Sub-project: St. Gall's Treasure Trove of Monuments to the Old High German Language
January 2005 – December 2006
Status: Completed
Financed by: “Friends of the Abbey Library”
Description: Germanists like to refer to the Abbey Library of St. Gall as the “Treasure Trove of Memorials to the Old High German Language”. In terms of both quality and magnitude, the St. Gall collection is unmatched as a source of significant documentation of the German language. Thanks to the financial support of the “Friends of the Abbey Library”, thirteen important Old High German manuscripts were digitized in 2006: Cod. Sang. 21 (Old High German Psalter of Notker the German), 56 (Tatian's Gospel Harmony), 232, 242, 556, 643, 825 (Old High German translation and commentary on Boethius's 'De consolatione philosophiae' by Notker the German), 872 (Notker's Translation and commentary on 'De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii' by Martianus Capella), 904 (Irish Priscian Manuscript), 911 (Abrogans), 913 (St. Gall Vocabulary), 916 (St. Benedict's Rule), 966.
All Libraries and Collections
Old High German translation and commentary on the Psalms by the monk Notker the German of St. Gall, dating from around the year 1000. This 12th century copy from Einsiedeln is the only extant complete copy.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The Latin / Old High German "Tatian" manuscript. The life of Jesus as a continuous text, compiled from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with extracts from the Acts of the Apostles. Most comprehensive text of the Old High German time, translated in the monastery of Fulda by order of St. Gall. Foundation of Old High German grammar.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A careful copy of books XI to XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville († 636) written shortly before the year 900 in the monastery of St. Gall. On a flyleaf from the early 12th century: "St. Galler Glauben und Beichte I" with a short confession, a plea for indulgence, an indulgence formula for the use of a priest and the Creed in Old High German.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
School manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall. A collection of works: diverse (often glossed) early medieval educational texts from the 8th to the 11th century (Aldhelm of Malmesbury, Aenigmata, Sedulius, Carmen paschale) and – preserved only here – the Stephanus hymn by Notker Balbulus and a musical treatise in Old High German by Notker the German.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
A collection of vitae of various saints from around 900, among them the vita of St. St. Gall monk Notker Balbulus from the early 13th century, written by an unknown monk. The manuscript also contains the so-called "St. Galler Schularbeit" (earlier known as "Ruodpert's Letter") from the 11th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Manuscript compilation containing a collection of fables (Ulrich Boner's Edelstein), decorated with simple pen drawings, farcical stories – preserved only here – by the so-called "Swiss Anonymous" as well as chronicle notes on the history of Zurich and Glarus.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Notker the German, Old High German translation of and commentary on De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius. Latin text with Old High German translation and commentary on the work "De consolatione philosophiae" (on the consolation of philosophy) of Boethius by the St. St. Gall monk Notker the German († 1022) in the only extant copy from the first half of the 11th century; incomplete copy of Notker's translation and adaptation of the Categoriae (categories) of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (ca. 480-524).
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Notker the German, Old High German translation and commentary on De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella; two commentaries on the gospels from the 12th and 13th century; a translation from Latin into Old High German plus commentary on the first two books of Martianus Capella's († 439) work The Marriage of Philology and Mercury by the St. Gall monk Notker the German written in the 11th century. The two commentaries on the gospels date from the 12th and 13th centuries. The Martianus Capella part is a palimpsest, for the most part written over an older, barely legible text of the Institutiones Grammaticae of Priscianus of Caesarea.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The Irish Priscian manuscript of St. Gallen: a copy of the Latin Institutiones Grammaticae by the grammarian Priscian of Caesarea (6th century) with over 9000 glosses, among them 3478 in the Old Irish language. The basis for the reconstruction of the Old Irish language. Contains numerous elaborate pen initials. Written in an Irish scriptorium (Bangor?, Nendrum?) around 845.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The oldest book in the German language, the so-called "Abrogans" manuscript from around 790, containing the earliest German translation of the Lord's Prayer and Credo.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The Vocabularius sancti Galli – an Old High German glossary written by a missionary 150 years after the death of St Gallus. A manuscript compilation in small format written around 790 in Germany as a kind of diary by a scribe educated in the Anglo-Saxon tradition containing texts treating missionary, theological and educational questions. The glossary, which comes at the end of the manuscript, is arranged thematically rather than alphabetically.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The Latin-Old High German Rule of St Benedict, one of the oldest monuments of the Old High German language.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
A compilation of religious and ascetic content from the 15th century containing dicta, exhortations and sermons from saints and doctors of the church, treatises on the Sacrament, the Lord's Prayer etc. (by Meister Eckhart, David von Augsburg, Berthold von Regensburg and the Engelberg homilist, among others), the so-called St. Gall Christmas Play (St. Galler Weihnachtsspiel, also known as St. Galler Spiel von der Kindheit Jesu) as well as a commentary on the book of Daniel by Nicolaus of Lyra.
Online Since: 12/12/2006