A compendium of 39 medical texts by known and unknown authors, produced in the second half of the 9th century, most likely in northern Italy, already obtained at an early date by the Abbey Library of St. Gall. This codex includes—sometimes in unique exemplars—an alphabetically ordered Greek-Latin herbal glossary, the treatise De re medica by one Pseudo-Plinius (Physica Plinii), and a longer medical tract entitled Liber Esculapii.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
Collection of medical manuscripts from the monastery of St. Gall, written in about 900, with five longer and several shorter medical-pharmaceutical treatises, representing in some cases the best, or even the only surviving copies worldwide. Among these may be found, for example, Pliny the Younger's chapter on medicine, the Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis (Medicines from vegetables and fruits) by the Roman agrarian and medical author Gargilius Martialis (3rd century), and the treatise Oxea et chronia passiones Yppocratis, Gallieni et Urani, which is found in very few manuscript copies. This manuscript also includes (on page 82) a magic sphere for predicting life and death.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Collection of German medical texts. The beginning is missing, then the Ordnung der Gesundheit for Rudolf von Hohenberg (pp. 3-60); various recipes for medicine, magic and food (pp. 63-101), among them a treatise on vultures and verbena from the Bartholomäus (pp. 64-69); “Verworfene Tage” (pp. 69-71); a recipe for vinegar (pp. 73-76); an excerpt from the Buch der Natur by Conrad of Megenberg (pp. 82-85); recipes making use of “Schwalbenstein” (pp. 89-90); prognostics for the new year and for thunder (pp. 90-94); recipes for wine (pp. 95-101). Herbal book with excerpts from the Macer Floridus by Odo von Meung (pp. 101-146); medical recipes (pp. 146-147); applications for medicines according to the Macer Floridus (pp. 147-161); recipe against the ritten (p. 162). At the end on p. 164 there is a colored sketch of Agrimonia (Odermennig). The manuscript, originally from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 117), is related to the 2° Cod. 572 of the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Collection of German medical texts. Recipes for medicines (pp. 1-148) with an index (pp. 149-157), more recipes added later (pp. 158-168), instructions for bloodletting (pp. 169-184), German and Latin incantations (pp. 185-186), excerpts from De pestilentia by Theobaldus Loneti (pp. 187-188). The manuscript is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 118).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Composite manuscript in Latin and German. The texts, which are presented in no systematic order, can be grouped as follows. Geomancy: Latin treatise with schematic drawings (pp. 1-152, 163-169); other geomantic schemata (185, 236, 263 [incorrectly paginated as 262]). Medicine: recipes, in German (pp. 153-162 and 197-198); examination of the blood after bloodletting and instructions for bloodletting, in German (pp. 193-196, 255-261). Iatromathematics: lunarium, in Latin (pp. 169-172); planets and the attributes of their corresponding hours / of the persons born under their sign, in German, partly in rhymed verse (pp. 173-175, 178-179, 218, 240); tables for determining which planets govern which hours (p. 200, 240); signs of the zodiac, their characteristics and their influence on the people born under them, in Latin (pp. 180-185, 186 [hexameter]) and German (pp. 187-192), directions and tables for calculating the position of the moon in the zodiac (pp. 177-178, 213-214, [215b]-216 [for the years 1406-1480]); diagram of the zodiac (p. 262); drawing of the parts of the fingers correlated with signs of the zodiac, temperaments and elements (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]); monthly rules, in Latin (p. 215-[215a]). Astronomy: calendar (pp. 201-212); tables for calendar calculations (pp. 237, 241-242, 254); table of lunar eclipses for the years 1422-1462, with drawings of the respective degree of coverage (pp. 238-239 and 243). Prognostication: prognostics for thunder, in German (p.199); prognostics for the new year, in Latin (p. 217). Alchemy: recipes for alchemy, in Latin (pp. 219-220) and in German (pp. 221-228). Treatise on chiromancy, in German, commencing with a colored pen drawing of two hands with the lines of the hands (pp. 244-254). Other items: incantations, in German (p. 156) and in Latin (p.219); four hexameters about the quality of wine, in Latin (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]). The manuscript, written in various hands, is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 104).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This miscellany begins with a few short medical texts: pp. 5–6 Johannicius (Hunain ibn Ishāq), Isagoge ad Techne Galieni (a reworking of Galen's Ars Parva, in the Latin translation of Constantinus Africanus), § 1–9; pp. 6–7 and 8 have a few verses from the Regimen sanitatis salernitanum, a didactic poem in hexameter on medicine; pp. 7–8 contains a short text on the proportions of combined medicatons, inc. Gradus est sedecupla proporcio; pp. 9–10 a text on bloodletting, with the title in red De flebotomia, inc. In flebotomia quedam generales condiciones sunt; pp. 10–11 a Latin-German glossary of plant names, with the rubric title Nomina herbarum, inc. Plantago Wegerich; pp. 11–12 a text on uroscopy, the beginning of which a later hand in the margin indicates with in the margin with the title De urinis, inc. Si urina alba fuerit. Pages 12–14 are written in a later hand and contain, contrary to Scherrer, not further medical material, but rather an exemplum or exempla from the Vitaspatrum (In vitas patrum legitur quod quidam interrogavit senem quare cogitaciones prave inpedirent oraciones [?]). After the medical part comes on pp. 15–89 a Latin version of the Lumen animae, a collection of natural history exempla for preaching. On the margins of the page appear small diagrams concerning the contents of the chapter as well as additions to the authorities named in the text. The Lumen animae is the only text in the manuscript to begin with a larger red initial and ends on p. 89 with the rubric colophon Finito libro sit laus et gloriae Christo. The next two pages (pp. 90–91) contain, among other things, calendar verses and a text on the planets. Pages 92–97 have a Latin version of the “Letter from Heaven” or the “Sunday Letter”, a letter supposedly that fell from heaven concerning the celebration of Sunday, inc. Incipit epistola dei de celo vere missa petro apostolo ab omnibus diebus dominicis qualiter sit colendus dies dominicus. A prayer follows on pp. 97–98, inc. O dilecte Iesu Christus, felix est qui te amat. The final pages (pp. 98–101) contain further exempla written in the same later hand as pp. 12–14, inc. Legitur quod quedam mulier […] venisset ad beatum Hillarionem pro sterilitate tollenda. The manuscript is bound in a grey cardboard binding from the eighteenth century; the earlier parchment binding with a spine label bearing the shelfmark 758 survives, but it has been cut apart and stapled to the first and last quires, respectively (p. 3 and between p. 24-25; p. 102 and between p. 88-89).
Online Since: 12/20/2023
A collection of ten assorted medical tracts, written in the first half of the 9th century in an Insular, likely Celtic, script with continental influences. Among the prescriptions (on page 91) is a blessing with the cross to be used as “Schutzbrief gegen die Versuchungen des Teufels und gegen Fieber” (insurance against temptations by the Devil and against fever). The manuscript also contains, for example, extracts from the Conspectus ad Eustathium filium by Oribasius (4th century AD), a physician of late antiquity, the Epistula de febribus by the Greek physician Galen († 216 AD), and a Liber medicinalis by an unknown author.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript, illustrated with numerous colored pen drawings, originated in a secular environment in Southern Germany or in Switzerland around the middle of the 15th century. It describes the signs of the zodiac, the planets, the four temperaments, and the four seasons regarding their influence on human health. This is followed by dietary guidelines primarily regarding bloodletting, but also regarding eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, resting and moving, as well as, in concrete terms, regarding bathing (illustration p. 101) or defecating (illustration p. 120). Most likely an amateur doctor with an interest in astronomy, from the Southern region of Germany, wrote the original text around 1400 and assembled it into a compendium. Later the text was repeatedly supplemented and modified. The last part (from p. 128 on) contains a prose and a poem version of the so-called letter from Pseudo-Aristotle to Alexander the Great, in which the Greek universal scholar advises the king on maintaining good health.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
A collection of medical texts in a small-sized manuscript with selections from works by the ancient Greek physicians and authors Hippocrates (about 460-370 BC), Galen (about 129-about 216) and Oribasius (about 320-400), written in Insular (?) minuscule script in about 800, not at the abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A small-format compendium of ten different medical texts, produced shortly after 800 in an unknown scriptorium, probably in Italy. The contents also include a treatise by the Greek physician Anthimus in the form of a letter to the king of the Franks Theoderich "On the diet" (De observatione ciborum), through which we gain insight to the nutritional habits of one Germanic people.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript is predominantly written in one hand, but with different layouts (lines per page). It chiefly contains excerpts that an anonymous Cistercian gathered together from theological and philosophical works, as stated by the rubric on p. 7 (Incipit libellus exceptionum collectarum de diversis operibus cuiusdam fratris ordinis Cysterciensis). The text begins on page 7 with Omnes naturaliter scire protestante philosopho. The rubrics in the margin and in the text indicate themes such as intercession (De suffragiis ecclesie, p. 19), christology (De nativitate domini, p. 25; De plenitudine gratie Christi, p. 27; De voluntate Christi, p. 31; De passione Christi, p. 33), purgatory (De acerbitate purgatorii, p. 88), memory and reason (De memoria, p. 124; De dignitatibus rationalis creature, p. 135), and virginity (De virginitate, p. 372). The chapters come at least in part from Ps.-Albertus Magnus, Compendium theologicae veritatis. The first pages (pp. 1–6) contain a text on free will, clearly connected to Peter Lombard's Sententiae, Book 2, inc. Liberum arbitrium est facultas rationis et voluntatis, qua bonum eligitur gratia assistente vel malum eadem desistente. The library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from 1553–1564, appears on p. 422. The binding is made of a dark leather cover, over which a lighter leather sleeve with overhanging edges has been placed to protect the bookblock.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This manuscript, for the most part carefully written by a single hand, contains on pp. 3-282 the Compendium theologicae veritatis in seven books, which in early prints was ascribed to Albertus Magnus, but more recent research has identified this work as inauthentic. At the beginning of each book is a list of chapters (pp. 3, 37–38, 90–91, 126–127, 159–160, 215, 254). On pp. 283-344 follows the Confessionale by Johannes de Friburgo OP (ca. 1250–1314) (Bloomfield, Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, Nr. 5755). On the front inside board can be seen the offset of a manuscript page, which probably was written in half-uncial, and possibly comes from a fragment of the Vulgate (Cod. Sang. 1395, pp. 7–327). The inside back cover also shows traces of an offset.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
The manuscript is composed of various fascicules, of which many carry at the end the ownership mark of Johannes Engler, canon of St. Leonhard (p. 140, 168, 304). After a calendar (pp. 4–24) comes the Summa rudium (pp. 25-140). The next quire (pp. 143–168) contains the synodal decrees of Marquart von Randeck, bishop of Constance (the decrees, and not the copy, date from 1407, p. 165). The remaining quires contain observations, sermons, a Latin-German vocabulary (pp. 290–304), recipes and calendar-related texts, as well as various spiritual and lay short texts. Among the latter are two collections of fables (pp. 141–144 and 266–275). The quires frequently start at the beginning of a text and often have blank pages at the end, a phenomenon that, along with the multiple ownership marks and worn outer leaves of quires, points to the individual quires being used for some time without a binding. Fifteenth-century leather binding, containing several bosses. On the pastedowns, the offset of a German-language charter can be seen.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This codex contains the Opuscula sacra by Boethius on pp. 59–111, that is I. De trinitate (pp. 59–70), II. De divinitate (Utrum pater et filius et spiritus sanctus; pp. 70–72), III. De hebdomadibus (Quomodo substantiae; pp. 72–77), IV. De fide catholica (pp. 77–84), V. Contra Eutychen et Nestorium (pp. 84–111), partly with glosses. Possibly parts were added in the 11th/12th century. Before that, on pp. 7–58, is a commentary on the Opuscula sacra I–III and V, attributed to John Scotus Eriugena or Remigius of Auxerre. On pp. 4–6, probably written by a 13th century hand, is the Planctus beati Galli, Inc. Quis dabit cineres, a lament about the theft of the treasure of St. Gall Abbey by the bishop of Constance. On p. 112, there is the De septem miraculis mundi by Pseudo-Bede. The mostly undecorated manuscript has an ichthyomorphic initial on p. 26 and an I-initial corresponding to 8 lines on p. 59.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The volume brings together two codicological units copied independently from each other in different periods. The first part (pp. 1-158) includes the first three books of the Sentences by Magister Bandinus (pp. 1-154), the author of an abridged version of the eponymous work by Peter Lombard (Libri quatuor sententiarum). Here taking the place of the fourth book is a short treatise on women, De muliere forti (pp. 154-158). Several fourteenth-century hands produced this copy. The second part (pp. 159-234) of this codex contains a treatise on baptism, dating from the twelfth century (pp. 160-234). On the basis of the stamp of the Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 158), the first part was present in the library of St. Gall since at least the middle of the sixteenth century. This two-part manuscript received its current cardboard binding probably towards the end of the eighteenth century or at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Ildefons von Arx wrote the table of contents (p. V1).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
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
This manuscript of predominantly scholastic texts from the area of the University of Paris is bound in a well-preserved original Kopert (limp vellum) binding. Among others it contains an alphabetical register of the Sentences of Peter Lombard; the 14th century library catalog of the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Lower Austria, preserved only in this manuscript (pp. 107-112); the work Quaestiones parvorum librorum naturalium by the French philosopher and logician Jean Buridan (Johannes Buridanus; † shortly after 1358), completed in August 1374 and correspondent to Aristotle's writings (Parva naturalia) (pp. 121-253); as well as the text Collectio errorum in Anglia et Parisiis condemnatorum (pp. 254-264).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This paper manuscript contains first of all a series of draft sermons dated by the colophon to 1381 (p. 80). There then follows, in the same hand as before, a partial copy of Defensor of Ligugé's Liber scintillarum (pp. 80-96), miracles (pp. 96-108) and an index (pp. 108-110). A different hand copied book IV of Augustine's De doctrina christiana and makes numerous marginal annotations (pp. 113-162). Next comes, probably in the hand of the wandering monk Gall Kemli († 1481), Aileranus Sapiens' interpretation of the ancestors of Christ (pp. 163-168), as well as excerpts from theological texts, including the Mammotrectus by the Franciscan Johannes Marchesinus.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This composite manuscript is written in a delicate script, probably in the 12th century at the Monastery of St. Gall; its first part (pp. 1-50) contains excerpts from writings by church fathers (Augustine, Gregory the Great, Jerome, etc.) about the church (de catholica ecclesia) and about the sacrament of baptism. This is followed in the second part (pp. 51-88) by a copy of Prognosticum futuri saeculi by Julian of Toledo (around 644-690), which is also preserved in Cod. Sang. 264. This work presents the Christian Church's first attempt of formulating a comprehensive view of death and of the last things. At the end of the manuscript, which from p. 99 on has bigger and bigger holes in the parchment, there are a number of liturgical texts on rituals, such as on the vestments of bishops, on the Mass or on excommunication.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The manuscript contains the Sentences of Magister Bandinus, author of an abridged version of Peter Lombard's Libri quatuor sententiarum. As Ildefons von Arx observes (p. 1), the text is identical to that of Cod. Sang. 769 except that this copy has the fourth book, dedicated, like that of the Lombard, to the sacraments (pp. 147-186). Copied in two columns, rubricated and decorated with simple red initials at the beginning of chapters, the text has been revised, corrected, and completed by additions.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
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
The manuscript is composed of several units and includes many texts with varying content. The first part (pp. 1-106), in paper, contains a synodal book (pp. 1-81), as well as the Auctoritates sanctorum (pp. 82-105), which, according to the colophon (p. 105a), were copied by Johannes Gaernler in 1378 or 1379. Below the colophon is a drawing, perhaps made by the copyist, representing a man (a king?) holding a cup in hand. Several parchment quires follow (pp. 107-224) with sermons, provisions for penance, etc., dating partly from the thirteenth century and partly from the fourteenth. The end of the manuscript, in paper (pp. 225-471), includes, alongside the penitential of Johannes de Deo (pp. 284-315), sermons, as well as ascetic and theological texts, which were copied in the fourteenth century (pp. 316-471). According to a note of possession (p. 471), the manuscript, or at least its last part, was in the Abbey of St. Gall at the end of the fifteenth century at the latest. The binding has a beautiful interlace pattern on the spine.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
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
This is a complete copy of the Sententiae by Peter Lombard († 1160). The chapter titles are listed at the beginning of each book (p. 3–5, 91–93, 170–171, 229–231). There are several figurative initials in red with green, blue and light yellow (p. 6: Mass as well as Synagogue and Ecclesia; p. 172: Annunciation; p. 232: good Samaritan) and many small pen-flourish initials in red and blue. Numerous marginal glosses. On p. 325/326, upside-down, a very faded 15th century (?) script, on the inner back cover the imprint of two pages of a Carolingian manuscript, at least in part from Origines, Homilia VIII in Ezechielem.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This paper manuscript contains just Peter Lombard's Libri sententiarum, written by various hands in scripts somewhere between bastarda and newer Gothic book cursive. The copy of the first book abruptly ends at Distinctio 42, though with the colophon Explicit liber questionum super primum [sc. librum] sententiarum anno domini 1422 (p. 239). There are then six slightly smaller, empty leaves, surely meant for the completion of the volume (pp. 149-160). A further twelve empty leaves of the same size appear at the very end of the volume (pp. 460-483). No initials have been added. The recto sides from p. 165 onward have page-titles with the number of the book concerned. The binding shows signs of the five buckles it used to have both on its top and bottom. On the lower and upper edges is the following edge-title: Sententiarum. The bound cord is inserted between large wooden boards. The endband is plaited. On the inside of the now bare front cover the offset from a since removed binding fragment can be seen. On numerous pages parts of the edge of the leaf have broken off, text loss is minimal (pp. 175, 176, 181–200, 219–246, 317–332).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This manuscript is a complete exemplar of Peter Lombard's four books of the Sentences (Libri quatuor sententiarum) (pp. 4-430), preceded and followed by a series of Latin verses, partially in leonine hexameter (pp. 3 and 430-431). This neat thirteenth-century copy in two columns is completely rubricated, and the margins likewise have in red ink the abbreviated names of the authors cited in the text. Citations are sometimes indicated by a long vertical red stroke, which occasionally ends with a fleuron. An elegant, red or red-and-black initial introduces the prologue (p. 4a) and the four books of the Sentences (pp. 8b, 126b, 237a, and 315a), as well the table of the chapters of books II and III (pp. 123 and 235a). The manuscript has a fifteenth-century wooden binding, typical of the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
A composite manuscript consisting mainly of historiographic and hagiographic content. The texts were written between 1450 and 1550, then assembled as a volume in 1573 by St. St. Gall monk Mauritius Enk. In addition to transmitting an anonymous Dialogus de sectis, numerous legends about the saints in German, portions of the Strassburg Chronicle by Jakob Twinger von Königshofen, as well as records from the Constance Synod of 1491, the manuscript also contains, on pages 283 through 288, without a title and almost seamlessly continuing into the following text, 30 short accounts recorded in about 1500 of the gruesome deeds of the Wallachian Count Vlad III Tepes ("the Impaler", 1431-1476), who as member of the Order of the Dragon also held the title of Dracula. This Dracula text is only transmitted in three other manuscripts: one at the library of Lambach Abbey in upper Austria, one at the British Library in London, and one at the Municipal Library of Colmar in France.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This miscellany has five parts written by several hands (Part I: pp. 1–50; Part II: pp. 51–86; Part III: pp. 87–110; Part IV: pp. 111–254; Part V: pp. 255–316). At the beginning of the first part is a sermon De dignitate sacerdotale, using Is 60:8 as its thema (pp. 1a-2b) and quaestiones on the sacraments (pp. 3a-40a). Each individual quaestio is identified by a red Q-lombard, sometimes with a face drawn in it (p. 18, 21a). In the colophon (p. 40a) Conradus Jud from Zürich (Thuregum) in Uznach names himself, having finished the copying of the quaestiones on the 8 January 1410, in the first hour. There then follow two sermons De dedicatione (pp. 40a-44a) and De dignitate sacerdotale (pp. 44a-50b). The second and third parts both contain sermons De tempore (pp. 51a-85b). The fourth part contains sermons by Nicolas of Lyra, Postilla super evangelia: the text transmitted here begins with twice III, 1 (Hamesse II, 254, Nr. 14807) on p. 111a and 113a. In between, on p. 112, is a table showing the readings for summer and advent. Early New High German glosses on p. 184 describe the semantic field of ‘expression of lament' (“Ausdruck von Trauer”). The text of the Postilla abruptly ends on p. 240a. Pages 241-254 have only outlines for the columns. There then follows the fifth part containing the Liber de informatione electorum by Nicolaus Andreae de Civitate Theatina (Hamesse I, 7, Nr. 115) (pp. 255a–314b). The volume contains a great many manicules (p. 13, 14, 17, 34, 51, 55, 60, 65, 73, 90, 142, 152) and marginal titles, especially numberings. There are detailed marginalia on p. 78, 79, 214 and 255, as well as a later addition on pp. 84b-85b that also has marginalia. Page 86 and 300 are completely empty. The leaf pp. 299-300 is only one-column-wide. On the endpaper p. 316 there is a charter text dated 1553, June 15, bound upside-down, which mentions the Knight Hospitaller Johannes Wick and the priest Thomas Molitor of the diocese of Constance. On the back pastedown is an offset from a two-column grammatical text (late thirteenth or early fourteenth century) complete with blue and red pieds-de-mouches. Page 50b is stamped with the 1553-1564 St. Gallen library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer. There is a table of contents added by the St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler which he pasted on the inside of the front board. The volume has a wooden board binding and is covered in light-coloured leather with two reinforced patches left where there used to be leather straps on the front cover.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This folio-format miscellany is formatted as a single column in a looping bastarda script. On the former flyleaf there is a fragmentary evangeliary, also in a looping bastarda, (Mc 16:1; Lc 24:13; Lc 24:39; Io 21:1; Io 20:11 on pp. 3a–4b). The main part, which consists of moral-theological definitions and short narratives (pp. 5-297), has in ink original numbering in the centre of each leaf (1-150), as well as an accompanying table of contents (pp. 297-301). Before the table of contents there is a doxology and a book curse written as a shape poem which contrasts the salvation of the writer with that of a book thief (p. 297). A sermon for All Saints' Day is written onto the last page as well as the endpaper (p. 302a-303b). On the verso side of the endpaper are the legend of the journey of the thirty pieces of silver from Abraham up until Judas' betrayal (p. 304a) and a note in German about the pawning of the manuscript: the previous owner, Hans Rich, parish priest in Mosnang pawned the manuscript for four guilders and ten shillings (p. 304b). This final column has been stamped with the 1553-1564 St. Gallen library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer. The offset of a calendar is visible on the inside of the front and rear boards. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler has stuck a table of contents onto the inside front cover. The leaf p. 1-2 is missing. The holes from five since lost buckles are visible in both the front and back of the brown leather covering the wooden board binding with plaited endband. The remains of two buckle straps can be seen on the back of the book, each fastened with a decorative tack in a floral design (15th or 16th century). On the front there are two stamped holes for the two buckles.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This miscellany of Aristotelian logic and dialectics (AL 1160) was produced as a single work and written by various hands in textualis. It was then commented in the margins by various hands, sometimes with multiple hands in the same comment. The first part comprises the Isagoge by Porphyry (pp. 1-17), Aristotle's Categoriae (pp. 17-46) and De interpretatione (pp. 46-63) in the translation of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, the anonymous twelfth-century Aristotelian compilation Liber sex principiorum (pp. 63-78) and Boethius' own De divisione (pp. 78-96). The second part begins with Boethius' De differentiis topicis (pp. 97-148). The third part contains Boethius' translation of Aristotle's Topica (pp. 149-287). This is followed by Boethius' translation of Aristotle's De sophisticis elenchis (pp. 288-322). The fourth part begins with Boethius' translation of Aristotle's Analytica priora (pp. 323-392). The remainder of p. 392 is ruled but otherwise empty. Page 393 is completely blank. Page 394 was used for notes. The fifth part contains the Latin translation of Aristotle's Analytica posteriora (pp. 395-434). The volume has a green (or blue) cover decorated with large rhombi (ink or scudding decoration). The endband is finished in a natural shade of blue. The volume originally had two eyelet fastenings with simple holes stamped through the bottom board. There are multiple names noted on the top pastedown: dasz buch ist [getilgt] wirt oder sinez bruoder [sic] […] Rug Hanns […] Jacob Wirt von Sant Gallen […] Maister Cuonrat […]. Page 41 is stamped with the 1553-1564 St. Gallen library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer. Numerous details have been added: manicules (p. 36, 93, 276, 302, 352, 416, 432 und 434), topical diagrams (p. 132), a tournament scene (p. 241), a banderole with the year ·1·5·6·7· written on it (p. 244, 245), nudes (p. 254, 432, rear pastedown), vignettes (p. 300), a secant (p. 350), Aristotelian categories (p. 354, 366) as well as crowns (rear pastedown).
Online Since: 09/06/2023
A copy of Aristotle's Categoriae (Categories) and De interpretatione (On interpretation) in Latin, followed by the respective commentaries of Boethius on each of the Aristotelian texts. Between texts and commentaries is the poem De ponderibus et mensuris by Remmius Favinus (?) concerning weights and measures. This manuscript, decorated with three unusual initials (pp. 44, 203 and 221) was written during the 11th century, likely only parts of it in St. Gall.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A copy of Aristotle's Categoriae (Categories) and De interpretatione (On interpretation) in Latin with commentaries by Boethius, with translation into Old High German and additional commentaries by St. St. Gall monk and teacher Notker the German († 1022); written during the 11th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. In addition, the manuscript includes copies of two works by Cicero, the Topica and De optimo genere oratorum.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A school manuscript from the Abbey of St. Gall containing texts for the subjects of dialectic and rhetoric. The manuscript provides copies of the commentaries of Boethius on the Categories and on the Hermeneutics of Aristotle, a selection of the rhetorical tract by Alcuin († 804) with many schematic diagrams, and copies of Cicero's works De inventione and De optimo genere oratorum. The texts were copied around the end of the 9th century and during the 10th century and contain a multitude of Latin and Old High German glosses as well as numerous glosses in dry point from the 10th through 12th centuries.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This undecorated manuscript for practical use, containing the commentary of Boethius on Aristotle's Categories (Categoriae), was written at the Abbey of St. Gall during the 11th century. On the last three pages is the beginning of Ovid's De arte amandi.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
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
This composite volume, written between 1425 and 1425 in the Lake Constance regions, though not at the Abbey of St. Gall, contains Latin versions of a great many computistic/astronomical/cosmographical treatises, including the widely disseminated work De sphaera mundi by John of Sacrobosco and his arithmetical foundation work Tractatus de algorismo. The manuscript, organized according to the calendar, also contains illustrations: the twelve signs of the zodiac, a map of the winds, sketches of the ecliptics of the sun and moon, planets and constellations, a diagrammatic guide for bloodletting, a set of early medieval Terra Orbis-type world maps, and (on pages 265 and 266) twelve simple illustrations for the months with brief rhyming proverbs in German derived from the nature- and landscape-dominated everyday life of the people of the late middle ages.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This volume contains the Manuale confessorumby the Dominican Monk Johannes Nider, born in Isny and later active in Nuremberg and Vienna (p. 3-124), the work De generatione et corruptione by Albertus Magnus, also known under the title Problemata Aristotelis (p. 129-168), the second Book of Aristotle's Physics In librum secundum physicorum (p. 169-212), the treatise De constellacione [siderum] in nativitate (p. 212-213), the late medieval collection of anecdotes and tales Gesta Romanorum (p. 258-453). The text on pages 129-213 is dated to 1459; pages 259-453 were completed on 30 August 1402 by the copyist Konrad Heinrich von Tettnang.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
A composite manuscript intended for teaching purposes, written in Mainz during the first half of the 11th century, possibly brought to St. Gall by the monk Ekkehart IV. Ekkehart IV. taught intermittently at the cathedral school in Mainz and added a great many glosses to this manuscript. The codex gathers together a number of texts used in school teaching, for example copies of the commentary of Boethius on Aristotle's De interpretatione, Cicero's Topica, the Geometry I by (pseudo?)-Boethius as well as additional works by Boethius, such as De differentiis topicis, De divisione, De syllogismis categoricis and De syllogismis hypotheticis. At the end of the volume are two brief texts by Ekkehart IV. about the Septem Artes Liberales, (on page 488) verses in praise of Boethius and (on page 490) an allegory based on the Septem Artes Liberales in the form of instructions to a goldsmith.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A composite manuscript from the 11th century, possibly written at the Abbey of St. Gall. The main content of the codex consists of commentaries by Boethius on Cicero's Topica and on the Isagoge by the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyrius († after 300), Porphyrius's Isagoge itself and assorted other texts. Among these are, for example, small pieces by Walahfried Strabo (Regulae metricae; a letter with the incipit Domino meo benedictus salus et vita) and by Marius Victorinus, a 4th century Roman scholar (De generatione divina).
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A copy for practical use transmitting numerous anonymous commentaries on the Isagoge of Porphyrius († after 300) as well as various philosophical works by Aristotle and Boethius, almost certainly written during the 12th century.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A painstakingly annoted copy of the work De natura animalium tractatus XIX by Aristotle, in the Latin version by the scholar Michael Scotus († ca. 1235), written during the 13th century, with an opening "I" initial, partly decorated in gold, showing a man sitting before a book. In 1453 this manuscript was owned by one Johannes Kalf from Wangen (in Allgäu); bound in a Kopert (limp vellum) binding.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A 13th/14th century philosophical manuscript containing Latin versions of the Liber de definitionibus by Isaac ben Salomon Israeli († ca. 932), a Jew who lived in Egypt and Tunisia, together with the work De quinque essentiis by the Arab philosopher and mathematician Al-Kindi (Latinized as Alkindus; † 873), the Liber de causis, erroneously attributed to Aristotle, as well as the beginning of the work De differentia spiritus et animae by the Arab philosopher Qusta ibn Luqa (Latinized as Costa ben Luca; 820-912). The codex is bound in an extremely damaged Kopert (limp vellum) binding.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
A copy of the commentary on Aristotle by the French scientist and philosopher Nicolas Oresme († 1382) Quaestiones super libros Meteororum; according to the colophon (on f. 175v) this copy was completed in September 1459.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Copy of the commentary on the first twelve books of Artistotle's Metaphyiscs by the philosopher Nicholas Theoderici of Amsterdam († before 1456 in Greifswald), completed on 21 May 1459 (fol. 203v). Following the text, there is a table of contents on fol. 204r−205r. According to the note of ownership on fol. 209v (Liber monasterii sancti Galli), this volume probably was part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1500. Prior to that the volume probably was held in Eastern Switzerland, as suggested by notes on fol. 1r (naming Wernher Müntzmaister; Jakob Grübel; Albert von Glarus). From 1422 on, Theoderici was professor of the theological faculty at the universities of Rostock, Leipzig and Greifswald; it has been verified that in the 15th century there were students from St. Gall in Leipzig.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
A fifteenth-century wooden-board binding contains this manuscript composed of multiple parts. The original start of the miscellany, the part of the manuscript consisting of pp. 1–140, was probably removed in the ninenteenth century. Six codicological units remain, and, with the exception of Part IV, they all were copied in the fifteenth century. Part I (pp. 141–348) has, on pp. 141–198, Johannes de Fonte's florilegium Auctoritates Aristotelis (Lohr, p. 260) and, on pp. 199–346, Latin sermons, with the insertion of excerpts from the book of Proverbs (pp. 257–263). Part II (pp. 349–396) contains Latin texts on the Mass, confession, and penance, written in two columns on pp. 349a–396, including Ambrosius Autpertus' treatise De conflictu vitiorum on pp. 363a-383b (Bloomfield, Nr. 0455). Further Latin sermons appear in Part III (pp. 397–440b). Part IV (pp. 441–574) consists of an incomplete abbreviation in two columns of Guillelmus Peraldus' Summa virtutum (Bloomfield, Nr. 5775; Verweij, p. 111–110), which was copied in the fourteenth century. Part V (pp. 575–618) transmits Thomas Aquinas' treatise Collationes de decem preceptis (Bloomfield, Nr. 6071), which is decorated with a rather large pen drawing of a bishop on p. 600b. Part VI (pp. 619–638), a single gathering, is written in two columns and contains on pp. 619a–630b a Latin interpretation of the Pater noster by Johannes Münzinger (Adam, p. 160), on pp. 631a–634a Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of the Ave Maria (Expositio angelice salutationis) (cf. Rossi), on pp. 634b– 637a an interpretation of the responsory Missus est Gabriel, and finally on pp. 637a–638b a short text in another hand. Based on the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 440b), the manuscript has been in the Abbey Library since 1553–1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Copy of De consolatione philosophiae by Boethius, produced in the 10th century in the monastery of St. Gall, with various Latin and Old High German glosses.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of a commentary on the first four books of the work De consolatione philosophiae by Boethius († 524), written by many hands in the Abbey of St. Gall near the end of the 10th century or the beginning of the 11th century. The manuscript contains a multitide of Latin and Old High German glosses, of which the Old High German glosses are written in the so-called bfk-Geheimschrift (secret script).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
An incomplete copy of the work De statu animae by the Gallo-Roman presbyter Claudianus Ecdidius Mamertus (d. about 473; brother of the bishop Mamertus of Vienna), written in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. In the last quarter of this copy the last line on each page is missing; the missing parts of these pages were replaced with blank parchment by the restorer in 1969.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The first part of the manuscript transmits on pp. 3–44 the Canones in motibus caelestium corporum, instructions for use and an explanation of the tables that follow, along with an addition in the same script and gathering on pp. 44–46. In the second part follows on pp. 47–203 the Tabulae Toletanae. These are tables to compare various computations of time, on the calculation of planetary movements and eclipses, on spherical astronomy and with repertories of stars and places. The small script, between a Gothic minuscule and a simplified textualis, dates rather from the second half of the thirteenth century or the first half of the fourteenth century (contrary to Scherrer), and the tendency of the round terminal s to finish below the line suggests Italian origin. On p. 204 there is a Zodiac, the Marian hymn Gaude virgo gratiosa (AH 9, p. 54) and a further, roughly contemporary text. According to the entry N. 102 on p. 3, the manuscript came to the Abbey Library in 1768 as part of the legacy of Ägidius Tschudi (1505–1572). The cardboard binding with leather-reinforced spine and corners, along with the paper bifolia that serve as pastedown and flyleaves (pp. 1/2 and p. 205/206), come from the decades around 1800.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This codex, written in humanist minuscule, contains philosophical works by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC): pp. 3–121 Tusculanae disputationes (“Tusculan Disputations”), pp. 121–248 De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), pp. 249–344 De natura deorum (“On the Nature of the Gods”) and pp. pp. 345–416 De divinatione (“On Divination”). The coat of arms on p. 3 (four bearded male faces in profile, arranged in a circle) most likely was that of the later Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli (1397–1455, Pope 1447–1455). Parentucelli used this coat of arms (“stemma delle quattro barbe”, Manfredi, p. 662) in the years before he was elected pope. It is found in 38 manuscripts in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome as well as in a codex in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Padua (ms. C27). The white vine initials, typical of Florentine book decoration, are similar to those in the codex from Padua, whose illuminations Silvia Fumian attributes to the Florentine artist Bartolomeo Varnucci (* ca. 1412/1413). Perhaps Parentucelli commissioned this manuscript in 1439–1443, when he resided in Florence for the Council.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This codex probably did not originate in St. Gall; it contains two important works of rhetoric: Cicero's De inventione (pp. 3–107) and the Rhetorica ad Herennium (pp. 107–205). Here the latter work is divided into six rather than four books. There are numerous glosses by hands from the 12th to the late 15th or early 16th century.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript, probably not written in St. Gall, contains Cicero's Topica on pp. 1-21 (defective at the end), and Boethius' commentary on that work on pp. 21-216. On the inside of the front cover, one can discern the negative impression of a page from the Edictum Rothari (Cod. Sag. 730, p. 17).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
School manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall, containing Cassiodorus'Institutiones saecularium litterarum (an educational book on the "Septem Artes Liberales").
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This manuscript (also called the “St. Galler Epenhandschrift”) is written in two columns in a very uniform manner by three anonymous primary scribes and four secondary scribes; it offers a fine version of a unique collection of Middle High German heroic and knightly poetry. It contains “Parzival” (pp. 5−288; version D) by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Song of the Nibelungs (pp. 291−416; version B) with the following lament (pp. 416−451; version B), the poem “Karl der Grosse” (pp. 452−558; version C) by der Stricker, the verse narrative “Willehalm” (pp. 561−691; version G) by Wolfram von Eschenbach, as well as five sung gnomic verses by Friedrich von Sonnenburg (p. 693; version G). Until 1768, when the manuscript was purchased by the Monastery of St. Gall, this volume certainly also contained fragments of the epic poems “Die Kindheit Jesu” by Konrad von Fussesbrunnen and Unser vrouwen hinvart by Konrad von Heimesfurt. These two works were removed from the manuscript of epic poems before 1820 and are now held in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (mgf 1021) and the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe (Cod. K 2037), respectively. The manuscript, illustrated with 78 uniformly executed initials by unknown artists from the miniature painting school of Padua, was commissioned by a wealthy client who was interested in Middle High German epic poems. The first owner known by name was the Swiss polymath and universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) from Glarus, whose estate of manuscripts the Monastery of St. Gall was able to acquire in 1768.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript, written in 1499 under the schoolmaster Cunradus Reuschman of Lindau (note on p. 488), contains predominantly works by ancient writers, as well as several works by 15th century Italian authors. All texts have commentaries, and the more important works are generally preceded by an argumentum. Often there are several pages left blank between the texts. In the margins, there are several simple pen sketches (pp. 498–501, 504, 511, 513; on p. 706 and 712 sketches of maps of the world). P. 3 contains a full-page pen sketch of the city of Troy. The individual texts are: Publius Baebius Italicus, Ilias latina (pp. 5–51); Virgil, Georgica (pp. 57–146); Horace, Epistolae (pp. 148–230); Horace, Carmen saeculare (pp. 231–234); Lactantius, De ave Phoenice (pp. 234–241); Persius, Satires (pp. 245–282); Margarita passionis, inc. Cum prope pasca foret (pp. 283–288); Seneca, De providentia (pp. 289–298); Augustinus Datus, Elegantiolae (pp. 323–361); Carmen de dolo et astutia cuiusdam mulieris, inc. Summe procus caveat ducatur ne mala coniunx (pp. 362–365); hymns (pp. 366–388); Parvulus philosophiae moralis (pp. 395–417); Dominicus Mancinus, De quattuor virtutibus (pp. 419–488); Hieronimus de Vallibus, Jesuida (pp. 491–514); Matthaeus Bossus, Oratio in beata coena domini (pp. 515–524); Ps.-Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Comoedia Poliscena (pp. 539–549); Terence, Andria (pp. 563–621); Virgil, Bucolica (pp. 629–660); Horace, Ars poetica (pp. 661–678); Horace, Epodes (pp. 679–692); Ps.-Virgil, Moretum (pp. 692–694); Ps.-Ovid, Remedia amoris, inc. Qui fuerit cupiens ab amica solvere colla (pp. 694–695); Ps.-Ovid, De arte amandi, inc. Si quem forte iuvat subdi sapienter amori (pp. 695–698); a treatise on punctuation, De kanone punctorum (pp. 699); Virgil, Aeneis, lib. 1 and 3 (pp. 701–726 and 741–760); Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae (pp. 765–802); Sallust, De bello Iugurthino, incomplete (pp. 803–804); Seneca, Epistolae morales (pp. 812–853).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Part I of the commentary of the late Roman grammarian Servius (ca. 400) on Virgil's Aeneid (Books 6 through 8 [v. 685]), produced at the Abbey of St. Gall in about 900. Part II of this widely disseminated commentary is found in Cod. Sang. 862.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Part 2 of the commentary by the late Roman grammarian Servius (ca. 400) on the works of Virgil, including books 9 through 12 as well as a biography of Publius Vergilius Maro, produced in about 900 in the Abbey of St. Gall. Part 1 of this widely disseminated commentary on Virgil is found in Cod. Sang. 861.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan, 39-65 AD), "De bello civili" (also known as the "Pharsalia"). Epic poem on the civil war between Pompey and Caesar (48 - 45 BC).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This codex consists of four independently produced parts, probably not written in St. Gall: 1. Horace, Odae (incomplete at the end, with some glosses); 2. Lucan, Pharsalia (incomplete at the end, heavily glossed; 3. Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae (complete) and De bello Iugurthino (with some chapters missing); 4. Ovid, Amores (incomplete at the end, heavily glossed) and a page from the Metamorphoseon.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This codex contains the best-known work by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius, his epic poem about the war of the Seven Against Thebes (Thebais), along with metrical argumenta on lib. II–IV. Two quires containing lib. IV, V. 578 – lib. VII, V. 30 (between pp. 75 and 76) are missing, as well as a bifolium with lib. IX, 671–751 and lib. X, 5–84 (between pp. 128 and 129 as well as 132 and 133). The beginnings of the books and of the metrical argumenta (p. 3, 21, 40, 58/59, 92, 112, 132, 173) are accentuated with initials, partly in two colors (red/green). There are numerous marginal and interlinear glosses, mainly from the 12th and 13th century. On pp. 196–197, probably in the same hand, is the Planctus Oedipodis, Inc. Diri patris infausta pignora (Oedipus' lament about the death of his sons). The poem comprises 21 rhyming stanzas of four lines each, the first of which has neumes on a staff of four lines. This form of notation argues against the manuscript's originating in St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
A much-used school manuscript containing the 15 books of the Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso with many interlinear and marginal glosses in Latin. The parchment shows signs of heavy use as well as dirt, and it is sewn in various places. Before the first pagination of the manuscript by the assistant librarian Ildefons von Arx around 1780, the text from Book 8, V. 564, to Book 10, V. 429, was missing, as noted on p. 62. At the end of the manuscript, there are pen trials, some of them of historical content, such as the mention of an earthquake on September 4, 1298 on p. 112 or the mention of a scribe by the name of Johannes (Qui me scribebat Iohannes nomen habebat).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Ovid's Pontics constitute the only text of this gothic-minuscule manuscript copied by a single thirteenth-century hand. Divided into four books in modern editions, the 46 letters, poetic elegies related to the poet's exile in Tomis, here follow without interruption. Simple initials painted in red distinguish the letters from each other until p. 66; afterwards, there are only the blank spaces for the initials that were not produced. In addition to maniculae in the margins, there are numerous interlinear and marginal glosses, which more or less date to the same period as the text's script.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
An anonymous commentary, written in tiny script (up to 110 lines on pages only 14.5 cm in height) on the odes, epodes, Ars poetica, letters, and sermons of Horace. It is preceded by lives of Horace by Pseudo-Acro and Suetonius as well as, on the very first pages, documents (including one from 1252). The pages at the end contain a commentary on the Satires of Persius, of which the first part is in poor condition.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
A highly important poetry manuscript containing the works of the Reichenau scholar and Abbot Walahfrid Strabo (809/10-849). In addition to a wealth of short poems of both a spiritual and a worldly nature, the volume also includes verse legends about both the Cappadocian martyr Mammes (De vita et fine Mammae monachi) and the Irish Abbot Blathmac (Versus Strabi de beati Blaithmaic vita et fine), the Dream-vision of Reichenau monk Wetti (Visio Wettini) and the poem De imagine Tetrici, a discussion of the now lost statue of Theoderich the Great on horseback, which Charlemagne had moved from Ravenna to his palace in Aachen. The manuscript was produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the second half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
Commentary notes (most of them explanations written for use in teaching) about the 16 Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal (about 60-140), preceded by 460 verses in hexameter (most of them from the Satires) and a mixed glossary from the Satires of Juvenal. The St. Gall copy was made in the second half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
This manuscript contains all 16 satires by the ancient poet Juvenal, in the order 1-14, 16, and 15. Satires 1-3 and 10-14 are glossed (among them 7 Old High German glosses); for satires 3 and 14 only the beginning is glossed, for satire 10 only the end, which is probably due to the fact that these glosses were added to the respective quires before the manuscript was bound.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
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
This parchment manuscript transmits on pp. 3–87 Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetry nova, a guide, written in over 2,000 hexameters, to composing poems. The hexameters are arranged in 25 verse-lines in the center of the page, and accompanied by contemporarily-produced commnetaries and glosses. The script, a simplified textualis, dates from the second half of the thirteenth or the first half of the fourteenth century (contrary to Scherrrer). The stamp of Abbot Diethlm Blarer (1553–1564) appears on p. 9 and p. 88; p. 1 bears the former shelfmark S. n. 312, as well as a note on content by Pius Kolb; p. 2 has a note by Franz Josef Mone from 1819. The half-leather volume reveals a romanesque board-binding.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Manuscript compilation consisting mainly of grammatical texts, written in a variety of hands in about 800 in the monastery of St. Gall. Some of the texts in this codex are the oldest extant versions, and the text of the anonymous treatise De scansione heroyci versus et specie eorum is the only known surviving version in the world. Grammars include the Ars major and Ars minor by Donatus, a complilation of the two Donatus grammars by Peter of Pisa, the work De metris des Mallius Theodorus, the Ars grammatica by Diomedes, and both De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis by the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Manuscript compilation from the St. Gallen scriptorum, dating from around 800 and containing numerous grammatical treatises.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The Vademecum (personal handbook) of Walahfrid Strabo (ca. 808-849), Abbot of Reichenau. It is one of the few known autographs of a prominent figure to survive from the early Middle Ages. It contains diverse texts and images by numerous hands, written between ca. 825 and 849, among them a labyrinth (on page 277) and different alphabets (pages 320/321), one in runes.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Excerpts from the works of Isidore of Seville, from the Etymologiae and the work De officiis, written in about 900, not at the Abbey of St. Gall, possibly in France. At the end is a scribe's verse in which the scribe calls himself Aurelianus.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This parchment manuscript contains on pp. 1–188 books 17 and 18 of Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae (ed. Keil, v. 3, pp. 107–278, l. 12). Then follows the third book of Donatus' Ars maior on pp. 189–204 (ed. Keil, v. 4, pp. 392–402), and the Pseudo-Priscian treatise De accentibus on pp. 205–223 (ed. Keil, v. 3, pp. 518–528). The entire grammatical manuscript is written in the same fourteenth-century textualis. The beginning each of the four texts, on p. 1, 115, 189, and 205, is marked by a 10-18-line painted initial with gold, blue, white, red, dark-red or green; the first initial is historiated, depicted a teaching scene, and the third initial is heavily damaged. For the rest, there are simple red and blue pen-flourished initials throughout. The Institutiones grammaticae are accompanied by numerous glosses and commentaries written in ink by several fourteenth-century hands. On p. 189 the glosses are less numerous and have been made with dry point. On p. 118 and 224 can be found the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1553–1564), on p. 1 appears the former shelfmark D.n. 241 along with a note on content by Pius Kolb. Before p. 1, a fragment in paper contains the remains of two long entries. The wooden-board binding has a half-leather cover.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Manuscript compilation with mostly grammatical content, produced during the second half of the 9th century in the Abbey of St. Gall. It contains, among other items, copies of the Ars maior by Donatus, the Ars grammatica by Honoratus, the work Ars de verbo by Eutyches, the Ars grammatica by Diomedes, and Book I of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
The manuscript transmits a treatise on Latin grammar, apparently missing its beginning. According to Bursill-Hall (p. 229), this is an anonymous commentary on Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae. The two-column text is divided only by occasional capitals in the same ink as the text. The small minuscule script dates to the thirteenth century (contrary to Scherrer). The parchment leaves often have irregular margins and their size varies from gathering to gathering. On p. 145 can be found the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1553–1564). On p. 3 Pius Kolk wrote the former shelfmark D. n. 268 and a note on the content. The cardboard binding with leather-reinforced spine and corners, along with the paper pastedowns and flyleaves (pp. 1/2, 148/149) come from the decades around 1800.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This fourteenth-century paper manuscript has the oldest work written by Conrad of Mure (ca. 1210–1281), the magister of the chapter school and canon of the Zürich Grossmünster. The Novus Graecismus is a school encyclopedia (with a focus on grammar and vocabulary) in verse, of which eleven fourteenth- and fifteenth-century copies survive (ed. A. Cizek, München, 2009). The text itself is a reworking of Eberhard of Béthune's Graecismus, produced at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Abbey Library of St. Gall's copy, written in a dense cursive on a single column, is incomplete. It includes the preface (inc.: Notitiam gramatice saltem… p. 3), book I (pp. 4–100) and 80 verses of book II (pp. 100–106), that is, two of the work's ten books. Parchment quire guards with fragments of text reinforce the codex (p. 18, 46, 70, 94). The manuscript has a modern cardboard binding with a printed fragment.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
The colophon of this manuscript names the author and title of the work, Eberhard of Béthune's Graecismus, as well as the name of the scribe Johannis Czepilwicz and the date that the copy was completed, 9 August 1386 (p. 150). The Graecismus is a long grammatical poem (more than 4,000 verses) written ca. 1212, and its main sources are the grammarians of antiquity such as Donatus and Priscian. The Graecismus circulated widely. The author of this copy on parchment, Johannis Czepilwicz, seems to be the same as a canon of the Augustine house of S. Maria virginis in Arena in Breslau/Wrocław. Except for a large, decorated first initial, lightly damaged (p. 3), the decoration is limited to rubricated letters and a few initials whose form anticipates fifteenth-century letters with cadels. Given the presence of the stamp of the abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 25), the manuscript was at the Abbey Library since 1553-1564 at the latest. The manuscript has a limp parchment binding with a spine reinforced in leather.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
On pp. 2–73, this codex contains a total of 153 letters by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus († 402/403), a Roman politician from late antiquity; they are one letter from lib. IX, 10 letters from lib. IV, 44 from lib. V, 18 from lib. VI, 40 from lib. VII, 36 from lib. I and 4 from lib. II. Following the numbering of the edition MGH Auct. ant. 6,1, they are the following letters: IX, 142 (20); IV, 16 (17), 57 (58) – 60 (61), 63 (64), 66 (67) f., 69 (70), 72 (73); V, 3–5, 8, 13, 19 (18), 21 (20), 23 (22), 29 (27) f., 34 (32), 36 (34), 38 (36), 41 (39), 44 (42) – 47 (45), 49 (47) – 51 (49), 53 (51), 55 (53), 57 (55) – 60 (58), 65 (64), 67 (65) f., 68 (66), 70 (68) f., 73 (71), 75 (73), 77 (75) – 80 (78), 84 (82) f., 89 (87), 91 (89) f., 96 (94); VI, 3, 13, 17 (18), 22 (23), 28 (29), 31 (32), 45 (46), 47 (48), 55 (56), 60 (61) f., 65 (66), 72 (73) – 74 (75), 78 (79) – 80 (81); VII, 2f., 9, 11, 16, 19, 21f., 22, 25, 33, 44, 47, 49, 51–54, 56, 60f., 66f., 71–73, 78, 80, 85, 88 (87), 92 (91) – 94 (93), 98 (97) f., 102 (101), 105, 107, 109, 114, 117; I, 28 (22), 31 (25) – 34 (28), 36 (30) – 77 (71), 79 (73) f., 82 (76) – 84 (78), 86 (80), 88 (82), 90 (84) – 93 (87), 96 (90), 99 (93) f., 105 (99), 107 (101); II, 1, 3, 6, 8. Each letter begins with a red majuscule corresponding to two lines. The manuscript concludes on pp. 73–79 with fictional correspondence between the Roman philosopher Seneca and Paul the Apostle.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
Manuscript compilation containing the works of Abbot Bernard of Reichenau (about 978- 1048; Abbot 1008-1048): a fragmentary copy of a long dedicatory codex, delivered by Bernard to King Heinrich III on the occasion of the Synod of Konstanz in the year 1043. Also contains the Epistola de tonis (on psalmodic musical tones), sermons for the high holy days of the Church year, sermons about St. Mark, the patron saint of Reichenau, hymns, sequences dedicated to Saints Ulrich, Gereon, and Willibrord, the holy office devoted to St. Ulrich, and a large collection of letters. Many of the works in this manuscript are the sole surviving exemplars from the second third of the 11th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A significant poetry manuscript from the second half of the 9th as well as the 10th century, produced at the Abbey of St. Gall. Among other items it contains copies of the poem Mosella by Ausonius which recounts a trip on the Rhine and Mosel rivers, a poem in hexameter by Walahfrid Strabo on the life and death of the Irish saint Blathmac (Versus Strabi de beati Blaithmaic vita et fine) and the work De ieiunio quattuor temporum (the so-called Calixtus Letter).
Online Since: 12/23/2008
The parchment manuscript contains Alexander of Villedieu's Doctrinale with the commentary of Master Bertholdus Turicensis. The colophon (p. 123) states the name of this commentator from Zurich, and of the copyist, a certain “Hermannus”, but nothing more is known about them. The volume, laid out in two columns, is carefully articulated: every hexameter of the Doctrinale is generally divided into paragraphs of one or more verses and is copied in a larger size than the commentaries that follow. This commentary is more or less as long as the verses and is moreover full of abbreviations, unlike the text being commented. Elegant pen-flourished initials, typical of upper-Rhine illuminations of the beginning of the fourteenth century, appear throughout this copy. The seal of abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 59) confirms that the book was at the Abbey Library since 1553–1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
School manuscript for the St. Gall monastery school, containing the Greek grammar by Dositheus and a prose version of Aratos of Soloi's didactic poem Phainomena which is illustrated with a pen drawing.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
A copy of the 16 books of the Grammar of Priscian of Caesarea (Priscianus maior), written in Carolingian minuscule at the turn of the 8th to the 9th century, probably in northern Italy (Verona?). The manuscript came into the possession of the Abbey of St. Gall during the 9th century under Abbot Grimald.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
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 Vocabularium of Salomon, a 1070-page long alphabetical encyclopedia from the Carolingian period, written in a variety of hands in about 900, probably not in the monastery of St. Gall. The work has not survived in its complete form (entries beginning with Aa through Ab and Y and Z are missing). Generally attributed by the Abbey of St. Gall's internal historiography to the learned Abbot Salomon (890-920), the work is probably based on a Liber Glossarum from the French Abbey of Corbie.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Manuscript compilation for the monastery school of St. Gall, written by the monk Winithar.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
"The king of palimpsests": parchment fragments from late antiquity that were erased and reused at a later time, sometimes more than once. The scholarly significance of the palimpsests normally lies in the older texts. Some works have only been preserved as palimpsests. This volume, compiled by the librarian Ildefonse of Arx before and after 1800 from single fragments found in the abbey library, contains among many other texts the oldest known copy of the Mulomedicina of Vegetius (5th century), the only known poems and prose by Flavius Merobaudes (5th century) and the so-called "St. Gallen oracles", or "Sortes Sangallenses" (6th century).
Online Since: 12/12/2006
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 Abba-Ababus-Glossar in palimpsest form, one of the oldest manuscripts in the Abbey Library which survives in book form. This glossary, in which each Latin word is explained using another, was apparently written over older texts from the 5th century in the Cloister of Bobbio. The texts underneath, which vary in legibility, include fragments of the Psalms and of the book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament as well as extracts from works by the grammarian Donatus and the Roman poet Terence. Includes a miniature of a speaker in declamatory pose.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
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 most historically significant exemplar of the Benedictine Rule from the time after 810.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
The oldest capitulary from the monastery of St. Gall, containing, among other items, a martyrology, a necrology, the annals of St. Gall and several rules for monks.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
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
Manuscript compilation with mainly historical content, written for the most part in Latin and German, mostly by Gall Kemli, the wandering monk of St. Gall († about 1481). The manuscript contains, among many other texts, the Benedictine Rule, Latin and German riddles and proverbs, the only known copy of a Middle Rheinish Passion play in German from the 14th century, and a sort of curriculum vitae of the scribe Kemli.
Online Since: 12/23/2008