All Libraries and Collections
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
Louis Philippe, a painter and upholsterer in Delémont, produced two versions of the same project for an Armorial de l’ancien évêché de Bâle, both of which are preserved in the Bibliothèque cantonale jurassienne, namely this one here and a second, later armorial (N.C.6). In both cases, the volume is primarily composed of coats of arms painted by the author. This copy was originally supposed to be divided into large books, the first three of which were to have been dedicated to bishops, to states, and to the feudal nobility. In any case, the volume quickly loses its coherence with the passing of the pages and the additions of coats of arms, most of which are glued by the author according to the sources to which he has access (see f. 176v) and to the space available. He also inserted photographs, rubbings, and even signatures and original seals taken from archival or printed documents. Clearly, the composite appearance of the collection led Philippe to prepare a second, more coherent, collection (N.C.6).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This volume is the result of an organized selection of material gathered in the previous version (A3754). It consists of coats of arms, mostly carefully painted directly in the volume or glued in, supplemented by reproductions obtained through different procedures (photographs, lithographs, rubbings…), and even some originals (signatures). The armorial was originally conceived to be divided into several books: bishops (2r-29v), states (30r-35v), the feudal nobility (from f. 36r). Starting with f. 103r, however, the coherence begins to dissolve with the addition of coats of arms of bourgeois families of Delémont, then religious coats of arms connected to the abbey of Bellelay (117r-122v) and Lucelle (123r-127v). From f. 134r, the armorial concerns seals: bishops (134r-143v), clerics (144r-146v), towns and seigneuries (148r-151v and 155r), and nobility (152r-154v), to which are added coins and medals (156r-157v). The volume ends with a series of notes (162r-198v), including comments on the documents reproduced in the preceding sections.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Retired for health reasons in 1905, Abbé Daucourt (1849-1926), living in Delémont, began that same year an Armorial de Porrentruy. Completed in 1907, the volume was intended for the library of the town, of which he was a bourgeois. Painted throughout, this 118-plate volume is a compilation of coats of arms, primarily of the nobility, connected with local history. It also includes reproductions of seals, flags, and signatures. Scientifically unreliable, this armorial attests above all to the renewed interest for heraldry that marked the twentieth century, in the specific context of the affirmation of the Jura identity, in which Abbé Daucourt participated.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This missal of the Franciscan use contains Sunday and Feast-day masses from the Temporal and the Sanctoral. A possessor's mark from the Franciscan Franz Meyer, from 1587 warden of the Solothurn convent, proves that the manuscript came from that convent. Originally, it may have come, as Schönherr hypothesizes, from the Franciscan convent in Bern, which was dissolved during the Reformation.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This small volume with the German translation of the Franciscan Rule (“Augsburger Drittordensregel”) comes from the Franciscan convent of Solothurn and is probably connected with the tertiaries or the Beguinage “zum Lämmli” in Solothurn, which was entrusted to the Franciscans for the cure of souls.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This small-format missal is an important witness for the Franciscan liturgy of the thirteenth century. Schönherr hypothesizes an origin in the Franciscan province of Upper Germany, and a Bavarian provenance (the convent of Franciscan nuns zum Heiligen Kreuz, Landshut?). A possessor’s mark of the warden of the Franciscan convent of Dieburg near Darmstadt dates to 1513. It is not known how and when the manuscript got to Solothurn.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
The manuscript consists of two codicological units brought together in a fifteenth-century binding. The first unit (pp. 1-132) is copied in an older Gothic cursive; the second (pp. 133-180) in a textualis, and both date from the fourteenth century. The labels glued to the back inside cover and on the spine give as the title of the work: Fulgentius de virtutib[us], a title confirmed by a note written on a leaf added in the back of the volume: bellus differentiarum Fulgentii. Only two pages remain from this text (pp. 97a-98b), which is brought together with three other collections of exempla: Robert Holcot’s Moralitates (pp. 1a-97a), the Declamationes Senecae moralisatae (pp. 99a-115a) and the Enigmata Aristotelis moralizata (pp. 115b-120b). This combination of four texts, which Nigel Palmer called the Compilatio exemplorum anglicorum, circulated predominantly in Germany and in Central Europe. The first part ends with tables and an alphabetical index (pp. 121a-132b). The second codicological unit contains an anonymous treatise on the seven sacraments (pp. 134a-180b).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This paper manuscript contains Guilelmus Britonis’ Vocabularius biblicus, a text composed between 1250 and 1270. It contains around 2,500 entries for words from the Bible (inc., p. 1a: Difficiles studeo partes quas biblia gestas…). The words are arranged strictly according to alphabetical order. Exception for the A written in red ink (p. 1), the initials of the lemmata are not executed, although their indications in the manner of running titles should have helped readers to find their way around. The text is widely diffused, being preserved in at least 130 copies (Summa Britonis sive Guillelmi Britonis Expositiones Vocabulorum Biblie, ed. L. Daly & B. Daly, Padova 1975). The current volume, dating from the fourteenth century, entered the possession of the priest Heinrich Lütenrieter in 1402, as the upper inside cover: Anno etc. m. cccc° 2°. Ego Hainricus Lütenrieter presbyter emi hunc librum lib. Gallen. [?] a domino Nicolao Mündli. The seal of the library of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 267b) attests that this manuscript belonged to the Abbey of St. Gall by 1553-1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Composed partly in parchment (pp. 1-74) and partly in paper (pp. 75-98), this fourteenth-century manuscript brings together three different texts. The Compendium moralitatum (1320-1322) of the Dominican James of Lausanne is built as a dictionary running from A[bicit mundus …] (p. 1a) to Y[pocrita] (p. 36b). There then follows the Symbolum magistri domini Bonae Venturae, as the rubric calls it (p. 37), which is in fact a text attributed to the Dominican Aldobrandinus de Tuscanella, copied by a different hand than that of the preceding text (pp. 37a-72a). The section in paper contains excerpts from the Questiones de prologo quarti sententiarum (pp. 75a-98a) by the English Carmelite John Baconthorp (c. 1290-1348) [https://drcs.zahnd.be/oid/100499]. The cords and the sewing stations on the inside of the spine of the book (after p. 98) show that another part of the manuscript was originally bound in, and has since been removed. Fragments of canon law texts from the fourteenth-century serve as pastedowns.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This paper manuscript begins with Conrad of Soltau’s commentary on the Psalms (pp. 3a-210a). Before becoming bishop of Verden, Conrad of Soltau (v. 1350-1407) studied at Prague, where he became master and professor of theology, then rector of the University (1384/5). The chief sources of his commentary on the Psalms are Nicholas of Lyra and the Glossa Ordinaria. The remainder of the manuscript contains various theological texts: excerpts from the Psalter (pp. 212-216), the Articuli de Passione Christi (pp. 218-244), the first page of a calendar (p. 348), an excerpt from a martyrology (pp. 350-354), Jacobus de Voragine’s sermons for Lent (pp. 368a-429b) and the Legenda s. Verena (pp. 464a-477b). Many blank pages interrupt the various texts of this volume, copied by many different hands. The ownership mark on p. 1: Dis Buch ist Anthoni Gaisberg likely signifies Anton Gaisberg, father of Franz (ca. 1465-1529), abbot of St. Gall (1504-1529). It is certainly through Franz, a great lover and patron of manuscripts, that this work entered the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This volume contains Alain of Lille’s Regulae de sacra theologia. The two-column text is written in a precise textualis, which, doubled in height, is used as an emphasis script for the rules. Only the incipit (p. 3a), the first initials, and the explicit (p. 81b) are in rubric. The cowhide cover was decorated, probably in Paris as early as 1200, with ten different round and rectangular blind stamps. They depict birds, geometric patterns, lions, interlace, and a kneeing man with a crown and a pot (EBDB m002201). The spine was later covered with light pigskin. On the verso of the flyleaf (p. 2) is written, probably in a fourteenth-century hand, Liber sancti Galli; on the back pastedown, in a fifteenth-century hand, Liber monasterii sancti Galli 1451. On p. 82 is the 1553-1564 library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer of St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This theological miscellany is composed of four parts (I: pp. 3–122; II: pp. 123–215; III: pp. 216–231; IV: pp. 232–243) and is written by multiple hands in a gothic book cursive. Only the first initial has been executed. The first four gatherings, written in a single column, contain Marquard von Lindau’s treatise De reparatione hominis (pp. 3–122). On the last page of this part (p. 122) appears the 1553–1564 library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer of St. Gall. On the next four gatherings is Henry of Friemar’s commentary Expositio decem praeceptorum, written in two columns (pp. 123a–213b). The next quire contains the 1398 report Determinatio magistrorum sacrae theologiae sanctae universitatis studii Pragensis concerning the theses of the Ulm master Johannes Münzinger (p. 216-230). The last gathering contains a text that begins Vas electionis est non plus sapere quam opportet… (pp. 232–238). Except for the last gathering, all parts have marginalia or manicules (p. 134), which have been trimmed. On the back of the endpaper (p. 245) is written and drawn with pen: the ownership mark, Liber monasterii sancti Galli, a face and the purchase statement, Anno domini MCCCCX [the X is crossed out?] XXII [1422 or 1432] […] emi Henricus Lútenrieter hunc librum a domino Nycolao … Hallensium. The cover is wrapped in parchment reused from a will, the inside of which is lined with linen cloth in a coarse plain weave, and has now partially detached in front. The will, written in early New High German, the front half can be read: Ich phaff Berhtolt der horiden [?] von Ehingen […] und der darnach in dem acht und súbentzigesten iar […]. The gatherings are directly chain-stitched to the thick leather spine lining. On the front of the wrapper is written in a contemporary hand a table of contents. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler produced another table of contents, which he glued to the front flyleaf (p. 1). The pagination (pp. 1–245) has an error: there are two p. 143s.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
Sermons form the bulk of this moral-theological miscellany. It is written by multiple hands. The initials have not been added to the first, fragmentary text, written in a single column (pp. 29–74). The next text, written in two columns, has the title De purificatione written in the top margin, and begins Sanctificavit tabernaculum suum [1 Par 22,1] Altissimus… (pp. 79a–102b). The confessionary De septem viciis, with the incipit Superbia est tumor… (pp. 105–120), is written in one column and illuminated elaborately with six black and red word trees with geometric patterns on the branches (pp. 107, 109, 111, 113, 115 und 120) as well as the ten commandments, circled, along with their contraries on p. 117. This is followed by the didactic poem on virtuous living, Modus vivendi secundum deum, written in a single column (pp. 121-124). There is then a letter from a Master Samuel to a Rabbi Ysaak, allegedly translated by a Spanish friar called Alfonsus Boni Hominis. The text is written in a single column on pp. 125-153. The Sermones de sanctis by the Cistercian Konrad von Brundelsheim (Soccus) that follow are written, frequently corrected and annotated, in an early gothic book cursive on pp. 173-389. The first initial is red, the others either were never added or in brown, some with strapwork inclusions on p. 218, 247 and 323. There is a tab on p. 219 and a manicule on p. 266. Michael of Massa’s Tractatus de passione Domini (Version Angeli pacis…) with allegorical introduction and dialogues (pp. 389-470) is the last text. The colophon of the last part dates the work’s completion to 8th March 1427 (p. 470). The shelfmark plate “T 17” on the wooden board binding with leather cover and a plaited endband corresponds to the records in the 1461 library catalogue of St. Gallen. It therefore suggests that this volume was likely compiled and bound in the mid-fifteenth century. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler glued a table of contents onto the inside front pastedown. Pages 1-8, 17-24 and 169-172 contain only the ruling lines for a two-column commentary with extensive marginal gloss, but no text. Other pages are completely blank, without even a page layout: 9–16, 25–28, 49–54, 75–78, 103–104, 155–168 and 471–483. There is an entry made on p. 484. The leaf pp. 53-54 is loose. There was a loose, reused fragment with a hand drawn onto it between p. 180 and 181.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This collection primarily contains scholastic, doctrinal questions on the seven sacraments, as well as, at the work’s end, the ten commandments (p. 140b). The two-column textualis is structured using red lombards, rubricated titles and initials. The parts of the questions are marked with inline red pieds-de-mouche. On the back of the endpaper (p. 142) is the library stamp of the St. Gallen Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553-1554. The front of the wooden board binding is covered with light-coloured leather. The dark-brown spine covering has, on the front cover, traces of a half-oval blind stamp. The front pastedown is an in-situ fragment, pasted in upside-down, of a very legible juristic text that mentions the Archbishop of Reims and the Bishop of Laon.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This Latin-German miscellany focuses on sermons. It is comprised of five parts of varying formats (Part I: pp. 5–48; Part II: pp. 49–84; Part III: pp. 85–108; Part IV: pp. 109–144; Part V: pp. 145–156), written by varying hands in Gothic minuscule script of varying size. The following constituent works have been identified. Part I transmits the Latin sermons of Berthold von Regensburg, namely four Sermones de dominicis (pp. 5-17, one column) as well as a further Sermo de dominicis, five Sermones de sanctis and a Sermo ad religiosos (pp. 21a-28b, two columns). Part II begins with the sermon Quando hominem… about John 18:1 (pp. 49a–67b, Hamesse 25446). Part III contains five Latin-German sermons alongside a prayer for a Pope Benedict (pp. 98-108). Next, part IV presents the Dialogus Beatae Mariae et Anselmi de passione Domini (pp. 109-124), which was attributed to the Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury in the Middle Ages. The pasteboard binding from the seventeenth or eighteenth century has a white leather cover with doubled scudding decoration as well as two green laces whose ends can still be seen. The table of contents by Pius Kolb has been extended by Ildefons von Arx (p. 1).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
The first quire transmits various texts written non-uniformly (pp. 5-20). After a short, one-column text De excommunicatione (p. 22) is Jean Gerson’s De audienda confessione (pp. 23a–70a). There then follow two works ascribed to Augustine in the Middle Ages, namely De spiritu et anima (cap. I-XXXIII on pp. 70a–92b) and Speculum (pp. 92b–109b); Bernard of Clairvaux’s De gratia et libero arbitrio (pp. 110a–138a); Bonaventura’s De compositione hominis exterioris under the title Speculum monachorum (pp. 139a–154a) and Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s De quattuor virtutibus cardinalibus (pp. 154a–166b). Pages 23a-109b are written in a two-column textualis with red headings and blue and red alternating pen-flourished initials as well as pieds-de-mouche. On pp. 110a-166b only red ink was used for such highlights. Between pp. 6 and 7 a slip of paper with writing is pasted in. On the lower margin distinctiones are often added (pp. 30–34, 72–76, 82–85, 111, 113, 121). Within the ruling lines of column 138a is a number-matrix. In column 138b there is a pen trial (ANNO with flourishes). There is a fair amount of marginalia. The pasteboard binding from the 17th or 18th century has a white leather cover with doubled scudding decoration as well as two green laces. The table of contents was added by Pius Kolb (p. 1).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This moral-theological volume contains a preface (pp. 1-4) including an alphabetical table of contents (p. 2a-4d). The main body is an alphabetically ordered confessionary with articles about each lemma from Acadia to Yroina [sic]; each starts with a red lombard and lengths vary from a few lines to numerous pages (pp. 4-265). There is then an alphabetical index (pp. 266-268b). The scribe, brother Rudeger de Casle, writes in a compact, early gothic book cursive, 40 lines per page, with red lombards. In the colophon (p. 268b), he states that the work was completed 14 December 1351. A previous owner was Ulricus Horchentaler in 1450 (268b). Between p. 16 and 17 a half-page sheet has been sewn into the flange of the front pastedown using green thread; there is an extract of a commentary on Aristotle's De anima (III, cap. 2, 427b1-428a1) written on the recto side and a branching depiction of the powers of the soul on the verso side. There are marginalia. The limp binding consists of a green (or blue) leather cover that is reinforced with at least two leaves of parchment pasted together. The front and back pastedowns are reused fragments from an at least two-column index.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
The Summa de virtutibus et vitiis by Guilelmus Peraldus is the primary content of this volume (pp. 9a-290b). This principal text is in two-columns in very small textualis script (50 lines per side), with red, blue and red and blue pen-flourished initials as well as tendril extenders. A small collection of sermons was added on the empty leaves in the fourteenth century (pp. 291a-296b). There is a table of contents on pp. 5a-7b with some page numbers added later. The volume is designed for easy reference: red side-titles and red column numbers are original. At the beginning and end are alphabetical indices (pp. 3a-4b and 297a-298b) written by a hand likely from the fifteenth century. On p. 298 the St. Gallen library stamp 1553-1564 of Abbot Diethelm Blarer can be seen. Marginal titles and marginalia have been added by various hands. On the front pastedown (p. 2!) is the title Summa virtutum. The pasteboard binding is covered by brown leather. The endband is finished in red and green.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
De casibus reservatis by Hermannus de Praga makes up the majority of this volume (pp. 2-119). Latin proverbs (pp. 119-120) and prayer instructions for the ninth hour in German follow (p. 120). The text is a textualis written in one column with red lombards and titles. The following text (pp. 121-136) begins in an even smaller script (30 lines per page): according to the title, it is a commentary on Gal 6:14. Pages 137-154 are paper leaves; pp. 137-145 contain writing in a later hand. On p. 147 appears the entry: Balthassar Schmid von Diessenhofen … 1549. Offsets from the compactly written text are visible on the pastedowns. The wooden board binding is covered in red leather with remains of an eyelet fastening with a single leather strap.
Online Since: 09/06/2023