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. 857
Parchment · 693 pp. · 31.5 x 21.5 cm · perhaps South Tyrol/Salzburg · third quarter of the 13th century, probably around 1260
The St. Gall Nibelung manuscript B with the Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs) and “Klage” (lament), “Parzival” and “Willehalm” by Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Stricker’s “Karl der Grosse” (Charlemagne)
This manuscript (also called the “St. Galler Epenhandschrift”) is written in two columns in a very uniform manner by three anonymous primary scribes and four secondary scribes; it offers a fine version of a unique collection of Middle High German heroic and knightly poetry. It contains “Parzival” (pp. 5−288; version D) by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Song of the Nibelungs (pp. 291−416; version B) with the following lament (pp. 416−451; version B), the poem “Karl der Grosse” (pp. 452−558; version C) by der Stricker, the verse narrative “Willehalm” (pp. 561−691; version G) by Wolfram von Eschenbach, as well as five sung gnomic verses by Friedrich von Sonnenburg (p. 693; version G). Until 1768, when the manuscript was purchased by the Monastery of St. Gall, this volume certainly also contained fragments of the epic poems “Die Kindheit Jesu” by Konrad von Fussesbrunnen and Unser vrouwen hinvart by Konrad von Heimesfurt. These two works were removed from the manuscript of epic poems before 1820 and are now held in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (mgf 1021) and the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe (Cod. K 2037), respectively. The manuscript, illustrated with 78 uniformly executed initials by unknown artists from the miniature painting school of Padua, was commissioned by a wealthy client who was interested in Middle High German epic poems. The first owner known by name was the Swiss polymath and universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505−1572) from Glarus, whose estate of manuscripts the Monastery of St. Gall was able to acquire in 1768. (smu)
Paper · 862 (859) pp. · 30.5 x 21-22 cm · Lindau · 1499
Works by various authors, predominantly from antiquity, with commentaries
This manuscript, written in 1499 under the schoolmaster Cunradus Reuschman of Lindau (note on p. 488), contains predominantly works by ancient writers, as well as several works by 15th century Italian authors. All texts have commentaries, and the more important works are generally preceded by an argumentum. Often there are several pages left blank between the texts. In the margins, there are several simple pen sketches (pp. 498–501, 504, 511, 513; on p. 706 and 712 sketches of maps of the world). P. 3 contains a full-page pen sketch of the city of Troy. The individual texts are: Publius Baebius Italicus, Ilias latina (pp. 5–51); Virgil, Georgica (pp. 57–146); Horace, Epistolae (pp. 148–230); Horace, Carmen saeculare (pp. 231–234); Lactantius, De ave Phoenice (pp. 234–241); Persius, Satires (pp. 245–282); Margarita passionis, inc. Cum prope pasca foret (pp. 283–288); Seneca, De providentia (pp. 289–298); Augustinus Datus, Elegantiolae (pp. 323–361); Carmen de dolo et astutia cuiusdam mulieris, inc. Summe procus caveat ducatur ne mala coniunx (pp. 362–365); hymns (pp. 366–388); Parvulus philosophiae moralis (pp. 395–417); Dominicus Mancinus, De quattuor virtutibus (pp. 419–488); Hieronimus de Vallibus, Jesuida (pp. 491–514); Matthaeus Bossus, Oratio in beata coena domini (pp. 515–524); Ps.-Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Comoedia Poliscena (pp. 539–549); Terence, Andria (pp. 563–621); Virgil, Bucolica (pp. 629–660); Horace, Ars poetica (pp. 661–678); Horace, Epodes (pp. 679–692); Ps.-Virgil, Moretum (pp. 692–694); Ps.-Ovid, Remedia amoris, inc. Qui fuerit cupiens ab amica solvere colla (pp. 694–695); Ps.-Ovid, De arte amandi, inc. Si quem forte iuvat subdi sapienter amori (pp. 695–698); a treatise on punctuation, De kanone punctorum (pp. 699); Virgil, Aeneis, lib. 1 and 3 (pp. 701–726 and 741–760); Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae (pp. 765–802); Sallust, De bello Iugurthino, incomplete (pp. 803–804); Seneca, Epistolae morales (pp. 812–853). (sno)
Parchment · 374 pp. · 23.7-23.9 x 16.9-17.1 cm · St. Gall · around 900
A commentary by Servius on Virgil, Aeneid (VI-VIII)
Part I of the commentary of the late Roman grammarian Servius (ca. 400) on Virgil's Aeneid (Books 6 through 8 [v. 685]), produced at the Abbey of St. Gall in about 900. Part II of this widely disseminated commentary is found in Cod. Sang. 862. (smu)
Parchment · 369 pp. · 23.7 x 17.2 cm · St. Gall · second half of the 9th century
A commentary by Servius on Virgil, Aeneid (VIII, 686-XII)
Part 2 of the commentary by the late Roman grammarian Servius (ca. 400) on the works of Virgil, including books 9 through 12 as well as a biography of Publius Vergilius Maro, produced in about 900 in the Abbey of St. Gall. Part 1 of this widely disseminated commentary on Virgil is found in Cod. Sang. 861. (smu)
Parchment · 270 pp. · 22.5 x 16.3 cm · Reichenau (possibly) · second quarter of the 11th century
Pharsalia libri decem
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan, 39-65 AD), "De bello civili" (also known as the "Pharsalia"). Epic poem on the civil war between Pompey and Caesar (48 - 45 BC). (smu)
Parchment · 406 pp. · 21-22.5 x 13-14.5 cm · 11th, 12th centuries
Composite manuscript containing works of Horace, Lucan, Sallust, and Ovid
This codex consists of four independently produced parts, probably not written in St. Gall: 1. Horace, Odae (incomplete at the end, with some glosses); 2. Lucan, Pharsalia (incomplete at the end, heavily glossed; 3. Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae (complete) and De bello Iugurthino (with some chapters missing); 4. Ovid, Amores (incomplete at the end, heavily glossed) and a page from the Metamorphoseon. (sno)
Parchment · 204 pp. · 19.5–20.5 x 10.5–12 cm · 12th century
Publius Papinius Statius, Thebais
This codex contains the best-known work by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius, his epic poem about the war of the Seven Against Thebes (Thebais), along with metrical argumenta on lib. II–IV. Two quires containing lib. IV, V. 578 – lib. VII, V. 30 (between pp. 75 and 76) are missing, as well as a bifolium with lib. IX, 671–751 and lib. X, 5–84 (between pp. 128 and 129 as well as 132 and 133). The beginnings of the books and of the metrical argumenta (p. 3, 21, 40, 58/59, 92, 112, 132, 173) are accentuated with initials, partly in two colors (red/green). There are numerous marginal and interlinear glosses, mainly from the 12th and 13th century. On pp. 196–197, probably in the same hand, is the Planctus Oedipodis, Inc. Diri patris infausta pignora (Oedipus’ lament about the death of his sons). The poem comprises 21 rhyming stanzas of four lines each, the first of which has neumes on a staff of four lines. This form of notation argues against the manuscript’s originating in St. Gall. (sno)
Parchment · 112 pp. · 27.5 × 19 cm · Monastery of St. Gall (?) · first half of the 12th century
Copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
A much-used school manuscript containing the 15 books of the Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso with many interlinear and marginal glosses in Latin. The parchment shows signs of heavy use as well as dirt, and it is sewn in various places. Before the first pagination of the manuscript by the assistant librarian Ildefons von Arx around 1780, the text from Book 8, V. 564, to Book 10, V. 429, was missing, as noted on p. 62. At the end of the manuscript, there are pen trials, some of them of historical content, such as the mention of an earthquake on September 4, 1298 on p. 112 or the mention of a scribe by the name of Johannes (Qui me scribebat Iohannes nomen habebat). (smu)
Parchment · II + 90 + II pp. · 18.5 x 13.5/14 cm · 13th century
Ovid, Epistolae ex Ponto
Ovid’s Pontics constitute the only text of this gothic-minuscule manuscript copied by a single thirteenth-century hand. Divided into four books in modern editions, the 46 letters, poetic elegies related to the poet’s exile in Tomis, here follow without interruption. Simple initials painted in red distinguish the letters from each other until p. 66; afterwards, there are only the blank spaces for the initials that were not produced. In addition to maniculae in the margins, there are numerous interlinear and marginal glosses, which more or less date to the same period as the text’s script. (rou)
Parchment · 205 (206) pp. · 14.5 x 10.5 cm; 9.5 x 7.5 cm; 14.5 x 12 cm · St. Gall · 12th century
Commentary on Horace
An anonymous commentary, written in tiny script (up to 110 lines on pages only 14.5 cm in height) on the odes, epodes, Ars poetica, letters, and sermons of Horace. It is preceded by lives of Horace by Pseudo-Acro and Suetonius as well as, on the very first pages, documents (including one from 1252). The pages at the end contain a commentary on the Satires of Persius, of which the first part is in poor condition. (sno)
Parchment · 260 pp. · 16.5 x 13 cm · St. Gall · second half of the 9th century
Poetry manuscript containing the works of the Reichenau scholar and Abbot Walahfrid Strabo
A highly important poetry manuscript containing the works of the Reichenau scholar and Abbot Walahfrid Strabo (809/10-849). In addition to a wealth of short poems of both a spiritual and a worldly nature, the volume also includes verse legends about both the Cappadocian martyr Mammes (De vita et fine Mammae monachi) and the Irish Abbot Blathmac (Versus Strabi de beati Blaithmaic vita et fine), the Dream-vision of Reichenau monk Wetti (Visio Wettini) and the poem De imagine Tetrici, a discussion of the now lost statue of Theoderich the Great on horseback, which Charlemagne had moved from Ravenna to his palace in Aachen. The manuscript was produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the second half of the 9th century. (smu)
Parchment · 326 pp. · 17.5 x 13.5 cm · St. Gall · second half of the 9th century
Commentary notes about the 16 Satires of Juvenal
Commentary notes (most of them explanations written for use in teaching) about the 16 Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal (about 60-140), preceded by 460 verses in hexameter (most of them from the Satires) and a mixed glossary from the Satires of Juvenal. The St. Gall copy was made in the second half of the 9th century. (smu)
Parchment · 170 pp. · 23 x 19 cm · Cloister of St. Gall · 11th century
Juvenal, Satires with gloss
This manuscript contains all 16 satires by the ancient poet Juvenal, in the order 1-14, 16, and 15. Satires 1-3 and 10-14 are glossed (among them 7 Old High German glosses); for satires 3 and 14 only the beginning is glossed, for satire 10 only the end, which is probably due to the fact that these glosses were added to the respective quires before the manuscript was bound. (sno)
Parchment · II + 412 pp. · 24 x 17 cm · St. Gall · 11th century / 13th century
De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii / Two commentaries on Gospels
Notker the German, Old High German translation and commentary on De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella; two commentaries on the gospels from the 12th and 13th century; a translation from Latin into Old High German plus commentary on the first two books of Martianus Capella's († 439) work The Marriage of Philology and Mercury by the St. Gall monk Notker the German written in the 11th century. The two commentaries on the gospels date from the 12th and 13th centuries. The Martianus Capella part is a palimpsest, for the most part written over an older, barely legible text of the Institutiones Grammaticae of Priscianus of Caesarea. (smu)
Parchment · 88 pp. · 22 × 16 cm · second half of the 13th century or first half of the 14th century
Galfredus de Vino Salvo: Poetria nova
This parchment manuscript transmits on pp. 3–87 Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Poetry nova, a guide, written in over 2,000 hexameters, to composing poems. The hexameters are arranged in 25 verse-lines in the center of the page, and accompanied by contemporarily-produced commnetaries and glosses. The script, a simplified textualis, dates from the second half of the thirteenth or the first half of the fourteenth century (contrary to Scherrrer). The stamp of Abbot Diethlm Blarer (1553–1564) appears on p. 9 and p. 88; p. 1 bears the former shelfmark S. n. 312, as well as a note on content by Pius Kolb; p. 2 has a note by Franz Josef Mone from 1819. The half-leather volume reveals a romanesque board-binding. (len)
Parchment · 525 pp. · 22.5-23.5 x 15 cm · St. Gall · about 800
Manuscript compilation consisting mainly of grammatical texts
Manuscript compilation consisting mainly of grammatical texts, written in a variety of hands in about 800 in the monastery of St. Gall. Some of the texts in this codex are the oldest extant versions, and the text of the anonymous treatise De scansione heroyci versus et specie eorum is the only known surviving version in the world. Grammars include the Ars major and Ars minor by Donatus, a complilation of the two Donatus grammars by Peter of Pisa, the work De metris des Mallius Theodorus, the Ars grammatica by Diomedes, and both De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis by the Venerable Bede. (smu)
Parchment · 304 pp. · 21.5 x 13.5 cm · Reichenau · between about 825 and 849
Vademecum of Walahfrid Strabo
The Vademecum (personal handbook) of Walahfrid Strabo (ca. 808-849), Abbot of Reichenau. It is one of the few known autographs of a prominent figure to survive from the early Middle Ages. It contains diverse texts and images by numerous hands, written between ca. 825 and 849, among them a labyrinth (on page 277) and different alphabets (pages 320/321), one in runes. (smu)
Parchment · 44 ff. · 19.5 x 13.5-14 cm · France (?) · around 900
Excerpts of Isidore of Sevilla; Etymologiae; Isidore of Sevilla, De officiis
Excerpts from the works of Isidore of Seville, from the Etymologiae and the work De officiis, written in about 900, not at the Abbey of St. Gall, possibly in France. At the end is a scribe's verse in which the scribe calls himself Aurelianus. (smu)
Parchment · 224 pp. · 23.5 × 17.5 cm · Paris (?) · first half of the 14th century
Priscianus Caesariensis: Institutiones grammaticae, libri 17–18
This parchment manuscript contains on pp. 1–188 books 17 and 18 of Priscian’s Institutiones grammaticae (ed. Keil, v. 3, pp. 107–278, l. 12). Then follows the third book of Donatus’ Ars maior on pp. 189–204 (ed. Keil, v. 4, pp. 392–402), and the Pseudo-Priscian treatise De accentibus on pp. 205–223 (ed. Keil, v. 3, pp. 518–528). The entire grammatical manuscript is written in the same fourteenth-century textualis. The beginning each of the four texts, on p. 1, 115, 189, and 205, is marked by a 10-18-line painted initial with gold, blue, white, red, dark-red or green; the first initial is historiated, depicted a teaching scene, and the third initial is heavily damaged. For the rest, there are simple red and blue pen-flourished initials throughout. The Institutiones grammaticae are accompanied by numerous glosses and commentaries written in ink by several fourteenth-century hands. On p. 189 the glosses are less numerous and have been made with dry point. On p. 118 and 224 can be found the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1553–1564), on p. 1 appears the former shelfmark D.n. 241 along with a note on content by Pius Kolb. Before p. 1, a fragment in paper contains the remains of two long entries. The wooden-board binding has a half-leather cover. (len)