, a gradual-hymnal, a hymnal and the Ordo missae. This tropary-sequentiary contains a drawing of the author Notker Balbulus (about 840-912) in the sequentiary part on f. 144r. He is depicted as the writer of his sequence Sancti Spiritus Assit nobis gratia and is represented with a saint's halo. In 1683 the manuscript became part of the library of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and later of the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek). Along with other manuscripts (among others the Epistolary), it was evacuated to safety during World War II and today is held as a deposit in Krakow.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Othon de Grandson, knight and poet, distinguished himself both through his verses and through his heroic deeds during the Hundred Years War. He was an adviser to Count Amadeus VII of Savoy. After the death of the count, he fled to England. After his return to the land of Vaud he died in an ordeal by battle in the form of a duel in Bourg-en-Bresse in the year 1397. In addition, Othon de Grandson's poetry introduced Valentine's Day to a broader public; it had previously been celebrated primarily in Anglo-Saxon regions.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
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
This manuscript contains books 1-8 of the history of the world by the French Dominican monk Vincent of Beauvais († 1264) in the version of Douai in 32 books.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript contains books 17–24 of the history of the world by the French Dominican monk Vincent of Beauvais († 1264) in the version of Douai in 32 books.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript contains books 25-32 of the history of the world by the French Dominican monk Vincent of Beauvais († 1264) in the version of Douai in 32 books. Ff. 372-378 contain an early copy of the Historia Tartarorum by Frater C. de Bridia.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This manuscript contains the Sententiae as well as an excerpt from the Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville; furthermore as later additions it contains incantations, a notice on the early economic history of St. Urban's Abbey, and the blessing of the three angels.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This manuscript contains the as yet only know textual witness of the Breviloquium sententiarum artis theologicae, an adaptation of Peter Lombard's sentences by the Canon Odalricus of Verdun.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
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
This codex consists of various fragments: the Speculum perfectionis attributed to Leon of Assisi, various legends of St. Polycarp, St. Thecla, St. Maria Romana, St. Radegund, and a part of the legend of St. Elizabeth of Hungary by Dietrich of Apolda, all of which are taken from the the same Dutch manuscript. Before this manuscript reached Porrentruy, it was the property of Canon Nicolas-Antoine Labbey de Billy, vicar general in Langres († 1825).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This manuscript consists of only 19 leaves containing the lives of several Southern German saints, among them the Vita Erhardi and the Vita Adelberti. Before the manuscript reached Porrentruy, it was the property of Canon Nicolas-Antoine Labbey de Billy, vicar general in Langres († 1825).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
An extraordinary testimony of the great witch hunt that took place in 17th century Europe, this volume contains a collection of 67 witch trials that were conducted and judged on the Montagne de Diesse in the Bernese Jura between 1611 and 1667. The confessions of 56 women and 11 men, set down in definitive form by the clerks of the court, were read back to the accused at sentencing so that the accused would confess them publicly.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Gospel book in parchment, produced in the tenth century, probably in Halberstadt. The tables of canons are rendered under red arched columns, and a pen drawing depicts each evangelist on an entire page, along with his symbols. Min. 8 is one of the oldest manuscripts of the Ministerial Library; the codex is attested in the library of the monastery of Allerheiligen since 1357.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
A copy of books 12-20 of Isidore's Etymologies produced in Reichenau. This volume was already mentioned in the book register of Allerheiligen 1096 (Min. 17, f. 306v).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This impressive gradual contains the sanctorale, the Commune Sanctorum, votive masses and a Kyriale. The registered feasts for the two saints Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua, the most important saints of the Franciscans, prove that it is intended for the use of the Friars Minor. The first of the eight decorated initials (f. 1r, 7v, 29r, 32r, 34v, 43r, 46v, 121v) also confirms the Franciscan use: the D(ominus secus mare) contains the name of Jesus in the form of the trigram "yhs" surrounded by rays of sunlight, which is the attribute of the Franciscan preacher, St. Bernard of Siena (1388-1440). The beautiful initials on a gold ground extend into the borders with leaves, multicolored flowers and gold dots arranged in a fan shape, some of which even contain birds and butterflies (f. 1r, 34v, 46v). The origin of the manuscript is completely unknown. At best it can be compared with another manuscript from the State Archives of Valais, the Franciscan Antiphonary AVL 507, since both works were bound in the same workshop in the 18th century, an indication that their common origin is probable. The binding has since been restored by Andrea Giovannini (1989).
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This antiphonary (winter part of the temporale), copied by a single hand, has a number of gaps in the text (for example, the beginning is missing). The chants in square notation are separated either by simple alternating blue and red initials, or by larger initials, in part with pen flourishes. In addition, the manuscript is decorated with four historiated initials, from which extend elegant, straight and ringed shafts with gold dots, ending in long, colored leaves that curl and uncurl (f. 54v, 89v, 108v, 210r). In terms of color and style, they are close to late 13th century production in Emilia. Instead of the traditional iconography of King David praying before God, the initial introducing the chant "Domine ne in ira" (f. 108v) depicts a cleric with tonsure – St. Francis or a Franciscan? –, which probably refers to the fact that the manuscript was intended for the use by the Minorites. Both the monastery for which the manuscript was originally intended and its later provenance history are unknown. This copy can at most be associated with one other manuscript from the State Archives of Valais, the Franciscan gradual AVL 506; both works were bound in the same workshop in the 18th century, which likely is an indication of their common origin. The binding has since been restored by R. Bommer in Basel (1998).
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The Hornbach Sacramentary is an important work of Ottonian book decoration. It was made before 983 at Reichenau for the Benedictine Abbey of Hornbach (Palatinate). The manuscript is also called the "Eburnant-Codex" in honor of the scribe who wrote it. It was probably acquired by the Cathedral library at Solothurn in 1439. It is listed as item No. 38, Colleccionarius Antiquus, in the catalog of provost Felix Hemmerli. The political programme of Charlemagne included the standardization of religious life following the example of the Roman liturgy from the time of Pope Gregory the Great. To follow this practice, one used a "sacramentary" containing the prescribed prayers and mass texts. This version was replaced by the "missale curiae" in about 1220.
Online Since: 06/22/2010