Information about the conscription of troops. It names several cities along the Nile (among them Elephantine, Herakleion, Oxyrhynchus) that had to supply soldiers for the Persian commander Šērag. This document, written in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) on parchment, dates from between 619 and 629 AD, the time of the Sassanid occupation of Egypt. (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Didactic poem in Arabic by Avicenna (d. 1037) about the art of healing. The manuscript was written in the 17th century on paper of European provenance and came to the university library in 1682 as a gift from Konrad Harber. According to the canon, the Urǧūza (or Manẓūma) fī ṭ-ṭibb is the Persian scholar’s greatest contribution to medicine. Armengaud Blaise translated it into Latin in Montpellier in 1284 under the title Cantica; a version of the translation, revised by Andrea Alpago, was printed in Venice in 1527. (wur)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

Famous collection of wise sayings attributed to the caliph ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (deceased 661). Each proverb in Arabic is followed by its translation into Persian in Maṯnawī verses in Ramal meter. The sentences are also known by the title Ṣad kalima or Miʾat kalima and have been translated into Persian several times. This version does not name the translator. This copy was prepared by a well-known calligrapher from Shiraz, Ḥusayn al-Faḫḫār; it was completed in Rabīʿ II 952 h. [= June-July 1545]. The manuscript is from the bequest of the turkologist and scholar of Islamic studies Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960). (wur)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

This Persian-Arabic manuscript, written in Herat by ʿAbdallāh al-Harawī and completed Middle of Šaʿbān 871 h. [= end of March 1467], contains genealogical information about the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants, as well as about people important to the subsequent history of the eastern part of the Islamic world and of Central Asia, among them the Khan of Moghulistan, Tughluq Timur († 1363). Sayyid Ǧalāladdīn Mazīd Bahādur is named as the person who commissioned the manuscript; he probably was part of the local upper class. Interspersed in the text are quotations from the Koran, prayers and poems; an appendix gives exact death dates for three people who passed away in the year 869 h. and who may have been part of the circle of the man who commissioned the manuscript. The decoration of the manuscript is incomplete, as can be seen from an only partially completed rosette (3r) and a missing family tree (26v). The manuscript was owned by Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960).  (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Collection of prayers in the form of litanies (awrād), attributed to a Šayḫ Wafāʾ. The manuscript must have been completed before 1746, because in this year it was consigned to a religious foundation by Bašīr Āġā, a dignitary of the Ottoman court. The author cannot be conclusively ascertained since there are several people known by the name Šayḫ Wafāʾ. This manuscript probably belongs in the context of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), which was firmly established as an institution in the Ottoman-Turkish society of the period. The manuscript comes from the collection of the Islamic scholar and turkologist Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960). (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Legendary biography of the founder of the Bektashi Order, Ḥāǧǧī Bektāş Velī from Khorasan (Eastern Iran/Afghanistan), written in Ottoman Turkish. The manuscript was written by ʿAbdallāh Ibn Aḥmad el-Merzīfōnī and was completed on 20. Ǧumādā II 1165 h. [= 5 May 1752]. It was part of the collection of oriental manuscripts of the Islamic scholar and turkologist Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960), from where it came to the University Library Basel. (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This fascicle contains the version of the Paenitentiale Theodori named for this textual witness the ‘Canones Basilienses;’ it was written by two hands from Fulda in an Anglo-Saxon minuscule of the first quarter of the 9th century. Around 1500, this quire was part of the current manuscript F III 15e‬‬‬‬. This explains the title de conflictu viciorum et virtutum on 1r, which does not fit with the content of the quire. As evidenced by the lost text at the beginning and at the end, N I 1: 3c had previously been part of another codex. (stb)

Online Since: 03/17/2016

Leaf from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Chuniberti, the Vita s. Trudonis and the Vita s. Severini; they were probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel(1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 3rd volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

These five bifolia with fragments from The Song of the Nibelungs are from a mid-14th century manuscript; they were preserved because they were reused as binding material. Discovered in 1866 by a clergyman from Fanas/Prättigau, they came into the hands of the Basel philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel and today are part of the Basel University Library. The leaves show restrained rubrication; the margins are decorated with occasional reddish-brown pen and ink drawings (particularly in the shape of dragons and dragon-like creatures). (flr)

Online Since: 10/10/2019

The texts on which the Basel scroll is based were written in the Holy Land at the behest of Charlemagne. This somewhat later copy might have been produced in the region of the Upper Rhine; it constitutes the only textual witness. Not only the content of the texts, but also the original scroll form were preserved. In his comprehensive study from 2011, Michael McCormick supposes an administrative use at the court of Louis the Pious or Louis the German. It is not clear how the fragments reached the University Library Basel; they were removed from a volume that was not further identified in the second third of the 19th century by the librarian Franz Dorotheus Gerlach. (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Leaf from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Silvestri and was probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Bifolio from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the volume's front matter (calendar for the month of June, an editorial introduction, and indexes for the months of May and June). The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Lower part of a leaf from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Symeonis  by Eberwin of Trier and probably was written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Bifolio from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the volume's front matter (calendar for the month of December). The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 3rd volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Leaf from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the volume's front matter (an editorial introduction, and indexes for the months of November and December). The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 3rd volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

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)

Online Since: 06/25/2015

Two individual bifolios with different excerpts from the work of the Greek physician Oribasius Latinus (4th century). Originally the fragments were probably from the same codex from Lorsch Abbey. They were created at the beginning of the 9th century, and in the 16th century they were used as bookbindings in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Leaf from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the vita of St. Athanasius and probably was written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Bifolio from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Waldeberti by Adso of Montier-en-Der as well as the Vita s. Macharii heremitae; probably it was written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

Mutilated bifolio from the third volume (May-June) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the vita of Boniface by Otloh of St Emmeram and was probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). Other fragments from this third volume are in Basel, Solothurn and Nuremberg. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (November-December) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019