One of the Isidore codices from the Monastery of Fulda; the codex escaped destruction because it reached Basel during the 16th century, before the abduction and destruction of the library during the Thirty Years' War. There it apparently was to serve as a textual source for a planned edition of Isidore’s works. This codex was created in Fulda at the end of the 9th century and still retains its Carolingian binding in a parchment cover. In addition to the works of Isidore, it contains the oldest catalog of the Fulda library, the so-called Basel recipes in Old High German, and an astronomic-computistic cycle of illustrations. (stu)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This manuscript, written in a 13th century textura, was the property of the cleric and historian Dietrich von Niem (1340-1418), who provided it with numerous marginal notes. The volume, which was passed on to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, contains, among others, Seneca’s Naturales quaestiones, the discussion Cur deus homo? by Anselm of Canterbury, and the astrological work De radiis stellarum by the Arab philosopher and scientist Alkindi. It also contains the article De probatione virginitatis beatae Mariae from the so-called "Suda", a Byzantine encyclopedia widely used in the Latin translation by Roberto Grosseteste. (flr)

Online Since: 12/12/2019

This volume contains the so-called Wörterbuch des alten Schulmeisters (old schoolmaster’s dictionary). This is an independent adaptation of the more widely used Vocabularius ex quo. In contrast to the more original version, in the old schoolmaster's edition the German explanations take a back seat to the purely Latin ones. The original pastedowns, which were detached from the cover during a restoration in 1974, also contain excerpts from a Latin translation of Aristotle's De anima and other pieces of related content. The fact that the text on the rear pastedown directly continues the text from the front pastedown shows that, in their original context, the pastedowns must have been two successive pages of one manuscript. (fis)

Online Since: 06/18/2020

Probably written in Schongau and later acquired by the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, this volume is part of the vast tradition in manuscript and in print form of the so-called Vocabularius Ex quo. This alphabetically ordered dictionary was intended as a resource for users with limited knowledge of Latin and remained enormously popular in the German-speaking region until the end of the 16th century. (mue)

Online Since: 06/14/2018

This manuscript transmits various Latin-German vocabularies, among them the Mammotrectus by the Italian Franciscan John Marchesinus, which was written around 1300. This manuscript, written around 1400 by a certain Ulrich Wachter, was purchased for the Carthusian monastery of Basel in 1430. (stu)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This volume contains texts that are related to late medieval, early humanistic school practice; i.e. on the one hand, works intended for school practice (grammars, word lists) and on the other hand, theoretical treatises of didactic-pedagogical content. This volume, bound at the Carthusian monastery of Basel, brings together several originally independent parts. The first part, the prose version of Alexander of Villedieu’s versified grammar, is from the Carthusian monastery of Mainz and was donated to the Carthusian monastery of Basel. The last part, the grammar of Giovanni Sulpizio, here in a version printed by Johannes Amerbach, came to the monastery library as a gift from the printer. (fis)

Online Since: 06/18/2020

This manuscript contains the French text of the heroic epic (chanson de geste) Ami et Amile. The scribe gives the period of the creation of this copy (from 16 May to 23 June 1425) in a colophon. The text is written in a Gothic cursive and is punctuated by numerous rubricated initials that mark the beginning of each verse. The modern cardboard binding is covered by a parchment fragment from a 15th century missal. An inscription on the flyleaf indicates that this volume was a gift to the writer Anne de Graville (1490-1540). Later it was part of the collection belonging to her son-in-law, the bibliophile Claude d'Urfé (1501-1558). In the 19th century, the work came into the possession of the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel (1806-1869), who donated it to the University Library Basel in 1843. (mal)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

The oldest manuscript of Sedulius Scottus' commentaries on the common introductions to the Gospels. In the 16th century, the manuscript apparently came from Fulda to Basel, a center for printing. This brief work, which has survived in only a handful of codices, is still awaiting a critical edition. (stb)

Online Since: 03/29/2019

This volume contains two commentaries on Aristotle’s Libri physicorum; the authors are Friedrich von Nürnberg and Johannes Buridanus. They were copied in 1439 by Albrecht Löffler from Rheinfelden during his studies at the University of Heidelberg. Later he joined the Dominican Order and left this manuscript to the Dominican Convent of Basel, where it became part of the chained library. (gam/flr)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

This manuscript contains exercises and Quaestiones on Aristotle’s works De anima and De physica by the reform theologian Johann von Wesel (1425-1481). This volume is from the Carthusian monastery of Basel; based on a comparative study of the script, it can be assumed that the scribe of the first part is Jakob Louber. Numerous annotations in the margins and on slips of paper attest that the manuscript was heavily used. (flr)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

As its main part, this manuscript, completed in 1474 by Henricus de Bacharach, contains a copy of the widely transmitted Latin-German Vocabularius Ex quo, which was very popular through the end of the 16th century; in addition, it contains a calendar, an astrological table and several short texts by other hands. The main text was decorated by the scribe himself with naive but partly very imaginative initials and drawings. This paper codex came to the UB (Basel University Library) along with the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (mue)

Online Since: 06/14/2018

This worn paper manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains several treatises (in part with commentaries) for calculating the annual calendar, in particular for determining the movable holidays, such as the Computus chirometralis of Johannes of Erfurt or the Computus Nerembergensis. In addition, the volume contains a series of Old Frisian and Low German texts: sermons for weddings, recipes, a Latin-German glossary, as well as a short version of the “niederdeutsche Apokalypse”. (flr)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

This manuscript, which was written in part by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide and which came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel with him, contains Johannes de Fonte’s florilegium Auctoritates Aristotelis, a collection of quotations in alphabetical order, two anonymous treatises, as well as treatises by the Franciscan Francis of Meyronnes, by the pseudo John Duns Scotus and by Johannes Breslauer de Braunsberg. A print (5 leaves) of the Tractatus de memoria augenda by Matheolus Perusinus is also bound into this volume. (mue)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

This manuscript with the Middle High German epic poem "Laurin" about Dietrich of Bern came to the Basel University Library in a truly adventurous manner. As the head librarian Ludwig Sieber (1833-1891) himself notes in the manuscript, the codex was found on the banks of the Rhine in Basel in 1878. It was then donated to the university library by Ludwig Sieber and his predecessor Wilhelm Vischer (head librarian 1867-1871). The place of discovery left its mark on the manuscript: In parts, the paper and binding are very damaged and fragile and show water damage in various places, especially at the edges of the leaves. The text, however, is still very legible, although incompletely preserved. Fragments of documents in the binding and the pen-and-ink drawing of a flag with a Basel staff make a reference to Basel as a possible place of origin. (stu)

Online Since: 12/12/2019

The extensively glossed Rhetorica ad Herennium in the front part of this composite manuscript was copied by Johannes Heynlin, who also brought this book with him to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. The text from the 1st century BC represents the oldest surviving theory of rhetoric in Latin; it was very popular during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as attested by a vast tradition of more than 100 manuscripts as well as translations into numerous European languages. The volume transmits principles of rhetoric that have remained valid until to this day. (mue)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

Information about the conscription of troops. It names several cities along the Nile (among them Elephantine, Herakleion, Oxyrhynchus) that had to supply soldiers for the Persian commander Šērag. This document, written in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) on parchment, dates from between 619 and 629 AD, the time of the Sassanid occupation of Egypt. (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Didactic poem in Arabic by Avicenna (d. 1037) about the art of healing. The manuscript was written in the 17th century on paper of European provenance and came to the university library in 1682 as a gift from Konrad Harber. According to the canon, the Urǧūza (or Manẓūma) fī ṭ-ṭibb is the Persian scholar’s greatest contribution to medicine. Armengaud Blaise translated it into Latin in Montpellier in 1284 under the title Cantica; a version of the translation, revised by Andrea Alpago, was printed in Venice in 1527. (wur)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

Famous collection of wise sayings attributed to the caliph ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (deceased 661). Each proverb in Arabic is followed by its translation into Persian in Maṯnawī verses in Ramal meter. The sentences are also known by the title Ṣad kalima or Miʾat kalima and have been translated into Persian several times. This version does not name the translator. This copy was prepared by a well-known calligrapher from Shiraz, Ḥusayn al-Faḫḫār; it was completed in Rabīʿ II 952 h. [= June-July 1545]. The manuscript is from the bequest of the turkologist and scholar of Islamic studies Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960). (wur)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

This Persian-Arabic manuscript, written in Herat by ʿAbdallāh al-Harawī and completed Middle of Šaʿbān 871 h. [= end of March 1467], contains genealogical information about the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants, as well as about people important to the subsequent history of the eastern part of the Islamic world and of Central Asia, among them the Khan of Moghulistan, Tughluq Timur († 1363). Sayyid Ǧalāladdīn Mazīd Bahādur is named as the person who commissioned the manuscript; he probably was part of the local upper class. Interspersed in the text are quotations from the Koran, prayers and poems; an appendix gives exact death dates for three people who passed away in the year 869 h. and who may have been part of the circle of the man who commissioned the manuscript. The decoration of the manuscript is incomplete, as can be seen from an only partially completed rosette (3r) and a missing family tree (26v). The manuscript was owned by Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960).  (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

Collection of prayers in the form of litanies (awrād), attributed to a Šayḫ Wafāʾ. The manuscript must have been completed before 1746, because in this year it was consigned to a religious foundation by Bašīr Āġā, a dignitary of the Ottoman court. The author cannot be conclusively ascertained since there are several people known by the name Šayḫ Wafāʾ. This manuscript probably belongs in the context of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), which was firmly established as an institution in the Ottoman-Turkish society of the period. The manuscript comes from the collection of the Islamic scholar and turkologist Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960). (wur)

Online Since: 12/14/2017