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Copies and regesta of privileges and documents from the 14th to the 16th century, concerning the Meierhof (an estate run by a steward) in Erlinsbach. Begun around 1525, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. Parchment binding with square notation.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
In the 15th century, one of the most popular devotional works was the guide to Christian life by the Basel Franciscan Otto von Passau, entitled “Die vierundzwanzig Alten”. Around 170 manuscripts and fragments thereof have survived. Many are from nuns' convents or were meant for lay brothers. This manuscript from Hermetschwil Convent was copied by Sophie Schwarzmurer of Zurich, who later became Mother Superior.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
On 366 paper pages, this volume contains the income and expenditures of the territory of Appenzell from February 1544 to July 1548. These accounts are among the most important sources for researching the history of the yet undivided region.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
On 304 paper pages, this volume contains the income and expenditures of the territory of Appenzell from July 1548 to April 1551. These accounts are among the most important sources for researching the history of the yet undivided region.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
On 196 paper pages, this volume contains the income and expenditures of the territory of Appenzell from May 1552 to March 1554. These accounts are among the most important sources for researching the history of the yet undivided region.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
On 164 paper pages, this volume contains the income and expenditures of the territory of Appenzell from March 1554 to November 1556. These accounts are among the most important sources for researching the history of the yet undivided region.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This 198-page paper volume contains chiefly declarations, that is, transcriptions of witness statements. In addition, it includes judgments, decisions of the Council and the Landsgemeinde, sureties, renunciatory oaths, registers of judges, and agendas of the councils and the Landsgemeinde.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
The volume contains on 182 paper pages chiefly law-related decisions of the various Councils, which gives the volume the character of a book of mandates. The term Antwortenbuch (“book of answers”) used in the volume title and in the introduction applies only to a small number of court judgments, notices, and administrative measures that the Councils delivered at the request of countrymen.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
The volume contains the annual list of the members of the Great and Petty Council of Appenzell, classified according to rhoden. The names were entered into narrow gatherings that were only later bound into a book. The binding consists of a re-used fragment with musical notation.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
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 manuscript is a pharmacopoeia and recipe book. It contains many recipes against “pistilienz” and other diseases. Sentences and entire parts of instructions for medications are crossed out. The book is not paginated and does not have an index at the end.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This first volume of the Liber alumnorum of the Basel college in the Augustinergasse lists the students in the residence hall from 1594-1658 and from 1667-1682. In addition to the lists of alumni, the volume also contains agreements and settlements with the bakers who supplied the college with bread.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The Sefer Nizzaḥon Yashan is the name of an anonymous anthology of arguments against the Christological interpretation of biblical verses, supplemented by critique of the Gospels and Christian doctrines and morals. Composed in Franco-Germany circa 1300, most confutations are based on polemical themes and criticisms of Christian faith which were disseminated in Jewish circles in medieval Ashkenaz and northern France. There are few extant editions and manuscripts of this work, one of which is the Basel Nizzaḥon. This manuscript which bears some similarities with the other copies, should nevertheless be considered as an indirect, yet important witness to Jewish apologetic from medieval Franco-Germany.
Online Since: 03/19/2020
This manuscript contains the French text of the heroic epic (chanson de geste) Ami et Amile. The scribe gives the period of the creation of this copy (from 16 May to 23 June 1425) in a colophon. The text is written in a Gothic cursive and is punctuated by numerous rubricated initials that mark the beginning of each verse. The modern cardboard binding is covered by a parchment fragment from a 15th century missal. An inscription on the flyleaf indicates that this volume was a gift to the writer Anne de Graville (1490-1540). Later it was part of the collection belonging to her son-in-law, the bibliophile Claude d'Urfé (1501-1558). In the 19th century, the work came into the possession of the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel (1806-1869), who donated it to the University Library Basel in 1843.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This large-format 11th century manuscript by Martianus Capella transmits the first two books of his work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, one of the most widely-read books of the Middle Ages, together with Remigius of Auxerre's commentary, which was written for instruction. Noteworthy is the contemporaneous original binding: the quires are attached to the parchment cover with thin strips of parchment (cf. Szirmai).
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This manuscript contains a Latin translation in pre-Carolingian script of the "Antiquitates Judaicae", originally written in Greek by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the first century. CB 98 was produced in the Benedictine abbey of San Silvestro di Nonantola (Province of Modena), as was Ms. CB 99, which also contains texts by Flavius Josephus.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This codex contains the Jewish War, originally written by the historian Flavius Josephus in the 1st century. The 7 books of De bello Judaico present an account of the Jewish rebellion from the year 66 until the overthrow of Masada in the year 73. CB 99, like Ms. CB 98, was produced in the Benedictine abbey of San Silvestro di Nonantola (Province of Modena), though later than CB 98 and by different scribes.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
The larger part of this manuscript contains works by Marquart von Stadtkyll – Chirurgie (5r-50r) and Von den Zeichen des Todes (50v-58v) – or works attributed to him (59r-109r, various recipes for plasters, ointments, powders, baths, etc.). The rest of the manuscript (1v-4v, 109r-139r) contains transcriptions of 150 medical recipes by various scribes from between the 15th and the 16th century. The type of script and the dialect used indicate an origin in Southwestern Germany. In the 19th century, this manuscript was the property of the family of Hegwein von Herrnsheim (Lower Franconia); family members left their names and various dates in the manuscript. In 1969, it was purchased by Martin Bodmer at the William H. Schab Gallery in New York.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This book of hours belonged to Johannes Huber (†1500), chaplain at the Grossmünster in Zurich. It contains parts of prayers related to the Liturgy of the Hours for the daily routine of clerics.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
This small-format manuscript with a limp binding falls into the category of "livres de besace": mainly it contains a compilation of medical texts (Guy de Chauliac, Jean Le Lièvre, Jean Jacme, Guillaume de Saliceto, anonymous herbaria), most of which have been translated into Middle French, as well as calendars and songs. The main hand wrote in a script from the second half of the 15th century; there are also notes from the 16th and 17th centuries. The first known owner (mentioned on f. 9r) is Jehan Farcy, who is attested as a barber in Lausanne in 1484 and 1496. Pen trials and coats of arms (Valangin and Aarberg, f. 57v) also indicate a regional context. Likewise the parchment from which the binding was made is a reused notarial document prepared in Vaud on April 25, 1448. With the support of private foundations, the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire - Lausanne acquired this manuscript in 2006.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
De vita solitaria is one of the Latin works by the famous Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374), who wrote it in 1346 and revised it several times in the course of the following years. Two books praise the secluded, solitary life dedicated to study and meditation. This paper manuscript shows a certain elegance, in the page layout as well as in the two gold initials (p. 7, 103). Its origin is unknown, but before 1892, when it was acquired by the library, it was owned by the canons of Lausanne and a family of notaries from Muraz (Valais). The binding originally consisted of a series of 14th century paper fragments, which were joined together in numerous layers and were later detached and restored. Some of these fragments are papal privileges addressed to members of various French dioceses, others are in Italian from the area of Tuscany, and one contains Hebrew text.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This manuscript, entitled “Protocol 3”, contains election documents, credentials and other documents by Louis, Abbot of Lucelle: “Protocol 3, anno 1473 super varia instrumenta electioni chartas visitatorias, litteras commendatitias credentiales, coeteraque formularia à Ludovico abbate Lucellensi”. It comprises an index (ff. 159r-162v) and an ex-libris dated 1630 on the flyleaf (V1r).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Manuscript FiD 7 (square notation; rubrics in Latin and Old French) begins with the chapters (short readings) and the collects of the sanctorale (folio 1r begins abruptly in the middle of the chapter of the Terce for the birth of John the Baptist). It then contains various rites, among them the Office of the Dead (with musical notation on folios 40r-46v), as well as the one for religious profession and for the investiture of nuns (f. 24v-26r). The vow Ego soror ill. promitto (f. 24v) could indicate that it was meant for Fille-Dieu. However, elsewhere the book contains rubrics and prayers that are written in masculine form by the original hand, and which are adapted to the feminine form through interlinear annotations by a hand contemporaneous with the book (f. 20r, 27v, 30v-39v). Therefore, FiD 7 probably originated in a scriptorium of monks, presumably from the Cistercians of Hautcrêt (Oron, VD) or of Hauterive (FR).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This patent manuscript contains the details of the regulations put in place to manage the mining and forestry operations in the region of Carinthia in the year 1553. It begins with a statement establishing the authority of Ferdinand von Habsburg [1503-1564], who ruled over the Archduchy of Austria and ordered these regulations to be drawn together (fol. 1r-2v). There follows a series of 208 numbered articles. These take into account a broad number of factors concerning the manner in which mines were to be established, but also include the rights for fishing and hunting on lands designated for mining and forestry (fol. 4v), as well as arrangements for the processing of highly valuable mining products such as silver (fol. 81r). This section of the manuscript concludes with a closing statement (fol. 85v) and a complete reference list of articles (fol. 86r-91v). The manuscript was purchased in Rome in 1952.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This composite manuscript contains acts of the delegation of the Council of Basel to Constantinople, declarations of protest, and notarial instruments. It previously had a limp binding made from a 1436 marriage dispensation charter, which today is stored separately. The majority of the manuscript consists of a report on the mission to Greece and is partially based on Jakob Hüglin's notes conserved in the Hs 3 of the Episcopal Archive of the Bishopric of Basel in Solothurn. Jakob Hüglin (ca. 1400–1484) was active at the Council of Basel as notary from 1432, and as scribe from 1435. In 1437, together with the notary Dietrich Winckelman, he accompanied the delegation to Constantinople. The trip lasted a year, until February 1438. The composite manuscript consists of 17 fascicules, which are sewn together and were copied by different scribes.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
The Solothurn Legendary is the earliest example of a collection of legends in the German language. This manuscript was written during the second quarter of the 14th century in a Dominican cloister, possibly in Töss (near Winterthur) or in Oetenbach (Zurich). The manuscript was acquired by Solothurn in the 17th century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
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
In the works De arithmetica and De institutione musica Boethius transmitted Greek mathematics and music theory to medieval readers. The polychrome schematic illustrations in this 12th century manuscript are particularly carefully made.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
A compilation from the 11th century containing a version of Prudentius' Psychomachia, illustrated with pen drawings.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This manuscript, probably from a nuns' convent in St. Gall, contains a cycle of prayers and meditations through the liturgical year, beginning with Advent and on through Christmas, Easter, Pentecost to the Assumption of Mary. The visions of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden and a rosary, among others, are interspersed. This codex is written by a single hand which, along with others, can also be found in the sister manuscript Cod. Sang. 510.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 536 contains the 18th through 25th rules, for when Easter falls between the 8th and the 15th of April (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, February 4th to 11th). The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach and an assistant: p. 5, 53, 107, 161, 213, 259, 313 and 367 contain initials in opaque colors (p. 213 on a background of gold leaf) with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Life of St. Marcellinus, written in a very early Carolingian minuscule, presumably slightly earlier than 800, probably in eastern France.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This is a copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the Historia Longobardorum (History of the Langobards) by the Langobard monk and author Paulus Diaconus († 797/799), who was active in Montecassino. It was written in northern Italy, possibly in Verona, around 800 by a variety of hands. The volume has been at the monastery of St. Gall since the 9th century already.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The paper manuscript, bound with a limp binding, is composed of four parts written in the first half of the fifteenth century. Parts II and IV are probably to be ascribed to the hand of Johannes de Nepomuk, who came from the Cistercian house of Nepomuk in Bohemia. The manuscript probably reached the Abbey of St. Gall by the middle of the fifteenth century at the latest. It contains Latin sermons, spiritual treatises, and documents pertaining to the Council of Constance in the years 1417–1418.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This two-part manuscript was written in Italy in the period between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. It preserves writings concerning procedural law, among them the little known Ordo iudiciarius Quoniam ut ait apostolus, as well as finding aids and surveys on decretal law. The manuscript probably came into the possession of the St. Gall citizen Johannes Widembach († 1456) from a Canon from Zurich, and has been held by the Abbey Library at least since the 16th century.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This little manuscript contains a series of ascetic texts, copied in a single column by a single scribe. It begins with a text of the pseudo-Bernard de Clairvaux, the Formula honestae vitae (pp. 1-11a). Then follows the first book of David of Augsburg, De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione, which often circulated independently under the name Formula novitiorum (inc.: Primo semper debes considerare ad quid veneris…; [pp. 11a-63]). Next come three sermons, on the Last Judgment, the Song of Songs, and contempt for the world, respectively (pp. 64-83), followed by a list of chapters by the Abbot Bernard [of Clairvaux] on the Song of Songs (inc.: Incipiunt capitula Bernahardi [!] abbatis in cantica canticorum [pp. 83-84]). The poem Quinquaginta bona proverbialia occupies pages 85-94 (Morawski, p. XXXVIII), followed by the hymn, missing its first lines, De forma vivendi monachorum (AH, vol. 33, n° 220; p. 95-101). The final two texts are related to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: first a poem on his life (inc.: Anno milleno centeno cum duodeno…; Walther, Initia 1162; pp. 102-105) and then an incomplete poem on his miracles (inc.: Gaude claustralis contio…; p. 106). The limp binding is made with a fragment from a missal. On the top cover is glued a label with an old shelfmark corresponding to those from the 1461 manuscript catalogue of the monastery library (Cod. Sang. 1399, pp. 1-8), and indication that this volume was at Saint Gall's abbey by that date at the latest. The stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from between 1553 and 1564, appears towards the end of the manuscript (p. 101).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This small volume consists of two parts, containing prayers and meditations on various topics, to be read in 30 days. One part (ff. 1r-45r) – today at the beginning of the manuscript, but originally probably at the end – was written by Maria Ferrin, as can be read on f. 45r. The current second part was copied by two hands from the second half of the 15th century – beginning of the 16th century. A parchment fragment from a lectionary was used for the limp vellum binding.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This manuscript contains various liturgical and ascetic texts. The volume was written by various more or less practiced hands; one wrote a date .I.5.I.3. with his initials J. ae. (f. 47v), another only his initials J. h. L. (f. 101v). A parchment fragment of a document from the bishop of Konstanz from the year 1441 was used as binding.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
The first half of this manuscript contains two sermons on charity translated from Latin. They were copied in 1589 by a scribe who signed as F. C. A. (f. 7v). The rest of the manuscript is the work of two different scribes who were active in the second half of the 15th century; this part contains a sermon for members of religious orders (ff. 8r-30r) and a treatise about sin and repentance (ff. 31r-49r). A calendar page (November/December, 14th century) containing several obituary notes was used for the binding.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Collection of doctrinal theology lessons from the biography of Saint Gallus, which could be used to rebut protestant arguments. Author: a St. St. Gall monk of the 16th or 17th century. At the back: a diatribe against the Zurich Catechism, from about 1598.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Manuscript of collected works (Collectanea) penned by and part of the personal collection of the wandering monk of St. Gall, Gall Kemli († 1481). It includes mainly texts with theological-philosophical, astronomical and medical content, but also, for example, recipes against lice, fleas, and worms, and a text about the fish and crustaceans inhabiting various bodies of water in Switzerland and southern Germany, together with advice on the best times to catch them and ways to prepare them.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Sermons and admonitions by the novice master of the monastery of St. Gall (P. Anton Widenmann?) to his Fratres juniores (monks in the period between their entry to the cloister/profession of vocation and their ordination to the priesthood) from the year 1633, probably taken down by Brother Chrysostomus Stipplin (1609-1672)..
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Volume 1 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by the St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): collection of Carmina heroica seu epica from the year 1673 containing, among many other texts, descriptions of various countries of Europe in verse, poems about numerous saints and two printed poetic compositions by the Reformed St. Gallen rector David Wetter: Poemata for the St. Gallen City Physician Sebastian Schobinger (1579-1652) on the occasion of the new year, Sangallas, description of the city of St. Gall in Latin verse.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 2 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by the St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): including 1) Verses from St. Gall on the birth of Christ and the births of prominent historical figures in the realms of politics, the church, science and literature, 2) so-called Aggratulationes (congratulatory addresses) for individuals in responsible positions in the monastery of St. Gall (abbots, deacons, subpriors, officials, professors and teachers) with anagrams, chronograms from the time of Abbot Pius Reher (1630-1654) and Gallus Alt (1654-1687), compiled from previously collected single sheets in the year 1673, most of which are in Latin, but some of which are in Greek or Hebrew.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 4 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichahaim (1626-1675): poems and epigrams for various high holy days, Marian feast days, and saints' days, composed by monks from the monastery of St. Gall, some during the last third of the 16th, but most during the 17th century. Examples also include elaborate New Year's Exhortations by abbots of St. Gall and printed verses by St. St. Gall monk Johannes Ruostaller, composed while he was studying in Dillingen in 1565, compiled in the year 1673.
Online Since: 12/20/2007