The Irish Priscian manuscript of St. Gallen: a copy of the Latin Institutiones Grammaticae by the grammarian Priscian of Caesarea (6th century) with over 9000 glosses, among them 3478 in the Old Irish language. The basis for the reconstruction of the Old Irish language. Contains numerous elaborate pen initials. Written in an Irish scriptorium (Bangor?, Nendrum?) around 845. (smu)

Online Since: 06/12/2006

The Vocabularium of Salomon, a 1070-page long alphabetical encyclopedia from the Carolingian period, written in a variety of hands in about 900, probably not in the monastery of St. Gall. The work has not survived in its complete form (entries beginning with Aa through Ab and Y and Z are missing). Generally attributed by the Abbey of St. Gall's internal historiography to the learned Abbot Salomon (890-920), the work is probably based on a Liber Glossarum from the French Abbey of Corbie. (smu)

Online Since: 12/09/2008

Manuscript compilation for the monastery school of St. Gall, written by the monk Winithar. (smu)

Online Since: 09/14/2005

"The king of palimpsests": parchment fragments from late antiquity that were erased and reused at a later time, sometimes more than once. The scholarly significance of the palimpsests normally lies in the older texts. Some works have only been preserved as palimpsests. This volume, compiled by the librarian Ildefonse of Arx before and after 1800 from single fragments found in the abbey library, contains among many other texts the oldest known copy of the Mulomedicina of Vegetius (5th century), the only known poems and prose by Flavius Merobaudes (5th century) and the so-called "St. Gallen oracles", or "Sortes Sangallenses" (6th century). (smu)

Online Since: 12/12/2006

The oldest book in the German language, the so-called "Abrogans" manuscript from around 790, containing the earliest German translation of the Lord's Prayer and Credo. (smu)

Online Since: 12/31/2005

The Abba-Ababus-Glossar in palimpsest form, one of the oldest manuscripts in the Abbey Library which survives in book form. This glossary, in which each Latin word is explained using another, was apparently written over older texts from the 5th century in the Cloister of Bobbio. The texts underneath, which vary in legibility, include fragments of the Psalms and of the book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament as well as extracts from works by the grammarian Donatus and the Roman poet Terence. Includes a miniature of a speaker in declamatory pose. (smu)

Online Since: 12/09/2008

The Vocabularius sancti Galli – an Old High German glossary written by a missionary 150 years after the death of St Gallus. A manuscript compilation in small format written around 790 in Germany as a kind of diary by a scribe educated in the Anglo-Saxon tradition containing texts treating missionary, theological and educational questions. The glossary, which comes at the end of the manuscript, is arranged thematically rather than alphabetically. (smu)

Online Since: 12/12/2006

The most historically significant exemplar of the Benedictine Rule from the time after 810. (smu)

Online Since: 09/14/2005

The oldest capitulary from the monastery of St. Gall, containing, among other items, a martyrology, a necrology, the annals of St. Gall and several rules for monks. (smu)

Online Since: 12/31/2005

The Latin-Old High German Rule of St Benedict, one of the oldest monuments of the Old High German language. (smu)

Online Since: 09/14/2005

Manuscript compilation with mainly historical content, written for the most part in Latin and German, mostly by Gall Kemli, the wandering monk of St. Gall († about 1481). The manuscript contains, among many other texts, the Benedictine Rule, Latin and German riddles and proverbs, the only known copy of a Middle Rheinish Passion play in German from the 14th century, and a sort of curriculum vitae of the scribe Kemli. (smu)

Online Since: 12/23/2008

An important copy, in manuscript historical terms, of the Rule of St. Basil the Great (church father; 329-379) in a Latin translation by church father Rufinius (about 345-410), produced in the cloister of St. Gall by many hands during the second half of the 9th century. In addition to two shorter texts, the manuscript also contains an excerpt from the work De institutis coenobiorum by John Cassian († 430/35). (smu)

Online Since: 12/23/2008

This composite manuscript from the Monastery of St. Gall is significant in terms of textual history; it contains copies of monastic texts regarding reform movements of the first half of the 15th century. Among other texts it contains the Consuetudines Sublacenses (pp. 1−19), the Consuetudines of a Cistercian monastery in Bohemia (pp. 26−74; Directorium et consuetudines monasterii de Nepomuk ord. Cist. in Bohemia), general and liturgical directives for monastic life (pp. 74−87), disparaging remarks by a monk from Hersfeld staying in St. Gall about the reform efforts of the general chapter (pp. 98−108), as well as the Consuetudines Castellenses (pp. 113−258). The latter contain liturgical directives for the worship service as well as rules for daily life in and for the organization of the monastic community of Kastl in the Upper Palatinate (Bavaria). Later these Consuetudines circulated widely and influenced monastic life in many other monasteries in Southern Germany, including in St. Gall. Cod. Sang. 928 is the only manuscript to preserve the original prologue about these reforms by Abbot Otto Nortweiner of Kastl (1378−1399). The manuscript’s original limp vellum binding was restored in the 19th or early 20th century with severe alterations to the original substance of the codex. (smu)

Online Since: 09/23/2014

This quarto volume brings together various texts, mostly shorter in length, of which the bulk are spiritual essays and prayers, including: a treatise on the Passion (pp. 4–38), prayers on the Passion (pp. 68–84), prayers for the canonical hours (pp. 88–91), a treatise on the Fall (pp. 92–107), and another on the quattuor gemitus turturis (pp. 112-159); a Biblia pauperum indicates numerous saints and for what emergencies they can be invoked (pp. 160–193). Among the spiritual texts, there are also a few in German (e.g., pp. 218–220, 238). Two letters concern St. Gall: one is addressed to Abbot Eglolf (pp. 40–43), another to monks who have fled to St. Gall (pp. 85–88). Additional texts treat the Council of Constance and monastic reforms; also here there is a reference to St. Gall (pp. 239–250). The last quire is composed of parchment leaves and could have come from the fourteenth century; it contains a grammar and medical texts (pp. 251–266). The manuscript has a limp binding; for guards was used a German-language parchment charter, of which the year 1415 and the name of a ulrichen leman burger ze arbon are still legible. (mat)

Online Since: 09/22/2022

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. (sno)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

This manuscript contains as its main text (pp. 1-180) 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. 180–222 Hie fachet an ein ander buoch von der bewerung einsidliches lebens …, Inc. Die muoter der heilge kristenheit het zweyerhand geistlicher lüte; pp. 222–277 Dz ander buoch von bewerung armuot, Inc. Gelobet sy got vnser herre vnd got iesus cristus; pp. 277–284 [sermon] Inc. Fünf stuk sind dar inne begriffen. On pp. 285–289, prayers have been recorded. The decoration consists of simple red Lombard initials, on p. 1 and 3 with green pen-flourish. Except for the prayers, the manuscript is a copy of Cod. Sang. 930. It was the property of the hermitage of the church of St. George outside the walls of St. Gall. Three spiritual women who lived there in the 1430s are depicted in simple pen and ink drawings on the back pastedown. (sno)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

Several scribes contributed to the writing of this small-format manuscript between 1437 and 1443, among them Gallus Kemli, the wandering monk of St. Gall (1417−1481). The manuscript with the spine label Miscellanea Regularia Liturgica et Medica is preserved in its original binding; in addition to the Consuetudines Sublacenses, it contains more reformist writings from the late medieval reform movements of Subiaco and Melk. These writings include prayers of grace at meals which vary throughout the church year according to the feast days (pp. 99-117), numerous liturgical texts and calendar calculations. At the back there are medical treatises, among them (p. 480) mnemonic aids regarding bloodletting (pp. 569-571), and the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise Secretum Secretorum, a sort of encyclopedic secret doctrine with oriental characteristics that has been preserved in numerous manuscripts. The table of contents on the inside front cover was written between 1774 and 1780 by Fr. Magnus Hungerbühler (1732−1811), while he was abbey librarian. (smu)

Online Since: 09/23/2014

Parts I, II and IV of a four-part manuscript in German of collected materials containing cloister rules (including the Benedictine Rule), prayers, and short spiritual texts. A comparative study of the script indicates that the volume was written by Benedictine monk Friedrich Kölner (Köllner, Cölner, Colner), who lived at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1429/30 and 1439. Part III, or the model on which it was based, was dedicated to Anna Vogelweider, a sister in the Cistercian women's cloister of Magdenau in Lower Toggenburg, according to an annotation which was later stricken through. This Anna was likely the aunt of a certain Sister Els (Elsbeth?), named in the record of a donation, from the women's community of St. George. (fas)

Online Since: 03/31/2011

This little manuscript contains a series of ascetic texts, copied in a single column by a single scribe. It begins with a text of the pseudo-Bernard de Clairvaux, the Formula honestae vitae (pp. 1-11a). Then follows the first book of David of Augsburg, De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione, which often circulated independently under the name Formula novitiorum (inc.: Primo semper debes considerare ad quid veneris…; [pp. 11a-63]). Next come three sermons, on the Last Judgment, the Song of Songs, and contempt for the world, respectively (pp. 64-83), followed by a list of chapters by the Abbot Bernard [of Clairvaux] on the Song of Songs (inc.: Incipiunt capitula Bernahardi [!] abbatis in cantica canticorum [pp. 83-84]). The poem Quinquaginta bona proverbialia occupies pages 85-94 (Morawski, p. XXXVIII), followed by the hymn, missing its first lines, De forma vivendi monachorum (AH, vol. 33, n° 220; p. 95-101). The final two texts are related to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: first a poem on his life (inc.: Anno milleno centeno cum duodeno…; Walther, Initia 1162; pp. 102-105) and then an incomplete poem on his miracles (inc.: Gaude claustralis contio…; p. 106). The limp binding is made with a fragment from a missal. On the top cover is glued a label with an old shelfmark corresponding to those from the 1461 manuscript catalogue of the monastery library (Cod. Sang. 1399, pp. 1-8), and indication that this volume was at Saint Gall’s abbey by that date at the latest. The stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from between 1553 and 1564, appears towards the end of the manuscript (p. 101). (rou)

Online Since: 05/31/2024

This codex, written by several scribes, contains theological writings very different from one another in seven parts interrupted by empty pages. Part I: pp. 1–14 table of contents and pp. 17–124 the text of De decem praeceptis by Heinrich von Friemar, pp. 124 Septem dona sancti spiritus contra septem peccata mortalia, pp. 125–139 Tractatus de confessione et de peccatis mortalibus et venialibus, p. 139 Quid sit vera poenitentia et confessio, pp. 139–140 a theological note and further notes on p. 142, pp. 143–173 the treatise De proprietate ad canonicos regulares religiosa by the theologian, astronomer and church politician Heinrich Heinbuche von Langenstein (1325–1397) as well as pp. 177–186 a fragment of the Expositio regulae S. Augustini. Part II contains a fragment of De sacramento ordinis on pp. 187–199, pp. 199–257 Notabilia super Cantica Canticorum by Frater Johannes, followed on pp. 258–260 by the sermon Omnia parata sunt venite ad nuptias. Parts III (pp. 261–284), IV (pp. 285–316) and V (pp. 317–340) contain more sermons. Part VI consists of 14th and 15th century Sibyllenweissagungen in German, (Von Kung Salomo wishait, pp. 341–361) and a fragmentary letter (pp. 361–362). Part VII contains moralizations from the Historia septem sapientium on pp. 365–376. In a note on p. 379 Abbey librarian Ildefons v. Arx reports about the illness and death of the former Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger in the year 1823. An entry in the top margin of p. 1 attests that the manuscript was already in the St. Gall monastery in the 15th century. (nie)

Online Since: 12/14/2018