This copy of a commentary on the Gospel of John by Alcuin of York (about 730-804) was produced in the first third of the 9th century, probably in the West Franconian empire, possibly in Tours. The flyleaf shows traces of a page from Vergilius Sangallensis (Cod. Sang. 1394).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This is an unadorned copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the De ecclesiasticis officiis libri IV (also referred to as Liber officialis) by liturgist and Archbishop Amalarius of Metz († around 850); it was written at the monastery ofSt. Gall around 820, probably under Deputy-Abbot and Abbot Hartmut (872-883). Between book 3 and book 4, inserted on pages 349 to 361, the manuscript contains five letters by Amalarius of Metz to various addressees.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Latin biblical glossary (Latin terms explained in Latin), written in a Carolingian minuscule script in about 900, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall. There are numerous quill tests at the beginning and the end of the glossary.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Compilation of various types of glossaries: Biblical glossaries, glossaries of texts by Church Fathers (such as the Letter of Jerome to Marcella or Pope Gregory the Great's homilies on the Gospels). A Latin word from the respective text is followed by a Latin explanation or by a vernacular (Alemannic) translation. The manuscript also contains glossaries of technical terms (such as of the canons, of birds, fish, medicine, kinship terms). These glossaries, which were compiled by several monks from the monastery of St. Gall in the second half of the 9th century, are among the oldest records of the German language. The majority of the parchment pages in the first half of the manuscript are damaged at the top edge.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A copy of the first part of the commentary on the Psalms, Expositio super psalmos by Walahfrid Strabo (808/09-849), dealing with Psalms 1 through 76, produced in the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. In addition there are copies of two letters from Jerome (No. 30: Ad Paulam; No. 38: Ad Marcellam).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Incomplete copy of Peter Lombard's commentary on the Psalms (on Ps 80-150). The first half (quires 1-27) is missing. The decoration is limited to red paragraph initials. The initials planned for subdividing the Psalter (Ps 101, 109) were not executed.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Latin composite manuscript from the period between 1150 and 1250, written in Southern Germany, perhaps even in St. Gall. The volume contains (not quite complete) the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux on the Old Testament Song of Songs (Sermones super cantica canticorum), the history of the First Crusade by Robert of Reims (Historia Hierosolimitana), the work De locis sanctis by the Irish scholar and saint Adomnán of Iona († 704), a Relatio about the Apostle Thomas as well as short verses about the parts of the Liturgy of the Hours (Versus de horis canonicis), and verses about the ten plagues of Egypt (Versus de plagis Aegyptii).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This paper manuscript consists of four codicological units, and (contrary to Scherrer) dates to the fifteenth century. The first unit includes blank folios A–F and has an old, fifteenth-century, foliation 182–187. The second unit (f. G and ff. 1–22) first contains a longer, crossed-out table of contents, and, beneath it, an updated, shorter table of contents; both tables come from the fifteenth century. On ff. 1ra–22rb follows the sermon or treatise De passione domini, which is ascribed to Henry of Langenstein both in the manuscript and in the previous catalogues, but ought to be attributed to Henry Totting of Oyta († 1397). According to the rubric comments at the beginning and end of the treatise (f. 1ra, 22rb), this text was copied at the order of the Dominican Conrad Bainli. The third part (ff. 23–81) transmits another sermon or treatise De passione domini, and was produced by a second scribe, who, according to the colophon (f. 74va) made the copy in 1446, also at the behest of Conrad Bainli. The fourth unit (ff. 82–129) contains first on ff. 82ra-116ra the Expositio dominicae passionis by Jordan of Quedlinburg. According to the colophon (f. 116ra) Conrad Bainli, one of the probably two copyists of the Expositio, finished copying the text in 1437. There then follow on ff. 117ra–123ra excerpts from the four Gospels (a Gospel concordance on the Passion?) made by yet another scribe, who, according to the colophon (f. 123ra), also finished the copy in 1437. The binding dates to the fifteenth century and has wooden covers that were already reused.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The manuscript was produced in the late fourteenth century and shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century. The first half (pp. 17–347) was largely copied by Johannes Schorand (except pp. 17–47) and on p. 123, 303 and 347 is dated 1398. Pages 348–412 are written by several hands from the fifteenth century. The last part (pp. 413–538) comes from the hand of the Dominican friar Cuonradus Bainli and contains several datings: 1455 (p. 470, 475 and 488) and 1458 (p. 538). The manuscript contains predominantly sermons, but also other, chiefly theological, texts. On pp. 17–124 are the Sermones super Pater noster of Godefridus Heriliacensis (from Erlach on Lake Biel), followed by sermons De tempore on pp. 124–303. The explicit on p. 303 (Explicit Jacobus de Foragine) is deceptive; only a few sermons are by Jacobus de Voragine. In fact, the first 58 sermons are identical with the sermon collection of an anonymous Franciscan contained in Oxford, Merton College, MS 236 (15 c.), and referred to by its incipit, "Mendicus". Subsequently, from the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Cod. Sang. 329 has a mixture of material from the “Mendicus”-sermon collection and additional sermons from Jacobus de Voragine's Sermones de tempore. After both sermon collections follow a few shorter texts: pp. 304–347 of the Tractatus de symbolo fidei by Aldobrandinus de Toscanella, pp. 348–353 an Easter sermon from Albertus Patavinus's Expositio evangeliorum dominicalium (Inc. Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome emerunt aromata … Licet magna leticia sit rem desideratam invenire), pp. 355-357 canonical dispositions, pp. 358-360 the chapter De sancto Petro apostolo from Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea, and pp. 363-413 a Tractatus de amore dei, anime. The pages copied by Cuonradus Bainli begin with the Commentarius in decem praecepta by Henry of Friemar (pp. 413–475, with a detailed index pp. 470–475), followed by a Sermo de sacramento corporis Christi (pp. 479–488) and pp. 488–538 a text with the title Biblia virginis Marie, with a detailed index on pp. 488–491. The codex has various contemporary foliations. Johannes Lener owned the manuscript; after he died, it passed to Johannes Engler (cf. the comments in the hand of Johannes Schorand, p. 124 and 347, corrected and expanded by a fifteenth-century hand). Since the mid-sixteenth century at the latest, the manuscript was in the library of the Abbey of St. Gall, (p. 353, the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from 1553–1564).
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Antiphonary, dating from around the year 1000, with Calendar and Gradual (written and provided with fine neumes probably by the monk Hartker), Ordo Missae and Sacramentary. An invaluable monument of music history.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted Sacramentary of St. Gall from the time of Abbot Norpert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass. With Calendar, Gradual and Sacramentary, illustrations include five full-page, high-quality miniatures of the principal feast days of the liturgical year (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The incomplete Gelasian Remedius-Sacramentary, composed in Chur in about 800, at the time of the Chur Bishop Remedius, one of the most important liturgical texts from that time, containing the prayers used by bishops or priests during the Mass and administration of the sacraments, at the same time also one of the masterpieces of Retro romansh scribal culture in the Carolingian age, decorated with numerous fantastic initial capitals, still influenced by Irish models. Verifiably present in the monastery of St. Gall by about 850.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
German language lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings according to the Church year (Proprium de tempore; Proprium de sanctis and Commune sanctorum) from the Dominican Cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, copied in the year 1483 from a model belonging to the Cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg by Elisabeth Muntprat, one of the convent's most diligent scribes. Texts from the manuscript were read aloud during the Dominican nuns' meals. Several colored woodcuts are pasted into the manuscript, which came to the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1780.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This unadorned manuscript, which was probably not produced in St. Gall, is a double lectionary or Lectionarium plenarium sive „Comes duplex“. The lectionary follows the pericope practice of the city of Rome and contains all the readings for the Mass (Old Testament / Acts of the Apostles, letters and gospels). It begins with Christmas but is defective in the beginning.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
According to new research, the so-called Evangeliary of Wolfcoz - an early masterpiece from the second quarter of the 9th century - was created not at the St. Gall Monastery, but instead in the scriptorium at Reichenau under the librarian Reginbert. This new conclusion was reached on the basis of paleographic studies as well as later-added pericopes on the Reichenau saints George, Mark and Pancras (p. 201-219).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Breviary consisting of several parts: 1) Capitula and orationes for the period from the first of Advent until the octave of Pentecost as well as for Sundays and weekdays (pp. 3–48). 2) Proprium de tempore (with readings, excerpts from sermons, antiphons, responses and hymns) for the period from the first of Advent until the Saturday after Pentecost (pp. 49–280). The antiphons and responses have neumes. 3) Proprium de sanctis (pp. 281–419), these chants do not have neumes. It begins with St. Andrew (30 November) and ends with St. Petronilla (31 May). 4) Proper for Easter until the second Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 421–466). 5) Responses and antiphons De sanctis in pascali tempore (pp. 466–468). 6) Lectiones per totam ebdomadam for weekdays of the third and fourth week after the octave of Easter (pp. 469–484). 7) Capitula for Nocturns, Sext and None at Easter (p. 485). 8) Orationes for Nocturns, Sext and None on weekdays usque ad ascensionem Domini (pp. 486–487). 9) Capitula and orationes for Vespers, Lauds and Sext for the first until the fourth Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 488–489). 10) Hymns (and sequence Cantemus cuncti melodum, p. 504) (pp. 502–504 and 506). Parts 1-3 were for the most part written in the 13th century (with numerous additions and corrections on erasure up until the 15th century). Parts 4-6 are from the 14th century, parts 7-10 from the 15th century. Property of the Monastery of St. Gall at least since the 15th century (perhaps 1450, cf. p. 1).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Book of hours, composed for an unknown female convent in the diocese of Basel: excellent example of early Gothic book art. With a Calendar, 14 miniatures of the life of Christ and Mary, the Psalter, Canticles and an All Saints' Litany.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This extensive parchment manuscript was written in the fourteenth century in textualis. Red and blue lombards, rubrics, and red abbreviations adorn the two-column text; occassional red and blue pen-flourished initials emphasize particularly important parts of the breviary and its feasts. The breviary begins (p. 1a) with Easter-eve vespers (that is, on Good Saturday) and ends (pp. 807a–817b) with the feast of Saint Conrad (26 November). There then follows (pp. 817b–819b), as additions, a lection In nocte sancte Anne and four lections In divisione apostolorum, written in the same hand as before (cf. p. 433b, p. 457b). Finally the added rubric Passio sancti Placidi martyris, sociorum eius 35 martyrum prima [?] lectio [?] is written in another, later-fifteenth-century hand. Among the saints feasts occur those of Gallus (p. 662a) and its octave (p. 708a) as well as of Otmar (p. 759b) and its octave (p. 789b). On p. 666 appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from the period 1553–1564. The wooden-board binding dates to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Its leather binding is adorned with scroll stamps. The original clasps and fittings are missing. On the inside of the front and back boards can be seen offsets from detached flyleaves, as well as from fragments with writing that were pasted in. Two paper leaves (pp. A-D) and one paper leaf (pp. Y-Z) have been inserted and bound in before and after the parchment book block, respectively. The pagination is faulty: A–D, 1–155, 155a, 156–433, 435–621, 623–819, Y–Z.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This paper manuscript contains short readings (capitula), collects (collectae), prayers, hymns, antiphons, and responsories for the office throughout the year, including the common of Saints. Probably in the fourteenth century, this “extended collectar” was written in a flowing textualis and then rubricated. In many places, the manuscript shows heavy traces of use in the form of worn, browned margins. On p. 25 can be found the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553–1564. The wooden-board binding dates to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. On the inner boards can be seen offsets of Hebrew fragments.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary written in the monastery of St. Gall between 1034 and 1047 (with readings and chants for the liturgy of the divine office), with addenda until the 14th century. Prefaced by a Calendar and computational tables. The corresponding summer part of the Breviary can be found in Cod. Sang. 387. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gallen.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary for the divine office, written around 1030 with addenda until the 14th century. Contains, in addition to a large Lectionary and Antiphonary, a Calendar and computational tables. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gall.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
This breviary, which is missing its end, contains the proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent through Saturday after the third Sunday after Easter (pp. 1–384). Then follows the commune sanctorum (pp. 384–386), the proprium de sanctis from Tiburtius and Valentianus (April 14) to Primus and Felicianus (June 9), and then the proprium de tempore continues from the fourth Sunday after Easter. The breviary cuts off in the middle of the fifth Sunday after Easter. Since there are only three, and not, as was common in the Benedictine Order, four readings per nocturn on Sundays, the breviary cannot have come originally from the Abbey of St. Gall. The codex, which shows signs of heavy use, is written by several hands on thick parchment with many holes, sometimes with stitches. Several pages are cut below the text-block. The antiphons and responsories appear with staffless neumes, which themselves were written by many hands. The decoration consists of red lombards and initials, including a few zoomorphic ones (p. 172: dragon; p. 217: bird with two heads; p. 231: dragon). Numerous fragments of a late-medieval liturgical manuscript are used as quire-guards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
The summer portion of a Lectionarium officii containing scripture lessons to be sung by a choir, produced during the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript, written by several hands, contains a total of 66 sermons, most of them by Bede and Gregory the Great, a few by Augustine and Jerome, and occasionally ones by Ambrose, Fulgentius, John Chrysostom, Maximus, Origen and by unknown authors. Some homilies are reproduced in their entirety, others in excerpts. Four strips of the Edictum Rothari were removed from the binding; today they are held in the Abbey Library of Saint Gall with the shelfmark Cod. Sang. 730. Imprints of these fragments are visible on the inside cover.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This entire codex was written by a single scribe. It contains a collection of readings for the nocturns. The sections are introduced by red majuscules. Several marginal notes were added in the 13th century. On the inside covers, imprints of fragments from the Gospel of Luke in the oldest version of the Vulgate still remain visible. The imprints are from two leaves that were detached in 1932 and that since then have been held, together with other fragments from this Vulgate manuscript, under the shelfmark Cod. Sang. 1395.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Deluxe manuscript with numerous outstanding, perfectly executed initials and an excellent image of dedication (Saint Augustine), containing mostly sermons for the principal saints' days.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains the readings for the nocturns of matins, the nightly office, on Sundays, feast days and weekdays. It includes the proprium de tempore from the first of Advent to the end of the ecclesiastical year (including the saints' feasts between Christmas and Epiphany). As the Matutinale does not have four readings per nocturn on Sundays, as was the practice in the Order of Saint Benedict, but only three, it cannot have been originally written for the Abbey of St. Gall. On the margins of p. 233/234 appear numerous additions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the feast of the Trinity. Decoration consists of red lombards and simple initials, partially with incipient pen-flourishes (e.g., p. 75). The parchment has numerous holes, some of which have stitches. Numerous pages are trimmed below the text block. Strips from an eleventh-century liturgical manuscript are bound around the first and last quire of the codex as reinforcement (the back half of the strip around the last quire is paginated as p. 414/415). On the front board appears the offset of a page of a thirteenth-century psalter; on the back board, the offset of an eleventh-century sacramentary (?).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This codex, written in the 13th century, contains a lectionary for Matins for the saints' days and an antiphonary for the entire liturgical year. The antiphonary bears the title In nomine domini incipiunt antiphone secundum morem Marbacensis ecclesie. Nevertheless, this is probably not a manuscript from the reformed monastery of Marbach in Alsace. Based on the offices, which indicate a connection with St. Gall, it must rather be assumed that the manuscript originated in the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Lawrence in Ittingen, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, but which followed the Consuetudines of Marbach. The fly leaf (p. 2/1) contains a large part of the Office of St. Gallus, probably from a manuscript from the 10th/11th century. Readings as well as chants (the latter ones with neumes) are recorded. The order of the responses and antiphons does not match that of the Hartker antiphonary, Cod. Sang. 391.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Manuscript compilation consisting mainly of works of liturgical and pastoral character, produced between 845 and 870 in the monastery of St. Gall. It contains, among other items, a liturgical study by Abbot Walahfrid Strabo of Reichenau (808/09-849) Liber de exordiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum, the first western European reference work on liturgical history, the so called Ordines Romani, a liturgical study by Amalar of Trier, the first Capitular of Bishop Theodulf of Orléans, two treatises about baptism and the mass attributed to Alcuin as well as the Capitular documents (diocesan legislative documents) of Haito, Bishop of Basel and Abbot of Reichenau.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A copy of the martyrology of Ado of Vienne († 875). As an appendix the manuscript also contains vitae of ancient saints, possibly written by Notker Balbulus himself around 880/890.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This composite codex belonged to Kemli, a monk of St. Gall who had the parts, some of which come from the fourteenth century, bound together and interspersed with blank pages, which he and other writers then filled in. For this reason, the manuscript features numerous different hands and a constantly changing layout. The larger blocks of related text are a collection of sermons (Liber Sagittarius, pp. 3–61), a confessors' manual (pp. 71a–92b), commentaries on hymns and sequences (pp. 118–217b), as well as a collection, apparently assembled by Kemli himself, of ancient historical exempla, which in part are taken from the Gesta romanorum (pp. 226–357). The leather binding dates from the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Composite manuscript containing mainly theological texts and, as the largest part (pp. 61–212), the Vocabularius Ex quo. The remaining works are a commentary on the hymnal, where each verse of a hymn alternates with the corresponding explanation (pp. 1–56), a short treatise De humani cordis instabilitate (pp. 57–60), sermons (pp. 212–229, 240–268 and 268–273), the life of Albert of Trapani (Albertus Siculus) (pp. 230–239), the Speculum humanae salvationis (pp. 274–335), a short treatise on virtues and vices called Etymachia or Lumen animae (pp. 335–345), excerpts from Jerome, Augustine and others (pp. 346–368), as well as the Speculum ecclesiae by Hugo de S. Caro (pp. 370–391). The latter is written on a parchment palimpsest , the underwriting (“scriptio inferior”) is in Rotunda script. Four red and bleu fleuronné initials from the underwriting have survived (p. 372, 373 and 375). The last pages contain responsories for Christmas (Descendit de celis deus verus), the Feast of Saint Mark (Beatissimus Marcus discipulus) and Commune plurimum martyrum (Viri gloriosi sanguinem fuderunt), and also the Easter trope (Quem queritis) with melodies in square notation on four lines (pp. 392–394). The manuscript consists of parchment and paper, sometimes even mixed within one quire. This codex has been at the monastery of St. Gall at least since 1553/64 (library stamp p. 60).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Lives of the patron or "house" saints of St. Gall, written in the first half of the 9th century in the monastery of St. Gall, includes multiple short hagiographic and liturgical texts including: a) the life history of Columba, composed by Jonas of Bobbio, in excellent condition, b) the unique surviving copy in the world of the life history of St. Gallen founder Saint Gallus, composed by Reichenau monk Wetti in about 816/824.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A composite manuscript containing the lives of the 12 Apostles and lives of additional ancient Roman saints, produced in about 900, probably not at the Abbey of St. Gall. The second and third parts were written in St. Gall during the 11th century and include, respectively, three Sermones (homilies) and two fragmental texts with liturgical content.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Hagiographic manuscript collection containing the lives of numerous saints, especially the Benedictine saints, written and compiled in the Cloister of St. Gall between the 10th and 13th centuries. Among other items it contains the lives of saints Remaclus, Gangold, Willibrord (originally written by Alcuin of York), Ulrich of Augsburg (originally written by Abbot Bern of Reichenau) and Magnus (older and newer lives). Between the newer and older versions of the lives of Magnus is a pen sketch of the healing of a blind person in Bregenz on the Bodensee.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This codex contains the miracles of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which the Benedictine monk Benedict of Peterborough began to collect after Thomas' murder on December 29, 1170. The manuscript, which has beautiful initials with scroll ornamentation on p. 12, was written by two hands in the Southwestern region of Germany towards the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. The collection of miracles is divided into four books, of which the last nine chapters (IV.95-96, V.1-4, VI.1-3 of this edition) and the following letter from the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset, are not numbered. The manuscript is listed in the Monastery of St. Gall catalog from the year 1461.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Composite manuscript containing lives of saints in verse and other theological texts: life of St. Gall, in verse (Vita Galli metrice), possibly written by an Irish scholar (Moengal?) around 850 (pp. 3-175); miracles of Mary, in verse (Miracula Marie) (pp. 176-191); Vita sancti Viti, in verse (pp. 192-204); Vita scolastica by Bonvicinus de Ripa, in verse (pp. 205-241); Facetus de vita et moribus (pp. 242-267); Liber floretus by a Pseudo-Bernard (pp. 268-287); Sermones by Peregrine of Opole (pp. 306-352); Sermones by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 353-363); and Sermones dominicales, pars aestivalis et per totum annum by Peregrine of Opole and Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 368-452).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This manuscript contains German-language lives of the saints: the “Lives of the Fathers” (Vitaspatrum) (pp. 5a–482a), the Life of Saint Meinrad (pp. 482a–501b) and the Life of Saint Fridolin, a translation of the Latin Vita of Fridolin written by Balther von Säckingen (pp. 502a–541a). The main scribe of this codex was Johannes Gerster, citizen of Säckingen, who identifies himself on p. 361 and p. 541, each time including a date. Several pen drawings: tree with blossoms and fruit (p. 361), young man in secular clothing (p. 482), sketches of dragons (p. 528 and p. 541), rosette (p. 541). In the 17th century, this manuscript was in the possession of the Convent of the Poor Clares in Freiburg i. Br. (note p. 3); only in the 18th century was it purchased for the Monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript, written in the 15th century by a "sehr routinierten und stilsicheren Schreiber" (Scarpatetti, S. 194; "a very practiced and stylistically confident copyist"), contains the first four parts of the great St. Gall historical work Casus sancti Galli: the history of the monastery by the Monk Ratpert (pp. 3-39), the Casus sancti Galli by the Monk Ekkehart IV (pp. 40-257), the Casus sancti Galli by the anonymous continuators for the years 975 to 1203 (pp. 259−301), and the continuation of the history of the monastery of St. Gall by Conradus de Fabaria from 1232/35 (pp. 317−370). The manuscript contains numerous annotations in the hand of the Swiss scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572), but it is not part of his collection of books, which came to the St. Gall Abbey Library in 1768. Tschudi must have consulted and studied the manuscript during a visit to the Abbey Library of Saint Gall.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
Manuscript collection produced at the monastery of St. Gall, containing the oldest known surviving version of the Casus sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert, in a copy from about 900. Additional longer texts, written down between the 9th and 13th centuries contain sermons by the early Church fathers, a register of the abbots of St. Gall from the 7th through the 13th centuries, hymns, and excerpts from the Collectio Canonum by Pseudo-Remedius as well as the Micrologus by Bernold of Konstanz.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This codex contains Konrad of Würzburg's Trojan War, a tremendous unfinished late work by the German lyric and epic poet, who died in 1287 before completing the work. The author recounts the story of the Trojan War in verse in an expansive construction of historiographic narration, forward and backward references, and encyclopedic digressions. Defective in the beginning and later supplemented with an inserted leaf, the work extends from p. 4 to p. 893. This is followed on pp. 895-897 by a fragment of an anonymous prose retelling of Conrad's Trojan War. The text of Conrad's Trojan War is written by a scribe, who probably is identical to the rubricator responsible for the red Lombard initials, the black Gothic initials and the decorated majuscules at the beginnings of the columns, and who put the date 1471 on p. 893. The prose fragment is from a later hand. The manuscript's place of origin is not known. The codex was found in 1739 at the Haldenburg, a St. Gall fief in the Allgäu, and then became part of the Abbey Library, as indicated by a note on p. 894.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
13th century composite manuscript consisting of 8 parts: 1) excerpts from the martyrologies of the St. Gall Monk Notker Balbulus and of Ado of Vienne (p. 3-10), 2) copy of about half of Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica (p. 11-234), 3) Canones apostolorum et conciliorum prolati per Clementem papam in a smaller format booklet by another hand (p. 235-252), 4) excerpts from the work Panormia by Ivo of Chartres (p. 246b-252b), 5) Historia Langobardorum by Petrus Diaconus with an annex by Andrea Bergamensis (p. 253a-272b), 6) Historia Hierosolymitana by Robertus Monachus Remigiensis (p. 273a-313a), 7) appendices concerning the history of the Holy Roman Empire, the schism of the Church of Utrecht, and the death of Conrad III (p. 313), 8) excerpts from the Chronica pontificum et imperatorum, ab Hadriano usque ad Constantinum by Martin of Opava (Martinus Polonus; p. 314-330).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Hegesippus/Flavius Josephus, Jewish War. Copy from the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This manuscript, written in the second half of the 15th century, probably shortly after 1450, contains first (pp. 1−46) the Constance World Chronicle from the end of the 14th century. This is followed by the Zurich Chronicle from the beginnings to the start of the 15th century (pp. 47−121), a continuation of the Zurich Chronicle about the years 1420/21, 1436 and 1443−1450 (pp. 121−132), and a abbreviated edition of the Chronicle of the Council by Ulrich of Richenthal (pp. 132−228). Based on an examination of the handwriting, in the older literature it is considered that the early humanist Felix Hemmerli (1388/89−1454) from Zurich may have been the scribe. The manuscript was owned by the Swiss scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) and was sold to the monastery of St. Gall by his family in February 1768. Tschudi added various marginal notes and corrections to the texts.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
Collection of council decisions and papal decrees up to the 8th century, an important St. Gallen copy from the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This 14th century manuscript contains Burchard of Strasbourg's Summa casuum (pp. 3-264). Probably added in the same century were two short letters from a Franciscan from Freiburg im Breisgau to a pastor in Schönau and Todtnau to clarify canonical questions (p. 264) and a document form for obtaining absolution from the Abbot of St. Trudpert in the Black Forest (p. 265).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript contains Burchard of Strasbourg's Summa casuum (pp. 7a-261a); according to the colophon (p. 261a), it was completed by the clergyman Fridolinus Vischer in the parish of Mollis in Glarus, probably on April 4, 1419. In the course of the 15th century, notes on personages from the Old Testament were added at the beginning of the manuscript (pp. 4-5), and brief canonical and theological explanations on spiritual kinship, on legitimate and illegitimate contracts and purchases, on tithes and found objects were added at the end of the manuscript (pp. 261b-271b).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript consists of three parts. The first part (p. 1-90) with the summa of penitence or of confessions by Heinrich von Barben (pp. 3-90), is written in textualis and, according to the colophon (p. 90), it was completed on February 24, 1309. The second part (pp. 91-146) contains a catalog of questions for confession (p. 91a-145a), written in a 13th or 14th century textualis, which was supplemented in the 15th century with information on the solution of legal abbreviations (pp. 145a-145b). The third part (pp. 147-206) contains a collection of documents and formulas from Northern Germany (pp. 147a-205b), written in the 14th century by two different hands in a semi-cursive minuscule and in a cursive book hand. The three-part manuscript can likely be found in the catalog of St. Gall Abbey from 1461.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This paper manuscript brings together various texts of pastoral theology on the sacraments, and particularly on confession, as well as commentaries on the doctrine of the faith as well as sermons. Among these texts are the Summula de summa Raimundi of Magister Adam [Adamus Alderspacensis] (pp. 99–138) and the Liber Floretus (pp. 139–151), both written in verse. The scribe identifies himself as Johannes in a colophon on p. 138. The manuscript presents numerous annotations from the hand of the learned and wandering St. Gall monk Gallus Kemli (1480/1481).
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The manuscript transmits Vincentius Hispanus' apparatus to the Compilatio tertia. Composed in 1210–1215, this apparatus is an extensive, stable series of glosses on a collection of Pope Innocent III's decretals. This manuscript has the distinction of being a thirteenth-century Italian pecia-exemplar of this gloss-apparatus (without the text of the Compilatio tertia). Pecia-exemplars served as approved sources for the serial copying at universities of legal texts and their apparatus of glosses.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Completed in 1338, Bartholomew of Pisa's Summa de casibus conscientiae is one of the most widespread late-medieval confessors' manuals. Its success is due to its practical orientation and the alphabetical organization of keywords from canon law and moral doctrine. This copy from the second quarter of the fifteenth century likely belonged to the books that the secular priest Matthias Bürer agreed in 1470 to give to the Abbey of St. Gall, and which were transferred after his death in 1485.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The confessors' manual of Magister Simon borrows extensively from Raymond of Peñafort's Summa de poenitentia and Summa de matrimonio. The text contains an indictment that suggests an origin in the Diocese of Paris around 1250 or a little later. According to the ownership note on p. 1, the manuscript, written in two hands in the second half of the thirteenth century or the first half of the fourteenth century, entered the Abbey library of St. Gall by 1478 at the latest.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The manuscript begins with the important summa of confession by the Dominican Raymond of Peñafort († 1275), the Summa de poenitentia together with its fourth book, finished in 1235 with the title Summa de matrimonio. According to the colophon on p. 246b, Johannes Meyer von Diessenhofen copied the text from 26 August to 8 November 1395. Immediately, or shortly, thereafter, the same hand copied two confessors' manuals of the Dominican John of Fribourg († 1304) along with a few small additions. The Libellus quaestionum casualium concerns cases that are not treated or only summarily discussed in Raymond of Peñafort's Summa de poenitentia. The concise Confessionale was tailored to the practical needs of confessors.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript from the 2nd half of the 12th century preserves the Abbreviatio Decreti "Quoniam egestas", an abridged version of the Decretum Gratiani, complete with glosses. The text represents the oldest datable record of the study of the Decretum Gratiani in France. The script and book decoration indicate that the manuscript was probably produced in Engelberg during the time of Frowin. Since 1461, it has been at the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This extensive manuscript miscellany was written by the secular priest Matthias Bürer. According to the numerous colophons, he finished the copies of the texts in the period from ca. 1448 to 1463 in Kenzingen (Baden-Württemberg) and in many places in Tyrol. The manuscript transmits among other things several theological treatises, a confessors' manual, two mirrors of confession, an ars moriendi (“the art of dying”), the Acts of the Apostles with the Glossa ordinaria, sermons, as well as Books II–IV of Pope Gregory the Great's Dialogues. After the death of Matthias Bürer in 1485, the manuscript went, along with other books, to the Abbey of St. Gall, in accordance with a 1470 agreement.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
A representative copy of the decretals of Pope Gregory IX (Pope 1227-1241) in a Gothic-rotunda script from Italy. The text of the decretals is surrounded on each page by the so-called Glossa Ordinaria, a juridical commentary by the canon law specialist Bernardus de Botone of Parma († 1266), which has been written to encircle the main text. The commentary in turn has been extensively edited and glossed at a later time. Each of the five parts is decorated with a scene portraying its content.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
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
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
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 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
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 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
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
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
This manuscript contains as its main text (pp. 1-199) the so-called Waldregel, an Early Modern High German translation of the Regula solitariorum (rule for hermits), which was written in the 9th or 10th century by the monk Grimlaicus, who probably was from Lorraine. The Waldregel is supplemented by further texts on the topic of the hermit's life and poverty: pp. 199–256 Hie vachet an ain ander buoch ainsidelliches lebens vnd von siner bewaerung …, Inc. Die muoter der hailigen cristenhait hat zwayer hand gaistlicer lüt; pp. 256–326 Das ander buoch von bewärung der armuot, Inc. Gelobet sy got vnser herr iesus cristus; pp. 326–334 Hie nach ain bredige, Inc. Fünf stuk sint dar inn begriffen. According to the explicit on p. 335, these four parts are consolidated under the title Waldregel, although only the first part until p. 199 goes back to the Regula solitariorum. On pp. 337–419 there follows a Spiegel der geistlichen Zucht. This is a translation of the booklet for novices by the Franciscan David of Augsburg († 1272). Prayers were added on pp. 420-422. For the most part, this codex was written by Father Johannes Hertenstein (OSB); it was the property of the hermitage in Steinertobel, not far from St. Gall. A copy of the first four texts can be found in Cod. Sang. 931.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript from the Monastery of St. Gall, written and compiled by several hands in the 15th century, contains (in addition to shorter texts and numerous blank pages): excerpts in alphabetical order of Latin writings by church fathers regarding various theological concepts (De abiectione – De voto; pp. 3−179); the work Soliloquium by the Franciscan theologian and philosopher Bonaventure (1221−1274; pp. 181−266); a copy of the anonymous work Stella clericorum that was often adopted in the 15th century (pp. 291−319); the work Speculum peccatoris falsely attributed to Augustine (pp. 339−354); the sermon Corde creditur ad iustitiam by Thomas Ebendorfer (pp. 355−361); the Capitulare monasticum III of 818/819 (pp. 363−367); a not quite complete copy of a letter from Theodomar, Abbot of Montecassino, to Charlemagne (pp. 369−373); and the Consuetudines Fuldenses from the 10th/11th century in the Redactio Sangallensis-Fuldensis (pp. 374−404). The wood binding is covered with red leather; on p. 361 three is a note by the scribe: per me syfridum pfragner.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript contains the so-called Reformatio Sigismundi, a document about the reform of church and empire that was written anonymously in German in 1439 during the Council of Basel by an author who until today has not been reliably identified. The text was printed for the first time in 1476. The treatise presents reform proposals that emphasize the importance of pastoral care and that promote releasing secular clergy from obligatory celibacy and releasing bishops from exercising temporal power. The treatise also reports Emperor Sigismund's alleged vision, according to which a priest-king Frederick is said to have appeared to him with plans for the reform. In a colophon on p. 234, the writer gives his name as Petrus Hamer von Weissenhorn, chaplain in Kirchberg. He begins the chapters with red initials and decorates two of them with caricatures of bearded faces (p. 158 and 212).
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript in Northeastern Swiss-Alemannic dialect was probably written for the community of the sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall; it contains numerous shorter and longer texts by known and unknown authors, among them: pp. 1−106: Thomas à Kempis, 3rd book of the Imitatio Christi; pp. 106−123: Bonaventure, excerpts from the work De triplici via; pp. 124−126: preacher of St. Georgen, sermon Geistliche Blume; pp. 126−134: Meister Eckhart (attributed), treatise Von der Vollkommenheit; pp. 135−166: Johannes Tauler, sermon on Mt 13,8 and other sermon excerpts; pp. 167−181: two anonymous sermons Vom Leiden und Meiden; pp. 184−259: treatise from the “Schwester Katrei"; pp. 259−268 anonymous didactic dialog with Timothy's questions to Paul; pp. 271−372: Johannes of Neumarkt, excerpts from the 3rd so-called Jerome letter; pp. 377−407: Marquard of Lindau, Job-treatise; pp. 409−434 and pp. 472−481 (wrongly bound together by a bookbinder): Das Buch des Lebens by an anonymous author; pp. 435−442: excerpts from Meister Wichwolt (Cronica Alexandri des grossen Königs); pp. 446−448: Ps.-Bertold of Regensburg, Bertold's ten lessons for a spiritual sister. About half of the texts were written by the Reformist monk Friedrich Kölner from Hersfeld, who was active at St. Gall Abbey from 1430 until 1436; the other parts were written in the 15th century by three other hands.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This manuscript, written around 1500 by the Sisters of the third order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall, contains as an introduction a register (pp. 1−9) of manuscripts and printed works held in the convent library, compiled around 1500; it has a total of 110 entries. The majority consist of ascetic-edifying treatises; among them are Brother Conrad Nater's German translations of Bonaventure's Regula novitiorum (pp. 15−107), the German version of David of Augsburg's De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione (pp. 109−188), the Ermahnung zu einem wahren klösterlichen Leben by the Franciscan monk Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg (pp. 190−223), the treatise Die besessene Nonne Agnes (pp. 225−404), a treatise on the passion attributed to Bernardino of Siena (Lernung das lyden unsers lieben heren zu betrachten; pp. 406−475), revelations by the mystics Gertrude of Helfta and Christine Ebner (pp. 476−486), Bonaventure's Soliloquium in a shortened German version (pp. 496−713), as well as the treatise Vom Reuer, Wirker und Schauer by the so-called Kuttenmann (pp. 717−727). On 11 February 1782, the St. Gall Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756−1823) acquired this manuscript, together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 976, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the community of Capuchin nuns at Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript from 1467, which first belonged to the convent of the Poor Clares at Freiburg in Breisgau and was transported to the Abbey of St. Gall in 1699, contains, in addition to some Latin texts, many tracts for spiritual instruction in German translation. These include an Ars moriendi, the Cordiale de quattuor novissimis by Gerard van Vliederhoven, the so-called Hieronymus-Briefe(Letters of Jerome) translated by John of Neumark (ca. 1315-1356), the Spiegelbuch, a dialogical text in rhymed verses on living life properly, the trials of worldly life and everyday tribulations, with about twenty colored pen sketches, and a version of the legend of the Three Kings by John of Hildesheim (1310/1320-1375). The manuscript also contains some additional pen sketches: a unicorn (p. 87), images representing two Apostles (p. 107; Paul and John?), a man and a woman in secular dress, and a stag and a wild boar (p. 513). There are imprints in Carolingian minuscule on front and rear inside covers (rear inside cover: Hrabanus Maurus, De computo).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This folio-size manuscript contains a single text, the Gemahelschaft Christi mit der gläubigen Seele (redaction: Es spricht ain haidischer maister es sy besser und nützer), an extensive and still-unedited book of monastic edification. The anonymous author may have been an Augustinian Hermit; his readership largely consisted in female religious communities. Indeed, the present manuscript comes from such a community; based on a comparison of scripts, it was copied and dated by Angela Varnbühler, the chronicler and long-time prioress of the convent of St. Catherine in St. Gall (colophon on p. 842/843). In the run-up to the Reformation, the librarian Regula Keller sent this manuscript and another (today lost) to the women's community in Appenzell, as reported by the letter accompanying the shipment that is pasted on p. 2. From there, the codex went to Wonnenstein Cloister, and in 1782 to the Abbey Library (ownership entry by P. Pius Kolb on p. 4). Two entries from 1584 attest that a certain Hans Bart had das Buoch gelernet (p. 1 and p. 845). The manuscript is laid out in two columns and rubricated throughout. A bookmark and a single leaf from a post-incunable breviary printed in the workshop of Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg are inserted. Between pp. 839 and 840 many leaves have been removed (loss of text). Unadorned leather binding, contemporary with the text, with two clasps (one lost). On the wooden boards the offsets of two German-language charters are visible.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript contains the work Die 24 Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele (completed around 1386) by the Franciscan Otto of Passau. This work, a sort of guide to Christian life in sentences, is addressed to laymen, to lay brothers in monasteries, and to nuns. According to a colophon on p. 512, this manuscript was written by the reformist monk Friedrich Kölner (or Colner), who came from Hersfeld Abbey in Hesse and was active at the Monastery of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436; it was intended for the monastic women's community of St. Georgen above St. Gallen, whose confessor he was.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
A collection of religious writings from the Dominican cloister of St. Katherina in St. Gall, written in the second half of the 15th century by the hand of an experienced woman scribe. The volume transmits a great number of sermon texts in versions important to textual history. It contains, among other things, seven so-called Engelberger Predigten, the oldest copy of Version B of the work De Nabuchodonosor by Marquard of Lindau († 1392), ten sermons by Johannes Tauler († 1361), an account of the life, works, and miracles of St. Dominic taken from the work Der Heiligen Leben, a tract attributed to Meister Eckhart: Vom klösterlichen Leben, and religious epigrams.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This manuscript contains a Dominican breviary preceded by a calendar with various necrological annotations. The codex was written by Cordula von Schönau, Dominican at the Abbey of St. Katharina in St. Gall, who signed the inside front cover and wrote the dated ex-libris on the first flyleaf. Cordula von Schönau's hand can also be found in Cod. Sang. 406 of the Abbey Library of Saint Gall, in Ms. 22 of the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, and in Wil in Ms. 3 as well as in several parts of the “Schwesternbuch” (Book of sisters) and of the “Konventsbuch” (Chronicle).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
The St. Gallen "Sacramentarium triplex" (three part sacramentarium: Sacramentarium Gregorianum, Sacramentarium Gelasianum, Sacramentarium Ambrosianum), which contains texts for the main prayers of the eucharistic liturgy, used by priests when saying Mass on various feast days and memorial days, not only for the Roman and the Roman-Gallic liturgies, but for the Milanese liturgy as well. A scholarly masterwork by the St. St. Gall monks from the tenure of Abbot-Bishop Salomon (890-920).
Online Since: 12/20/2007
(Fragmentary manuscript remnant) Elaborate lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings for the full church year, written and decorated with prominent initial capitals by contemporaries of Sintram in about 900/910 in the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Elaborate lectionary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and enhanced with numerous ornate initial capitals by a contemporary of the famous St. Gallen scribe Sintram about 900/910, the same scribe who wrote and illuminated Ms. C 60 held by the Central Library of Zurich. This work, also known as the "Liber Comitis", contains the cycle of liturgical Epistle and Gospel readings for the Church year.
Online Since: 04/26/2007