Fragment from a Glagolitic breviary with texts for August 13th and 14th; based on the script, it can be dated to the 15th century. It belonged to Franz Miklosich (1813-1891), one of the most important Slavicists of his time, and was a gift to the Basel Antiques Collection, the precursor of the Basel Historical Museum. (gam/flr)

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. (ber)

This quaestio disputata by the Augustinian Johannes of Paltz (around 1445-1511) is a perfect illustration of the working methods of medieval scholasticism. The manuscript was written in Erfurt in the summer of 1486 and has as its topic the refutation of three errors. The first regards those who claim “to be able to calculate and foresee the Last Judgment.” It seems that this document is the only handwritten version of this text, which is known through two printed editions from the 15th century. Franz Xaver Karker (1812-1892), Canon of the Cathedral of Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland), donated this work to the Fribourg library. (jur)

This small but extensive (198 ff.) prayer book is written in a variant of North German (Middle Low German). In accordance with the female form in many of the prayers, it was intended for a woman. With the exception of one full-page miniature depicting Christ as the gardener before Mary Magdalene (Noli me tangere), all illuminations have been removed. An ex-libris on the front pastedown informs us that this small manuscript was a gift to the Fribourg Library in 1891 from Franz Xaver Karker, canon of Wroclaw Cathedral. (ber)

This late 15th century manuscript contains a chronicled account, written by several authors, of the history of the monastery of St. Gall in the early and high Middle Ages, as well as several theological Quaestiones. The account is preceded by a list of abbots from the founder Otmar up to Berchtold von Falkenstein (1244-1272); a second list of abbots continuing until 1503 is added at the end. (gam)

This voluminous composite manuscript brings together the Casus Sancti Galli, the history of the monastery of St. Gall from the early and high Middle Ages, and about 50 lives of saints in texts of various lengths, among them those of the St. Gall saints Gallus, Otmar and Wiborada. The manuscript was created in the 1450s, when relations between the monastery and the town of St. Gall were sorted out, and the monastery launched extensive reforms. (gam)

The two main components of this manuscript are the lives of the house saints of St. Gall (Gallus, Otmar, Wiborada and Notker Balbulus) and of the apostles and early Christian saints and martyrs, and the Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Gall, from the Casus sancti Galli by Ratpert (612-883) to the Continuatio by Conradus de Fabaria (1204-1234). St. Gall reformer Vadian added marginal notes, some of them quite detailed and critical, to the text describing the history of the cloister. The codex also contains chronicalistic notes about St. Gall and Switzerland (14th/15th centuries), the Reise in das Heilige Land by Steffan Kapfman, and computistic, medical, astronomical and theological texts. On two previously empty pages (pp. 324-325) St. Gall abbey librarian Idelfons von Arx added four recipes for making faded handwriting legible. (sno)

The first part of this volume contains a copy of the text En Damvs Chronicon … Evsebii …, published in 1529 by the humanist Johannes Sichardus (1499−1552) in the printer's workshop of Heinrich Petri in Basel. This printed work contains the Universal Chronicle by Eusebius of Caesarea and its continuation by the Church Father Jerome, the Universal Chronicle by Prosper of Aquitaine, the historiographic work De temporibus by the Florentine Matteo Palmieri (1406−1475), the short Chronica by Cassiodorus, and the Chronicon by Herman the Cripple. The printed part is preceded (on Fol. Av) by a handwritten computistic-calendric table for the years 1501 to 1540 by the scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) of Glarus. The second, handwritten part of the volume contains a copy of the text of the first four parts of the history of the monastery of St. Gall, the Casus sancti Galli. Aegidius Tschudi had his collaborator Franciscus Cervinus of Schlettstadt, who had a humanist university education, copy the historiographic works of the St. Gall monks Ratpert (pp. 1−37) and Ekkehart IV (pp. 38−253), the abbey chronicle of those who anonymously continued it for the years 975 to 1203 (pp. 255-305), as well as the continuation by Conradus de Fabaria about the fate of the abbey between 1203 and 1234 (pp. 307-367). The printed as well as the handwritten parts contain numerous marginal notes in Tschudi's hand. The volume was owned by Tschudi (Sum Aegidii Schudi Claronensis; ownership note on the front inside cover); as part of Tschudi's book collection, this volume was sold to St. Gall Abbey in 1768 by his heirs. (smu)

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. (smu)

This manuscript, named after the person who commissioned it, Abbot Franz Gaisberg (abbot 1504-1529), contains assorted historiographic and hagiographic texts: a history of the abbots of St. Gall with coats of arms, epitaphs of St. Gall abbots and monks, the history of the St. Gall abbey (Casus sancti Galli) for the years 1200-1232 by Konrad von Fabaria, the anonymous Vita of Notker Balbulus († 912), together with a copy of the records of his beatification process in 1513 and the legends of saints Constantius, Minias, and Roch. The codex was written by the organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher of the St. Gall Abbey (1490-1546). (sno)