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. 749
Parchment · 137 pp. · 39 x 24.5–25 (Teil I) cm; 42.5–43 x 29 (Teil II) cm · Italy and France (?) · second half of the 13th century – first half of the 15th century
Tres Libri Codicis cum glossis anteaccursianis et glossa ordinaria · Libri feudorum · Glossa ordinaria in libros feudorum
This four-part manuscript was written primarily in the second half of the 13th century or in the first half of the 14th century in Italy and perhaps partly in France. It preserves the Tres libri Codicis (Books 10–12 of the Codex Justinianus) including the glosses, the Libri feudorum, the corresponding Glossa ordinaria , as well as other lesser writings. Particularly valuable are the pre-Accursian glosses to the Tres libri Codicis, which have been preserved partly in their original form. The manuscript came to the Abbey Library at the latest in the 16th century via the St. Gall citizen Johannes Widembach († around 1456). (len)
Parchment · 500 pp. · 27.5-28 x 18-18.5 cm · most likely northern Italy · second half of the 9th century
A compendium of 39 medical texts
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. (smu)
Parchment · 326 pp. · 25 x 19 cm · St. Gall · around 900
Manuscript compilation: Pliny the Younger's chapter on medicine; Gargilius Matialis, the Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis by Gargilius Martialis; treatise Oxea et chronia passiones Yppocratis, Gallieni et Urani; etc.
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. (smu)
Collection of German medical texts. The beginning is missing, then the Ordnung der Gesundheit for Rudolf von Hohenberg (pp. 3-60); various recipes for medicine, magic and food (pp. 63-101), among them a treatise on vultures and verbena from the Bartholomäus (pp. 64-69); “Verworfene Tage” (pp. 69-71); a recipe for vinegar (pp. 73-76); an excerpt from the Buch der Natur by Conrad of Megenberg (pp. 82-85); recipes making use of “Schwalbenstein” (pp. 89-90); prognostics for the new year and for thunder (pp. 90-94); recipes for wine (pp. 95-101). Herbal book with excerpts from the Macer Floridus by Odo von Meung (pp. 101-146); medical recipes (pp. 146-147); applications for medicines according to the Macer Floridus (pp. 147-161); recipe against the ritten (p. 162). At the end on p. 164 there is a colored sketch of Agrimonia (Odermennig). The manuscript, originally from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 117), is related to the 2° Cod. 572 of the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg. (dor)
Paper · 188 pp. · 22.5 x 16 cm · Eastern Switzerland · second half of the 15th century
Collection of German medical texts
Collection of German medical texts. Recipes for medicines (pp. 1-148) with an index (pp. 149-157), more recipes added later (pp. 158-168), instructions for bloodletting (pp. 169-184), German and Latin incantations (pp. 185-186), excerpts from De pestilentia by Theobaldus Loneti (pp. 187-188). The manuscript is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 118). (dor)
Paper · 264 pp. · 21.5 x 15 cm · Southern Germany/Switzerland · first half of the 15th century
Composite manuscript on geomancy, chiromancy, iatromathematics, astronomy, alchemy and medicine
Composite manuscript in Latin and German. The texts, which are presented in no systematic order, can be grouped as follows. Geomancy: Latin treatise with schematic drawings (pp. 1-152, 163-169); other geomantic schemata (185, 236, 263 [incorrectly paginated as 262]). Medicine: recipes, in German (pp. 153-162 and 197-198); examination of the blood after bloodletting and instructions for bloodletting, in German (pp. 193-196, 255-261). Iatromathematics: lunarium, in Latin (pp. 169-172); planets and the attributes of their corresponding hours / of the persons born under their sign, in German, partly in rhymed verse (pp. 173-175, 178-179, 218, 240); tables for determining which planets govern which hours (p. 200, 240); signs of the zodiac, their characteristics and their influence on the people born under them, in Latin (pp. 180-185, 186 [hexameter]) and German (pp. 187-192), directions and tables for calculating the position of the moon in the zodiac (pp. 177-178, 213-214, [215b]-216 [for the years 1406-1480]); diagram of the zodiac (p. 262); drawing of the parts of the fingers correlated with signs of the zodiac, temperaments and elements (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]); monthly rules, in Latin (p. 215-[215a]). Astronomy: calendar (pp. 201-212); tables for calendar calculations (pp. 237, 241-242, 254); table of lunar eclipses for the years 1422-1462, with drawings of the respective degree of coverage (pp. 238-239 and 243). Prognostication: prognostics for thunder, in German (p.199); prognostics for the new year, in Latin (p. 217). Alchemy: recipes for alchemy, in Latin (pp. 219-220) and in German (pp. 221-228). Treatise on chiromancy, in German, commencing with a colored pen drawing of two hands with the lines of the hands (pp. 244-254). Other items: incantations, in German (p. 156) and in Latin (p.219); four hexameters about the quality of wine, in Latin (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]). The manuscript, written in various hands, is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 104). (dor/sno)
Parchment · 102 pp. · 21.5 × 14.5 cm · 14th and 15th century
Miscellany with medical texts, Lumen animae and exempla
This miscellany begins with a few short medical texts: pp. 5–6 Johannicius (Hunain ibn Ishāq), Isagoge ad Techne Galieni (a reworking of Galen’s Ars Parva, in the Latin translation of Constantinus Africanus), § 1–9; pp. 6–7 and 8 have a few verses from the Regimen sanitatis salernitanum, a didactic poem in hexameter on medicine; pp. 7–8 contains a short text on the proportions of combined medicatons, inc.Gradus est sedecupla proporcio; pp. 9–10 a text on bloodletting, with the title in red De flebotomia, inc. In flebotomia quedam generales condiciones sunt; pp. 10–11 a Latin-German glossary of plant names, with the rubric title Nomina herbarum, inc. Plantago Wegerich; pp. 11–12 a text on uroscopy, the beginning of which a later hand in the margin indicates with in the margin with the title De urinis, inc. Si urina alba fuerit. Pages 12–14 are written in a later hand and contain, contrary to Scherrer, not further medical material, but rather an exemplum or exempla from the Vitaspatrum (In vitas patrum legitur quod quidam interrogavit senem quare cogitaciones prave inpedirent oraciones [?]). After the medical part comes on pp. 15–89 a Latin version of the Lumen animae, a collection of natural history exempla for preaching. On the margins of the page appear small diagrams concerning the contents of the chapter as well as additions to the authorities named in the text. The Lumen animae is the only text in the manuscript to begin with a larger red initial and ends on p. 89 with the rubric colophon Finito libro sit laus et gloriae Christo. The next two pages (pp. 90–91) contain, among other things, calendar verses and a text on the planets. Pages 92–97 have a Latin version of the “Letter from Heaven” or the “Sunday Letter”, a letter supposedly that fell from heaven concerning the celebration of Sunday, inc. Incipit epistola dei de celo vere missa petro apostolo ab omnibus diebus dominicis qualiter sit colendus dies dominicus. A prayer follows on pp. 97–98, inc. O dilecte Iesu Christus, felix est qui te amat. The final pages (pp. 98–101) contain further exempla written in the same later hand as pp. 12–14, inc. Legitur quod quedam mulier […] venisset ad beatum Hillarionem pro sterilitate tollenda. The manuscript is bound in a grey cardboard binding from the eighteenth century; the earlier parchment binding with a spine label bearing the shelfmark 758 survives, but it has been cut apart and stapled to the first and last quires, respectively (p. 3 and between p. 24-25; p. 102 and between p. 88-89). (sno)
Parchment · 94 pp. · 21.5 x 16.5 cm · first half of the 9th century
Collection of medical texts
A collection of ten assorted medical tracts, written in the first half of the 9th century in an Insular, likely Celtic, script with continental influences. Among the prescriptions (on page 91) is a blessing with the cross to be used as “Schutzbrief gegen die Versuchungen des Teufels und gegen Fieber” (insurance against temptations by the Devil and against fever). The manuscript also contains, for example, extracts from the Conspectus ad Eustathium filium by Oribasius (4th century AD), a physician of late antiquity, the Epistula de febribus by the Greek physician Galen († 216 AD), and a Liber medicinalis by an unknown author. (smu)
Paper · 154 pp. · 21 × 15.5 cm · Southern Germany/Switzerland · around 1450
Iatromathematical housebook from the Southern German/Swiss region
This manuscript, illustrated with numerous colored pen drawings, originated in a secular environment in Southern Germany or in Switzerland around the middle of the 15th century. It describes the signs of the zodiac, the planets, the four temperaments, and the four seasons regarding their influence on human health. This is followed by dietary guidelines primarily regarding bloodletting, but also regarding eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, resting and moving, as well as, in concrete terms, regarding bathing (illustration p. 101) or defecating (illustration p. 120). Most likely an amateur doctor with an interest in astronomy, from the Southern region of Germany, wrote the original text around 1400 and assembled it into a compendium. Later the text was repeatedly supplemented and modified. The last part (from p. 128 on) contains a prose and a poem version of the so-called letter from Pseudo-Aristotle to Alexander the Great, in which the Greek universal scholar advises the king on maintaining good health. (smu)
A collection of medical texts in a small-sized manuscript with selections from works by the ancient Greek physicians and authors Hippocrates (about 460-370 BC), Galen (about 129-about 216) and Oribasius (about 320-400), written in Insular (?) minuscule script in about 800, not at the abbey of St. Gall. (smu)
Parchment · 278 pp. · 19.5 x 12.5-13 cm · Italy (?) · around 800
Manuscript compilation; Anthimus, De observatione ciborum
A small-format compendium of ten different medical texts, produced shortly after 800 in an unknown scriptorium, probably in Italy. The contents also include a treatise by the Greek physician Anthimus in the form of a letter to the king of the Franks Theoderich "On the diet" (De observatione ciborum), through which we gain insight to the nutritional habits of one Germanic people. (smu)
This manuscript is predominantly written in one hand, but with different layouts (lines per page). It chiefly contains excerpts that an anonymous Cistercian gathered together from theological and philosophical works, as stated by the rubric on p. 7 (Incipit libellus exceptionum collectarum de diversis operibus cuiusdam fratris ordinis Cysterciensis). The text begins on page 7 with Omnes naturaliter scire protestante philosopho. The rubrics in the margin and in the text indicate themes such as intercession (De suffragiis ecclesie, p. 19), christology (De nativitate domini, p. 25; De plenitudine gratie Christi, p. 27; De voluntate Christi, p. 31; De passione Christi, p. 33), purgatory (De acerbitate purgatorii, p. 88), memory and reason (De memoria, p. 124; De dignitatibus rationalis creature, p. 135), and virginity (De virginitate, p. 372). The chapters come at least in part from Ps.-Albertus Magnus, Compendium theologicae veritatis. The first pages (pp. 1–6) contain a text on free will, clearly connected to Peter Lombard’s Sententiae, Book 2, inc. Liberum arbitrium est facultas rationis et voluntatis, qua bonum eligitur gratia assistente vel malum eadem desistente. The library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from 1553–1564, appears on p. 422. The binding is made of a dark leather cover, over which a lighter leather sleeve with overhanging edges has been placed to protect the bookblock. (sno)
Ps.-Albertus Magnus, Compendium theologicae veritatis; Johannes de Friburgo, Confessionale
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. (sno)
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. (mat)
Parchment · 112 (113) pp. · 22–22.5 x 17.5–18.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 10th / 11th century
Planctus beati Galli; commentary on Boethius, Opuscula sacra; Boethius, Opuscula sacra; Ps.-Beda, De septem miraculis mundi
This codex contains the Opuscula sacra by Boethius on pp. 59–111, that is I. De trinitate (pp. 59–70), II. De divinitate (Utrum pater et filius et spiritus sanctus; pp. 70–72), III. De hebdomadibus (Quomodo substantiae; pp. 72–77), IV. De fide catholica (pp. 77–84), V. Contra Eutychen et Nestorium (pp. 84–111), partly with glosses. Possibly parts were added in the 11th/12th century. Before that, on pp. 7–58, is a commentary on the Opuscula sacra I–III and V, attributed to John Scotus Eriugena or Remigius of Auxerre. On pp. 4–6, probably written by a 13th century hand, is the Planctus beati Galli, Inc. Quis dabit cineres, a lament about the theft of the treasure of St. Gall Abbey by the bishop of Constance. On p. 112, there is the De septem miraculis mundi by Pseudo-Bede. The mostly undecorated manuscript has an ichthyomorphic initial on p. 26 and an I-initial corresponding to 8 lines on p. 59. (sno)
Parchment · I + 236 + I pp. · 20/19 x 13 cm · 14th and 12th century
Books of Sentences; Treatise on Baptism
The volume brings together two codicological units copied independently from each other in different periods. The first part (pp. 1-158) includes the first three books of the Sentences by Magister Bandinus (pp. 1-154), the author of an abridged version of the eponymous work by Peter Lombard (Libri quatuor sententiarum). Here taking the place of the fourth book is a short treatise on women, De muliere forti (pp. 154-158). Several fourteenth-century hands produced this copy. The second part (pp. 159-234) of this codex contains a treatise on baptism, dating from the twelfth century (pp. 160-234). On the basis of the stamp of the Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 158), the first part was present in the library of St. Gall since at least the middle of the sixteenth century. This two-part manuscript received its current cardboard binding probably towards the end of the eighteenth century or at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Ildefons von Arx wrote the table of contents (p. V1). (rou)
This volume contains Alain of Lille’s Regulae de sacra theologia. The two-column text is written in a precise textualis, which, doubled in height, is used as an emphasis script for the rules. Only the incipit (p. 3a), the first initials, and the explicit (p. 81b) are in rubric. The cowhide cover was decorated, probably in Paris as early as 1200, with ten different round and rectangular blind stamps. They depict birds, geometric patterns, lions, interlace, and a kneeing man with a crown and a pot (EBDB m002201). The spine was later covered with light pigskin. On the verso of the flyleaf (p. 2) is written, probably in a fourteenth-century hand, Liber sancti Galli; on the back pastedown, in a fifteenth-century hand, Liber monasterii sancti Galli 1451. On p. 82 is the 1553-1564 library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer of St. Gall. (kun)
Paper · 246 pp. · 21 x 14.5 cm · fourth quarter of the 14th century – first quarter of the 15th century.
De reparatione hominis Marquardi de Lindavia; Expositio decem praeceptorum Henrici de Frimaria
This theological miscellany is composed of four parts (I: pp. 3–122; II: pp. 123–215; III: pp. 216–231; IV: pp. 232–243) and is written by multiple hands in a gothic book cursive. Only the first initial has been executed. The first four gatherings, written in a single column, contain Marquard von Lindau’s treatise De reparatione hominis (pp. 3–122). On the last page of this part (p. 122) appears the 1553–1564 library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer of St. Gall. On the next four gatherings is Henry of Friemar’s commentary Expositio decem praeceptorum, written in two columns (pp. 123a–213b). The next quire contains the 1398 report Determinatio magistrorum sacrae theologiae sanctae universitatis studii Pragensis concerning the theses of the Ulm master Johannes Münzinger (p. 216-230). The last gathering contains a text that begins Vas electionis est non plus sapere quam opportet… (pp. 232–238). Except for the last gathering, all parts have marginalia or manicules (p. 134), which have been trimmed. On the back of the endpaper (p. 245) is written and drawn with pen: the ownership mark, Liber monasterii sancti Galli, a face and the purchase statement, Anno domini MCCCCX [the X is crossed out?] XXII [1422 or 1432] […] emi Henricus Lútenrieter hunc librum a domino Nycolao … Hallensium. The cover is wrapped in parchment reused from a will, the inside of which is lined with linen cloth in a coarse plain weave, and has now partially detached in front. The will, written in early New High German, the front half can be read: Ich phaff Berhtolt der horiden [?] von Ehingen […] und der darnach in dem acht und súbentzigesten iar […]. The gatherings are directly chain-stitched to the thick leather spine lining. On the front of the wrapper is written in a contemporary hand a table of contents. The St. Gallen librarian Jodokus Metzler produced another table of contents, which he glued to the front flyleaf (p. 1). The pagination (pp. 1–245) has an error: there are two p. 143s. (kun)
Paper · 266 pp. · 22 x 15.5 cm · 14th century (8/28/1374)
Collection of scholastic texts, including the 14th century library catalog of the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz
This manuscript of predominantly scholastic texts from the area of the University of Paris is bound in a well-preserved original Kopert (limp vellum) binding. Among others it contains an alphabetical register of the Sentences of Peter Lombard; the 14th century library catalog of the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Lower Austria, preserved only in this manuscript (pp. 107-112); the work Quaestiones parvorum librorum naturalium by the French philosopher and logician Jean Buridan (Johannes Buridanus; † shortly after 1358), completed in August 1374 and correspondent to Aristotle’s writings (Parva naturalia) (pp. 121-253); as well as the text Collectio errorum in Anglia et Parisiis condemnatorum (pp. 254-264). (smu)
Paper · 206 pp. · 21 x 15 cm · 1381 and 15th century
Collection of homiletic and theological texts
This paper manuscript contains first of all a series of draft sermons dated by the colophon to 1381 (p. 80). There then follows, in the same hand as before, a partial copy of Defensor of Ligugé’s Liber scintillarum (pp. 80-96), miracles (pp. 96-108) and an index (pp. 108-110). A different hand copied book IV of Augustine’s De doctrina christiana and makes numerous marginal annotations (pp. 113-162). Next comes, probably in the hand of the wandering monk Gall Kemli († 1481), Aileranus Sapiens’ interpretation of the ancestors of Christ (pp. 163-168), as well as excerpts from theological texts, including the Mammotrectus by the Franciscan Johannes Marchesinus. (rou)