St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek
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.
This manuscript, dated in two places to the years 1465 (p. 393) and 1467 (p. 181) and perhaps written by eight different hands, belonged to the Benedictine Convent of St. George near St. Gall and became part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall as part of an exchange around 1780/82. The codex, written entirely in German, contains the explanation of the Decalogue by Marquard of Lindau (pp. 3−176); the song Ain raine maid verborgen lag from Spiegelweise by Heinrich Frauenlob (pp. 177−181); instructions regarding attention during prayer, attributed to Thomas Aquinas (pp. 182−186); the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit by Henry Suso (pp. 195−393); reflections on consecration (pp. 394−399) and on the Sunday (pp. 399−402); as well an anonymous treatise on death (pp. 405−422). Several parchment fragments from an 11th/12th century St. Gall liturgical manuscript containing neumes were used in order to reinforce this manuscript.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript in Northeastern Swiss-Alemannic dialect was probably written for the community of the sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall; it contains numerous shorter and longer texts by known and unknown authors, among them: pp. 1−106: Thomas à Kempis, 3rd book of the Imitatio Christi; pp. 106−123: Bonaventure, excerpts from the work De triplici via; pp. 124−126: preacher of St. Georgen, sermon Geistliche Blume; pp. 126−134: Meister Eckhart (attributed), treatise Von der Vollkommenheit; pp. 135−166: Johannes Tauler, sermon on Mt 13,8 and other sermon excerpts; pp. 167−181: two anonymous sermons Vom Leiden und Meiden; pp. 184−259: treatise from the “Schwester Katrei"; pp. 259−268 anonymous didactic dialog with Timothy’s questions to Paul; pp. 271−372: Johannes of Neumarkt, excerpts from the 3rd so-called Jerome letter; pp. 377−407: Marquard of Lindau, Job-treatise; pp. 409−434 and pp. 472−481 (wrongly bound together by a bookbinder): Das Buch des Lebens by an anonymous author; pp. 435−442: excerpts from Meister Wichwolt (Cronica Alexandri des grossen Königs); pp. 446−448: Ps.-Bertold of Regensburg, Bertold’s ten lessons for a spiritual sister. About half of the texts were written by the Reformist monk Friedrich Kölner from Hersfeld, who was active at St. Gall Abbey from 1430 until 1436; the other parts were written in the 15th century by three other hands.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
A compilation of religious and ascetic content from the 15th century containing dicta, exhortations and sermons from saints and doctors of the church, treatises on the Sacrament, the Lord's Prayer etc. (by Meister Eckhart, David von Augsburg, Berthold von Regensburg and the Engelberg homilist, among others), the so-called St. Gall Christmas Play (St. Galler Weihnachtsspiel, also known as St. Galler Spiel von der Kindheit Jesu) as well as a commentary on the book of Daniel by Nicolaus of Lyra.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This composite manuscript was written for the quasi-monastic community of women of St. Georgen above St. Gall (see ownership note on p. 3); it contains numerous shorter and longer texts by Marquard von Lindau and other authors known by name as well as anonymous authors, among them: pp. 5-13: Marquard von Lindau, Deutsche Predigt; pp. 25-46 and 51-69: Marquard von Lindau, Von der Geduld; pp. 76-102: anonymous catechetical treatise Von einem christlichen Leben; pp. 149-260: Rulman Merswin, Neunfelsenbuch; pp. 261-262: Volmar, sermon; pp. 262-263: Stimulus amoris, German (excerpt); pp. 268-379: Marquard von Lindau, Auszug der Kinder Israel; pp. 381-404: Marquard von Lindau, De fide, German; pp. 405-447: Heinrich von St. Gallen, sermon cycle on the Acht Seligkeiten. About one third of the pages were written by the reform monk Friedrich Kölner (or Colner) from Hersfeld Abbey in Hesse, who was active at St. Gall Abbey from 1430 to 1436. He was the confessor for the sisters of St. Georgen. The remaining parts were written by several other hands in the 15th century.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This undecorated manuscript in Swabian–Alemannic was written by two hands and contains numerous German-language ascetic-mystical texts, among them the treatise De contemptu mundi (pp. 3−6), various sermons (pp. 7-33), salutations to Mary, prayers, exempla and sentences by church teachers (pp. 33-46), the legend of St. George (pp. 69-105), the first eight fables from the collection Edelstein by Ulrich Boner (pp. 116-129), the treatise Die besessene Schwester Agnes (pp. 131-215), and a mention of the ten commandments, each accompanied by a humorous rhyme (p. 108). The manuscript probably originated in the convent of the female Capuchins of the third order in Wonnenstein near Teufen; it became part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall in 1782 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1285, p. 12).
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript, written around 1500 by the Sisters of the third order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall, contains as an introduction a register (pp. 1−9) of manuscripts and printed works held in the convent library, compiled around 1500; it has a total of 110 entries. The majority consist of ascetic-edifying treatises; among them are Brother Conrad Nater’s German translations of Bonaventure’s Regula novitiorum (pp. 15−107), the German version of David of Augsburg’s De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione (pp. 109−188), the Ermahnung zu einem wahren klösterlichen Leben by the Franciscan monk Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg (pp. 190−223), the treatise Die besessene Nonne Agnes (pp. 225−404), a treatise on the passion attributed to Bernardino of Siena (Lernung das lyden unsers lieben heren zu betrachten; pp. 406−475), revelations by the mystics Gertrude of Helfta and Christine Ebner (pp. 476−486), Bonaventure’s Soliloquium in a shortened German version (pp. 496−713), as well as the treatise Vom Reuer, Wirker und Schauer by the so-called Kuttenmann (pp. 717−727). On 11 February 1782, the St. Gall Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756−1823) acquired this manuscript, together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 976, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the community of Capuchin nuns at Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written in 1499 (cf. dates p. 174 and 519) by a Sister of the Third Order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall. It contains a copy of the Schürebrand, a 14th century spiritual treatise from the circle of the Friends of God of Strasbourg (pp. 2-174); the first and third parts of the treatise Von dreierlei Abgründen (pp. 176-313), attributed to St. Bonaventure; and the Passion treatise Extendit manum by Heinrich von St. Gallen (pp. 315-519). The scribe asks for an Ave Maria on p. 519. In 1782, St. Gall Abbey librarian P. Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756-1823) acquired the manuscript together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 973, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the Community of Capuchin nuns of Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This extensive prayer book, probably completed over time by a single hand, contains a treatise on the canonical hours (pp. 34–224) as well as a Marian office (the German version of the Officium parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis, pp. 225–343). These are accompanied by sermons and shorter treatises: at the beginning, texts on the sufferings of Christ, structured according to the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (pp. 1–33, the first page is missing); at the end of the manuscript appear the short treatise Von der seligen Dorfmagd (pp. 344–346), a fragmentary treatise on the twelve virtues of the sacraments (pp. 347–352), a sermon by Johannes Nider (pp. 352–362), another sermon (In unser Capel die erst bredig von gehorsami, p. 363–384), as well as shorter texts and textual fragments (pp. 385–396). A late-medieval entry (p. 390) gives a name (das buch hadt hanns petris auch ze len). Fifteenth-century red-leather binding, detached bosses, and missing clasps; the hand-marbled pastedowns attest to a modern restoration.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Coming from the women’s convent near the church of Sankt Leonhard in Saint Gall (p. 4), this paper manuscript transmits two works by Richard of Saint Victor (ca. 1110-1173), considered as forerunners of fourteenth-century “speculative mysticism”. The first text, Benjamin maior (pp. 4a-97a), is also known under the name of De contemplatione [eiusque commendatione], as it appears on the label glued to the spine of the codex. Each of the five books starts with a painted initial that is larger than those introducing the paragraphs and extends into the margins. Then follows the same author’s Benjamin minor (pp. 97a-144a). The volume was copied by a single scribe who, while not leaving a name, copied a colophon common to many manuscripts: Explicit iste liber sit scriptor crimine liber. The last two columns of this volume (pp. 144b-145a) were copied by a different hand, which transcribes two chapters from the De spiritu et anima (inc.: Nobilis creatura est anima…, PL 40, col. 807-809), a text that was for a long time attributed to Augustine, but in fact dates to the twelfth century. The gothic binding dates from the 14th or 15th century. The wooden boards were covered with reused pieces of leather.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
At the time this work, Die 24 Alten, which was completed in 1386, was written, the Franciscan Otto von Passau was a member of the Minorite convent in Basel. This piece, a form of guide to the Christian life, was widely used in women's convents for reading aloud during meals. This manuscript was written by a swester Endlin, probably at the Franciscan nuns' convent of St. Leonhard in St. Gall.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript from 1467, which first belonged to the convent of the Poor Clares at Freiburg in Breisgau and was transported to the Abbey of St. Gall in 1699, contains, in addition to some Latin texts, many tracts for spiritual instruction in German translation. These include an Ars moriendi, the Cordiale de quattuor novissimis by Gerard van Vliederhoven, the so-called Hieronymus-Briefe(Letters of Jerome) translated by John of Neumark (ca. 1315-1356), the Spiegelbuch, a dialogical text in rhymed verses on living life properly, the trials of worldly life and everyday tribulations, with about twenty colored pen sketches, and a version of the legend of the Three Kings by John of Hildesheim (1310/1320-1375). The manuscript also contains some additional pen sketches: a unicorn (p. 87), images representing two Apostles (p. 107; Paul and John?), a man and a woman in secular dress, and a stag and a wild boar (p. 513). There are imprints in Carolingian minuscule on front and rear inside covers (rear inside cover: Hrabanus Maurus, De computo).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript contains three substantial treatises in German. At the beginning there is the life of Archbishop Johannes of Alexandria (pp. 5−83), written by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. It is followed by the edifying treatise Die vierundzwanzig Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele by Otto of Passau (pp. 87−544) and the History of the Three Kings (Historia trium regum) by John of Hildesheim (pp. 546−602). The treatise by Otto of Passau is illustrated with 25 colored pen and ink drawings, outlined in red and extending the width of the column. The History of the Three Kings begins with a full-page miniature (p. 546), which shows the three Magi visiting the infant Jesus. The scribe and the illustrators of this manuscript, which possibly originated in the circle of the community of lay brothers of St. Gall, are unknown; stylistic characteristics suggest the Konstanz book illumination of Rudolf Stahel. The manuscript is dated to the year 1454 in three places (p. 93 as an inscription in a picture; p. 544; p. 602). In the 15th century the manuscript was the property of the community of lay brothers of the Monastery of St. Gall (who did not know Latin); in 1618 the manuscript was still in the library of the community of lay brothers. At least since 1755 it has been attested in the main library of St. Gall Abbey.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written in the years 1521 and 1522 by the copyists Regina Sattler, Dorothea von Hertenstein and Elisabeth Schaigenwiler in the Dominican Cloister St. Katharina in St. Gall; it is the only manuscript to transmit the spiritual works of the Dominican Monk Wendelin Fabri (around 1465 - after 1533), who was born in Pforzheim. Between 1510 and1518, while Spiritual (chaplain and confessor) at the Dominican Cloister Zoffingen in Constance, for reading aloud during meals at the cloister, he created spiritual treatises about the Eucharist, about the five loaves of barley bread of the religious and about the fruits of the Holy Mass, the collations of the seven O-Antiphons, as well as the treatises Villicatorius and Prudentia simplex religiosorum. The manuscript came to the monastery library of St. Gall between 1780 and 1782; at the end of the 16th century, it had still been at the Dominican Cloister St. Katharina in Wil.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This folio-size manuscript contains a single text, the Gemahelschaft Christi mit der gläubigen Seele (redaction: Es spricht ain haidischer maister es sy besser und nützer), an extensive and still-unedited book of monastic edification. The anonymous author may have been an Augustinian Hermit; his readership largely consisted in female religious communities. Indeed, the present manuscript comes from such a community; based on a comparison of scripts, it was copied and dated by Angela Varnbühler, the chronicler and long-time prioress of the convent of St. Catherine in St. Gall (colophon on p. 842/843). In the run-up to the Reformation, the librarian Regula Keller sent this manuscript and another (today lost) to the women’s community in Appenzell, as reported by the letter accompanying the shipment that is pasted on p. 2. From there, the codex went to Wonnenstein Cloister, and in 1782 to the Abbey Library (ownership entry by P. Pius Kolb on p. 4). Two entries from 1584 attest that a certain Hans Bart had das Buoch gelernet (p. 1 and p. 845). The manuscript is laid out in two columns and rubricated throughout. A bookmark and a single leaf from a post-incunable breviary printed in the workshop of Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg are inserted. Between pp. 839 and 840 many leaves have been removed (loss of text). Unadorned leather binding, contemporary with the text, with two clasps (one lost). On the wooden boards the offsets of two German-language charters are visible.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The main copyist of this paper manuscript has covered almost the entirety of the pages with his tiny, compact script, full of abbreviations, only leaving a thin blank margin (more than 50 lines per page). The gatherings sometimes vary in size for the same text. The first of these texts consists in the Sermones de tempore by the Paris Master John of Abbeville (pp. 3-182). It is followed by the commentary on the decalogue by the Augustinian Hermit Henry of Friemar the Elder, De decem praeceptis (pp. 183-233). A series of anonymous sermons, for example on Saint Bernard (p. 239), the Assumption (p. 253), or on the decapitation of John the Baptist (p. 288), fill the remainder of the codex. An excerpt from the Elementarium logicae (inc.: [F]inis logici principalis est scire discernere…) by William of Ockham is inserted between these sermons (pp. 291-293). The manuscript belonged to the Abbey Library of Saint Gall at the latest by the time of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, as indicated by his stamp, which dates to between 1553 and 1564 (p. 300).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This manuscript contains the work Die 24 Alten oder der goldene Thron der minnenden Seele (completed around 1386) by the Franciscan Otto of Passau. This work, a sort of guide to Christian life in sentences, is addressed to laymen, to lay brothers in monasteries, and to nuns. According to a colophon on p. 512, this manuscript was written by the reformist monk Friedrich Kölner (or Colner), who came from Hersfeld Abbey in Hesse and was active at the Monastery of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436; it was intended for the monastic women's community of St. Georgen above St. Gallen, whose confessor he was.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
The single copyist of this paper manuscript provides the dates in which the copy was completed in May and June 1398 (p. 187 and 448). The first part of the volume (pp. 3-187) contains a series of anonymous sermons on John the Baptist, the Virgin, the dedication of a church, etc. Some pages that follow have material for other sermons whose beginning is missing (pp. 189-204), followed by a series of blank pages (pp. 205-220). The second dated part includes a treatise on the five senses and various sermons, as stated by an explicit (p. 252), then more sermons, one of which is in German (pp. 258-259). The codex has been at the Abbey of Saint Gall since at least the fifteenth century, as indicated by the ownership note (p. 1). Among the numerous quire guards, sixteen are from a Hebrew manuscript in a square Ashkenazi script of a Talmudic text from the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century (see the description by Justine Isserles, Books within books, 2024). The other fragments, in Latin, come from a fourteenth-century charter.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
The main text of this manuscript, which shows signs of intense use, is the Rule of St. Benedict in a German translation (pp. 3-107). Based on a comparison of the script with that of Cod. Sang. 546, this text was written by the St. Gall monk Fr. Joachim Cuontz († 1515). According to a 1504 note of ownership on p. 1, the manuscript belonged to the monastic women's community of St. Georgen above St. Gallen. On pp. 120-121 there is an admonition to the sisters to keep the Rule, also written by Fr. Joachim Cuontz. In between and after, there are short texts by other hands: pp. 108-112 an instruction on how to pray the "Heavenly Rosary" following on pp. 112-117, a spiritual song for rosary meditation in 13 verses with the promise of indulgence (Inc. gott vater in dem höchsten tron), p. 118 an exhortation to the sisters to be vigilant (according to 1 Pt 5:8-9) and to ask for blessings, pp. 123-125 a dictum and the rhyming prayer of Nicholas of Flüe (ain guotti hailsamy lerr von bruoder clausen in schwitz, Inc. bruoder klaus von underwalden, and bruoder klausen gewonliches gebett, Inc. O min gott und min schöpfer nim mich und gib mich gantz zuo aigen). On p. 126 there are notes of ownership (?), on p. 128 (according to Paul Staerkle, Die Handschriften des ehemaligen Klosters Wiborada zu St. Georgen, in: Die hl. Wiborada, vol. 2: Die Verehrung der Heiligen, St. Gallen 1926, p. 84) a register for the transport of sand from 1477-1487, "which stipulates some services from the quarry donated to the church for the new church construction” ("der einige Dienstleistungen aus dem der Kirche geschenkten Steinbruch zum neuen Kirchenbau festsetzt”).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
The monk Friedrich Kölner (also Colner), originally from Hersfeld Abbey in Northern Hesse, was active at the Monastery of St. Gall between 1430 and 1436; together with several confreres, he introduced internal reforms there. At this time Friedrich Kölner also served as confessor for the quasi-monastic community of sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall. For them he translated numerous texts from Latin into German. The texts in Cod. Sang. 998 are primarily about virginity and chastity. The volume contains numerous sentences of the church fathers in Alemannic with Middle German reflexes; texts by Bernard of Clairvaux are frequent. In addition the volume contains translations of books I and II (pp. 67-139; pp. 141-187) of Imitatio Christi by Thomas à Kempis, various sermons and excerpts, translated into German, from the treatise for novices by David of Augsburg De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione secundum triplicem (pp. 291−299 and pp. 319−338).
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript contains the German-language treatise on Corpus Christi by the “Mönch von Heilsbronn”, a monk of the Cistercian monastery of Heilsbronn located between Nuremberg and Ansbach, who probably lived in the 14th century. The small-format manuscript with a limp vellum binding comes from St. Leonhard Convent near St. Gall and was later owned by the community of women of St. Georgen above St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This manuscript, which features two ownership notes from the community of sisters of St. Georgen above St. Gall (probably from the period around 1500) on p. 3, contains two spiritual texts from the 13th and 14th century, respectively. They are a translation into German of instructions regarding the Rule of his Order by Humbert of Romans, Master General of the Dominican Order († 1277) (pp. 5–295), and an Upper German version of the work Die geistliche Hochzeit (Brulocht) by the Flemish theologian Jan von Ruusbroec († 1381) (pp. 296–482).
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This manuscript, written in 1498, is from the library of the regular community of sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, outside the city gates of St. Gall. The unknown principal scribe — she wrote up to p. 536 — asks future readers for an Ave Maria in two places (p. 201; p. 536). The manuscript contains: in the beginning a copy of the Schürebrand (pp. 10−201) that is significant in terms of textual history; in the middle (pp. 206−339) parts 1 and 3 of the treatise Von dreierlei Abgründen attributed to St. Bonaventure; and in the end (pp. 344−535) the treatise on the passion Extendit manum by Heinrich of St. Gall. The salutation to Mary (“Mariengruss”) added to the end of the manuscript (pp. 537−539) was written by another hand. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the community of sisters of St. Leonhard, the manuscript came to the library of the Benedictine nuns of St. George and finally in 1780/82 to the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written by the Benedictine Friedrich Kölner among others and was meant for the Hermitage of St. George; in addition to a translation of the life of St. Benedict (after Gregory the Great’s Dialogi, Liber 2) and an excerpt from the Eucharist treatise of Marquard of Lindau, it contains an especially early version of prayers from the “Wilhelm-Gebetbuch” and the “Ebran-Gebetbuch” by Johannes von Indersdorf. Furthermore, it transmits several of the “Engelberger Predigten”, thus completing the collection contained in Cod. M 47 from the archive of the Convent of the Dominican sisters at St. Katharina in Wil. It bears mentioning that both of these manuscripts are based on an earlier model, to which also the manuscripts Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42, which were created about 50 years later, owe their (complementary) selection of „Engelberger Predigten“.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The five parts of this manuscript were written by various scribes, among them the St. Gall Conventual Hans Conrad Haller (1486–1525), who was calligrapher, priest and, from 1523 until 1525, librarian of the monastery of St. Gall; he wrote various works such as a missal and other spiritual literature, as well as a life of Notker Balbulus. In Cod. Sang. 1006 Haller frequently left colophons, e.g., on p. 531 and p. 540. The five parts of the manuscript contain the following texts: part I (pp. 13–45) Prayers on the Passion and – partly in fragments – liturgical plays, among them the Ludus ascensionis on pp. 33-44. Part II (pp. 46–65) a prayer to St. Dorothea, which, according to the scribe, was translated from the Latin and written down in 1430 (pp. 61-62). Part III (pp. 66-80) Der Seele Klageby Heinrich der Teichner. Teil IV (pp. 81–95) liturgy of the hours on the Passion of Christ. Part V (pp. 96-762) a wide variety of devotional texts such as prayers and meditations, among them on pp. 188-190 Ein babst lag uurmals an dem tod, pp. 406–486 St. Anselmi Fragen an Maria and pp. 508–524 a German Salve Regina in rhyme.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume consists of two manuscripts brought together, the first in parchment dating from the end of the thirteenth century and paginated in black ink from 7 to 118, the second in fifteenth-century paper and paginated in red pencil from 1 to 144. Judging by the binding, they were brought together in the nineteenth century, the period when the librarian of the Abbey of Saint Gall, Franz Weidmann, described the diverse contents of these two manuscripts on the first flyleaves (pp. 1-2). The first manuscript, probably copied in the south of France, contains a Latin poem, Certamen animae, composed by Raimond Astruc (pp. 7-95 in black ink), followed by another piece by the same author, Epistola de consolatione (pp. 95-98 in black ink). Letters of Charles I of Anjou, some verse texts concerning his victories, and moral satires (against the vices of the world, or against the religious orders) round out this first part (Delisle 1916). According to a note, a former Jesuit turned Reformation preacher in Montbéliard gave this manuscript to Bartholomäus Schobinger in Saint-Gall in 1598 (p. 5 in black ink). The second part of Cod. Sang. 1008, copied by a single fifteenth-century scribe, begins with the text by the Carthusian Heinrich Eger de Kalkar, De puritate conscientiae (pp. 1-17 in red pencil). A dialogue in Latin prose between Death and Master Polycarpus, Colloquium de morte (Pirożyńska 1966), follows (pp. 18-25 in red pencil). Then come meditations on the Passion of Christ (pp. 26-47 in red pencil), meditations of Saint Anselm (pp. 48-67 in red pencil), and, further, Bonaventure’s De institutione novitiorum (pp. 116-139 in red pencil).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This small and thick paper codex is comprised of around a dozen codicological units and contains many texts copied by several different hands between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It contains sermons and various treatises such as the Speculum boni et mali (pp. 1-48), the Speculum monachorum (pp. 62-65), Jean Gerson’s Opus tripartitum (pp. 73-122), the De malitia mulierum (p. 463-475), texts on the mass – one of which is an exhortation to say mass (pp. 122-144) –, the Visiones Pauli (pp. 159-167), some exempla (pp. 297-328), a computus (p. 353-390), as well as a series of letters. Some manuscript fragments serve as quire guards. Among these should be noted the remarkable presence of uncial fragments from the seventh or eighth century (p. 84-s1-2, 180-s1-3, 204-s1-3, 224-s1-3, 288-s1-3, 304-s1-3), all from a Psalter. Likely, they come from the same manuscript as that described by A. Allgeier (1929), dated to the end of the seventh century (CLA 7, n° 985), and certain more important fragments of which are in Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1395.17 (former Cod. Sang. 1395, p. 370-391.
Online Since: 05/31/2024
Around 1500, this composite manuscript of theological-mystical content, which may have originated in Northern Bavaria and have been completed in the area of Lake Constance, was the property of the spiritual community of Franciscan sisters at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, west of the city of St. Gall, which was dissolved in the wake of the Reformation. This volume contains more than thirty mostly anonymous sermons, treatises and excerpts of treatises of Dominican character. Among them are Eberhard Mardach's open letter Von wahrer Andacht (pp. 83–116), a sermon by Johannes Tauler (pp. 129−156), the treatise Liebhabung Gottes an den Feiertagen by Thomas Peuntner from the year 1434 (pp. 232−237), excerpts from the Auslegung der zehn Gebote by Marquard of Lindau (pp. 238–245), the beginning of the prologue and three chapters of the anonymous Theologia deutsch (also called Der Frankfurter; pp. 287–297) that was published in print in its entirety for the first time by Martin Luther in 1518, as well as excerpts from a German version of Der Minnebaum (Arbor amoris; pp. 323–331), which differs significantly from other manuscripts.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The manuscript is entirely copied by the Hersfeld reform monk Friedrich Kölner, who was active in the monastery of St. Gall from 1430 to 1436. Among other things, he took over the spiritual care of the women’s community of St. Georgen. The manuscripts written by him, of which twelve survive, were produced chiefly for this group of recipients, and this can be assumed for the present manuscript, which is in a handy octavo-format. It contains an extensive sermon cycle, introduced by a sermon presumably by Rulmann Merswin (pp. 2–22: Leben Jesu / Von der geistlichen Spur), which Kölner ascribes to Johannes Tauler (the same combination of texts can be found in Cod. Sang. 1067). The forty sermons that follow are actually by Tauler (pp. 22–557). Under the rubric Von der drivaltikait on pp. 134–147 appears the pseudo-Eckhartian composite treatise Von dem anefluzze des vaters. Tauler’s Lenten discourses are missing; instead Kölner refers to two letters by Johannes von Schoonhoven. Although these are not contained in the present volume, they are available in Kölner’s own translation in St. Katharina in Wil, Klosterarchiv, Cod. M 47, another manuscript that Kölner probably wrote for the women in St. Georgen. The single-column manuscript is densely written and thoroughly rubricated. The unadorned binding was restored in 1992; the book block shows signs of numerous medieval reparations as well.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript transmits sermons for the liturgical year and was copied by a regular hand in a thirteenth-century gothic minuscule. It is incomplete at the beginning and the end. The sermons, numbered in the upper margin, run from VII (Dominica iiii. in quadragesima) to LXXXVIII (In vigilia epiphanie domini). At the beginning of each sermon there is a simple two-line-high red initial and a rubricated title indicating the day on which the sermon was to be read. On the basis of the stamp of the Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 410), the manuscript was present in the library of St. Gall since at least the middle of the sixteenth century. The cardboard binding, covered in blank parchment and adorned with green-silk ribbons as clasps, dates from the eighteenth/nineteenth century.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This parchment manuscript has two collections of sermons on saints. The first is ascribed to the Dominican Peregrinus de Oppeln (pp. 3-250), whose name appears in the rubrics at the top of the winter (p. 3) and summer (p. 131) parts. The second collection, copied by a hand contemporary to the first, contains sermons by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 251-346). That these authors were dominican is reflected in the importance given, for example, to Saint Catherine of Siena by Peregrinus (three sermons are dedicated to her, pp. 239-250), or to Saint Dominic by Jacobus de Voragine (two sermons on pp. 288-290, 311-315). On the other hand, the saints that are specific to the collection of Peregrinus, prior provincial of Poland, such as Adalbert, Wenceslas, or Hedwig, have been omitted. The copy has been made with care and is decorated systematically with pen-flourished initials. Contemporary annotations summarize the content of certain sermons, occasionally in schematic form. The ex libris (p. 351) indicates that before entering the Abbey Library, at the latest under the abbacy of Diethelm Blarer (whose stamp, dated to between 1553 and 1564, appears on p. 347), this manuscript belonged to Angela Varnbüler (1441-1509), prioress of the Dominican convent of Saint Catherine in Saint Gall (Mengis 2013, n° 52).
Online Since: 05/31/2024
This parchment manuscript contains Latin sermons by Berthold of Regensburg († 1272) in a copy from the second half of the thirteenth century or the first half of the fourteenth century. It begins with the feast of St. Stephen Protomartyr (26 December; p. 1a) and stretches to the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist (29 August; p. 181b). There then follow additional sermons and other texts, including two that bear the titles De passione (p. 197a) and De resurrectione (p. 199b) respectively. On p. 209 the text breaks off at the end of the right column. Then follows on pp. 210a–215a in a larger script what are apparently sermons on the Conversio sancti Pauli (p. 210a) and on the Purificatio beatae Mariae (p. 213a), although both of these feasts already appear in the original part (p. 23b and 31b). In the fourteenth century, another hand wrote a German text in the right column of p. 215 (Wilt du wizzen wie …). According to the note on p. 216, in 1433, the chaplain Jodocus Maiger gave this book to Nicholaus Jeuchin or Jenchin, parish priest of St. Mangen (a church outside of the city of St. Gallen). Worthy of note are the decorative, four-color stitching with a zig-zag pattern on p. 111/112, the pen drawing on p. 150a, as well as the library stamp of Abbot Diethlem Blarer, from the period 1553–1563 on p. 216. The wooden binding probably comes from the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This fourteenth-century manuscript, copied in two columns by a single hand, contains a commentary on the lections of the Gospels and the Epistles for Lent. The numbering in the running titles counts 61, which are alphabetically listed in a long content index (p. 3-28). This index has been revised and corrected, along with the rest of the manuscript, in a darker ink. The citations of the Gospels and the Epistles are underlined in red. The various component parts of the sermons are indicated by an alphabetic letter, also written in red in the side margins, and the references – chiefly to Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, but also to Albert the Great – are written in an abbreviated form in the lower margin. The possession note (p. 1) states that the book belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, even before Abbot Diethelm Blarer applied his stamp between 1553 and 1564 (p. 462). In the fifteenth century, the red leather cover of the Gothic binding was itself covered by a second cover, in leather, and the two boards were decorated with metal bosses.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
The largest part of this manuscript contains sermons copied in two columns by multiple scribes (pp. 1-144). The various homilies are sometimes introduced by rubrics and small, alternating red-and-blue initials. The last part (pp. 145-157) is smaller in size (19 x 17 cm) and is copied for the most part in a single column; it contains leonine verses and versified sayings. Possessed by the St. Gall Abbey Library since at least the mid-sixteenth century (see the stamp of Abbot Diethlem Blarer, p. 120), the manuscript was rebound in the seventeenth/eighteenth century in a binding of blank parchment glued on cardboard, which closes with green silk laces.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Produced during the fourteenth century, this manuscript of tiny dimensions contains sermons, but also excerpts from the Church Fathers and the philosophers. It is copied by a single scribe (except for a few additions, such as the XV signa ante diem iudicii on ff. 119v-120r) on two columns, except for a few single-column folios (f. 5v-10v, 25r-30v). Simple initials, in red and blue, adorn the text. According to the possession note on f. 120v, the codex was at abbey of St. Gall by the fifteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
The parchment bookblock (pp. 5–162) contains in its core on pp. 8–162 a collection of Latin sermons on the feasts of the ecclesiastical year (temporale and sanctorale) in a small gothic minuscule of the thirteenth century. At the top of p. 7 is a table with Greek letters as item numbers and below an incipit in red majuscules, that is partially covered by the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from the period 1553–1564. The single leaf p. 5/6 contains a table of contents of the sermons from the beginning of the codex to the Assumption of the Virgin, which probably was added in the second half of the fourteenth century. The collection begins with the sermons for Advent (p. 8) and runs through the Exaltation of the Cross (p. 109) and to the Assumption of the Virgin (p. 112). Additional sermons follow, including an Ad populum (p. 157, 162), before the text breaks off at the end of p. 162. The sermons are mostly introduced by a two-to-three-line decorative initial in the colors red, blue, and green. The binding, as well as the paper flyleaves (pp. 1–4, 163–190), probably come from the end of the seventeenth or the eighteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The manuscript was written in a textualis probably in the second half of the thirteenth or the first half of the fourteenth century. The old foliation runs from I to CLXXXIII and from CCLXV to CCLXXX (pencil foliation: 184–209). The current foliation is A–B in pencil and then I–CLXXXIII in red ink, and finally 184–216 in pencil. The table of contents, inserted in the fourteenth century on the last, separate gathering (fol. 211r–214v) uses Roman numerals from I to CCLXXVIII without gaps. This shows that several quires were lost at some point after the production of the table of contents, a fact that was already noted on the table of contents in the fifteenth century with “vacat”. The surviving leaves transmit, in the first place, sermons of Berthold of Regensburg († 1272) on Sundays and the Feasts of Saints (fol. Ir–CLXXIIIIv) and then – owing to the mentioned loss of leaves – only the end of his sermon on the common of saints (fol. 184r–184v). In between and afterwards are other sermons (Sermones ad religiosos, Sermones ad speciales) or spiritual texts by the same hand, although at the end (fol. 209r–210r) by another hand. According to the table of contents, there follow (fol. 214r–215v) further entries, probably from the fourteenth century, including a few in the German language. According to the ownership mark Liber sancti Galli on fol. Br, the codex was in the Abbey of St. Gall in the fifteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The bulk of this manuscript consists of Latin sermons from the temporal (pp. 9a-21b) and from the sanctoral (pp. 21b-127b). They were copied by a single fourteenth-century scribe on two columns and each sermon is introduced by a rubric. While most of the feasts have a single sermon, the feast of Saint Catherine has seven lections (pp. 89b-108b). The remainder of the manuscript was copied with a variable layout by different hands from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It contains sermons in Latin as well as in German. The last four pages come from a thirteenth-century breviary copied in a single column (pp. 177-180). A possession note (p. 127b) states that, in the fifteenth century, this codex belonged to a certain Johanna Sumerin de Messkirch: Qui hoc invenit, Iohanne Sumerin de Meskilch reddere debet … The front board of the half-leather Gothic binding has grooves and canals on the front edge; these in fact served to attach the board to the spine. Apparently, the front board, broken vertically along the back, was turned around, repaired, and reutilized.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This small-format manuscript contains for the most part sermons (pp. 3–49). They have been numbered (1–39) in the margin by a later hand, which also wrote the title Sermones de tempore and the ownership mark Liber s. Galli on p. 3. According to Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150–1350, II.766 und IV.49 and Hamesse, Repertorium initiorum manuscriptorum latinorum medii aevi, No. 31477, the authors of these sermons include Lothario dei Segni (Innocent III), Hugh of Saint-Cher, and Nicholaus de Gorran. A wide range of texts follows on p. 49: seven short letters or letter formularies on pp. 49–51 (including from the Abbot of Isny to the Abbot of Blaubeuren, from the Duke of Bavaria to two bailiffs, from parents to their son, studying in Padua, and from the student to his parents); mnemonic aids on the Eucharist, the duties of a confessor, the seven sacraments, etc. (p. 51); an additional sermon (p. 52) (by Lucas de Bitonto; Schneyer, Repertorium, IV.56, No. 88); the Fifteen Portents of the Last Judgment (p. 53); Odo of Cheriton’s Parabola De rustico et eius domino (p. 54); a Tractatus naturalis, inc: Cum alterius nature sit truncus, alterius surculus (pp. 55–62); a commentary on Aristotle’s De anima, inc: Bonorum honorabilium noticiam [...] subiectum huius libri de anima est anima prout est coniuncta corpori (p. 63-77). The manuscript, bereft of ornamentation, is bound in an early-modern cardboard binding that has been covered in fragments of a printed missal.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
The manuscript has three codicological units (pp. 5–76, 77–168, 169–184), which differ in layout and script. They chiefly contain sermons, and a few Marian miracles in the second part (e.g., p. 118). Some feasts or saints, such as the Assumption (pp. 94-96, 171-175), St. John the Baptist (pp. 88, 175-178, 183-184) and especially Saint Catherine (pp. 65, 106–109, 148–153), appear in many or all parts of this manuscript. The binding, covered in red leather, dates from the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
The manuscript is made up of seven codicological units (pp. 5–52, 53–76, 77–92, 93–124, 125–140, 141–156, 157–164), which are sometimes incomplete and which have different layouts, scripts, and decoration. They all contain sermons and were copied in the fourteenth century. Only the first series of sermons (pp. 5-46) ends with a table of contents (p. 46-52); at the beginning of series appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer on a manuscript fragment containing on the recto a sermon (p. 3) and, on the verso, a miracle involving a usurer (p. 4). The cardboard binding, covered with leather on the back and corners, has a fragment of a printed breviary and dates from the seventeenth/eighteenth century.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This manuscript contains around a third of the text of Jacobus of Voragine’s Legenda aurea, where some texts appear twice. The first part (pp. 1–267) begins with Advent and ends with All Souls’ Day and the consecration of a church. The title written over the first text (Sermo de adventu domini, p. 1) is misleading and has led to the misidentification of the manuscript’s contents as sermones. The second part (pp. 271–665) begins with Matthias (24 February) and ends with Thomas (21 December). This collection has been supplemented with a few texts from the so-called Provincia-Appendix (Oswald, Ulrich, Pelagius, Verena, Gallus, Otmar, Konrad), which have been added at the appropriate place in the ecclesiastical year. Between the two parts (pp. 267–270) can be found seven short exempla, the first three of which are based on texts from the Verba seniorum. Two scribes took part in producing the manuscript. The change in hand on p. 382/383 (at the end of a quire, but in the middle of a word) is accompanied by a change in decoration; while in the preceding part only a few multi-line red initials are adorned with simple red pen-flourishes, in the following part the pen-flourishes are two-color (red/blue), more luxuriant and finer. The pen-flourishes resemble those in the manuscript Fribourg, BCU, ms. L 34, but in comparison is somewhat less refined. Noticeable in the first part are found multi-color decorative stitching and holes filled with needlework (p. 55/56, 75/76, 115/116, 123/124, 131/132, 143/144 und 147/148). On the upper margin of pp. 7–664 can be found an old foliation (III–CCCXXXI). The cardboard binding, covered in blank parchment and adorned with green-silk ribbons as clasps, dates from the eighteenth/nineteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This volume brings together two paper manuscripts (pp. 1-238, 239-429) of the sermons of Peregrinus de Oppeln (ca. 1260-1333), Dominican prior and provincial minister of Poland. The first is dated by the explicit (p. 218) to 18 July 1458 and contains his Sermones de sanctis (pp. 3-218). The following pages (pp. 218-236) are in the hand of the same copyist and include excerpts from the life of Saint Wiborada (pp. 220-236). The second manuscript contains Peregrinus de Oppeln’s Sermones de tempore, but was copied in the fourteenth century (pp. 237-429). Introduced with a decorated initial (p. 239), this part is very neat, annotated, and bears an amusing caricature of Satan (p. 342). According to the possession note on p. 428, at least the second part belonged to the Franciscan Johannes Schirmer. As the original binding attests, these two parts had to have been bound together in the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 12/11/2024
This manuscript, which originated probably in 1484 in the Convent of the Dominican Sisters of St. Katharina in St. Gall, constitutes the first (remaining) half-volume of a collection which, as indicated in the table of contents, originally comprised 151 sermons, organized according to the church year, and in all likelihood meant to be read daily at mealtime. Among others, it contains sermons by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Nikolaus von Straßburg, Rudolf Goltschlacher, Meister Wilhelm, Felix Fabri (?), Jordan von Quedlinburg and several from the corpus of the „St. Georgener“ and „Engelberger Predigten“. Remarkably, regarding the inventory of “Engelberger Predigten”, Cod. Sang. 1066 is exactly complementary to Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42, which also originated in the Convent of the Dominican sisters of St. Katharina in St. Gall. Cod. Sang. 1919 and Wil M 42 are directly or indirectly based on the same model *C to which also cod. Sang. 1004 and Wil M 47, created 50 years ealier in the St. Gall Benedictine Monastery, owe their selection of Engelberger Predigten; in contrast, Cod. Sang. 1066 is based on a manuscript from text group *Y3, close also to Cod. 752(746) from the library of the Benedictine Monastery of Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This folio-volume contains an extensive sermon cycle, introduced by a sermon presumably by Rulmann Merswin (ff. 1ra–5vb: Leben Jesu / Von der geistlichen Spur), which here is ascribed to Tauler (as in Cod. Sang. 1015). The sermons that follow (ff. 5vb–235ra) are actually by Tauler. On ff. 85va–93va, under the rubric Von der drivaltikait, is the pseudo-Eckhartian composite treatise Von dem anefluzze des vaters; on ff. 235ra–241va are four letters of Henry Suso (Letters 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the Little Book of Letters), followed by another sermon. The manuscript, arranged in two columns, is carefully written, corrected in many places, and rubricated throughout. Each sermon is introduced by an ornate initial, usually five lines high, with very simple red and blue pen flourishes; a few initials are someone larger and more elaborately presented (e.g., f. 190vb). Well preserved late-fifteenth-century leather binding with decorative lines, five bosses on each side (only one on the back is missing) and two clasps. Two owner’s marks on the front pastedown attest to the ownership of the book by the sisters of St. Leonhard cloister, and later by those of St. Georgen in St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript predominantly contains sermons. It begins (pp. 1–279) with the Speculum ecclesiae by Honorius Augustodunensis (around 1080 – 1150/1151). This is followed by 20 verses each on virtues and vices in Leonine hexameter (pp. 279–281), each followed by a brief explanation in prose. On the otherwise blank p. 282, there is a pen and ink drawing of the Apostle Paul. Following on pp. 283–411, there are the Sermones by Mauritius de Sulliaco (Maurice de Sully, around 1120 – 1196), with a list of chapters and a prologue on p. 283. On pp. 411-414, there is a commentary on the Apostles' Creed (Inc. Quo nomine vocatur hec doctrina apostolica symbolum, Expl. latine dicitur vere fideliter fiat). The very short text on p. 415 deals with Communion for the excommunicated (Inc. Communicans excommunicato, Expl. ad correctionem communicabis excommunicato).
Online Since: 03/22/2018
St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch's (1462-1491) book of heraldry, containing 1,626 coats of arms of prominent people from the laity and the clergy, mostly from the southern region of Germany. This heraldic book was probably prepared in the Heidelberg workshop of Hans Ingeram for an unknown customer from the area between the Neckar River and the Upper Rhine. In the 1480s St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch purchased the volume and had numerous coats of arms from Swiss and German border areas added in the back pages; these were drawn by Winterthur artist Hans Haggenberg. One of the most important heraldic record books of the 15th century.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
Book of heraldry by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) of Glarus, produced at some point between 1530 and 1572. It contains more than 2,000 coats of arms of the aristocratic families of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Many of the coats of arms include genealogical explanations in Tschudi's hand.
Online Since: 12/23/2008
Seven wooden tablets, bound together each between two later-added front and back paper guard leaves; the first tablet is filled only on the verso side with black-dyed wax, the following five are filled on both sides, the last is not filled. The format of the wooden tablets without the paper reinforcements is 14.8 x 8 cm. According to Wilhelm Wattenbach (in: Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit 1873, p. 79f.), the tablets probably are “Bruchstücke des Taschenbuchs eines Klosterbeamten aus dem 15. Jahrh.” (pieces of the broken pocket book of a monastery official from the 15th century); several Latin and German words (partly upside-down) can be guessed.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
The Carolingian Plan of St. Gall is the oldest surviving architectural drawing of the Western world, and thus it is a monument of European cultural history. It consists of five pieces of sheep parchment, sewn together, and later folded to quarto format. On the front, there is an orginal plan of a monastery complex with 52 buildings, 333 explanatory annotations in Latin, and a letter of dedication. Probably based on models, it was created at Reichenau under Abbot Heito or Erlebald for (Abbot?) Gozbert of St. Gall (819 or around 827/830); annotations were added by the Librarian Reginbert and a younger brother. On the formerly blank back side (and on the erasure at the lower left on the front), was added the Vita beati Martini episcopi based on Sulpicius Severus (created in St. Gall at the end of the 12th century).
Online Since: 03/20/2014
This manuscript has the form of a parchment scroll; it consists of six narrow strips of parchment, each about 60-80 cm long, sewn together lengthwise. It is a pilgrims’ guide through the city of Rome und consists of two texts: mostly in the form of a list, the Mirabilia Romae describe the structures of the city of Rome – walls, temples, palaces, squares, thermal baths, theaters, etc. In this version, this part begins with a short historical introduction from the Chronicle of Martin of Opava. It is followed by the Indulgentiae ecclesiarum urbis Romae as a second part, an enumeration of the churches of Rome with their relics and the indulgences to be obtained there.
Online Since: 12/20/2012