e-codices Newsletter

Issue n^o 39 - 11 July 2019

In this issue:

1. Liturgical manuscripts from St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva
2. The reconstructed Fulda Legendary
3. The pharmacopoeias from St. Mary of the Angels, Convent of Capuchin nuns of Wattwil

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The e-codices team

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1. Liturgical manuscripts from St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva

With the publication of the Evangelistary for the holidays from St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva (lat. 38b), four surviving textual witnesses of the Catholic liturgy from this church can now be viewed. They were produced between the 13th and the late 15th century. Their use in Geneva is attested by the readings in the calendar and in the sanctorale, the Geneva coat of arms at the beginning of the temporale (lat. 29, especially f. 7r), and the incipit of the temporale in the missal lat. 30 (f. 1r). The most recent item (lat. 62) transmits the Geneva church's statutes and regulations, which contain, among other items, instructions regarding the rites of the cathedral.

2. The reconstructed Fulda Legendary

In 1156 Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey and later abbot of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey, commissoned a legendary in six volumes. Judging by the surviving parts of the table of contents, it must have contained the lives of at least 500 saints and must have been richly illustrated. Still complete and in use up to the 16th century, probably shortly thereafter it reached Basel, where it was used as manuscript waste. 23 identified leaves are now dispersed in Basel, Solothurn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. As part of the collection “sine loco”, e-codices presents a virtual reconstruction of this work as Cod. 4 of the “Codices restituti”.

3. The pharmacopoeias from St. Mary of the Angels, Convent of Capuchin nuns of Wattwil

At a time when libraries of small monasteries are in jeopardy because such institutions are being closed down, digitization can support the preservation of cultural assets. We have published many such manuscripts as part of the sub-project “Treasures from small collections”. This is the case for the three pharmacopoeias and one herbal that were originally in the pharmacy of the Convent of Capuchin nuns of St. Mary of the Angels in Wattwil (Canton of St. Gallen); the convent was closed in 2010. The recipes collected in the pharmacopoeias were used for preparing medications, whereas the herbal listed medicinal plants and their effects in alphabetical order. The four digitized manuscripts are now owned by the foundation that took over the convent buildings.