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In 1433 town clerk Egloff Etterlin compiled a cartulary with copies of documents relevant to the laws of Lucerne, including translations of Latin texts. The volume permitted the council quick access to these texts; thus it served as a finding aid for the originals stored in the water tower (« Wasserturm »). These copies of 150 documents (with 21 translations) do not render the originals in chronological order, but are instead ordered by topic. They were written by various scribes of the Lucerne chancery and go up to the year 1492. This volume receives its name from the magnificent 1505 cover of velvet and taffeta over wooden boards, decorated with silver bosses and clasps with the coat of arms of Lucerne.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
This Latin Bible contains the Books of the Old Testament (Octateuch, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job and Maccabees). They are preceded by Jerome's prologue to the whole of the Bible (in logical order: ff. 11, then 13-14r; the beginning is incomplete), by an excerpt from De doctrina christiana 2, 8-9 by Saint Augustine (f. 14) and by Jerome's prologue to the Pentateuch (in the order: f. 14v then f. 9). Several leaves at the beginning have been lost or were not bound correctly; the manuscript currently begins with Genesis 19.26. The incomplete text of Genesis should be read in this order: ff. 9v-10, 15-16, 12 (Gn 10.30-19.26 are missing), 1-8 (Gn 31.28-36.19 are missing), 17-26r. Similarly there are defects at the end of the manuscript: the text is interrupted on f. 379v at 2 Maccabees 14.6. There are several errors in the modern foliation: 3 leaves between ff. 161 and 162 were not counted; the foliation jumps from f. 188 to f. 190, and there is a f. 256a. RIKB 8 has a blue initial with red pen flourishes (f. 9v), as well as several simple initials in red, in part with geometrical motifs (e.g. on ff. 69r or 112r). As we learn from the explicit on f. 227v, this manuscript was transcribed in 1433. It belonged to the Swiss entrepreneur Kurt Bösch (*1907 in Augsburg - † 2000 in Augsburg), bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts, who notably founded l‘Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB) in Brämis/Sion (VS). In 2012, the UIKB donated several valuable books, including this manuscript, to the Médiathèque Valais.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Cod. Sang. 1398a is one of eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments) of the Abbey Library of St. Gall. Between 1774 and 1785, the St. Gall monks Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756–1823) and Ildefons von Arx (1755–1833) detached numerous fragments from bindings in which they had served for centuries as pastedowns, flyleaves, spine linings, and endleaf guards. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound in eight thematically-organized bindings and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. Chiefly in the twentieth century, researchers found additional, small fragments in bindings, from which they were then removed and added to the existing fragment volumes or into the collection of fragments. From 2003 to 2004 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1398a was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same sequence) in 14 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, now authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (and not the empty paper leaves). To be cited (for example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1398a.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1398a, Folder 1, pages 1-2). The eighth folder of Cod. Sang. 1398a contains fragments from seven manuscripts of canon law and one text of logic (p. 23-24), from the tenth to the fifteenth century.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This pocket format 15th century Hebrew Book of Psalms from Ashkenaz, is representative of private use hand copies, which are more seldom preserved in separate textual units rather than incorporated in the Hagiographs section of Hebrew bibles and liturgical manuscripts. Nonetheless, this genre of biblical literature is already attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Additionaly, Ms Or. 159 contains 149 Psalms, rather than the canonical 150, which is only one among many configurations found in early and late medieval Hebrew manuscripts, enclosing between 143 and 151 Psalms. Lastly, two medieval Hebrew manuscript fragments of an Esther Scroll have been reused as flyleaves for the 16th century leather tooled binding, protecting this little exquisite Book of Psalms.
Online Since: 06/13/2019