Sub-project: Manuscripts from the Carthusian monastery of Basel
Summer 2017 - December 2020
Status: Completed
Financed by: University Library Basel
Description: The Carthusian monastery of St. Margarethental was founded in 1401 in Kleinbasel (Lesser Basel); until the Reformation it was an important spiritual and intellectual center whose influence extended far beyond the city of Basel. At the beginning of the 16th century its library contained about 2,000 books, almost all of which became the property of the university after the dissolution of the monastery and constituted the substantive basis of the early university library. Among these books are more than 600 manuscripts, which are currently in the process of being catalogued and made accessible by the University Library Basel. In addition, a scholarly relevant selection of these manuscripts is being digitized, among them the German manuscripts from the the library of the lay brothers as well as the manuscripts containing texts by the Carthusians of Basel.
All Libraries and Collections
This Liber benefactorum, the book of benefactors of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, was written gradually between the 1430s and the 1520s. The main part of the manuscript, a calendar created in the early 15th century, contains the names of over 800 benefactors. The manuscript was designed from the beginning as a Liber benefactorum and has close ties to an annal from the Basel charterhouse that was written during the tenure of Prior Heinrich Arnoldi (StABS, Klosterarchiv Kartaus N).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This meticulously executed manuscript contains the first part of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, one of the Scholastic’s main works; it is from the library of Johannes de Lapide, Carthusian monk in Basel. The quires consist of paper and parchment in regular alteration; the proem begins with an ornamental page decorated with gold with a Q-initial on gold leaf, scroll ornamentation with flowers and berries in the margins, and a decorated intercolumnium.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
Postil on Genesis and Exodus, written in 1396 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 52 quarter- to half-page colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 2-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, written in 1397 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 23 mostly half-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1, 3-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Esdras and Job, written in 1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 58 half-page, partly or entirely colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-2, 4-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Kings and Esther, written in 1400-1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 52 single-column, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-3, 5-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Jeremiah, Daniel, Maccabees and Judith, written in 1393 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 53 half- to whole-page, partly framed colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-4, 6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Isaiah and the Twelve Minor Prophets, probably written between 1393 and 1396 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with two schematic drawings of the sun dial that illustrates the miracle of the healing of Hezekiah, This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-5 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Postil on the Gospel of Matthew and on the treatise on chess by Jacobus de Cessolis, written in 1392 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 13 single-column colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6 and 11-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Gospels of John, Luke and Mark as well as on Tobias and Baruch, written in 1392-1393 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 3 whole-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6, 10 and 12-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Acts of the Apostles, on the Apocalypse, and on the canonical letters, written in 1405-1407 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 14 half-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6, 10-11 and 13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Pauline epistles, written in 1413-1415 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which the richly illustrated volumes A II 1-6 and 10-12 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This commentary on the Psalms is an autograph by Ambrosius Alantsee, who, after having studied and then taught at the University of Basel, entered the Carthusian monastery of Basel in 1480 and, among others, held positions there as scribe, prior and author of primarily liturgical literature. This manuscript was written a few years before his death, which occurred in 1505 while on a visitation journey to Erfurt.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
German translation of the postil on the Psalms by Nicholas of Lyra (deceased 1349), probably created during his lifetime. The commentary on the Psalms, earlier attributed to Heinrich von Mügeln, is the work of an anonymous writer, not yet historically ascertained, the so-called “Österreichischer Bibelübersetzer“ (Austrian translator of the Bible). In his translation of the original, he abbreviates the text and supplies additions. This copy from the library of the Carthusian monastery of Basel dates to the middle of the 15th century; the miniatures are part of the Vullenhoe group.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
These two individual leaves transmit both stanzas of the “Goldenes Ave Maria“: once as a song with glosses “Ave got grüß dich reine magt“ (A III 52a), a second time in an adaptation by the Carthusian Ludwig Moser of Basel (A III 52b). Both texts probably were written by him in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript is part of the holdings of the Carthusian monastery of Basel, to which it came as a gift from a former dean of Rheinfeld, Antonius Rütschmann. It contains mainly Gregory the Great ’s Homiliae in evangelia and the first two books of the Libri miraculorum by Caesarius of Heisterbach, as well as sermons and excerpts by Johannes of Freiburg, Johannes of Mülberg, and Jordan of Quedlinburg.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript, in a strikingly narrow format, was created in Mainz and, as a gift from the Carthusians living there, it later came to the Carthusian monastery of Basel. It contains a large number of short and very short texts: in addition to some sermons, it mainly contains excerpts from theological, church historical and political treatises, including some in German.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This codex from the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains as a first part a treatise about the appropriate penance for various transgressions against commandments and sacraments. A second part consists of a collection of Latin hymns with an interlinear translation into German, as well as a loose translation into German as continuous text, in part also combined with a short interpretation. This is followed by texts about the mass and several Opuscula by Gregory of Nazianzus, a letter by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide about the qualities of a good priest, and a brief text by Heinrich Arnoldi about a sermon on Mary.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This undecorated paper volume from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains theological Disputationes or Quaestiones by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide. These discussions, which, according to a note on folio 1r, took place in Paris in the presence and at the instigation of Heynlin, were copied by different hands, including that of Heynlin himself.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume contains a large number of texts about theology and canon law. All of it was written by one scribe, the Carthusian Heinrich von Vullenhoe of Basel. In a long note he provides information about the motives that guided him during the compilation: Since as a Carthusian he could not himself act as a preacher, he only had the possibility to spread the Word of God with his hands, i.e. by writing books. He expresses the hope that this compilation he has organized may strengthen the pious on their path and may offer an occasion for remorse for the sinners. Many of the texts that Vullenhoe has combined in this volume refer directly to the Carthusian Order. One example is the treatise de esu carnium, which defends the Carthusian practice of renouncing meat as a foodstuff. Many texts have also been handed down in other manuscripts from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/12/2019