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e-codices newsletter


The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project and appears about 4-5 times per year.
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The e-codices team

 
 
In this issue
  1. Mission Statement
  2. Manuscript Education
  3. Three new libraries
  4. More manuscripts from the Braginsky Collection
  5. Special Manuscript: The Lucerne Schilling
  6. Special Manuscript: The Solothurn Fragments of the Theodulf-Bible
 
 
March 2015

Issue N° 19
 
 
 
 
Mission Statement
 
From its beginning e-codices has adhered to certain guiding principles. We continue to publish codices, in particular Swiss manuscripts. We consider e-codices primarily a research library. We aim to continually improve the quality of the library; we try to set new standards regarding the quality of our reproductions and the quality of our metadata and search functions. We remain committed to open access and to multilingualism, providing access in three Swiss national languages (German, French, Italian) and English. Since 2010 one of our priorities has been interoperability; new this year is our focus on manuscript education.
 
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Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 34, f. 11v – The Four Gospels in Armenian
 
 
 
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Schlatt, Eisenbibliothek, Mss 20, f. 1v – Aristotle/Albertus Magnus manuscript (detail)
 
Manuscript Education
 
Manuscript education or communication is a new focus for e-codices. In order to raise public awareness of manuscripts and have them become a public good, our broad program introduces manuscripts to new and diverse interest groups. e-codices would like to enhance its presence in the following places: museums, schools, social networks and print media.
 
 
 
Three new libraries: Archives cantonales vaudoises, Korporation Luzern, Staatsarchiv Solothurn
 
More than 90% of all medieval Swiss manuscripts, whose number is estimated to be around 7,500, are held in about twenty larger collections (public collections, ecclesiastical institutions, private collections and antiquarian booksellers). The remaining manuscripts are scattered among other collections which often have different priorities (e.g., archives) or very small collections such as town archives or parish libraries. With this update, we make available manuscripts from three smaller collections and thus provide access to sources that would otherwise remain inaccessible to researchers and the general public.
 
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Chavannes-près-Renens, Archives cantonales vaudoises, P Château de La Sarraz H 50, f. 154r – Book of Hours of Jean de Gingins
 
 
 
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Zürich, Braginsky Collection, B104, f. 4r – Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, Kitzur Hekhalot ha-Kudushah ("Abridgment of [the treatise on] the Holiness of Celestial Palaces")
 
More manuscripts from the Braginsky Collection
 
The next 14 manuscripts from the Braginsky Collection include some exceptional treasures. The oldest source is from the 14th century, the most recent dates from the 19th century. Among them is an autograph by the Vilna Gaon. Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (Vilnius 1720 – 1797) is one of the most important Jewish scholars, and this manuscript contains one of only four surviving autographs. This autograph comments on a passage of the Zohar, the classic work of Jewish mysticism. The comments from this manuscript were printed in the 19th century, carefully reproducing even the marginal notes and corrections in this manuscript.
 
 
 
Special Manuscript: The Lucerne Schilling
 
This chronicle, completed in 1513, tells the early history of Lucerne and, beginning with the Battle of Sempach (1386), it tells the history of the Swiss Confederation from the point of view of followers of the Holy Roman Emperor. Due to their vividness and to the richness of their subjects and details, the 450 illustrations by two different hands constitute a unique source of information about late medieval life.
 
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Luzern, Korporation Luzern, S 23 fol., f. 56 – Illustrated Chronicle by Diebold Schilling of Lucerne (Luzerner Schillling)
 
 
 
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Solothurn, Staatsarchiv, R 1.5.40, f. 1 – Biblia latina (Vulgata recensione Theodulfi). Fragmenta
 
Special Manuscript: The Solothurn Fragments of the Theodulf-Bible
 
Theodulf of Orléans, originally from Northern Spain, was Bishop of Orléans and Abbot of Fleury; he produced a version of the Bible often deemed more precise than that by Alcuin of York, since Theodulf also considered the Hebrew texts. Fewer than ten textual witnesses of Theodulf’s version of the Vulgata have survived; some fragments of a 9th century copy can be found in Solothurn, where they are held in the state archives and in the central library. In the 16th century these fragments were used as binding material; later they were removed again, and now they are digitally reunited as Cod. 3 of the [sine loco] codices restituti.
 
 
 
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