The Abbey Library of St. Gall is one of the oldest monastic libraries in the world; it is the most important part of St. Gall’s Abbey district UNESCO world heritage site. The library’s valuable holdings illustrate the development of European culture and document the cultural achievements of the Monastery of St. Gall from the 7th century until the dissolution of the Abbey in the year 1805. The core of the library is its manuscript collection with its preeminent corpus of Carolingian-Ottonian manuscripts (8th to 11th century), a significant collection of incunabula and an accumulated store of printed works from the 16th century to the present day. The Abbey Library of St. Gall was a co-founder of the project e-codices. With its famous Baroque hall, where temporary exhibitions are hosted, the Abbey Library of St. Gall is one of the most visited museums in Switzerland.
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 613
Parchment · 376 pp. · 28 x 19 cm · St. Gall · 1526
Codex Gaisbergianus
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)
Parchment · 338 pp. · 22.5 x 16-16.5 cm · St. Gall (in part) · 9th-12th centuries
Sermons of the Church Fathers · Casus Sancti Galli (Ratpert) · Pseudo-Remedian Canons · Ordines Romani · Bernold of Constancez, Micrologus
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. (smu)
Parchment · 360 pp. · 16 x 10.5 cm · St. Gall · 12th-13th centuries
Transcripts of the Casus sancti Galli by Ratpert, Ekkehart IV. and the anonymous continuator
Contains the earliest extant copy of the monastery chronicle Casus sancti Galli by the St. St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV. (ca. 980 – ca. 1060), as well as copies of the Casus sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert and the principal manuscript of the anonymous continuation of the monastery chronicle (Continuatio Casuum Sancti Galli). (smu)
Parchment · 224 pp. · 14.5 x 11 cm · second half of the 14th century
Martin of Opava (Martinus Polonus), Chronicle of the Popes; sermons for the saints’ days; Martin of Opava, Chronicle of the Emperors (excerpts)
This manuscript contains the Chronicle of the Popes by Martin of Opava († after 1278) on pp. 3-95. The chronicle goes as far as Boniface VIII; the names of the five following popes are added at the end by a later hand. This is followed by sermons for saints’ days (pp. 96-206), and then, on pp. 207-224, excerpts from Martin of Opava’s Chronicle of the Emperors, with an anonymous continuation up to Henry IX [VII] (1313). A 14th century fragment of an ascetic tract is bound into the front (pp. 1a-2b). The book decoration is limited to simple pen-flourish initials (pp. 105, 107, 184). (sno)
Paper · 897 pp. · 31 x 22 cm · Southern Germany (?) · 1471
Conrad of Würzburg, Trojan War
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. (nie)
Parchment · 3-331 pp. · 37/38 x 25/26 cm · St. Gall (?) · 13th century
From the Martyrologium of Notker I and Ado ∙ Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica ∙ Canones apostolorum et conciliorum ∙ Ivo of Chartres, Panormia ∙ Paulus Diaconus, History of the Lombards ∙ Robertus Monachus (Robert of Rheims), The Conquest of Jerusalem ∙ Excerpts from Martin of Opava’s Chronicle of the Popes and Emperors
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). (dor)
Parchment · 356 pp. · 34.5 x 26 cm · St. Gall · before 883 / 9th century
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII
St. Gallen copy of Paulus Orosius' history of the world from Adam to the year 417 from the 9th century, with numerous glosses and several maps, written by the monk Ekkehart IV. in the 11th century. (smu)
Parchment · IV + 517 pp. · 28.5 x 23 cm · Lisieux (?) · 9th century
Frechulf of Lisieux, World history
The Carolingian world history written by Bishops Frechulf of Lisieux in the oldest surviving copy, produced in 825/830. Written in the scriptorum of Lisieux, this item had already been obtained by the monastery of St. Gall by 850/860. (smu)
Parchment · A-D + 212 + W-Z pp. · 30 x 21.5/22 cm · St. Gall (?) · 9th century
Pompeius Trogus / Justinus Junianus, Historia
A copy of the excerpts made by Junianus Justinus from the lost history of the world (Historiae Philippicae) by the Roman historian Pompeius Trogus, produced in the 9th century, probably at the Abbey of St. Gall. At the end of the text is the famous Old High German St. Gallen scribal verse: Chumo kiscreib filo chumor kipeit. (smu)
Parchment · 340 pp. · 25 x 19.5 cm · Dürnstein · 1454
Romance of Alexander
A copy of the Alexanderroman (Romance of Alexander) by physician, translator and poet Johannes Hartlieb (1468) of Munich. This is the exemplar that Hartlieb had produced for Duke Albrecht III. of Bavaria (1451-1460) and his wife Anna of Braunschweig by calligrapher Johannes Frauendorfer of Thierenstein in the year 1454, using a professional Bastarda script. It is illustrated with 45 six-by-thirteen-line fully colored initials, possibly by the hand of Bavarian miniaturist Hans Rot. Decorations include numerous simple and intricate vine borders with acanthus leaves, in which a wide variety of animals frolic, and in which one can find many of the flowers of the region. The Romance of Alexander remained one of the most popular prose romances in the German language until 1500. (smu)
Parchment · II + 255 pp. · 37/37.5 x 27.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 9th century
Flavius Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, 1. VII
A copy of the work Bellum Judaicum (the Jewish War) by the Jewish author Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), produced in the 9th century, probably not at the Abbey of St. Gall, by the hands of eight different scribes. (smu)
Paper · A-B + 940 + Y-Z pp. · 33 x 23 cm · possibly Northern Bavaria · second half of the 15th century
Abbreviated version of the Universal Chronicle of Platterberg/Truchseß; Jean de Mandeville, Travel to India
The largest part of this voluminous manuscript consists of an abbreviated version of the Universal Chronicle of Platterberg/Truchseß, completed in 1459 (pp. 3−796), which in the older literature is also referred to as the “St. Gall Universal Chronicle.” This chronicle also contains the so-called St. Galler Cato (pp. 259−260; Disticha Catonis; Von Catho dem weysen und seinen spruchen), a partial German translation of the work De officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero (pp. 263−265); as well as more quotations from other works by Cicero (pp. 265−271). Next are a German version of the fictional correspondence between Alexander the Great and Dindimus, King of the Brahmins, written by Meister Wichwolt (pp. 809−815); Cronica Allexandri des grossen konigs), the German version of the History of the Three Kings (Historia trium regum) by John of Hildesheim (pp. 816−854); and the report about Jean de Mandeville’s travel to India in the German translation by Otto von Diemeringen (pp. 854−917). At the end (pp. 918−940), the volume contains an incomplete version of the travelogue of Johannes Schiltberger (1380 – after 1427) from Bavaria, who had been taken captive by the Ottomans. The book decoration consists of numerous red and blue Lombard initials. In 1570, the volume was owned by Luzius Rinck von Baldenstein (p. 940), brother-in-law of Prince-Abbot Diethelm-Blarer (1530-1564) of St. Gall; at the latest by the 17th century, the volume became part of the holdings of the monastery library of St. Gall (p. 3: Liber Monasterii S. Galli). (smu)
Parchment · A-D + 130 + W-Z pp. · 23 x 16 cm · St. Gall? · first half of the 13th century
Galfredus Monumetensis, Historia Regum Britannie
This manuscript contains the Historia Regum Britannie by Geoffrey of Monmouth (around 1100-1154) (pp. 3-121, Incipit Prologus in brittannicam hystoriam); excerpts from the Collectanea rerum memorabilium by Solinus (pp. 122-128), and the Epistola presbiteri Johannis, the so-called Letter of Priester John (pp. 128-130), all in Latin. The volume is mentioned in the library catalog of 1461. (dor)
Parchment · 243 pp. · 23 x 14/14.5 cm · Northern Italy · around 800
Paulus Diaconus, Historia Longobardorum
This is a copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the Historia Longobardorum (History of the Langobards) by the Langobard monk and author Paulus Diaconus († 797/799), who was active in Montecassino. It was written in northern Italy, possibly in Verona, around 800 by a variety of hands. The volume has been at the monastery of St. Gall since the 9th century already. (smu)
Parchment · A, B + 208 pp. · 14.5/15 x 11/12 cm · 11th century
Sallust, Coniuratio Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum
This manuscript, probably not written in St. Gall, contains two works by the ancient author Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus): p. 1-95Coniuratio Catilinae, (history of the Catiline Conspiracy); p. 95-206Bellum Jugurthinum (history of the Jugurthine War). The codex is written by various hands; several chapters are repeated, e.g., Coniuratio Catilinae, chap. 46-52 (p. 195-206). (sno)
Parchment · 667 pp. · 15.5 x 11 cm · 13th/14th century
Summa de donis: Exempla on Vices and Virtues
This extensive volume was copied at the turn of the thirteenth to fourteenth century by a single hand with a somewhat varying ductus. It contains a thematically ordered compilation of short examples and observations on virtues and vices (pp. 3–658) that may have been taken from Etienne de Bourbon or Humbertus de Romanis. This summa is made accessible by an index (pp. 659–661), written in a later hand, which hand also completed the foliation. The manuscript is rubricated throughout and contains two-line red and blue lombards. On the front flyleaf can be found a fragment of a charter from 1295. The red-leather binding has the remains of a medieval clasp. (mat)
Paper · 242 pp. · 30 x 22 cm · 16th century / 15th century
Composite manuscript
Manuscript compilation containing a collection of fables (Ulrich Boner's Edelstein), decorated with simple pen drawings, farcical stories – preserved only here – by the so-called "Swiss Anonymous" as well as chronicle notes on the history of Zurich and Glarus. (smu)
Paper · 501 pp. · 31 x 21.5/22 cm · Rorschach · 1476
Hans Fründ, Chronik des Alten Zürichkriegs (Chronicle of the Old Zurich War)
The Cantonal Secretary of Schwyz Hans Fründ († 1469), originally from Luzern, wrote a chronicle of the Old Zurich War in about 1447. This carefully written copy illustrated with the flags of the cantons of the Confederation was made by Rorschach chaplain and former Schwyz schoolmaster Melchior Rupp in the year 1476. The manuscript, in the final pages of which are transcribed certain records and documents from the years 1446 through 1450 related to the Old Zurich War, made its way into the possession of Glarus scholar Aegidius Tchudi (1505-1572) and from there, in the year 1768, into the Abbey Library of St. Gall. (smu)
Sebastian Brant's Panegyric to Trajan · the so-called "Klingenberger Chronik" · Songs of battle and vilification
A copy made in 1520 of the so-called “Klingenberger Chronik” (Klingenberg Chronicle) originally composed in 1450. It is the history of the Appenzell Wars (1401-1429) and of the Old Zurich War (1440-1446) from the point of view of the losing side: the eastern Swiss nobility. Illustrated with several color sketches of battle scenes and coats of arms. In addition this codex contains copies of legal documents, chronological notes, songs, and in the very front an incompletely preserved 1520 Strasbourg print edition by Sebastian Brant (1457/58-1521) of the biographies of Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian. This volume was obtained by the Abbey Library of St. Gall from Glarus humanities scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) in 1768. (smu)