This codex from southern Germany is composed of two parts bound together in one German binding in 1569. The first part of the manuscript contains about a hundred leaves from the 12th and 13th centuries. It begins with a calendar featuring numerous constellations and full page illustrations. Following are prayers and liturgical songs. The second part consists of thirty leaves containing a series of Latin prayers in carefully wrought late 14th century Gothic script.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This manuscript contains the Song of Songs with a lacuna (6.5-8) due to the loss of a sheet. The Glossa ordinaria is written on the first sheet (1r-1v); it contains a heretofore unknown commentary. Placed alongside this is the first part of the Song of Songs (f. 2r-29r. until Ct 6.8), which in the beginning (f. 2r-v) is surrounded by another unknown commentary. The last sheets (f. 29v-30) contain excerpts from the prologue to the interpretation of the Song of Songs by Rupert of Deutz. The beginning of the Song of Songs is adorned with an initial depicting Solomon and the Shulamite.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This Armenian manuscript was written in 1606 at the church of Saint Nikoghayos in Istanbul. It contains the Four Gospels, the Apocalypse of Saint John, and a Gospelindex devised for liturgical use written by another scribe in the same century. The silver binding was probably made a century after the manuscript writing. Special attention should be drawn to the illuminations of the canon tables painted according to the text of the “Commentary of the Canon Tables” of Stepanos Syunetsi (8th century), where the author thoroughly expounds the animal, floral and geometrical motives, as well as the symbolism of numbers and colors of each of the canon tables. The painter has interpreted the symbols and motives used in all ten canon tables by placing the explanations below each of them.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, dedicated to "women in love", describes in the first person the feelings of the young Neapolitan Fiammetta, who has been left by her beloved Panfilo. The Elegia, a prose work written by Boccaccio in his youth, praised for the subtlety of its psychological approach, mixes autobiographical elements and obvious references to Latin literature. It is preserved here in a manuscript copied in 1467 by Giovanni Cardello da Imola, whose regular calligraphy is set off by decorations in bianchi girari (white vine-stem).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Boethius' De consolatione Philosophiae knew continuous success during the Middle Ages. This 14th century manuscript offers a complete copy of the Latin text with some interlinear glosses. The book decoration consists of a historiated initial with a half-length frontal portrait of the author as he points to his book (f. 1). From this initial sprouts a short leaf scroll. In addition there are very beautiful decorated initials placed at the beginning of the various books of the Consolatione (f. 8, 17, 30 and 41). Their style indicates that the manuscript was made in northern Italy, perhaps Bologna.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This copy of Cesar's "Commentarii" from about 1480 attests to the great popularity this text attained during the early Renaissance (there are more than 240 surviving manuscripts of the "Commentarii" from the 15th century). This manuscript was produced in the atelier of the illuminator Cola Rapicano in Naples. The "bianchi girari" (white vine) book decoration and the illuminated initial capitals which mark the beginning of each book are of a type often found in codices containing humanistic works. The illuminated initial capital on fol. 1r, on the other hand, portrays the Roman ruler in an unusual way, as an armored horseman.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This elegant codex, written in humanistic script, was commissioned by Pope Leo X († 1521). The Medici coat of arms can be found in the middle of the original binding's cover, in a rich frieze on the frontispiece, and in the initials on f. 3v and f. 134v. The decoration is attributed to the famous Florentine illuminator Attavante degli Attavanti († 1525) or his circle. This codex is from the collection of Major J.R. Abbey.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
The Carmina by Catullus contained in this codex was written in a humanistic cursive, attributed to the calligrapher Ludovico Regio di Imola. The frontispiece in grisaille with gold highlights is framed by motifs in the manner of antiquity with trophies, sphinxes and mascarons, while the title in gold letters stands out from the crimson background. At the bottom of the page, the coat of arms on a disc held by two putti is overlaid in the same crimson color.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript, commissioned by the bibliophile Antoine of Bourgogne in 1460, contains the Epître d'Othea by Christine de Pisan, decorated with about a hundred masterful miniatures (a complete pictorial cycle). One of these contains the dedication of the work and shows four figures, identifiable as Philip the Good, Charles the Brave, and two of Philip's illegitimate sons, David and Anthony of Burgundy.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This French translation of the story of Alexander, destined to belong to Charles the Bold, was commissioned by Vasco da Lucena, "the Portugese", a retainer of the Infanta Isabella, who was married to Philip the Good. This revival of the work by Quintus Curtius Rufus, which is augmented by texts from Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, Aulus Gellius and Justin, allows the author to liberate the Macedonian conqueror from legends perpetuated by the medieval tradition. The Miroir des princes portrays a model of a hero shaped within the framework of the humanistic movement initiated by the dukes of Burgundy in the late middle ages. CB 53 was copied in Burgundy and may be fairly accurately dated only a few years after the translation was made; it was decorated with miniatures in the artistic circle of the Master of Marguerite of York (ca. 1470-1475).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The "Codex Ricasoli Firidolfi", written on paper at the end of the 14th century, provides important evidence of the dissemination of Dante Alighieri's Commedia. The initial of the opening verse of the Inferno shows the famous profile of the author, surrounded by flowers.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Copied in 1378 by Francesco di maestro Tura of Cesena, who included both a date and a signature at the end of the volume, the Codex Severoli opens each of the three sections of the Commedia with an historiated initial. A number of interlinear glosses explicate the verses of the Paradiso.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The Sachenspiegel by Eike von Repgow is one of the oldest books of law in the German language. This parchment manuscript, CB 61, was produced at the beginning of the 15th century and contains codes of common and feudal law.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
At the beginning of the 17th century, a book of black magic was published, attributed to the mythical Faust and known by the title Höllenzwang. The library in Weimar owned a manuscript of this text, which Goethe was aware of. In 1949 Martin Bodmer was able to purchase a similar manuscript. This document, which is difficult to date, is written in cabalistic signs and, according to a German gloss, contains a series of magic spells for exorcists, which can be used in particular to call up the seven evil spirits.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Carolingian reform efforts responded to a desire to regularize religious orders by creating a unified rule for monastic life, the Concordia regularum of Benedict of Aniane. In the resulting course of events, an effort was made during the turn from the 9th to the 10th century to dinstinguish the monastic status from the canonical. In 816 Ludwig the Pious made the results of the Council of Aix public; the first part of the Institutio canonicorum presents the statutes of the church fathers and the previous councils, the second part explains the resolutions of the council. The task of putting this work into writing was long attributed to Amalarius of Metz, a student of Alcuin and advisor of Charlemagne; however, another author must be acknowledged for this work, which totals 118 chapters, some of which are extremely comprehensive: Benedict of Aniane is also supposed to have been a contributor. The manuscript held by the Fondation Martin Bodmer was copied only a few years after the original publication of the text (in the first half of the 9th century) in a very fine Carolingian script, and it belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Jacob in Mainz. A full-page drawing portraying the crucifixion was added in the 12th or 13th century at the end of the book.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript containing legal materials from the 13th or early 14th century demonstrates the high regard in which the "Decretum Gratiani", often considered the foundation of modern canon law, was held during the middle ages. The text is bordered by the "Glossa Ordinaria" of Johannes Teutonicus, in the first revision by Barthomeus of Brescia (before 1245). The manuscript features numerous ornately illustrated initials.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This 14th century parchment manuscript preserves the "Historia destructionis Troiae" by Guido de Columnis for posterity. Its 187 miniatures crafted by Giustino da Forlì portray the most important scenes of the Trojan War against a background of the Gothic architecture of Venice. The margins of the manuscript reveal written traces of the collaborative efforts of the copyist and the illuminator: the scribe made notes in Venetian dialect indicating the plan for incorporating a series of miniature illustrations, which were then duly added by the illuminator.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Guillaume de Loris and Jean de Meung (Meun) are the authors of the Roman de la Rose, one of the masterpieces of medieval courtly literature. In a phantasmagoric and allegorical setting, the lover seeks entry to a locked garden which conceals a rose, the image of his beloved. The second part, written by Jean de Meung, provides a philosophical and moral lesson. This manuscript, written on parchment in the 14th century, contains many golden and gold-accented illustrations and borders as well as initials with blue and red extensions.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This Hebrew manuscript from the 15th century combines liturgical texts and contains commentaries on the rites that provide the framework for the observation of the Passover. This Pesach Haggadah, adorned with miniatures and rich illustrations, contains the complete liturgical version of the Exodus story. The first part of the manuscript contains the text of the Italian rite, the second part that of the Ashkenazi. The manuscript was written and illuminated by Joël ben Siméon, who signed his work with a colophon (f. 34r): I am Joel ben Simeon, called Veibusch Ashkenazi – blessed be his memory – and I am from Cologne, which is on the banks of the Rhine.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
The Ilias Latina, copied on paper during the 14th century, is a Latin adaptation of the great epic by Homer, one of the foundational texts of ancient Greece. It was written in Gothic quasi-cursive script by a single scribe in the region of Naples in Italy. One should take note of some of the decorated initials, some of which incorporate figures, especially that of a muse, clad in a dress covered with stars and holding a sword in her hand.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This manuscript from the southern Tyrol was produced by two scribes in the year 1468 and bound as one volume during the same period. It brings together the didactic work Der Renner (The Runner or Courier) by Hugo von Trimberg and the Alexanderroman (Romance of Alexander) following a compilation by Johann Hartlieb. The codex contains 91 pen sketches. Instructions for the execution of these sketches can be found in the lower margins of the pages on which they appear.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This parchment manuscript from the time around 1400 contains a work by the Dominican sermonist Jacques de Cessoles, using the game of chess as the allegorical basis for a lesson in morals. The same theme is carried out in 16 accompanying illustrations as well.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
The two originally independent parts of this manuscript were bound together probably in the last third of the 15th century (after 1469, cf. Index p. Iv). The first part, written in a single column (pp. 1r-272), contains the Buch der Natur (Prologfassung) by Conrad of Megenberg. This part of the manuscript features marginal corrections and glosses (especially for medically relevant parts of the text), which may be by the original owner of the manuscript (Hayer 1998, p. 162). Especially parts I, III, IV, and V of the Buch der Natur contain marginal notes and interlinear glosses in a 15th century hand which reworks the natural history texts allegorically for preaching. Numerous smaller and larger marginal illustrations. The second part, written in two columns (pp. 274ra-307rb) contains a medical compendium in six parts (childhood illnesses – illnesses due to the imbalance of the humores – diseases of the eyes – the plague, skin diseases, fever – surgery and wound care – venereal diseases, bone injuries, burns), Latin and German recipes and prescriptions, as well as a German table of contents. On p. 284ra is a drawing of surgical instruments. Formerly privately owned by the antiquarian Hans P. Kraus, New York, Nr. 1958/13; prior to that Maihingen, Fürstl. Öttingen-Wallersteinsche Bibl., Cod. III.1.2° 3.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains works by Lactantius, written in an Italian humanistic script in the second half of the 15th century. The book decoration consists of numerous initials with bianchi girari (white vine scroll), with side borders and with a frontispiece decorated along three sides with bianchi girari and with naturalistic elements: birds, butterflies and a donkey. In the bottom margin, two putti hold a laurel wreath surrounding the coat of arms of the person who commissioned the work, a member of the Aragonese royal family of Naples, probably Ferdinand I, King of Naples (1458-1494). An old signature confirms that the manuscript is from the library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
CB 113 is a copy of a manuscript from the Bibliothèque nationale de France and contains a collection of fables in the Æsopian tradition written by Marie de France in the 12th century. Marie de France, author of the famous Lais, augmented the 101 fables with six "fabliaux". The erotic passages of the fabliaux have been erased from this manuscript.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Of all the 19 surviving manuscripts and fragments containing the Prophesies de Merlin, only CB 116 transmits the entire text. The manuscript thus clarifies which episodes from the Arthurian tales comprise the complete body of the work.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
The two texts brought together in this manuscript, De rebus bellicis (ff. 5r-17v) and Notitia dignitatum (ff. 19r-94r), date back to antiquity. The first work presents war machines used by the Roman army, while the second text depicts the late Roman military organization in both the Western and Eastern Empires. From the outset, that is between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century, these texts were designed with illustrations, the oldest known copy of which, dating back to the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, was held in the library of Speyer Cathedral (today only a single leaf remains of that copy). The Speyer copy was borrowed by Cardinal Pietro Donato in 1436, when he was at the Council of Basel, where at least two copies were made and illuminated by Péronet Lamy (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Canon. Misc. 378; Paris, BnF, lat. 9661). The Fondation Bodmer's manuscript is a more recent copy of these, made less than a century later. It may have been used for the edition of these two texts (including the images), which was undertaken by Sigismundus Gelenius and published in 1552 by Froben in Basel.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The double page at the beginning of this manuscript of the Metamorphoses and the Fasti of Ovid shows its connections to antiquity: the use of initials in the fashion of antiquity, the purple tint that colors the entire double page and the laurels that crown the poet's verses and anchor the production of this volume in the Italian Renaissance. The dedication in golden letters on the back of the first page confirm this origin: the manuscript was copied by the Neapolitan Ippolito Lunense for the secretary of Ferdinand I. of Aragon, Antonello Petrucci, whose coat of arms, surrounded by putti and horns of plenty, may be found on the back of the second page. The style, color and ink are changed according to the text. The decoration with bianchi girari of a very high quality is typical of Neapolitan production methods that were practiced by the royal illuminator Cola Rapicano.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript from Italy contains Ovid's Metamorphoses. The text is annotated with marginal and interlinear glosses by various contemporaneous and Italian hands from the 15th century. Four types of notes can be discerned: structuring, lexical and philological, intertextual and commenting, which testify to the vitality of Ovid's text in the 14th century and up to the beginning of the modern era. The frontispiece is decorated with a letter surrounding a portrait of the author during the composition of his work, as well as a side border bearing an angel with red wings.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This copy of the Lives of the Saints, produced during the 12th century, possibly in the German Cloister of Weissenau, is decorated with ornately detailed and illustrated initial capitals, including one notable initial in which the illuminator, "Fr. Ruffilus" includes himself (fol. 244r).
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This codex was produced in the opening years of the 16th century. Though it was created at a time when book printing had already proven its usefulness, this manuscript serves to demonstrate a high level of achievement in the calligraphic and illuminatory arts. Copied by Bartolomeo Sanvito, who also produced four other manuscripts of the Canzoniere and the Triumphi by Petrarch, CB 130 was written using a well-balanced, simplified script and refined illuminations. The beginning of the manuscript contains three full-page illustrations on parchment.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
"De Balneis Puteolanis", a didactic poem by the Salerno physician Petrus de Ebulo, describes the health benefits of about thirty healing springs found in the region around Pozzuoli and Baia, Italy. This work was widely disseminated in Latin as well as in Italian and French translations. It describes baths that were destroyed by an earthquake in 1538. The manuscript is decorated with full-page illustrations and was probably produced in the artistic circle of Robert d'Anjou.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
These two illuminated maps probably were part of an atlas of nautical charts of the Mediterranean, also called Portolan. The first map is north-facing and shows a part of the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Mediterranean on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, between the Canary Islands and northern Italy. The second map is western-facing and shows the islands of the Aegean Sea between Crete (Candia) and Thessaloniki, Greece and Asia Minor, with Troy and Constantinople sketched in anachronistically. A scale for the latitudes on the first map, graduated distance scales near the margins, rhumb lines, and wind roses decorated with fleurs-de-lis accompany the red and black coastal toponyms written perpendicular to the coasts. Their very stylized arrangement emphasizes the headlands and estuaries, and the cartographer also depicted some rivers, albeit without great precision. In the interior and rather vaguely placed are miniature pictures of cities with banners, mountains, and trees. At sea, a few ships and a marine animal appear on both maps. The names of the regions are written on banners or in larger letters. The particular style of the design of the cities, the decorations, and the writing refers back to the work of Giovanni Battista Cavallini or his successor Pietro Cavallini, who worked in Livorno between 1636 and 1688.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript contains the Romuleon, a collection of anonymous Latin texts about the history of Rome attributed to Benvenuto da Imola. CB 145 was written in France in about 1440, probably during the lifetime of Charles VII, whose portrait can be found on fol. 6v. There is a series of noteworthy miniatures at the beginning of the manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript contains the tract Le Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance by King René of Anjou. This allegorical poem, composed in 1455, invites people to live a holy life by means of a dialogue between soul and heart about abstinence from unsatisfying earthly things. CB 144 is decorated with eight full-page miniatures made by Jean Colombe in about 1470.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This manuscript produced at the end of the 13th century contains a copy of the Arthurian romance tales in prose: "Estoire del Graal", "Merlin", "Suite Merlin", "Queste del saint Graal", and "Mort le roi Artu". The interpolations used in CB 147 make it a particularly unusual manuscript: the heroes of the Arthurian tales are made to utter translations of the Gospels, Genesis, and various other biblical texts as well as sermons by Maurice de Sully. The manuscript also contains the "Faits de Romains", and a prose version of the "Roman de Troie" not found elsewhere. The plentiful illuminations are executed in a highly unusual style.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
Tristan, written by Pierre Sala of Lyon in the years 1520-1528, derives from the medieval Italian tradition of the Tristan and Lancelot story cycles in prose about the knights of the round table. Stories about the idealized friendship between Tristan and Lancelot shift between the adventures of the knights of the round table and their romantic intrigues. A mere two manuscripts transmit this Renaissance work by Pierre Salas. The codex held by Fondation Bodmer is the dedication copy made for King Francis I of France. It is illustrated with twenty-six pen and aquarelle drawings.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
This manuscript contains François Dassy's French translation of Carcel de amor by Diego San Pedro (1437-1498). This translation is also based on Lelio Manfredi's Italian translation, completed in 1513. Diego de San Pedro is a Spanish pre-Renaissance poet and storyteller; perhaps he was of Hebrew origin but converted to Christianity. Carcel de amor, one of his two best-known novellas, is a sentimental romance about the overcoming of passionate love through reason; it was first printed in Seville in 1492 and was translated into many languages. The manuscript is illustrated with 19 vignettes, most of which are surrounded by an architectural frame containing representations of figures in period clothing. This manuscript might have been created for Charles III de Bourbon-Montpensier (Charles de Bourbon) between 1521 and 1527 — his coat of arms is on f. 1v. Before becoming part of the Martin Bodmer collection, the manuscript was owned by the Demidow family, Count Alexis Golowkin and Sir Thomas Philipps.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
During the Middle Ages, Seneca was the most popular and most read of the ancient playwrights. The manuscripts of his tragedies, of which almost 400 copies are known today, are mostly from the 14th and 15th century, as is this copy, owned by the Fondation Bodmer. At the beginning of each of Seneca's dramas, this version has a historiated initial that summarizes the plot of the drama, such as the suicide of Jocasta and the blinding of Oedipus at the beginning of the eponymous drama (f. 46v). The rather modest execution of these initials was most likely carried out in Northern Italy, where most of the illuminated copies of this text (about 50) were produced.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
The Theban and Trojan sagas held an important place in the literature of the middle ages. The contents of manuscript CB 160, written in 1469 on paper by Jacotin de Lespluc (« escript par la main de Jacotin de Lespluc »), form part of this tradition. This codex contains a prose version of the "Historia trojana" by Guido delle Colonne and a history of Thebes that closely follows the "Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César". The ink wash drawings are very similar to those found in Ms. 9650-52 of the Königliche Bibliothek of Belgium.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
In his De bello Peloponensium, Thucydides fully achieves the work of a historian, as he shows the origins of the Peloponnesian War and then relates its events year by year with great exactitude. This parchment manuscript is extraordinarily beautiful in its illustrations, especially the two "putti" and the human figure in the center of one initial, wearing a blue suit of armor and holding a sword. The humanistic script, a slightly angular cursive, is the work of a single scribe.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This late Renaissance Italian humanist manuscript contains excerpts of various works by Latin and Greek authors, among them Pliny, Cicero, Silius Italicus, Plautus, Livy, Horace, Sallust, Plutarch, Seneca and others. Pellegrin, following Tammaro de Marinis, attributes the writing to the copyist Gian Marco Cinico, who worked for the kings of Naples between 1458 and 1494. The different parts are introduced by golden initials with bianchi girari, only partly completed (ff. 1v, 4v, 20r, 22r, 50r, 186v). Some of these bianchi girari are left unfilled on a blue, red, green or black background, others are colored pink, green or blue on a black or golden background. The vine scrolls are inhabited by putti and animals such as rabbits, stags, butterflies or birds. Numerous frames show putti engaged in hunting or other playful activities (e.g., ff. 55r, 79r, 139r, 169r).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This ethical work by Boccaccio, originally written between 1353 and 1356 and expanded in 1373, addresses the subject of the unevenness of fate. Manuscript copies of the work were frequently made; it was issued in print and translated into many languages. It enjoyed great popularity in Europe. The French translation by Laurent de Premierfait for Jean de Berry was equally popular, as evidenced by the 68 manuscript copies of this text still in existence. Unlike the Latin version, the French manuscripts display a rich iconographic accompaniment, most likely produced by Laurent de Premierfait himself. This is also the case with CB 174, which was produced during the 15th century in France. Each book opens with a small illustration (150 in all) portraying the “pitfalls” described in the text that follows.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The Rhetorica, a work in Latin recording ten years teaching by Guillaume Fichet, is a witness to this „Art of Speaking“, treatments of which would soon disappear. This richly illuminated manuscript was written in 1471 at the Sorbonne in Paris (in the same year as the printed edition of the text). The manuscript begins with a large miniature portraying the author presenting his book to Princess Yolanda of Savoy.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The 13 large illustrations in this French manuscript, written in the 15th century, were produced by one of the most important book decorators of the late middle ages : Jean Fouquet (BnF, ms. fr. 247). They are richly decorated with gold and cover two thirds of a page; a large number of initials adorned with flowers round out the illustrator's iconographic program. The first page, which is missing, also certainly held a decorative illustration (Adam and Eve?). At the beginning of a prolog is a small miniature portraying the author writing the book. The Antiquitates iudaicae recounts the history of the Jewish nation from Genesis to the year 66 according to the modern western calendar.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The historical-biblical compilation by Peter of Poitiers (around 1130-1205), the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, was very widely used during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. Like many other examplars of this text, this copy was written on a parchment scroll, but at an unknown date it was cut into 7 parts. Figurative medallions and schemata, most of them genealogical, cover the entire work and thus represent a continuous line of world history, from the Fall of Man (f. 1) to the Christmas story (f. 5).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A luxurious copy of the Life of Aesop, part historical and part legendary, that was compiled around 1300 by Maximos Planudes. These pages once constituted the first part of a manuscript of Aesop's Fables , which today is held primarily in New York. It was written in Florence between 1482 and 1485 by Démétrios Damilas, one of the main scribes at the court of the Medici, for Lorenzo the Magnificent's young son Piero II de' Medici, who was 10-12 years old at the time. On the splendid frontispiece one can recognize the portraits of Planudes and Piero II.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
Exemplar of the so-called Parisian Bible, a pocket Bible which contains the entire text of the Old and the New Testaments in a relatively small format in two columns in small script. The codex was produced around the middle or in the second half of the 13th century in Central or Eastern France. It is distinguished and made luxurious by no fewer than 82 historiated initials and 66 ornamental initials. Noteworthy is the fact that the biblical text shows signs of careful correction and that the psalms are divided into smaller sections according to a scheme, which rules out that it was commissioned by a monastery, but suggests instead that it was commissioned by a secular priest or a layperson. An erased note of ownership suggests that in 1338 this manuscript belonged to the Celestine Monastery Notre-Dame of Ternes (Limoges), perhaps a gift from its founder Roger le Fort, who was the son of the Lord of Ternes and was Archbishop of Bourges in 1343. Before this Bible became part of the collection of Martin Bodmer, it belonged to the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1935), hence the name “Rothschild-Bibel.”
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This manuscript contains the Dragmaticon, a work by the scholar Wilhelm de Conches, a member of the School of Chartres. It is possible that the codex was produced in about 1230 in the area of Cologne in a scholastic circle and that it is among the oldest surviving texts of the Dragmaticon, which is transmitted in a total of about 70 medieval manuscripts. The portable format, assorted schemata and tables provided, and the script used (Gothic cursive) indicate that the manuscript was intended for university use. The first section of the manuscript contains a computus for determining when movable feast days should fall.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
In about 1310 the Bishop of Liège, Thibaut de Bar, commissioned Jacques de Longuyon to write the Vœux du paon, which extends the tradition of the Alexander romance. Thirteen miniatures and a number of filigreed initials adorn the alexandrine monorhyme stanzas of the poem.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript, written in Persian, contains a selection of the “One Hundred Sayings by Ali,” a collection of sayings and proverbs traditionally attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth rightly guided Caliph as well as cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. Among the Shiites (from šīʿat ʿAlī, the “party of Ali"), Ali plays an important religious role as the first imam. This manuscript was written in 1559 by the calligrapher Jalal ibn Muhammad in Bukhara. For the text he used the Nastaliq script, a calligraphic script widely used for the Persian-Arabic alphabet; for the titles, however, he used the ordinary Arabic Nasḫī script. The six full-page miniatures, highlighted in gold, were added in the second/third quarter of the 17th century. Noteworthy on p. 9v at bottom center is the rare depiction of a figure turning his back to the observer, of whom one can see only the back of the head. On the same page at the left, behind several musicians, two Europeans can be recognized by their clothing.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript, written in Persian, contains the story of Prince Seyf ol-Molûk and Princess Badî`ol-Jamâl. The manuscript was probably written in India and illustrated with 32 miniatures. At the end of the text (f. 56v), the scribe dated the manuscript in the year 1033 (in the Islamic calendar). The story can also be found in One Thousand and One Nights (758th to 778th night, edition Calcutta II 1839-1842).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This is a Panjabi adaptation of the 10th book of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, in Punjabi/Braj language, in Gurmukhī script. It is a collection of stories of the life of the god Kṛṣṇa, written in verse (caupaī, kabitā, soraṭhā and others). Contrary to the Sanskrit version, the text has no clear chapter structures and has a continuous numeration (880 verses). It is richly illustrated with scenes from the life of the god Kṛṣṇa (more than 200 miniatures), and it is a free verse rendering of the ancient Sanskrit text that was written in ślokas (shlokas), which was extremely popular in India.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
The manuscript, written in modern Devanāgarī script, contains a series of extracts of poems on Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and on nāyikās and nāyakas (heroes and heroines), demonstrating various states and stages of erotic love. Two compositions mention in their colophons the authors or compilers, Rājānāgarī Dāsa (f. 55v) and the Venerable Kuvara Phakīra Siṃha - Kubar Fakīr Singh in hindi spelling (f. 58v). The manuscript is illustrated: five pictures feature Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa (f. 1v, 10r, 26v, 33r and 37v), and two others depict young people in love (f. 52r, 52v). The poems are of different forms, namely, copaī/caupaī, dohā, aralli, and soraṭha. Each of these has a fixed number of lines, syllables per line and other metric specifications. This style was very popular in Northwestern India from about the 18th century onwards. The manuscript was the property of Oliver Henry Perkins (front pastedown), before entering the Bodmer collection at an unknown date.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This manuscript comprises a collection of four different texts. The main text is the Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord"), a part of the Mahābhārata epic, book 6, which consists of 18 chapters, written here in Devanāgarī in a Kashmiri-influenced style (f. 1v-165r). It is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition and survives in a huge number of manuscripts. Painted portraits of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna alternate in opening its 18 chapters. The Bhagavadgītā is preceded by the Prayāgatīrthasnānasaṃkalpa, apadoddhāraṇastotra (V2r-V4v),"a promise to take bath at Prayāga (Allahabad)", and followed by the Pañcavaktrahanumatkavaca (N1v-N7v), a protective mantra of Hanuman, and finally the Stavarāja (N8r-N8v), a "king of praises", serving also as a sort of colophon to the whole collection of these miscellaneous texts. These three subsidiary texts are all written in common Devanāgarī script. A partly readable note dated 29 August 1781 identifies the manuscript as a “prayer book of a bramin [i.e. brahmin]” given to the unidentified possessor of the manuscript “on his departure from India” (V1r).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This unbound manuscript contains one of the most copied texts of the Śvetāmbara Jaina tradition, the Kalpasūtra, which was very popular all over India from the 14th century on. It is a collection of life stories of the great Tīrthaṅkāras. The present manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script, begins with the life of Mahāvīra Jīna, and continues with the biography of Pārśvanātha and Neminātha. The text is incomplete, missing folios 32, 85, 97, 103, and 125, which contained paintings that were sold separately. Their subject, however, can be restored through comparison with similar manuscripts. The paintings still in the manuscript (1v, 7r, 9v, 16v, 17v, 21r, 45v, 47v, 51r, 58r, 62v, 70r, 71v, 72v, 77v, 78r, 81v, 92r) depict the most important events of the lives of the Kalpasūtra's figures. Based on the painting style, the manuscript is close to the 15th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This is an 18th century manuscript of the text called Kedārakalpa, representing itself as a part of the Nandīpurāṇa. The manuscript describes and depicts in its 61 exquisite miniature paintings a religious pilgrimage in Himalayas, Kedarnath region, as done by a group of yogis. It is a śaiva text, i.e. main deity is god Śiva, and the main purpose of the text is to incite people to go on that sacred śaiva pilgrimage.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This is a composite manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script bearing the influence of the Kashmiri style, bringing together a number of ritual texts dealing with the worship of Viṣṇu. 1. (ff. 1_1r-1_6r) preparatory texts and rituals (without a single name or title), starting with a likely Pāñcarātra-influenced set of ritual practices, namely, nyāsas, and dhyānas, i.e. assignment of deities, and syllables to various parts of the body and the visualisation of the main deity. 2. (ff. 1_6r-1_149v) Bhagavadgīta: the main text in this miscellaneous collection. The Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord" - Viṣṇu/ Kṛṣṇa), which is a part of the Mahābhārata, book 6 from 18, is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition, and this part of the Mahābhārata epic survives in a huge number of manuscripts. 3. (ff. 2_1r-2_107v) Copies of other parts of the Mahābhārata, Śāntiparvaṇ, which all are related to Viṣṇu. 4. (ff. 3_1r-6_31v) 2 parts of Pāñcarātrika Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, plus mantras including (ff. 4_1r-4_21r) Pāṇḍavagītāstotra, (ff. 5_1r-5_20v) Gopālapaṭala, (ff. 6_1r-6_23r) Gopālalaghupaddhati and other texts. 5. (ff. 7_1r-7_37v) Parts of the tantras, a. Saṃmohanatantra, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, i.e. Gopālasahasranāmastrotra; b. Gautamītantra, the part called Gopālastavarāja. 6. (ff. 8_1r-10_8r) Two different texts: 1. Niṃbarkakavaca, which is a production of the Nimbarka worship lineage of Vaiṣṇavas. 2. Part of ritual texts of Sāmaveda, dealing with the 5 saṃskāras, plus various vedic mantras, such as Gāyatrī, in its vaiṣṇava forms. 7. (ff. 11_1r-11_11v) Part of the Bhaviṣyotarapurāṇa dealing with the worship of the stones related to Viṣṇu from the Gaṇḍakī river (common name is shaligram). The manuscript contains 3 illuminated titles and 12 miniatures, most of which depict Kṛṣṇa. According to the colophon (ff. 11_11v-11_12r), the text was written in Kashmir, in a monastery called Ahalyamath, in 1833 Saṃvat, that is 1776 or 1777 CE, by a person called Gaṇeśa[bhaṭṭa?] Nandarāma. The second part of the colophon (partially missing), however, links the history of the manuscript to Vrindavan.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This Mexican Codex, written in Nahuatl, is part of the so-called Techialoyan Manuscripts. It is from Santa María de la Asunción Tepexoyuca, near San Martín Ocoyoacac, in the Toluca Valley in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The manuscript is an altepeamatl,"Village Land Book" or tlalamatl, "Land Manuscript", which records the territorial boundaries between the village of Tepexoyuca and its neighbors and lists the toponyms of the boundary markers. The manuscript signatories are eight key town figures at the time: among them don Esteban Axayacatl, "captain", don Miguel Achcuey, "fiscale", and don Simón de Santa María, "mayordomo".
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Testeriano denotes catechism manuscripts in a pictographic script attributed to the Franciscan friar and missionary Jacobo de Testera (16th century). Writing had already developed in 12th century Central America as a mixture of ideograms, pictograms and phonetic symbols, but the original handwritten witnesses thereof were destroyed in the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. In order to communicate with the indigenous population, Christian missionaries later adopted this writing system, but they invented many symbols since the goal was to communicate a new, Christian content. For instance, three crowned heads represent the Trinity and thus God, while two crowned heads with key and sword represent the apostles Peter and Paul. The manuscript is read from left to right across both pages; different parts are separated by decorative vertical vignettes. The manuscript contains several short prayers (among them pp. 1v-2r Persignum, 2v-4r Ave Maria, 4v-8r Credo) and a long prayer (pp. 27v-35r) which represents a repetition of the Christian doctrine.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This register, consisting of 275 leaves, contains the coats of arms of the canons of the diocese of Basel, from the election of Bishop Christoph von Utenheim in 1502 to the last prince-bishop, Franz Xaver von Neveu in 1794. Over three centuries, painters added to these parchment sheets over 2,300 coats of arms in color. From 1682 on, complete family trees appeared, which proved that the church dignitaries had the requisite sixteen quarters of nobility (sixteen noble ancestors in the generation of the great-great-grandparents).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A copy of the four Gospels with commentaries by Jerome, produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the 10th century (before 950).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Commentary on the first eight epistles of Paul. This is a copy of a (lost) exemplar which, according to tradition, was written before 945 by Abbot Thietland († around 964). The text depends to a great degree upon the Pauline commentary of Bishop Atto of Vercelli (885-961).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Cod. 83 is a complete breviary consisting of the following parts: calendar, antiphonary with neume notation, lectionary with biblical readings, homilary containing interpretations by the Church Fathers, hymnal, canticles from the Old and New Testaments, psalter, brief readings, prayers, preces and benedictions. Of special note is the oldest version of the Meinrad Office known to us, which is still used today. The melodies used in the antiphonary belong to the Alemanic choral dialect, still sung in the same form in Einsiedeln in the liturgy of the hours.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This is an especially lovely exemplar, written in France (Paris?) or Flanders, of The Mirror of Human Salvation, or Speculum humanae salvationis. The work itself exists in over 200 manuscript copies and numerous print editions. The Mirror of Human Salvation is divided into the prefiguring of salvation (Old Testament), the story of salvation as told in the New Testament (from the Annunciation to the Judgement Day), the 7 Stations of the Passion, the 7 Sorrows and the 7 Joys of Mary. At this time, four leaves and the opening portion are missing.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
The principal text in this manuscript is the Explanatio Dominicae Orationis by Engelberg's Abbot Frowin (†1178), who probably commissioned the volume, as indicated by the verses on the last page (468). The manuscript was probably brought to Einsiedeln at the beginning of the 17th century.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This manuscript, together with Cod. 247(379), 248(380) and 249(381), constitutes the four volumes of a collection of lives of the saints and passions of the martyrs, arranged according to the liturgical year. Without a doubt these four volumes were used in Einsiedeln, where most likely they also were produced. Each life is introduced with a large rubricated initial, and numerous glosses and maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz were inserted along the margins. The original endpapers, now removed, left traces of a liturgical text with neumes on the inside of the cover and traces of an illuminated initial on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
The first part (pp. 1-178) contains ascetic treatises in Rhaetian or Alemannic minuscule, which originally constituted a single volume together with Einsiedeln 199. The other parts were written in Carolingian minuscule. The second part there of (pp. 179-270) can be localized to Switzerland or Northern Italy and the last part (pp. 271-314) to France. The manuscript was held in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already, as attested by numerous maniculae in the hand of Heinrich von Ligerz.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The devotional book of Abbot Ulrich Rosch of St. Gall contains various prayers, timetables and calendars, is decorated with elaborate initials and was written in the year 1472.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains several works by Prudentius and was written by various scribes. The test is surrounded by mostly interlinear glosses; most of these are in Latin, some are in Alemannic dialect.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
Contains works of Isidore of Seville: Libri originum (I-III e V-XX), De natura rerum, and letters exchanged between Isidore and Braulio of Zaragoza. The manuscript was assembled from an assortment of fragments that had been removed in the 19th century from law volumes held by the library of the chancery of St. Gerold in Vorarlberg. This volume was assembled at the request of Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178), as indicated by dedicatory verses on f. 1r.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Christus und die Minnende Seele ("Christ and the Courting (or wooing) Soul"); Henry Suso, life and works. This manuscript was a gift from a married couple, Ehlinger-von Kappel (Constance) to the Dominican convent of St. Peter in Constance, and from there it probably came to Einsiedeln via the Rheinau Abbey after its dissolution.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
This first part of the three-volume Engelberg Bible (together with Cod. 4 and Cod. 5) contains the Pentatuch and the books of the Prophets. The captioned pen sketch with verse of dedication on fol. 1v portrays Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) presenting the codex to Mary, the patroness of the Cloister. This large-format volume was, according to the colophon on 281v, written by Richene, the only scribe from Frowin's time that we know by name. The careful preparation of the parchment with decorative needlework and the staid style of script and initials in limited colors are characteristic of the recognizable works of Frowin's library.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This second volume of the three-part Engelberger Bible contains the books of the Old Testament remaining after Cod. 3. On 1v, the codex is dedicated in verse by Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) to Mary, the patron saint of the monastery. The codex's structure and organization reflect the simple but elegant style of Frowin's library. The colophon on 213r identifies the copyist as Richene, whose hand is also responsible for the other two volumes of the Engelberger Bible (Cod. 3 and Cod. 5); the illuminations and titles are the work of the so-called Engelberger Master. 69v contains a full-page colour depiction of Christ and the Church.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This third volume of the three-part Engelberg Bible contains the New Testament. The codex originally consisted of 204 folios. On one of the leaves that have been cut out, now cataloged as D 126 at the Stiftsarchiv Engelberg, a five-line verse identifies the scribe as Richene, who also completed the volumes containing the Old Testament (Cod. 3 and Cod. 4). Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) and his scribe Richene are also shown in a full-page illustration on 1r. Also portrayed at full-page size are the Evangelists with their attributes, each labeled with a descriptive verse (108v, 134v, 153v, 181r). On 103r through 105v are canonical tables. The manuscript contains some incomplete initials, spaces reserved for decorations, and completely empty pages.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Augustine's commentary on the Psalms, written in a small, extremely fine script. The verse on 1r names Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) as creator of the volume. In addition to simple red initials, the manuscript also includes individual extremely artful initials by the Engelberg Master in brown and red ink. The portrayal of Christ as grape-treader on 101r is particularly noteworthy; like several other sections, it is on a erased section. Beside and beneath the attachments one occasionally finds fine sketches for initials, designs, or figures.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains the 15 books of St. Augustine's On the Trinity. On 1v, under the Capitula a pen-drawing depicts Augustine with his three adversaries. The codex has been decorated in a particularly artistic manner by the so-called Engelberg Master. A large initial with figurative motifs in red-brown and blank ink begins each book; in the text that follows, intermediate initials are smaller, monochromatically red, and richly ornamented. In verse on 1r, the copyist describes in detail the circumstances of the production of the volume: it was begun under Abbot Berchtold of Engelberg (1178-1197), who died shortly after the copying was underway; his successor Heinrich (1197-1223) supervised the completion of the work.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Augustine's City of God. The manuscript was probably begun under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) and completed and decorated under his successor Berchtold (1178-1197). The last folio is cut out; it may have had dedicatory verse on it, as was the practice for the Engelberg scriptorium under Frowin and Berchthold. Some of the initials have been erased and reworked.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains the St. Augustine's Confessions. A two-line poem above the Capitulum on 1r attests that the copying was begun under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). It is adorned with two figurated initials (1v and 60v) and decorative initials in red ink. Seven rhymed distichs in the hand of the so-called Engelberg Master appear on 123v and these refer to the defense by Frowin's successor Berchtold (1178-1197) against the falsa et damnanda compilatio abbatis Burchardi in turtal.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains on 3v-142v the homilies of Gregory the Great on the prophet Ezechiel. On 1v-3r, in the same hand, appears the tam veteris quam novi testamenti testominia; on 143r-144r follows a short treatise on Grammar written in a different, slightly later hand; the bottom part of 144 has been cut out. On 4r, a line above the text attributes the volume to Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). Places where the parchment has been damaged have been carefully mended with different-coloured thread. Two of the decorative initials appear against a coloured background, in accordance with the later Engelberg style (24v and 76v). A few marginal notes are written in a later hand.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains the first of four volumes of the Book of Job by Gregory the Great. The subsequent three volumes are in codices 21, 22 and 23. The first volume encompasses the parts one (ff. 6r-99r) and two (99r-193v), each divided into five books. At the front of the volume there was originally a full-page illustration consisting of an artistic portrayal of Job with his three friends (upper half) and a portrayal of Gregory the Great and a monk writing (lower half). On the back, the actual recto side, is a Leonine verse couplet of dedication to Frowin. This leaf was carefully described by P. Karl Stadler in his hand-written catalog of 1787, which helped to identify the membrum disiectum, which is now held by the The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1955.74 (Purchase from the J.H. Wade Fund), as belonging to this volume.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains, along with three other volumes (Cod. 20, 22 and 23), Gregory the Great's interpretation of the Book of Job. In two lines of verse on 1r, Abbot Frowin of Engelberg dedicates the volume to the Mary, the patron saint of the monastery. On 89r and 89v a change in the ruling produces markedly larger line spacing. The incipit and explicit are rubricated, and every section begins with a decorative initial and red and brown-black ink with the figurative and vinescrolls motifs typical of Frowin's scriptorium. The layout, script and illustration are closely related to Cod. 20.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Gregory the Great's Moralia in Iob. According to poem on 1r, the manuscript was produced under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). The individual chapters are introduced by initiales in red and brown-black ink; in comparison to the first two initials (6r and 16v), those later in the book appear incomplete. Explicits are written in red majuscule. Tears and holes in the parchment are partially stitched up, but in a less artistic manner as in other manuscripts of the library of Frowin (e.g., Cod. 16). Between 39 and 40 a strip of parchment has been attached to complete the text.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
Following Cod. 20, 21 and 22, this manuscript constitutes the final volume of the Engelberg series of Pope Gregory the Great's interpretation of the book of Job. The decoration has rubricated incipits and explicits and different sorts of initials: simple ones in red ink (1v, 71r), somewhat larger ones with typical bulb motifs (15r, 49v, 101v) and figurated initials in red and brown ink (3r, 32r, 84r, 113r). Tears in the parchment have been stitched with yellow and red thread. At least some of the sparse marginal notes have been written in the same hand as the text. A note added to the end of 123v indicates that Abbot Frowin commissioned the volume.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
The Cistercian Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) wrote between 1135 and 1153 the 86 sermons on the interpretation of the Song of Songs. The fact that this work, as well ad Cod. 33, was copied in the Engelberg scriptorium just a few decates later testifies to the great esteem in which Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) held the author. Indicative of this codex being produced during Frowin's abbacy is the usual dedicatory verse on 3r. The index on 1v-3r and the numerous red-ink marginalia are in the hand of Abbot Ignatius Betschart of Engelberg (1658-1681).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains the Venerable Bede's homilies on the Gospels, which are listed in a chapter-index on 2r-vv and 65v-66r. A full-page colour illumination on 1v shows the author writing this work, framed by the attributes of the Evangelists. Rubricated initials, incipits and explicits divide the text, itself prepared in a light- to dark-brown ink; at the beginning, when the name of Mary, the patron-saint of the monastery of Engelberg, appears in the text, it is slightly emphasized through the use of majuscule or rubrication. 3r and 11v contain large multicolour decorative initials. Holes and tears in the parchment have been mended in a particularly artistic manner. On 1r a two-line verse states that the copy was made during the abbacy of Frowin (1143-1178).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This Codex contains Jerome's exposition of the Gospels of Matthew (1v-103r) and Mark (103v-128v). It has little decoration, but it has two elaborate, polychromatic initials (5r, 103v). The text, copied in black and dark-brown ink, contains multiple changes of hand. Text divisions such as incipit and explicit, pargraphs and chapter indications are executed in red ink, and one time figuratively decorated (51v). The two-line verse inscription on 1r attests that the codex was produced under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
Engelberg 52 is a late eleventh-century handbook of canon law from the circle of Bernold of Constance († 1100), an ardent champion of Pope Gregory VII. It comprises various canonistic compilations: the 'Collection in Seventy-Four Titles' (Collectio 74 titulorum with the so-called 'Swabian Appendix' (Appendix svevica; two short collections 'On Churches' (De ecclesiis) and 'On Illicit Unions' (De illicitis coniunctionibus); the Pseudo-Gelasian decretal 'On Books to be Received and not to be Received' (De libris recipiendis et non recipiendis); the 'Canons of the Four Principal Councils' prefaced by 'Adnotation I' (Adnotatio I; and the Epitome Hadriani prefaced by 'Adnotation II' (Adnotatio II). All of these items can also be found in two closely related manuscripts (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 676, and Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, HB.VI.107); but several appear here in shorter, possibly less developed forms. Prefixed to the whole is a catalogue of popes extending from Peter I to Leo IX with the addition of Victor II. Though it acknowledges Henry III's role in the appointment of four popes (from Clement II to Victor II), it was possibly the source of the papal catalogue that Bernold attached to his Chronicle (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 432, fols. 10r–12r).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This codex contains on 6r-95v the three books "On the status of the soul" by the French theologian Claudianus Mamertus (ca. 425-ca. 475), an apologetic treatise on the incorporeity of the soul, written to oppose a writing by bishop Faustus von Reji (3r-6r). Initials by the so-called Engelberg Master appear at the beginning of the prologue and of each of the three books (3r, 6r, 7v, 48v, 77v). The marginal notes are often framed in red, and some of the capitals are in red. An ownership note on the back of the flyleaf ascribes the volume to Abbot Berchtold of Engelberg (1178-1197).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This codex contains the Benedictine Rule. A German translation follows each Latin chapter. The different sections are to varying degrees distinguished from each other through simply decorated initials in red ink, and the Latin text appears in a slightly thicker script. According to a Latin (1r) and a German (72r) dedicatory verse, the manuscript was produced under Abbot Walther (Walther I. of Iberg, 1250-1267, or Walther II. of Cham, 1267-1276).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains Jerome's exposition of the twelve prophetic books. Each prophet is colorfully depicted in a historiated initial at the beginning of his book. The name of the prophet under discussion appears in red ink in the top margin of every other two-page spread. Small, colourful decorated initials sometimes introduce new paragraphs in the prologues. Except for the prologues, the pages are laid out in three columns: the middle column contains the biblical text, the left and right columns provide, in a smaller script, the exposition. A two-line verse dedication on 1r ascribes the codex to the library of Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178).
Online Since: 10/04/2011