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.
Antiphonary, dating from around the year 1000, with Calendar and Gradual (written and provided with fine neumes probably by the monk Hartker), Ordo Missae and Sacramentary. An invaluable monument of music history.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted Sacramentary of St. Gall from the time of Abbot Norpert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass. With Calendar, Gradual and Sacramentary, illustrations include five full-page, high-quality miniatures of the principal feast days of the liturgical year (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted St. Gall sacramentary from the time of Abbot Norbert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass, containing a calendar of saints, a list of incipits of the spoken and chanted texts for the Mass on the principal feast days of saints and the sacramentary itself, which is illustrated with four splendid full-page miniatures, two full-page initials and numerous smaller initials.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Earliest complete extant gradual of St. Gall. The different parts of the manuscript date from different periods. Illustrated with numerous initials and several pen drawings (especially in the Sacramentary part).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This plenary missal, produced in St. Gall, which contains all chants and prayers of the Mass, consists of the following parts, written partly in the 11th and partly in the 14th century: liturgical calendar; sequences (without melodies); gradual; Masses (with prayers, readings, and chants for the Proper of the Mass); Canon of the Mass; sacramentary; lectionary. On p. 232 (opposite the Te igitur), there is a full-page picture of the crucifixion with two kneeling monks.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Sequentiary containing sequences without neumes by Notker Balbulus (pp. 1-14), a calendar (pp. 15-20) and a sacramentary (p. 21-182), beginning on p. 21 with a beautiful initial ‘M’ (a vine scroll contoured in red on a blue and green background) and from p. 22 the Canon of the Mass with a Te igitur-initial with the Crucifixion.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This missal was most likely written for the Grossmünster of Zürich (from a comparison with the Grossmünster’s Liber Ordinarius); it contains the proprium de tempore, proprium de sanctis (with the major feasts of Zürich), commune sanctorum and votive masses. The chants are written in smaller letters throughout, but only on a few pages do they appear together with melodies in neumatic notation. The canon missae (pp. 73–83) begins with a simple drawing of a canon. With that exception, the decoration is limited to at most two-line red lombards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
According to the particularly venerated saints in the calendar (pp. 6–17, the months are in the wrong order), this missal, written on fine parchment, belonged to a convent of Dominican women dedicated to St. Agnes. The canon missae (pp. 193–204) is introduced by a high-quality drawing, whose similarity to the depictions of the crucifixion in the Dominican convent of Constance has been emphasized in the art-historical literature. But it is unlikely that the manuscript was produced in the Diocese of Constance, since, among others, Gallus and Otmar are missing from the calendar; rather, the calendar points to a Strasbourg provenance. The missal is richly decorated with red and blue pen-flourished initials. On p. 18 there is an Exorcismus salis et aquae; following the Commune sanctorum there appear votive masses (pp. 426–446) and sequences (pp. 447–461). The manuscript was in St. Gall since the sixteenth or seventeenth century at the latest (possession note on p. 5).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Lectionary from the Abbey of St. Gall with numerous sermons on various Gospel selections by the church fathers, produced by a number of different hands in the 10th century in St. Gall. This little studied volume also contains benedictions and oratory prayers. Appended at the back (in small script in two columns) is a Psalter. The manuscript has become extremely soiled with intensive use; it features assorted addenda and supplements from the 11th and 12th centuries.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The incomplete Gelasian Remedius-Sacramentary, composed in Chur in about 800, at the time of the Chur Bishop Remedius, one of the most important liturgical texts from that time, containing the prayers used by bishops or priests during the Mass and administration of the sacraments, at the same time also one of the masterpieces of Retro romansh scribal culture in the Carolingian age, decorated with numerous fantastic initial capitals, still influenced by Irish models. Verifiably present in the monastery of St. Gall by about 850.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This collection of liturgical manuscripts includes the oldest known example of a Collectarium (containing prayers intended to be sung by a choir on major holy days) and various Statuta liturgica et monastica, written in Alemannic minuscule script during the second half of the 8th century at the Abbey of St. Gall (or certainly in the Lake Constance area).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This fragment of a Sacramentary of Rhaetian provenance (the Sacramentarium Gelasianum) is important in terms of liturgical scholarship; it was produced near the end of the 8th century in Chur and was recorded shortly thereafter among the holdings of the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript is closely related to the Sacramentarium Gelasianum of Codex 348, also of Rhaetian origin.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The manuscript is bound in a cardboard binding of the eighteenth/nineteenth century. It has two parts written at different times. The first part (pp. 3–120) begins with a fragmentary gradual (it starts on the Wednesday after the Third Sunday in Advent), written in the thirteenth century. The melodies are noted in staffless neumes. Following the Sundays after Pentecost, the part concludes with alleluia-verses (pp. 118–120). The second part (pp. 121–186), containing sequences without melodies, comes from the fourteenth century. In two parts of the codex is bound a quire from a gradual probably written in the thirteenth/fourteenth century: pp. 11–26 (in the middle of the introitus to the feast of the Holy Innocents), the propers for the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday after Christmas; pp. 159–174 (in the middle of the All Saints’ sequence), the chants for the period from the Wednesday after the first Sunday of Lent to Holy Saturday.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Praeparatio ad missam (p. 2-63) and Benedictiones (p. 66-177), written by a single hand. This undecorated liturgical manuscript contains scarcely any corrections or later additions and shows slight signs of usage.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Pontifical missal of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript consists of two parts: the first part (p. 5-102) was written by the Wiblingen conventual Simon Rösch, the second part (p. 103-236) was perhaps not added until after the death of Abbot Ulrich Rösch. Only the prefaces (p. 83-102) have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 5 lines. There is also the abbot’s coat of arms (p. 5) and an image of the crucifixion with medallions of the four evangelists (p. 70). Several pages have book decorations in the form of borders and initials, sometimes with gold leaf.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Pontifical-missal of the St. Gall Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564) – the finest 16th century manuscript in Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The so-called "Cantatorium of St. Gall", the earliest complete extant musical manuscript in the world with neume notation. It contains the solo chants of the Mass and constitutes one of the main sources for the reconstruction of Gregorian chant. Written and provided with fine neumes in the monastery of St. Gall between 922 and 926. Bound in a wooden box with an ivory panel on the front cover, most likely Byzantine c. 500, depicting scenes from the fight of Dionysos against the Indians. The ivory panel was once the possession of Charlemagne.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
A St. Gall Processional from about 1150, carried in processions, both within the cloister itself and also around the surrounding area which now comprises the city of St. Gall; bound in a long wooden protective case to protect it from the effects of the weather. It contains hymns and litanies to be sung during processions, most of them composed by the monks of St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries; includes neumes.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the first half of the 12th century. It contains the solo chants of the Mass, with finely executed neumes and some illuminated initials. Preceded by a Calendar with necrological notes from the monastery of St. Gall dating from between the 13th and 15th century and at the lower margins a catalogue of relics from the 14th century.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
German language lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings according to the Church year (Proprium de tempore; Proprium de sanctis and Commune sanctorum) from the Dominican Cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, copied in the year 1483 from a model belonging to the Cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg by Elisabeth Muntprat, one of the convent’s most diligent scribes. Texts from the manuscript were read aloud during the Dominican nuns’ meals. Several colored woodcuts are pasted into the manuscript, which came to the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1780.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This unadorned manuscript, which was probably not produced in St. Gall, is a double lectionary or Lectionarium plenarium sive „Comes duplex“. The lectionary follows the pericope practice of the city of Rome and contains all the readings for the Mass (Old Testament / Acts of the Apostles, letters and gospels). It begins with Christmas but is defective in the beginning.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
According to new research, the so-called Evangeliary of Wolfcoz - an early masterpiece from the second quarter of the 9th century - was created not at the St. Gall Monastery, but instead in the scriptorium at Reichenau under the librarian Reginbert. This new conclusion was reached on the basis of paleographic studies as well as later-added pericopes on the Reichenau saints George, Mark and Pancras (p. 201-219).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A volume of the Gospels, made to order for an unknown customer in about 1470/1480, possibly in the workshop of the book illustrator Rudolf Stahel of Konstanz. It contains Latin Gospel readings for the most important holy days of the church year. Illustrated by at least two artists with 21 full-page illustrations, including the symbols of the four evangelists and representations of the most important holy days throughout the year. In 1658 the volume was presented by the court official Fidel von Thurn to Abbot Gallus Alt (1654-1687) and decorated by a book illuminator with his crest.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A volume of canonical readings for the mass, opulently illuminated for Bishop of Augsburg Marquard von Berg (1575-11591), with a heraldic crest page, a full-page miniature, many scenes along the lower margin representing the important holy days of the church year, and artful flowers and flowerlike ornaments, possibly by Nurnberg book illustrator Sebastian Glockendon the Younger. The manuscript came into the possession of soldiers during the Thirty Years War and was later sold to the St. St. Gall monk and Vicar of Wil, Bernhard Hartmann, who presented it in 1641 to St. Gall Abbot-Bishop Pius Reher (1630-1654).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
According to an entry on p. 64, the Goldach necrology was created in 1418 by Syfrid Brüstlin, priest at Hagenwil. The first part (pp. 11-58) is arranged according to the Roman calendar and contains entries by several hands, mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. Sometimes only the name of the deceased person is mentioned, other entries are more detailed and give information about donations. The second part (pp. 59-80) contains remarks on individual donations. This part is mainly in Brüstlin’s hand and continues into the 17th century.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Epistolary originating from Reichenau/St. Gall, illustrated with a portrait of the epistle-writer Saint Paul and five painted Christological miniatures from the third quarter of the 11th century.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This manuscript contains the epistles, the readings from the Old Testament and the readings from the Gospel for the period from Christmas Eve until Easter Sunday (pp. 1-144), from the Thursday after the first of Advent until the end of the Advent season (pp. 145-155), and for the saints’ days (pp. 156–218). Several quires seem to have come out between pp. 144 and 145, since the greater part of the readings for Easter Sunday, for the feasts between Easter and the last Sunday after Pentecost, as well as for the first Sunday of Advent are missing. The decoration consists of several initials with scroll ornamentation in red ink (pp. 1, 4, 131, 144 and 156). 15th century entries (foliation, references, neumes in the Passion according to Matthew, pp. 98–104) attest that this codex was in use for a long time.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of feast day masses in the monastery of St. Gall, written and illustrated with numerous initials around the middle of the 11th century. Contains a gradual with neumes and a Lectionary with the readings for the liturgical year.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the 12th century, with two illustrations of the monk Luitherus.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of the Mass in the monastery of St. Gall, dating from 1050/70, containing sequences of the St. St. Gall monk "Notker the Stammerer" (died 912).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Musical manuscript in small format from the monastery of St. Gall containing a calendar, a computus, a tropary, a sequentiary, an antiphonary, offertory and tractus from the middle of the 11th century as well as an appendix with sequences from the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This codex, with boards covered in green textile, consists of two parts. The first part (pp. 3-53) contains sequences by Notker Balbulus and other authors, the second part (pp. 55-226) contains a gradual. All of the texts have neumes; the script is interspersed with red and blue majuscules. Of note is a series of decorated initials, for example one containing a dragon on p. 3 of the sequentiary and one with scroll ornamentation on p. 55 of the gradual. Other examples can be found on pp. 114, 134, 144, 146. Bound in at the beginning is an 11th/12th century leaf containing excerpts from the Commune Sanctorum, with 14th century supplements on the back.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Small music manuscript from the middle of the 11th century containing an (incomplete) calendar, computus, tropary and sequentiary in an elegant hand, with delicate neumes.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Versiculary, Hymnal, Tropary and Sequentiary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and provided with neumes around 930, possibly by a monk named Salomon. The small-sized, undecorated manuscript contains the St. Gall repertoire of the chants sung in the monastery and works by the monks Notker Balbulus, Tuotilo, Ratpert, Waltram and Ekkehart I. Counts among the foremost monuments worldwide in the history of early medieval music.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
An incompletely preserved musical manuscript from the 11th century, written in the monastery of St. Gall, with added supplementary leaves up to around 1400. Contains a Tropary, a Versiculary and a Sequentiary.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Tropary and Sequentiary in point-like square notation with exceptionally fine monophonic and polyphonic music from the great repertoire of the school of Notre-Dame at Paris. Written before 1250 in Western Switzerland, probably at the Cathedral of Lausanne. Probably in St. Gall by 1300.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Breviary consisting of several parts: 1) Capitula and orationes for the period from the first of Advent until the octave of Pentecost as well as for Sundays and weekdays (pp. 3–48). 2) Proprium de tempore (with readings, excerpts from sermons, antiphons, responses and hymns) for the period from the first of Advent until the Saturday after Pentecost (pp. 49–280). The antiphons and responses have neumes. 3) Proprium de sanctis (pp. 281–419), these chants do not have neumes. It begins with St. Andrew (30 November) and ends with St. Petronilla (31 May). 4) Proper for Easter until the second Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 421–466). 5) Responses and antiphons De sanctis in pascali tempore (pp. 466–468). 6) Lectiones per totam ebdomadam for weekdays of the third and fourth week after the octave of Easter (pp. 469–484). 7) Capitula for Nocturns, Sext and None at Easter (p. 485). 8) Orationes for Nocturns, Sext and None on weekdays usque ad ascensionem Domini (pp. 486–487). 9) Capitula and orationes for Vespers, Lauds and Sext for the first until the fourth Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 488–489). 10) Hymns (and sequence Cantemus cuncti melodum, p. 504) (pp. 502–504 and 506). Parts 1-3 were for the most part written in the 13th century (with numerous additions and corrections on erasure up until the 15th century). Parts 4-6 are from the 14th century, parts 7-10 from the 15th century. Property of the Monastery of St. Gall at least since the 15th century (perhaps 1450, cf. p. 1).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Summer portion (Holy Saturday through the end of the church year) of a breviary written at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1022 and 1047 (with readings, prayers, extracts from homilies, antiphons, responses and hymns for the monastic liturgy of the hours), includes additions made as late as the 14th century. The sung sections include neumes. Preceding materials include a fragment of a collections of homilies, a calendar, and computistical texts and tables. The corresponding winter portion of this breviary is found in Cod. Sang. 413. It is among the oldest surviving breviaries produced at St. Gall.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
Antiphonary from St. Gall for the liturgy of the divine office, as sung by St Gall monks, dating from the 12th century, with addenda until the late 14th century. Illustrated with several initials and (at the beginning) with a miniature of the crucified Christ with Mary and John.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Antiphonary from the XIIIth century containing chants for the liturgy of the Hours. The melodies are noted using neumes without lines. Essentially, this is a copy of Cod. Sang. 390/391 (“Hartker antiphonary”) completed by saint’s days added after the completion of the Hartker antiphonary.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Winter volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Summer volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains principally the chants for the liturgy of the Hours (response and antiphones), and also some chants of the Ordinary (in a part with tropes), hymns, and sequences, and spiritual chants in Latin and German. In all, six chants (p. 87-89, 103, 107) are for two or three voices. In this case, the voices are not noted one under another, but one after another. The spiritual chants are written with a mensural notation, and the other liturgical pieces in German plainsong notation, the so-called German “Hufnagelnotation”.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The Liber Benedictionum by Ekkehard IV.: a collection of his personal poetic works that he probably began during his time as a monastery pupil and constantly revised until the end of his life. The manuscript is written completely by Ekkehard IV. and is one of the few known autographs of the early Middle Ages (ca. 1010-1060). It contains, among other items, the Benedictiones super lectores per circulum anni (poetry for the different feast days of the year), the Benedictiones ad mensas (benedictions of different foods and drinks), the Versus ad picturas domus domini Mogontinae (verses on the projected picture series for the Cathedral of Mainz), Versus ad picturas claustri sancti Galli (verses for the [projected] picture series for the cloister [?] in the monastery of St. Gall) and the Latin translation of the Old High German Galluslied by Ratpert.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains: p. 1-17 a calendar (probably written before 1047: Wiborada, canonized in 1047, is added by a 13th century hand); p. 17-19 a list of the Abbots of the Monastery of St. Gall (in a first hand until Nortpert, 1034-1072, additions by three further hands until Berchtold von Falkenstein, 1244-1272); p. 22-162: Rule of St. Benedict; p. 162-163 excerpt from the Book of Proverbs (Prv. 20, 18ff.); p. 165-345 rituals: benedictions, exorcisms, Ordo ad monachos faciendos , instructions for penance, visitation of the sick, anointing of the sick, comforting the dying (Obsequium circa morientes), Office of the Dead (the antiphons and responsories therein with neumes).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Incompletely preserved benedictional, written on strong parchment in the Monastery of St. Gall in the first half of the 11th century. This volume contains prayers and benedictions for various liturgical ceremonies, for example for the blessing of the chalice, for the blessing of salt and water for driving out demons, for the consecration of monks and secular priests, for the blessing of plants on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, etc. In three places (p. 23-26, p. 65-66, p. 90-94) the manuscript contains litanies in which the names of saints of St. Gall appear. Before the pagination around 1780, pages were cut out of the manuscript in five different places; the manuscript shows signs of use into the 15th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Personal reference handbook (vade mecum) of Grimald of St. Gall (Abbot 841-872). This manuscript collection contains items of poetic, liturgical, computational, natural scientific, and historical content, including a calendar, an horology table (orologium), word explanations and definitions from various fields of knowledge, the names of the nymphs and muses, and a provincial directory for the area of St. Gall. About 40 different scribes added texts to this manuscript.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A Benedictional from the diocese of Mainz, written and decorated with about 200 gold initials and a full-page miniature of Christ as Savior of the World; from about the year 1000, during the tenure of Archbishop Willigis (975-1011). Obtained by the Cloister of St. Gall at an unknown point in time (oldest evidence: in St. Gall by about 1600). It contains the prayers of benediction to be sung by the bishop, ordered according to the church year.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The Pontificale contains the rites for liturgical celebrations by the bishop, among them rites for performing the tonsure, for the consecration of the lower orders (Cantor, Lector etc.), of the higher orders (deacon, priest, bishop), for the consecration of abbots, abbesses and nuns, for the consecration of a church, of a cemetery and of liturgical objects. Several incipits of liturgical songs are annotated with adiastematic neumes. In the margins on pp. 110/111 there are two Greek alphabets and a Latin alphabet in capital letters; they are part of a rite for the consecration of a church. The saints named in the litany on pp. 98–100 (among them Corbinian, Ulrich, Walpurga) suggest that the manuscript originated in a Bavarian diocese.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written in a flowing fourteenth-century textualis and decorated with rubrics and red lombards. The same hand has numbered the quires in red ink, in the bottom-right corner at the beginning of each quire: II (p. 23) to XXXIX (p. 731). The pagination contains a significant error: 1–501, 511–742; pp. 614–615 are empty. The manuscript transmits the winter part of a breviary, namely (pp. 1-559) the Proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent to Pentecost and Trinity, as well as (pp. 559–742) the Proprium de sanctis from the feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle (30 November) to the feast of Saint Pancras (12 May), including the feast of Saint Wiborada (pp. 716-725). The manuscript shows no traces of its users nor of any additions. On the final page (p. 742) appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553–1564. The binding, featuring wooden boards with a red leather cover, dates to the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023