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 manuscript from the 16th century contains the Latin translation of the tract entitled De tranquilitate animi by Plutarch, made by the French humanist Guillaume Budé in 1505. It is preceded by a letter from Budé to Pope Julius II, to whom the translation is addressed. The manuscript does not include illustrations, though the 16th century binding contains two scenes depicting the Virgin Mary: the Assumption of Mary and the Blessing of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Trinity.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
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
This manuscript, dated to about 1200, contains several texts, among them the Martyrology of Usuard (Benedictine monk, died around 875), an incomplete homiliary, the Rule of St. Augustine, and the necrology of Sixt Abbey (France, Haute-Savoie) that was expanded with later additions into the 17th century. According to François Huot, the various parts could have existed separately, but they seem to have been combined since the beginning of the 13th century. Primarily in the 13th and 14th century, diverse texts were added on previously blank pages, among them list of dues owed the abbey noted on pages f. 75v and 99r. This manuscript belonged to the Augustinian Canons Regular of Sixt Abbey, who used it during the Officium capituli; the manuscript must have been in their possession until the French Revolution. In the 19th century it was purchased by Auguste Turrettini (1818-1881) from Geneva.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This volume, which was produced in Italy in the mid to late 15th century, is a collection of letters, bringing together letters by Phalaris, Diogenes of Sinope and Brutus, who were regarded in the middle ages as the true authors of these letters. They were translated into Latin by Francesco Griffolini Aretino and Ranuccio of Arezzo. A decorative illustration in bianchi girari (entwined white vine style) is found at the beginning of the section by each author. Two fragments of De officiis ministrorum by St. Ambrose are found at the end of the volume.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
This manuscript was deposited in the Bibliothèque de Genève in 2007 by the priests of the Congregation of St. Francis de Sales (at the Institut Florimont in Geneva). This composite manuscript unifies two previously separate texts: a copy of Prician's Institutiones Grammaticae made during the 11th or 12th centuries in Italy, and the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana. The latter is illustrated with 65 miniatures; this 11th century copy was probably written in southern Italy, judging by the Beneventana and Carolingian minuscule scripts used. This previously unknown Beatus manuscript discovered in Geneva adds to the 26 illuminated exemplars already on record.
Online Since: 11/03/2009
Philibert de Viry's manuscript is one of the rare Books of Hours for use in the Diocese of Geneva to have survived until today. Illuminated in Lyon by the Maître de l'Entrée de François I, it contains miniatures directly inspired by Albrecht Dürer's (1511) woodcuts Petite Passion. This is an early witness of the reception of this series of images in France and an example of the often unsuspected influence of engraving on book decoration.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This manuscript was probably written in the 15th century in the Waldensian Valleys of Piedmont (Italy). As also with a large part of the remaining Waldensian manuscripts, now dispersed across various European libraries, this is a collection of various treatises, sermons and upraising or doctrinaire texts. This manuscript probably reached Geneva around 1661, where it was brought, together with other manuscripts, by the Waldensian pastor Jean Léger. Classified as a Spanish manuscript by Jean Senebier in 1779, it was not recognized as Waldensian until the middle of the 19th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript was probably written in the 16th century in the Waldensian Valleys of Piedmont (Italy). As with a large part of the remaining Waldensian manuscripts, now dispersed across various European libraries, this is a collection of various treatises, sermons and upraising or doctrinaire texts, partly in Latin and partly in the vernacular. This manuscript probably reached Geneva around 1662, where it was brought, together with other manuscripts, by the Waldensian pastor Jean Léger. Initially classified as a Latin manuscript, it was not recognized as part of the Waldensian codices until 1832.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The De Divina Proportione is a mathematical treatise by the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli (1445-1517). The Italian text is followed by sixty polyhedra, drawn filled or empty, and influenced by Leonardo da Vinci. Of the three copies written during the author's lifetime, only two remain. This copy, held by the Bibliothèque de Genève, is the presentation copy of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, whose coat of arms and motto adorn the manuscript (fol. Ir and LXIIv).
Online Since: 02/27/2019