One of the most important extant copies of the Institutiones oratoriae (The Art of Rhetoric) by the Roman rhetorician Quintilian († after 96 A.D.). This work, influential to the present day, depicts in twelve books the education of an orator from his earliest youth through to the completion of training; the goal is the development of an unimpeachably ethical orator who places speaking skills at the service of humanity. This St. Gall copy dates from the early 11th century, with glosses and annotations added by, and – in the case of the last few books – also written by the St. St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV († about 1060).
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Elaborate lectionary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and enhanced with numerous ornate initial capitals by a contemporary of the famous St. Gallen scribe Sintram about 900/910, the same scribe who wrote and illuminated Ms. C 60 held by the Central Library of Zurich. This work, also known as the "Liber Comitis", contains the cycle of liturgical Epistle and Gospel readings for the Church year.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Manuscript compilation from the monastery of St. Gall containing a number of assorted brief texts from the 9th through 15th centuries. Among other items from the 9th century, this manuscript contains the sole exemplar of a document explaining the reasons for the meeting between King Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, the "Aachener Karlsepos " (Carolingean Epic of Aachen or Paderborn Epic) in 799 as well as another sole exemplar, the so called "Carmina Sangallensia", verses on the wall paintings in the former Gallusmünster (Church of St. Gallus) in the monastery of St. Gall. Further components of this manuscript include theological-canonical treatises as well as sermons from the 14th and 15th centuries.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Manuscript compilation containing texts from the 9th through 13th centuries from the monastery of St. Gall. Among them are important copies of works from Alcuin of York († 804; including De dialectica and De rhetorica et virtutibus). Between the two named texts by Alcuin is a full page pen and ink sketch representing the Maiestas Domini, interpreted by art historian Anton von Euw as a reproduction of the now lost cupola mosaic of the Aachen cathedral. The opening text is a copy of 13th century canonical texts by Bishop Sicardus of Cremona (about 1150-1215; Super decreta).
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Compilation of numerous Latin writings of the St. St. Gall monk Notker the German († 1022), among them the works Distributio (concerning the boundary between grammar and logic), De dialectica and De rhetorica. Produced in the monastery of St. Gall in the first half of the 11th century.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Paleographically significant copy of the Alexandreis by Walter of Chatillon, produced in the 14th century in the monastery of St. Gall. This long but much-read work by the French theologian Gautier of Chatillon (1135-1201) depicts the life of Alexander the Great in Latin hexameter. The manuscript later served as the basis of an "Edition" by the St. St. Gall monk Athanasius Gugger (1608-1669), entitled "Gualterus de Castellione Phil. Alexandris sive gesta Alexandri magni libris X comprehens ex veteribus manuscriptis bibliothecarum S. Galli", printed in 1659 by the St. Gallen cloister press.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Manuscript compilation by the wandering monk of St. Gallen, Gall Kemli († 1481) with a wide variety of copied texts and original compositions in Latin and German languages (Diversarius multarum materiarum), for instance: recipes for medicines, instructions in liturgical song, exorcism, scribal rules, indulgences, etc. Affixed into the manuscript are twelve colored single page prints from the 15th century, which are valuable–in some cases unique–exemplars in the history of European printing.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Lectures of the St. Gallen reformer Joachim Vadian from 1523/24: a) on the Lives of the Apostles and, b) on his geographic work Epitome trium terrae habitatae partium, taken down in writing by Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546) of Bischofszell, who worked at the Cloister of St. Gall as calligrapher and church organist.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Manuscript compilation from the 11th century containing some Latin-Old High German works by the St. St. Gall monk Notker the German († 1022). Also includes the works Quid sit syllogismus, De partibus logicae, and De materia artis rhetoricae. In the last section of the manuscript: a copy of the Commentaries of the Venerable Bede Super epistolas catholicas expositio (upon the seven catholic letters) from the 11th century.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
The present Codex contains the complete text of the Dialogus (ca. 1110–1120) of Petrus Alfonsi, a converted Jew from Huesca (since 1096 Kingdom of Aragon). The Dialogus is a polemic and apologetic work, introducing (for the time) innovative, in view of the author «rational» argumentation against Jewish religion and Islam. The work spread quickly and had significant influence on Christian polemics especially in the 13th and 14th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
Manuscript compilation from the 9th century from the monastery of St. Gall containing, among other items, the Liber Hermeneumatum (a biblical glossary organized after the order of the books of the bible), a genealogy from Charlemagne to Ludwig the German and to the year 867; includes one of the oldest copies of a fictional exchange of letters between the Roman philosopher Seneca and the Apostle Pau (the so-called Pseudo-Seneca-Briefwechsel) as well as a sample letter ascribed to the St. St. Gall monk Notker Balbulus († 912).
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Manuscript of collected works (Collectanea) penned by and part of the personal collection of the wandering monk of St. Gall, Gall Kemli († 1481). It includes mainly texts with theological-philosophical, astronomical and medical content, but also, for example, recipes against lice, fleas, and worms, and a text about the fish and crustaceans inhabiting various bodies of water in Switzerland and southern Germany, together with advice on the best times to catch them and ways to prepare them.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Sermons and admonitions by the novice master of the monastery of St. Gall (P. Anton Widenmann?) to his Fratres juniores (monks in the period between their entry to the cloister/profession of vocation and their ordination to the priesthood) from the year 1633, probably taken down by Brother Chrysostomus Stipplin (1609-1672)..
Online Since: 04/26/2007
Volume 1 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by the St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): collection of Carmina heroica seu epica from the year 1673 containing, among many other texts, descriptions of various countries of Europe in verse, poems about numerous saints and two printed poetic compositions by the Reformed St. Gallen rector David Wetter: Poemata for the St. Gallen City Physician Sebastian Schobinger (1579-1652) on the occasion of the new year, Sangallas, description of the city of St. Gall in Latin verse.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 2 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by the St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): including 1) Verses from St. Gall on the birth of Christ and the births of prominent historical figures in the realms of politics, the church, science and literature, 2) so-called Aggratulationes (congratulatory addresses) for individuals in responsible positions in the monastery of St. Gall (abbots, deacons, subpriors, officials, professors and teachers) with anagrams, chronograms from the time of Abbot Pius Reher (1630-1654) and Gallus Alt (1654-1687), compiled from previously collected single sheets in the year 1673, most of which are in Latin, but some of which are in Greek or Hebrew.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 3 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): the so-called Affixiones, a thematically ordered exposition of heraldic devices by a combination of words (verses) and illustrations (of heraldic devices, which are no longer present) assembled by students of the cloister school of St. Gall from the writings of St. Gallen Friars Constatinius Pfiffer, Johannes Geiger, Ahtnasius Gugger, Chrysosotmus Stipplin, Basilius Renner, Jacob bon Tschernemell and Simon von Freiburg, with, among other devices, those of St. Gallen's founding patron St. Gallus and of Otmar.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 4 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichahaim (1626-1675): poems and epigrams for various high holy days, Marian feast days, and saints' days, composed by monks from the monastery of St. Gall, some during the last third of the 16th, but most during the 17th century. Examples also include elaborate New Year's Exhortations by abbots of St. Gall and printed verses by St. St. Gall monk Johannes Ruostaller, composed while he was studying in Dillingen in 1565, compiled in the year 1673.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 6 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichhaim (1626-1675): declamations and speeches, composed mainly by St. St. Gall monks during the late 16th and first half of the 17th century, some the product of rhetorical classes in the monastery of St. Gall, others produced for festive occasions, compiled in 1655. Contents of this volume include speeches, epitaphs, a fictional letter about Herod's the bloodbath of the holy innocents, verses about Gallus's exorcism of Fridiburga, daughter of the Duke Gunzo of the Allemans, and twelve extensive meditations on the life of Christ, composed by Mayor of Villingen Ferdinand von Freiburg, father of St. St. Gall monk Simon von Freiburg.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Volume 8 in a series originally consisting of eight volumes by St. St. Gall monk P. Ulrich Aichahaim (1626-1675): the major portion of this volume contains verses by St. St. Gall monks for, among other events, the translation festivities surrounding the transfer of the remains of Saints Anthony and St. Theodorus from the catacombs to St. Gall in 1654, poetry dedicated to the respective saints on their feast days, verses about the most important European rulers and nations during the Thirty Years War, and fictional grave inscriptions for St. Gallen abbots and monks, compiled in the year 1673.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
Oratory practice pieces in Latin by novices at the monastery of St. Gall (fratres studiosi), dedicated as a "Festschrift" for the name day of St. Gallen Abbot-Bishop Gallus Alt, 1660/61.
Online Since: 12/20/2007