Fribourg/Freiburg, Couvent des Cordeliers/Franziskanerkloster
The library of the Franciscan Monastery is a private library; it joined RERO (the network of libraries of Western Switzerland and union catalog) in 2013. The library contains about 35,000 volumes, 10,000 of which date from before 1900. The majority of the books can be accessed via a card catalog. The old library can be traced back to Guardian Friedrich von Amberg; 18 of his volumes have been preserved. During the monastery’s golden age in the 15th century, the superiors collected mainly sermon and study literature. The Franciscan Monastery was able to preserve its library on site; it contains 80 medieval and 100 post-medieval volumes of manuscripts (not catalogued), as well as 136 incunabula and 80 post-incunabula.
Antiphonary for Franciscan use, dating from the late 13th or early 14th century (after 1260), but representing the earliest Franciscan edition. Contains the chants (text and music) for the entire year for the liturgical Office, including the feast for Anthony of Padua in its proper position and an added Office for Corpus Christi in a different hand (f. 157r-159v).
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Antiphonary from the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg, dated 1488 according to the colophon f. 214v. Drolleries are drawn in the margins and by the initials. The manuscript contains a miniature (f. 14v, birth of Christ) and beautiful initials (flowers, fruit, zucchini), attributed to the Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Gradual from the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg, still in use in the 16th/17th century according to the ownership note on the inside cover. Binding from the 16th century. Written in a Gothic minuscule around 1300. The beginning of important feasts is indicated with larger initials, sometimes with miniatures (e.g. F. 128v Ascension, f. 132v the Miracle of Pentecost).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript is made from parchment of medium thickness, quite soiled. The 17th/18th century binding consists of wooden boards covered in black pressed leather with 5 brass bosses in the front and back (1 boss is missing from the back). Two clasp fragments. Evidence from paleographyas well as from the content suggests that the volume was produced in Hauterive.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
During his studies in Avignon, Jean Joly (Guardian of the Franciscan Convent of Fribourg 1467-1469, 1472-1478, 1481-1510) prepared this copy of the Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum by Peter of Aquila, an Italian Franciscan theologian who lectured at Paris in the 1330s. His commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard earned him the nickname “Scotellus” for his accessible presentation of the doctrine of John Duns Scotus (d. 1308). The wooden-board binding and formerly chained volume from the fifteenth century was restored by Carole Jeanneret in 2022.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
Excerpts from Bonaventure's commentary on Peter Lombardus' Sentences, written by the Franciscan Heinrich von Isny (Bishop of Basel, 1275-1286). Ownership note on f.1r (Johannes Joly). Colophons f. 336vb (frater Henricus), f. 337ra (Antonius de Maasmünster, scribe, 1478), f. 352ra (Johannes Joly, scribe, 1478). Former chained book with pressed leather cover of the 15th century.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Master manuscript of the "Freiburger Perikopen". German language plenary with scripture selections for Mass in German, glosses and additional texts for Sunday and important holy days.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Commentary on the Sentences by the Franciscan Petrus de Candia; the rear inside cover has a note of ownership by Friedrich von Amberg (†1432), the erudite preacher and guardian who set up the first library of the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg. Foliation, catchwords, subheadings, marginal and index notes by von Amberg, further marginal notes in another hand.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Sermons by the Franciscan Bertrand de Turre (Sermones epistolarum dominicalium); from the holdings of Friedrich von Amberg (guardian in Fribourg, † 1432), who in 1393 had a professional scribe copy these sermons (f. 134r-v, regarding the cost f. 153r) and compile a table of contents (ff. 147-153). The 14th century binding with wooden boards and formerly with a chain was restored by Father Otho Raymann before 2007.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
Codex 25, a paper manuscript from the middle of the 15th century, consists of two separate codicological textual units. The first contains an average quality copy (and selection) of the most important and earliest work of the Dominican Johannes Herolt, known as “Discipulus” (d. 1468): De eruditione Christifidelium. The second textual unit was written in 1455 by the scribe Franciscus de Gallandia from Yvonand. It goes by the title Fabulae moralizatate and consists of 122 Latin fables taken from various sources from antiquity, presented in the form of dialogs. Magninus Mediolanensis (d. 1376) and Nicolaus Pergamenus are identified as the authors. Beginning with the first print edition (1480) the Fabulae moralizatae were re-named Dialogus creaturarum optime moralizatus.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript with philosophical and theological content was written by assorted hands on paper; the 5 codicological parts contain 11 tracts by various 14th century authors, including 6 unique texts. The parts were produced between 1370 and 1410 and were re-ordered various times before the codex was bound in its current order, probably at the beginning of the 15th century in Fribourg. One of the scribes, who was also the owner and redactor of the volume, was Fredrich von Amberg (about 1350/60-1432), who lived from 1393-1432 in the Franciscan cloister in Fribourg and served two terms as guardian there. Friedrich was able to assemble these copies of the texts by either copying or purchasing them while studying in Strassburg, Paris, and Avignon.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
Codex 28 is a copy of the Defensor pacis, a treatise on the theory of the state dedicated to Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria by Marsilius of Padua in 1324. Around the end of the 14th century, Friedrich von Amberg (ca. 1350-1432) obtained a not particularly carefully written copy from the German group, which provides the older redaction of Marsilius. Amberg corrected this version of the text, written on paper from the Middle German area with watermarks from the last decade of the 14th century, added marginal glosses and then had it bound.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
Composite manuscript of material for sermons, written by various hands in cursive. It might have been compiled by Friedrich von Amberg (guardian of the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg 1409, 1414). The catchwords and the Tabula de tempore and de sanctis are in his hand.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This anonymous collection of sermons with homilies, chiefly with a Neoplatonic slant, comes from the third quarter of the fourteenth century and probably was written in Fribourg-en-Nuithonie. The volume contains, after a thematic index at the beginning, 18 homilies for the time from Advent to Quinquagesima, 34 homilies from Easter to the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, and a few Sunday sermons for Lent. The pastedowns are fragments of a Hebrew manuscript in a thirteenth-century Ashkenazi cursive. The book has not been restored, a formerly chained volume with raspberry-red leather cover.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This composite manuscript was compiled by Konrad von Sulzbach in 1364, when he was a student in Strasbourg. After the first part of the collection containing the commentary by Gregory of Rimini OESA was lost, the manuscript was rebound in the last decade of the 14th century in Fribourg (Switzerland) with 37 Quaestiones determinatae (f. 1r-110v), with other questions (110v-119v and 153v-167r), and with the summary of the Sentenzen by Johannes de Fonte (f. 120r-153r). The 37 Quaestiones, which reveal the influence of the English Franciscan School, are found only in this manuscript.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This composite manuscript, much used by Friedrich von Amber, contains material about the history of the religious order in the first part (f. 1r-100v). In the second, probably more important part (f. 109r-165v), it contains treatises, questions and polemics from the time of the conflict of Pope John XXII with Louis IV (called the Bavarian) who resided in Munich and with the Franciscan Spirituals who had fled to that city. Several of these writings are preserved only in this manuscript, among them a treatise on the Visio beatifica of 1332-1333 (f. 127v-153r) which, according to Annelise Maier can possibly be attributed to William of Ockham, as well as a polemic (f. 153r-160r) in which Louis IV is warned against too hastily making peace with the Pope in Avignon.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
Codex 62 is typical of composite manuscripts from the time around 1400 found in Franciscan convents. It contains sermonic material by known and unknown authors in the form of complete sermons, thematic selections and exempla. It is made up of 15 codicological units. Friederich von Amberg (ca. 1350-1432) assembled this collection, added a table of contents, and had it bound in Fribourg (Switzerland). The most valuable part of this miscellany consists of a set of 16 sermons on pennance by the Dominican St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), delivered by the sermonist between March 9 through 21, 1404 in Fribourg, Murten, Payerne, Avenches, and Estavayer. Friedrich von Amberg made a fair copy and incorporated it as the 6th codicological unit (fol. 45r-97v) of this composite manuscript.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
A later title plate describes the content: Sermones de beata virgine super Missus est. Item tabula, in qua continentur 7 virtutes and, by a later hand, Tractatus contra pestem et tractatus super Egredietur virga. The first text (1r-48r) offers an explanation of the Hail Mary in 14 sermons. Friedrich von Amberg annotated the Tractatus bonus de VI nominibus corporis Christi by the Cistercian monk of Heilbronn (67r-97v). This is followed by the copy of a treatise on the plague (100r-105r), the Good Friday postil by the Dominican Antonius Azaro Parmensis (f. 105v-123r), and additional texts which probably interested Amberg as sermon material.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
German-Latin and Latin-German dictionary by the cleric Fritsche Closener; in 1384 Friedrich von Amberg (guardian in Fribourg, † 1432) had the scribe Gregorius copy this lexicon (colophon f. 101v). This is an important, alphabetically-arranged dictionary with brief translations of words, with additions and supplements by Friedrich von Amberg. The 14th/15th century binding with wooden boards and formerly with a chain was completely restored by Father Otho Raymann in 1998 (see ms. 139 regarding the original binding). The originally loose parts of the manuscript (f. B, ff. I-XX) are now securely bound.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This miscellany was assembled by Friedrich von Amberg (Guardian of the Franciscan Convent of Fribourg, † 1432) from various earlier compilations and text fragments. The volume, divided into eight parts, has an extensive collection of exempla (Part 1), excerpts from the Gesta Romanorum (Parts 3, 4, 5 und 6), from the De cognicione of Helinand of Froidmont (Part 2), from Robert Holcot’s Moralitates (Part 6), from Hugh of Folieto’s De avibus (Part 7) and Nicholas of Hanapis‘ Liber de exemplis Sacrae scripturae (Part 8). The back cover and flyleaf contain a large part of a Fribourg charter. The formerly chained volume with a white-leather cover was restored in 2021 by Carole Jeanneret.
Online Since: 12/20/2023