Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek
The Central Library of Solothurn is a cantonal, municipal and regional library. Its collection of printed books, including about 1,000 incunabula, is among the most extensive library holdings in Switzerland. With about 100 medieval manuscripts and a much larger number of early modern materials, the Central Library of Solothurn has diverse but comparatively less extensive holdings of manuscripts. These volumes had previously been locally owned by private persons or religious institutions (among others the Monastery of St. Ursus, the Franciscan Monastery, the Jesuit College in Solothurn, the family libraries of von Roll, vom Staal, Wagner, Besenval, Glutz). The historical collection has supra-regional significance and is an essential part of the cultural and historical heritage of the canton and of the city of Solothurn; it is one of the most significant collections in Switzerland and in the Southwestern part of the German-speaking region.
This German language composite manuscript probably was created at the Oetenbach Convent of Dominican nuns in Zurich in the beginning of the 15th century. In addition to the liturgical Psalter (for the monastic Liturgy of the Hours, Psalterium feriatum), it also contains the Cantica of the breviary and the Litany of the Saints in German, as well as a prayer. At least since the 17th century, the manuscript has been in the possession of the collegiate church of St. Ursus in Solothurn.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This spiritual handbook contains assorted German texts: a translation of the Gospel of Nicodemus and a communion devotion together with Dominican funeral rites and mystic texts about Christ's Passion. The manuscript originated in the third quarter of the 15th century in the area of the Upper Rhine and was originally the property of the Dominican convent in Bern (Inselkloster St. Michael). After the Reformation, at the end of the 16th century, the manuscript was acquired by the Solothurn City Library (Bibliotheca civitatis).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Johannes Aal (ca. 1500-1551), an erudite humanist, provost and dramatist, was a leading figure in the cultural life of Solothurn. During his studies in Freiburg im Breisgau, his teacher, the universal scholar Heinrich Loriti (Glarean, 1488-1563) on 17 May 1537 dictated him these comments on his De geographia liber.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This illustrated breviary for the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine was produced in 1470/1471 in Lombardy. The elegant script is characteristic of the Abbey of Santa Croce at Mortara. In the 17th century the volume was acquired by the patrician Wagner family of Solothurn, whose books were bequeathed to the city library in 1773.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
TThis southern german manuscript is a collection of medical texts that include, in addition to the Artzneibuch (Book of Nutrition) by Ortolf von Baierland and extracts from the Thesaurus pauperum by Petrus Hispanus,a complete separate text on healing as the Corpus of cloister medicine as well as assorted versions of the Wacholderbeertraktat (Juniper berry tract), extracts from Bartholomeus, the Antidotarium Nicolai and much more. These texts were assembled between 1463 and 1466 by Reichenau physician Hans Stoll. The codex is listed in the first catalog of the Solothurn City Library of 1766/1771.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This substantial composite manuscript contains approximately 2.000 recipes and instructions, principally from art technology, but also other medical, culinary and alchemistic ones. The manuscript had been the property of the Bieler family, residents of Solothurn since the 17th century; the family counted several artisans in its ranks.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
This composite manuscript was compiled around 1560 in Obwalden; a Hans Werb is named as writer. In addition to medieval mystical texts (Rulman Merswin, Neunfelsenbuch; Henry Suso, Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit), it contains other spiritual texts such as prayers, meditations, prophecies, legends (among others about Nicholas of Flüe) and copies of contemporary pamphlets.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This Parisian or Sorbonne Bible, produced around 1270 in Northern France, is remarkable not only for the form of its text including glosses and corrections, but also for its high-quality illuminated initials. The volume came to Zuchwil in the late 16th century and from the 17th century on, it has been held in the Solothurn abbey library.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The Solothurn Legendary is the earliest example of a collection of legends in the German language. This manuscript was written during the second quarter of the 14th century in a Dominican cloister, possibly in Töss (near Winterthur) or in Oetenbach (Zurich). The manuscript was acquired by Solothurn in the 17th century.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This missal of the Franciscan use contains Sunday and Feast-day masses from the Temporal and the Sanctoral. A possessor's mark from the Franciscan Franz Meyer, from 1587 warden of the Solothurn convent, proves that the manuscript came from that convent. Originally, it may have come, as Schönherr hypothesizes, from the Franciscan convent in Bern, which was dissolved during the Reformation.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This small volume with the German translation of the Franciscan Rule (“Augsburger Drittordensregel”) comes from the Franciscan convent of Solothurn and is probably connected with the tertiaries or the Beguinage “zum Lämmli” in Solothurn, which was entrusted to the Franciscans for the cure of souls.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This German book of meditations and prayers for Dominican nuns was produced at the Inselkloster St. Michael in Bern. It contains, inter alia, numerous excerpts from the writings of Gertrud of Helfta and Mechthild of Hackeborn. Most of it was written in 1507 by Sister Luzia von Moos. Beginning in the 17th century the manuscript is known to have been in the possession of the Solothurn family Gugger; at the beginning of the 19th century it was obtained by the Solothurn City Library.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The Küchenmeisterei is one of the most widely known German language cookbooks. The Solothurn manuscript of the Küchenmeisterei is a copy of a printed edition, produced no earlier than 1487.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This small-format missal is an important witness for the Franciscan liturgy of the thirteenth century. Schönherr hypothesizes an origin in the Franciscan province of Upper Germany, and a Bavarian provenance (the convent of Franciscan nuns zum Heiligen Kreuz, Landshut?). A possessor’s mark of the warden of the Franciscan convent of Dieburg near Darmstadt dates to 1513. It is not known how and when the manuscript got to Solothurn.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
The provost and dramatist Johannes Aal (ca. 1500-1551) was a leading figure in 16th century Solothurn. This composite manuscript, produced between 1517 and 1518, gives an insight into his time as a student. It contains excerpts on Greek and Latin grammar and rhetoric, writings on music theory, as well as excerpts from Petrarch, Guarini, Johannes Reuchlin, Sebastian Brant and others.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This small volume contains a collection of organ works and sacred songs, among them several unique examples by Tarquinio Merula, Martin Benn, Jakob Bannwart (organ music) and Isabella Leonarda (motets from her lost Opus 1). The collection was created “Ad usum Jo: Victoris Ruossingeri Solodorensis. Ao 1656.” The writer probably was Johann Victor Russinger (1630–1700), then chaplain and later canon of St. Ursus in Solothurn. In the 19th century, this small volume was owned by the Solothurn Franciscan Franz Ludwig Studer (1804–1873); later it became part of the Central Library of Solothurn.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
The oldest remaining Solothurn chronicle by Anton Haffner (ca. 1535-ca. 1608) has survived in various manuscript versions. This version was written on paper by Anton Haffner himself around 1577. There are also comments in the hand of his great nephew, Franz Haffner (1609-1671), author of the better-know printed Solothurn chronicle of 1666.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This manuscript was created in the third quarter of the 15th century, probably in the Upper Rhine area or rather Switzerland, as evidenced by the original binding which is decorated with numerous individual stamps. In addition to the translation of the Psalms with commentary, which had earlier been attributed to Heinrich von Mügeln, the manuscript also contains the Cantica of the breviary in German. The circumstances that brought this volume to Solothurn are not known.
Online Since: 03/17/2016
This manuscript, which was produced in the Upper Rhine area in 1457, contains a remarkably independent translation of the biblical Books of Wisdom, the oldest German translation of several works by Seneca, and a translation, also independent, of the teachings on the ‘cura domestica’ by the Pseudo-Bernhard of Clairvaux. It is not known how this volume came to Solothurn, but it has been part of the holdings of the Solothurn City Library since the 18th century already.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript brings together assorted treatises, mainly computistical and astronomical works (by Jakob Twinger von Königshofen, Johannes Münzinger, Johannes de Sacrobosco and others). It was written between 1388 and 1394 in Strassburg and in Rottweil on the Neckar (Wurttemberg) by Konrad Justinger and by Werner Mardersberger. One of the scribes, Werner Mardersberger was later director of the Solothurn Abbey School. The volume was acquired by the Solothurn Abbey Library in 1504.
Online Since: 12/21/2009