Antiphonary, dating from around the year 1000, with Calendar and Gradual (written and provided with fine neumes probably by the monk Hartker), Ordo Missae and Sacramentary. An invaluable monument of music history.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted Sacramentary of St. Gall from the time of Abbot Norpert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass. With Calendar, Gradual and Sacramentary, illustrations include five full-page, high-quality miniatures of the principal feast days of the liturgical year (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Superbly crafted St. Gall sacramentary from the time of Abbot Norbert of Stablo (1034-1072) for the celebration of the Mass, containing a calendar of saints, a list of incipits of the spoken and chanted texts for the Mass on the principal feast days of saints and the sacramentary itself, which is illustrated with four splendid full-page miniatures, two full-page initials and numerous smaller initials.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Earliest complete extant gradual of St. Gall. The different parts of the manuscript date from different periods. Illustrated with numerous initials and several pen drawings (especially in the Sacramentary part).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This plenary missal, produced in St. Gall, which contains all chants and prayers of the Mass, consists of the following parts, written partly in the 11th and partly in the 14th century: liturgical calendar; sequences (without melodies); gradual; Masses (with prayers, readings, and chants for the Proper of the Mass); Canon of the Mass; sacramentary; lectionary. On p. 232 (opposite the Te igitur), there is a full-page picture of the crucifixion with two kneeling monks.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Sequentiary containing sequences without neumes by Notker Balbulus (pp. 1-14), a calendar (pp. 15-20) and a sacramentary (p. 21-182), beginning on p. 21 with a beautiful initial ‘M' (a vine scroll contoured in red on a blue and green background) and from p. 22 the Canon of the Mass with a Te igitur-initial with the Crucifixion.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This missal was most likely written for the Grossmünster of Zürich (from a comparison with the Grossmünster's Liber Ordinarius); it contains the proprium de tempore, proprium de sanctis (with the major feasts of Zürich), commune sanctorum and votive masses. The chants are written in smaller letters throughout, but only on a few pages do they appear together with melodies in neumatic notation. The canon missae (pp. 73–83) begins with a simple drawing of a canon. With that exception, the decoration is limited to at most two-line red lombards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
According to the particularly venerated saints in the calendar (pp. 6–17, the months are in the wrong order), this missal, written on fine parchment, belonged to a convent of Dominican women dedicated to St. Agnes. The canon missae (pp. 193–204) is introduced by a high-quality drawing, whose similarity to the depictions of the crucifixion in the Dominican convent of Constance has been emphasized in the art-historical literature. But it is unlikely that the manuscript was produced in the Diocese of Constance, since, among others, Gallus and Otmar are missing from the calendar; rather, the calendar points to a Strasbourg provenance. The missal is richly decorated with red and blue pen-flourished initials. On p. 18 there is an Exorcismus salis et aquae; following the Commune sanctorum there appear votive masses (pp. 426–446) and sequences (pp. 447–461). The manuscript was in St. Gall since the sixteenth or seventeenth century at the latest (possession note on p. 5).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Lectionary from the Abbey of St. Gall with numerous sermons on various Gospel selections by the church fathers, produced by a number of different hands in the 10th century in St. Gall. This little studied volume also contains benedictions and oratory prayers. Appended at the back (in small script in two columns) is a Psalter. The manuscript has become extremely soiled with intensive use; it features assorted addenda and supplements from the 11th and 12th centuries.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The incomplete Gelasian Remedius-Sacramentary, composed in Chur in about 800, at the time of the Chur Bishop Remedius, one of the most important liturgical texts from that time, containing the prayers used by bishops or priests during the Mass and administration of the sacraments, at the same time also one of the masterpieces of Retro romansh scribal culture in the Carolingian age, decorated with numerous fantastic initial capitals, still influenced by Irish models. Verifiably present in the monastery of St. Gall by about 850.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This collection of liturgical manuscripts includes the oldest known example of a Collectarium (containing prayers intended to be sung by a choir on major holy days) and various Statuta liturgica et monastica, written in Alemannic minuscule script during the second half of the 8th century at the Abbey of St. Gall (or certainly in the Lake Constance area).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This fragment of a Sacramentary of Rhaetian provenance (the Sacramentarium Gelasianum) is important in terms of liturgical scholarship; it was produced near the end of the 8th century in Chur and was recorded shortly thereafter among the holdings of the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript is closely related to the Sacramentarium Gelasianum of Codex 348, also of Rhaetian origin.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The manuscript is bound in a cardboard binding of the eighteenth/nineteenth century. It has two parts written at different times. The first part (pp. 3–120) begins with a fragmentary gradual (it starts on the Wednesday after the Third Sunday in Advent), written in the thirteenth century. The melodies are noted in staffless neumes. Following the Sundays after Pentecost, the part concludes with alleluia-verses (pp. 118–120). The second part (pp. 121–186), containing sequences without melodies, comes from the fourteenth century. In two parts of the codex is bound a quire from a gradual probably written in the thirteenth/fourteenth century: pp. 11–26 (in the middle of the introitus to the feast of the Holy Innocents), the propers for the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday after Christmas; pp. 159–174 (in the middle of the All Saints' sequence), the chants for the period from the Wednesday after the first Sunday of Lent to Holy Saturday.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Praeparatio ad missam (p. 2-63) and Benedictiones (p. 66-177), written by a single hand. This undecorated liturgical manuscript contains scarcely any corrections or later additions and shows slight signs of usage.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Pontifical missal of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript consists of two parts: the first part (p. 5-102) was written by the Wiblingen conventual Simon Rösch, the second part (p. 103-236) was perhaps not added until after the death of Abbot Ulrich Rösch. Only the prefaces (p. 83-102) have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 5 lines. There is also the abbot's coat of arms (p. 5) and an image of the crucifixion with medallions of the four evangelists (p. 70). Several pages have book decorations in the form of borders and initials, sometimes with gold leaf.
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Pontifical-missal of the St. Gall Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564) – the finest 16th century manuscript in Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
The so-called "Cantatorium of St. Gall", the earliest complete extant musical manuscript in the world with neume notation. It contains the solo chants of the Mass and constitutes one of the main sources for the reconstruction of Gregorian chant. Written and provided with fine neumes in the monastery of St. Gall between 922 and 926. Bound in a wooden box with an ivory panel on the front cover, most likely Byzantine c. 500, depicting scenes from the fight of Dionysos against the Indians. The ivory panel was once the possession of Charlemagne.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
A St. Gall Processional from about 1150, carried in processions, both within the cloister itself and also around the surrounding area which now comprises the city of St. Gall; bound in a long wooden protective case to protect it from the effects of the weather. It contains hymns and litanies to be sung during processions, most of them composed by the monks of St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries; includes neumes.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the first half of the 12th century. It contains the solo chants of the Mass, with finely executed neumes and some illuminated initials. Preceded by a Calendar with necrological notes from the monastery of St. Gall dating from between the 13th and 15th century and at the lower margins a catalogue of relics from the 14th century.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
German language lectionary with the Epistles and Gospel readings according to the Church year (Proprium de tempore; Proprium de sanctis and Commune sanctorum) from the Dominican Cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, copied in the year 1483 from a model belonging to the Cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg by Elisabeth Muntprat, one of the convent's most diligent scribes. Texts from the manuscript were read aloud during the Dominican nuns' meals. Several colored woodcuts are pasted into the manuscript, which came to the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1780.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This unadorned manuscript, which was probably not produced in St. Gall, is a double lectionary or Lectionarium plenarium sive „Comes duplex“. The lectionary follows the pericope practice of the city of Rome and contains all the readings for the Mass (Old Testament / Acts of the Apostles, letters and gospels). It begins with Christmas but is defective in the beginning.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
According to new research, the so-called Evangeliary of Wolfcoz - an early masterpiece from the second quarter of the 9th century - was created not at the St. Gall Monastery, but instead in the scriptorium at Reichenau under the librarian Reginbert. This new conclusion was reached on the basis of paleographic studies as well as later-added pericopes on the Reichenau saints George, Mark and Pancras (p. 201-219).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
A volume of the Gospels, made to order for an unknown customer in about 1470/1480, possibly in the workshop of the book illustrator Rudolf Stahel of Konstanz. It contains Latin Gospel readings for the most important holy days of the church year. Illustrated by at least two artists with 21 full-page illustrations, including the symbols of the four evangelists and representations of the most important holy days throughout the year. In 1658 the volume was presented by the court official Fidel von Thurn to Abbot Gallus Alt (1654-1687) and decorated by a book illuminator with his crest.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A volume of canonical readings for the mass, opulently illuminated for Bishop of Augsburg Marquard von Berg (1575-11591), with a heraldic crest page, a full-page miniature, many scenes along the lower margin representing the important holy days of the church year, and artful flowers and flowerlike ornaments, possibly by Nurnberg book illustrator Sebastian Glockendon the Younger. The manuscript came into the possession of soldiers during the Thirty Years War and was later sold to the St. St. Gall monk and Vicar of Wil, Bernhard Hartmann, who presented it in 1641 to St. Gall Abbot-Bishop Pius Reher (1630-1654).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
According to an entry on p. 64, the Goldach necrology was created in 1418 by Syfrid Brüstlin, priest at Hagenwil. The first part (pp. 11-58) is arranged according to the Roman calendar and contains entries by several hands, mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. Sometimes only the name of the deceased person is mentioned, other entries are more detailed and give information about donations. The second part (pp. 59-80) contains remarks on individual donations. This part is mainly in Brüstlin's hand and continues into the 17th century.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Epistolary originating from Reichenau/St. Gall, illustrated with a portrait of the epistle-writer Saint Paul and five painted Christological miniatures from the third quarter of the 11th century.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This manuscript contains the epistles, the readings from the Old Testament and the readings from the Gospel for the period from Christmas Eve until Easter Sunday (pp. 1-144), from the Thursday after the first of Advent until the end of the Advent season (pp. 145-155), and for the saints' days (pp. 156–218). Several quires seem to have come out between pp. 144 and 145, since the greater part of the readings for Easter Sunday, for the feasts between Easter and the last Sunday after Pentecost, as well as for the first Sunday of Advent are missing. The decoration consists of several initials with scroll ornamentation in red ink (pp. 1, 4, 131, 144 and 156). 15th century entries (foliation, references, neumes in the Passion according to Matthew, pp. 98–104) attest that this codex was in use for a long time.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of feast day masses in the monastery of St. Gall, written and illustrated with numerous initials around the middle of the 11th century. Contains a gradual with neumes and a Lectionary with the readings for the liturgical year.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Gradual from St. Gall, dating from the 12th century, with two illustrations of the monk Luitherus.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Deluxe manuscript for the celebration of the Mass in the monastery of St. Gall, dating from 1050/70, containing sequences of the St. St. Gall monk "Notker the Stammerer" (died 912).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Musical manuscript in small format from the monastery of St. Gall containing a calendar, a computus, a tropary, a sequentiary, an antiphonary, offertory and tractus from the middle of the 11th century as well as an appendix with sequences from the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This codex, with boards covered in green textile, consists of two parts. The first part (pp. 3-53) contains sequences by Notker Balbulus and other authors, the second part (pp. 55-226) contains a gradual. All of the texts have neumes; the script is interspersed with red and blue majuscules. Of note is a series of decorated initials, for example one containing a dragon on p. 3 of the sequentiary and one with scroll ornamentation on p. 55 of the gradual. Other examples can be found on pp. 114, 134, 144, 146. Bound in at the beginning is an 11th/12th century leaf containing excerpts from the Commune Sanctorum, with 14th century supplements on the back.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Small music manuscript from the middle of the 11th century containing an (incomplete) calendar, computus, tropary and sequentiary in an elegant hand, with delicate neumes.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Versiculary, Hymnal, Tropary and Sequentiary from the monastery of St. Gall, written and provided with neumes around 930, possibly by a monk named Salomon. The small-sized, undecorated manuscript contains the St. Gall repertoire of the chants sung in the monastery and works by the monks Notker Balbulus, Tuotilo, Ratpert, Waltram and Ekkehart I. Counts among the foremost monuments worldwide in the history of early medieval music.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
An incompletely preserved musical manuscript from the 11th century, written in the monastery of St. Gall, with added supplementary leaves up to around 1400. Contains a Tropary, a Versiculary and a Sequentiary.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Tropary and Sequentiary in point-like square notation with exceptionally fine monophonic and polyphonic music from the great repertoire of the school of Notre-Dame at Paris. Written before 1250 in Western Switzerland, probably at the Cathedral of Lausanne. Probably in St. Gall by 1300.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Breviary consisting of several parts: 1) Capitula and orationes for the period from the first of Advent until the octave of Pentecost as well as for Sundays and weekdays (pp. 3–48). 2) Proprium de tempore (with readings, excerpts from sermons, antiphons, responses and hymns) for the period from the first of Advent until the Saturday after Pentecost (pp. 49–280). The antiphons and responses have neumes. 3) Proprium de sanctis (pp. 281–419), these chants do not have neumes. It begins with St. Andrew (30 November) and ends with St. Petronilla (31 May). 4) Proper for Easter until the second Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 421–466). 5) Responses and antiphons De sanctis in pascali tempore (pp. 466–468). 6) Lectiones per totam ebdomadam for weekdays of the third and fourth week after the octave of Easter (pp. 469–484). 7) Capitula for Nocturns, Sext and None at Easter (p. 485). 8) Orationes for Nocturns, Sext and None on weekdays usque ad ascensionem Domini (pp. 486–487). 9) Capitula and orationes for Vespers, Lauds and Sext for the first until the fourth Sunday after the octave of Easter (pp. 488–489). 10) Hymns (and sequence Cantemus cuncti melodum, p. 504) (pp. 502–504 and 506). Parts 1-3 were for the most part written in the 13th century (with numerous additions and corrections on erasure up until the 15th century). Parts 4-6 are from the 14th century, parts 7-10 from the 15th century. Property of the Monastery of St. Gall at least since the 15th century (perhaps 1450, cf. p. 1).
Online Since: 03/17/2016
Summer portion (Holy Saturday through the end of the church year) of a breviary written at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1022 and 1047 (with readings, prayers, extracts from homilies, antiphons, responses and hymns for the monastic liturgy of the hours), includes additions made as late as the 14th century. The sung sections include neumes. Preceding materials include a fragment of a collections of homilies, a calendar, and computistical texts and tables. The corresponding winter portion of this breviary is found in Cod. Sang. 413. It is among the oldest surviving breviaries produced at St. Gall.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
Antiphonary from St. Gall for the liturgy of the divine office, as sung by St Gall monks, dating from the 12th century, with addenda until the late 14th century. Illustrated with several initials and (at the beginning) with a miniature of the crucified Christ with Mary and John.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Antiphonary from the XIIIth century containing chants for the liturgy of the Hours. The melodies are noted using neumes without lines. Essentially, this is a copy of Cod. Sang. 390/391 (“Hartker antiphonary”) completed by saint's days added after the completion of the Hartker antiphonary.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Winter volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Summer volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains principally the chants for the liturgy of the Hours (response and antiphones), and also some chants of the Ordinary (in a part with tropes), hymns, and sequences, and spiritual chants in Latin and German. In all, six chants (p. 87-89, 103, 107) are for two or three voices. In this case, the voices are not noted one under another, but one after another. The spiritual chants are written with a mensural notation, and the other liturgical pieces in German plainsong notation, the so-called German “Hufnagelnotation”.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
The Liber Benedictionum by Ekkehard IV.: a collection of his personal poetic works that he probably began during his time as a monastery pupil and constantly revised until the end of his life. The manuscript is written completely by Ekkehard IV. and is one of the few known autographs of the early Middle Ages (ca. 1010-1060). It contains, among other items, the Benedictiones super lectores per circulum anni (poetry for the different feast days of the year), the Benedictiones ad mensas (benedictions of different foods and drinks), the Versus ad picturas domus domini Mogontinae (verses on the projected picture series for the Cathedral of Mainz), Versus ad picturas claustri sancti Galli (verses for the [projected] picture series for the cloister [?] in the monastery of St. Gall) and the Latin translation of the Old High German Galluslied by Ratpert.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
The manuscript contains: p. 1-17 a calendar (probably written before 1047: Wiborada, canonized in 1047, is added by a 13th century hand); p. 17-19 a list of the Abbots of the Monastery of St. Gall (in a first hand until Nortpert, 1034-1072, additions by three further hands until Berchtold von Falkenstein, 1244-1272); p. 22-162: Rule of St. Benedict; p. 162-163 excerpt from the Book of Proverbs (Prv. 20, 18ff.); p. 165-345 rituals: benedictions, exorcisms, Ordo ad monachos faciendos , instructions for penance, visitation of the sick, anointing of the sick, comforting the dying (Obsequium circa morientes), Office of the Dead (the antiphons and responsories therein with neumes).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Incompletely preserved benedictional, written on strong parchment in the Monastery of St. Gall in the first half of the 11th century. This volume contains prayers and benedictions for various liturgical ceremonies, for example for the blessing of the chalice, for the blessing of salt and water for driving out demons, for the consecration of monks and secular priests, for the blessing of plants on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, etc. In three places (p. 23-26, p. 65-66, p. 90-94) the manuscript contains litanies in which the names of saints of St. Gall appear. Before the pagination around 1780, pages were cut out of the manuscript in five different places; the manuscript shows signs of use into the 15th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Personal reference handbook (vade mecum) of Grimald of St. Gall (Abbot 841-872). This manuscript collection contains items of poetic, liturgical, computational, natural scientific, and historical content, including a calendar, an horology table (orologium), word explanations and definitions from various fields of knowledge, the names of the nymphs and muses, and a provincial directory for the area of St. Gall. About 40 different scribes added texts to this manuscript.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A Benedictional from the diocese of Mainz, written and decorated with about 200 gold initials and a full-page miniature of Christ as Savior of the World; from about the year 1000, during the tenure of Archbishop Willigis (975-1011). Obtained by the Cloister of St. Gall at an unknown point in time (oldest evidence: in St. Gall by about 1600). It contains the prayers of benediction to be sung by the bishop, ordered according to the church year.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The Pontificale contains the rites for liturgical celebrations by the bishop, among them rites for performing the tonsure, for the consecration of the lower orders (Cantor, Lector etc.), of the higher orders (deacon, priest, bishop), for the consecration of abbots, abbesses and nuns, for the consecration of a church, of a cemetery and of liturgical objects. Several incipits of liturgical songs are annotated with adiastematic neumes. In the margins on pp. 110/111 there are two Greek alphabets and a Latin alphabet in capital letters; they are part of a rite for the consecration of a church. The saints named in the litany on pp. 98–100 (among them Corbinian, Ulrich, Walpurga) suggest that the manuscript originated in a Bavarian diocese.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written in a flowing fourteenth-century textualis and decorated with rubrics and red lombards. The same hand has numbered the quires in red ink, in the bottom-right corner at the beginning of each quire: II (p. 23) to XXXIX (p. 731). The pagination contains a significant error: 1–501, 511–742; pp. 614–615 are empty. The manuscript transmits the winter part of a breviary, namely (pp. 1-559) the Proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent to Pentecost and Trinity, as well as (pp. 559–742) the Proprium de sanctis from the feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle (30 November) to the feast of Saint Pancras (12 May), including the feast of Saint Wiborada (pp. 716-725). The manuscript shows no traces of its users nor of any additions. On the final page (p. 742) appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553–1564. The binding, featuring wooden boards with a red leather cover, dates to the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Book of hours, composed for an unknown female convent in the diocese of Basel: excellent example of early Gothic book art. With a Calendar, 14 miniatures of the life of Christ and Mary, the Psalter, Canticles and an All Saints' Litany.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This is a collection of liturgical works from the monastery of Disentis, written in the second half of the 12th century, most likely around 1200. In sequence, the volume contains a calendar (pp. 2-13), a psalter (pp. 15-90) and a hymnary (pp. 91-110), a (mixed) capitulary and collectarium (pp. 116-186), as well as an antiphonary, a lectionary, and a homiliary (pp. 203-638). Highlights from the point of view of manuscript decoration include the initial “B” at the beginning of the psalter (p. 15) and a picture of the crucifixion (p. 89). This breviary is one of the very few surviving medieval manuscripts from the monastery of Disentis. The manuscript came to Kempten around 1300; as early as the 15th century, the Disentis Breviary was held in the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This extensive parchment manuscript was written in the fourteenth century in textualis. Red and blue lombards, rubrics, and red abbreviations adorn the two-column text; occassional red and blue pen-flourished initials emphasize particularly important parts of the breviary and its feasts. The breviary begins (p. 1a) with Easter-eve vespers (that is, on Good Saturday) and ends (pp. 807a–817b) with the feast of Saint Conrad (26 November). There then follows (pp. 817b–819b), as additions, a lection In nocte sancte Anne and four lections In divisione apostolorum, written in the same hand as before (cf. p. 433b, p. 457b). Finally the added rubric Passio sancti Placidi martyris, sociorum eius 35 martyrum prima [?] lectio [?] is written in another, later-fifteenth-century hand. Among the saints feasts occur those of Gallus (p. 662a) and its octave (p. 708a) as well as of Otmar (p. 759b) and its octave (p. 789b). On p. 666 appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from the period 1553–1564. The wooden-board binding dates to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Its leather binding is adorned with scroll stamps. The original clasps and fittings are missing. On the inside of the front and back boards can be seen offsets from detached flyleaves, as well as from fragments with writing that were pasted in. Two paper leaves (pp. A-D) and one paper leaf (pp. Y-Z) have been inserted and bound in before and after the parchment book block, respectively. The pagination is faulty: A–D, 1–155, 155a, 156–433, 435–621, 623–819, Y–Z.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This breviary contains the Psalter (pp. 1a–111b) followed by cantica, Pater noster, Credo, Quicumque vult and litanies (pp. 111b–129b), as well as the Proprium de tempore (pp. 130a-533a) from the first Sunday of Advent to the 25th Sunday after Trinity, including the Dedicatio ecclesiae (p. 524a) and finally the Proprium de sanctis (pp. 534a-839b) and the Commune sanctorum (pp. 840a-841b), which breaks off at the end of the last page and is incomplete. The manuscript was written in a fourteenth-century textualis and decorated with numerous red and blue pen-flourished initials. The only highlighted name in the Litany is that of Catherine (p. 125a); this fact, along with the feasts of St. Peter of Verona (p. 632a), the Translatio sancti Dominici (p. 647b, 648a), St. Dominic (death day) (p. 709a) and Saint Catherine (p. 828b, 830b) indicate that the breviary was intended for the Dominican convent of St. Catherine, probably the one in St. Gall (and later in Wil). The seventeenth-century ownership mark Monasteriae [!] s. Catharinae, written in the same hand as, for example, Wil, Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Katharina, M 3, front flyleaf, proves that the breviary actually comes from the convent. The leather cover on the wooden-board binding is decorated with a stamp with the head of Christ as well as with a scroll stamp, and has the blind-stamped date 1591 on the front.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This breviary dating from the second half of the 15th century contains assorted offices of the Proprium de sanctis in two parts as well as the text In dedicatione ecclesiae, a short collection of sermons for the celebration of church dedications (Richard of Saint Victor, Augustine, Eusebius ‹Gallicanus›, Bernard of Clairvaux) and the Creed. This manuscript displays the hand of Cordula von Schönau, the Dominican nun from the cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, whose hand is also found in codex Wil, Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Katharina, M 3.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
This paper manuscript contains short readings (capitula), collects (collectae), prayers, hymns, antiphons, and responsories for the office throughout the year, including the common of Saints. Probably in the fourteenth century, this “extended collectar” was written in a flowing textualis and then rubricated. In many places, the manuscript shows heavy traces of use in the form of worn, browned margins. On p. 25 can be found the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553–1564. The wooden-board binding dates to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. On the inner boards can be seen offsets of Hebrew fragments.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Breviary with nightly recitations for Matins (lectiones matutinales) for the hourly prayers of the monks of St. Gall. Includes De tempore recitations (for the major holiday seasons of Christmas, Easter, and Pentacost, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent), and De sanctis recitations (for saints' feast days).
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary written in the monastery of St. Gall between 1034 and 1047 (with readings and chants for the liturgy of the divine office), with addenda until the 14th century. Prefaced by a Calendar and computational tables. The corresponding summer part of the Breviary can be found in Cod. Sang. 387. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gallen.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary for the divine office, written around 1030 with addenda until the 14th century. Contains, in addition to a large Lectionary and Antiphonary, a Calendar and computational tables. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gall.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
This breviary, which is missing its end, contains the proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent through Saturday after the third Sunday after Easter (pp. 1–384). Then follows the commune sanctorum (pp. 384–386), the proprium de sanctis from Tiburtius and Valentianus (April 14) to Primus and Felicianus (June 9), and then the proprium de tempore continues from the fourth Sunday after Easter. The breviary cuts off in the middle of the fifth Sunday after Easter. Since there are only three, and not, as was common in the Benedictine Order, four readings per nocturn on Sundays, the breviary cannot have come originally from the Abbey of St. Gall. The codex, which shows signs of heavy use, is written by several hands on thick parchment with many holes, sometimes with stitches. Several pages are cut below the text-block. The antiphons and responsories appear with staffless neumes, which themselves were written by many hands. The decoration consists of red lombards and initials, including a few zoomorphic ones (p. 172: dragon; p. 217: bird with two heads; p. 231: dragon). Numerous fragments of a late-medieval liturgical manuscript are used as quire-guards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
Lectionary and homilary for the period from Pentecost to the last Sunday after Pentecost, meticulously written by a variety of hands at the monastery ofSt. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The summer portion of a Lectionarium officii containing scripture lessons to be sung by a choir, produced during the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
An incomplete copy of the Expositio libri comitis, a selection of Epistle and Gospel readings organized according to the Church year composed by the Benedictine monk Smaragdus of St. Mihiel (near Verdun; † ca. 840), produced near the middle of the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Lectionary for the period from Christmas through the second Sunday of Lent, with 32 homilies (Predigten) for Sundays and feastdays, written mostly by the church fathers (Ambrosius, Augustine, the Venerable Bede, Fulgentius and Leo the Great, among others), most likely produced at the Abbey of St. Gall in the 10th or early 11th century. The name of one scribe, Egilolfus, added later, can be found on page 85 of the manuscript. The front pages of the manuscript are in exceedingly poor condition, having suffered water damage. The text breaks off on page 177, in the course of a tract by Leo the Great.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A copy of the Liber scintillarum, a text originally written in about 730 by the monk Defensor of Ligugé (near Poitiers), produced during the 9th century, not at the Abbey of St. Gall. The 81 chapter Liber scintillarum is a florilegium (anthology) of maxims and sayings attributed to God and the saints, derived from the Bible and the writings of the church fathers. The last part of the volume contains fragments of lessons from the monastic liturgy of the hours (lectiones), as well as aphorisms.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript, written by several hands, contains a total of 66 sermons, most of them by Bede and Gregory the Great, a few by Augustine and Jerome, and occasionally ones by Ambrose, Fulgentius, John Chrysostom, Maximus, Origen and by unknown authors. Some homilies are reproduced in their entirety, others in excerpts. Four strips of the Edictum Rothari were removed from the binding; today they are held in the Abbey Library of Saint Gall with the shelfmark Cod. Sang. 730. Imprints of these fragments are visible on the inside cover.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Lectionary. The first part, written in the 11th century, contains readings for the nocturns of the matins (for the entire church year, beginning with the first of Advent; first de tempore, then de sanctis). Readings from the gospels are indicated only by short text incipits and are augmented with homilies primarily by church fathers (among others Origen, the Venerable Bede, Gregory the Great). The second part, written in the 12th century, begins on p. 184 and contains readings from the Old and New Testaments for weekdays and holidays in ordinary time throughout the liturgical year. The manuscript contains several multi-line initials, among them a representational initial of a composite animal on p. 12.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This entire codex was written by a single scribe. It contains a collection of readings for the nocturns. The sections are introduced by red majuscules. Several marginal notes were added in the 13th century. On the inside covers, imprints of fragments from the Gospel of Luke in the oldest version of the Vulgate still remain visible. The imprints are from two leaves that were detached in 1932 and that since then have been held, together with other fragments from this Vulgate manuscript, under the shelfmark Cod. Sang. 1395.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
105 sermons from the first Sunday in Advent (end of November / beginning of December) to Annunciation Day (March 25).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
60 sermons for Lent and for Holy Week.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
146 sermons from Easter to the last Sunday after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Deluxe manuscript with numerous outstanding, perfectly executed initials and an excellent image of dedication (Saint Augustine), containing mostly sermons for the principal saints' days.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Sermons for the Sundays after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
An incomplete copy of the Expositio libri comitis, a selection of Epistle and Gospel readings organized according to the Church year, composed by the Benedictine monk Smaragdus of St. Mihiel (near Verdun; † ca. 840). This copy produced at the women's cloister of Chelles Abbey near Paris was produced in about 810 and is the oldest known surviving copy.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The manuscript contains the readings for the nocturns of matins, the nightly office, on Sundays, feast days and weekdays. It includes the proprium de tempore from the first of Advent to the end of the ecclesiastical year (including the saints' feasts between Christmas and Epiphany). As the Matutinale does not have four readings per nocturn on Sundays, as was the practice in the Order of Saint Benedict, but only three, it cannot have been originally written for the Abbey of St. Gall. On the margins of p. 233/234 appear numerous additions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the feast of the Trinity. Decoration consists of red lombards and simple initials, partially with incipient pen-flourishes (e.g., p. 75). The parchment has numerous holes, some of which have stitches. Numerous pages are trimmed below the text block. Strips from an eleventh-century liturgical manuscript are bound around the first and last quire of the codex as reinforcement (the back half of the strip around the last quire is paginated as p. 414/415). On the front board appears the offset of a page of a thirteenth-century psalter; on the back board, the offset of an eleventh-century sacramentary (?).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This codex, written in the 13th century, contains a lectionary for Matins for the saints' days and an antiphonary for the entire liturgical year. The antiphonary bears the title In nomine domini incipiunt antiphone secundum morem Marbacensis ecclesie. Nevertheless, this is probably not a manuscript from the reformed monastery of Marbach in Alsace. Based on the offices, which indicate a connection with St. Gall, it must rather be assumed that the manuscript originated in the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Lawrence in Ittingen, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, but which followed the Consuetudines of Marbach. The fly leaf (p. 2/1) contains a large part of the Office of St. Gallus, probably from a manuscript from the 10th/11th century. Readings as well as chants (the latter ones with neumes) are recorded. The order of the responses and antiphons does not match that of the Hartker antiphonary, Cod. Sang. 391.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This manuscript probably was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript's principal part consists of a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium), and hymns, followed by the Pater noster, the Credo, biblical Cantica, the Te Deum, a litany und more Cantica. The final part, from fol. 135v, consists of a hymnal, which also contains a Sequence (Cantemus cuncti melodum). Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on fol. 1v (a man fighting a dragon and a bird of prey).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The pontifical vesperal of St. Gall Abbott Diethelm Blarer (1530–1564) contains the prayers, psalms with antiphones and responsories, as well as hymns for the high holidays of the church year. Except for the incipits of the antiphones of the Magnificat, which are written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on five lines, the manuscript contains no melodies. The scribe of this volume was Father Heinrich Keller (1518–1567), subprior of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book's decoration - 20 historiated initials and several richly decorated borders with pictures - is the work of an unknown artist from the region of Lake Constance, who also illuminated Cod. Sang. 357 and 442.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491) (dating on f. 227r: 1467). Its content corresponds substantially to that of Cod. Sang. 438: a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium) and hymns are followed from f. 148v by Cantica, and from f. 172v by a hymnal. Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures (sometimes extending over several pages) and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on f. 104v (David with a harp).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Ritual for the personal use of Prince-Abbot of St. Gall Diethelm Blarer (1530−1564; cf. his coat of arms on p. 8 and the stamp for his personal library on p. 7); written by the St. Gall monk Heinrich Keller (1518−1567) and illustrated around 1555 by an unknown illuminator from the area of Lake Constance. The St. Gall manuscripts Cod. Sang. 357 and Cod. Sang. 439 were illuminated by this same artist at the same time. The small-format volume contains liturgical texts on the administration of the sacrament of baptism (pp. 9-107), on the readmission of a woman into the circle of believers after giving birth (pp. 107-114), on marriage (pp. 114-141), as well as on the distribution of wine on October 16th, the feast day of Saint Gall, the founder of St. Gall (pp. 144a-154).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This manuscript consists of two-parts bound together; the first part (pp. 3-26) contains a 15th century ritual with instructions for visits to the sick, for spiritual care for the dying, and for burial (this is cut off in the prayer at the coffin on p. 26). The second part (pp. 27-86) consists of two discourses in defense of polyphonic music, composed by St. Gall monk Mauritius Enck († 1575) at the behest of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564). These discourses are meant as prefaces to Manfred Barbarini Lupus' compositions for several voices in Cod. Sang. 542 and 543. Enck defends polyphonic music against widespread criticism, for example for its presumed lascivia (wantonness), and postulates an ideal for church music consisting of a combination with a chorale as the foundation and figural music as embellishment. Thus he describes precisely the compositions of Barbarini Lupus. At the end of the first discourse (pp. 47-48), Enck names the artists who contributed to Cod. Sang. 542 and 543 as well as the time period of their work on the manuscripts (from 1561 to 1563).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The book was written in 1541 by the St. Gall calligrapher and cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher (1490–1546). Organized according to the ecclesiastical calendar, this volume contains German-language instructions for the preparation of the altars and ceremonies of the St. Gallen Monastery on the individual Sundays and holidays. In addition, it offers an alphabetical listing of all the altars in the post-Reformation monastery district of St. Gall. At that time, the duties of a sacristan were in the hands of a lay brother, who cleaned the church, lit the candles and monitored them while they burned, and rang the church bells (hence the name "Läuterbuch").
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Manuscript compilation consisting mainly of works of liturgical and pastoral character, produced between 845 and 870 in the monastery of St. Gall. It contains, among other items, a liturgical study by Abbot Walahfrid Strabo of Reichenau (808/09-849) Liber de exordiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum, the first western European reference work on liturgical history, the so called Ordines Romani, a liturgical study by Amalar of Trier, the first Capitular of Bishop Theodulf of Orléans, two treatises about baptism and the mass attributed to Alcuin as well as the Capitular documents (diocesan legislative documents) of Haito, Bishop of Basel and Abbot of Reichenau.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This order of service was probably prepared around 1440 for St. Gall Abbey. It documents the liturgical rite of the reformed Benedictine Monastery of Kastl in the Upper Palatinate (cf. the title on p. 3: Breviarium de divinis officiis et consuetudinibus ecclesiasticis per circulum anni monasterii sancti Petri in Castello ordinis sancti Benedicti), whose monastic impulse of renewal must have been taken up in St. Gall in the late 1430s under Abbot Eglolf Blarer. The determination of the text for St. Gall is the result of adaptation to the veneration of the saints of St. Gall Abbey (e.g., p. 222 annotation regarding the patron saint Wiborada, p. 240 consideration of St. Constantius, venerated in St. Gall on July 3rd).
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Liber Ordinarius from the second quarter of the 15th century with liturgical instructions for the mass of the monks of St. Gall during the presence of reformist monks from the monastery ofHersfeld between 1430 and 1439. The Liber Ordinarius, dated 1432 (p. 36), seems to have been made for the monastery ofSt. Gall following a model from Hersfeld (in the northeast of Hesse); however, some parts are not yet adapted for the monastery ofSt. Gall. The calendar at the beginning of the manuscript can be unambiguously located in St. Gall. Between the various parts of the manuscript, repeatedly there are empty pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A composite manuscript consisting mainly of calendars and texts with chronological content, produced in the second half of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th century, for the most part not at the abbey of St. Gall. The main items are a calendar, possibly of northern Italian origin, and excerpts from the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede († 735).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A martyrology by the Venerable Bede († 735) in Anglo-Saxon script, produced in the 9th century. This partial surviving copy (including the beginning of January through July 25th) is distinguished in this collection as a surviving direct copy from the original text composed by Bede. (Note: a martyrology is a collection of longer or shorter life histories of the saints in calendar date order.)
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Meant for daily use in the chapter office, this volume was written in 1542/43 by the secular cleric Fridolin Sicher (1490−1546), born in Bischofszell, for St. Gall Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530−1564; cf. his coat of arms on p. 5 and p. 8 as well as p. 268); later the volume came into the possession of the monastic community of St. Gall. Before as well as after the Reformation, Fridolin Sicher was cathedral organist and calligrapher for St. Gall Abbey. In the front of the volume there is a Latin copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict (pp. 5-72), followed in the later part by an abridged version, consolidated into a single draft, of the Martyrologium Romanum and a necrology related to St. Gall Abbey (pp. 83-267). Under Prince-Abbot Bernhard Müller (1594−1630), this chapter office book was replaced with a new necrology begun in 1611 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1442) that no longer contained the Rule of Saint Benedict.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The second-oldest surviving chapter office book of the Abbey of St. Gall, begun in the 12th century and maintained, with the addition of many entries, until early modernity. This volume contains, among other things, lists of the bishops of Constance (736-1318) and the abbots of the cloisters at Reichenau (724-1343) and St. Gall (719-1329), records of brothers who became members of the Abbey of St. Gall, readings and homilies for Sundays and holy days in the chapter assembly of the monchs, a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict, a martyrology complete with death records, tables and explanations for figuring the dates for Easter, and a copy, with continuation, of the St. Gall Annals found in Cod. Sang. 915. At the very back: two printed lists of St. St. Gall monks from 1757 and 1798.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
A copy of the martyrology of Ado of Vienne († 875). As an appendix the manuscript also contains vitae of ancient saints, possibly written by Notker Balbulus himself around 880/890.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Martyrologium by Ado of Vienne († 875), the main part of which probably was not written in St. Gall, although the manuscript was kept there since the 11th century (supplements to the patron saints of St. Gall). At the end of the volume, there are annals-style notes about the comet of 1264, calendar dates, notes regarding the construction of the cities of Milan and Alexandria, the founding of the Cistercian Monastery of Wettingen, the discord between Emperor Frederick II and his son Henry VII around 1236 as well as the latter's imprisonment, and hexameters regarding the correct preparation of eucharistic bread (p. 601-602).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
The sole surviving copy of the Martyrologium by the St. St. Gall monk Notker Balbulus (d. 912), a work written in about 900 and following. This particular copy from the first half of the 10th century is incomplete: a martyrology includes short biographies of the saints according to their given days in the calendar year, but information about saints for dates from June 13-17, July 3-6, August 19-26, October 27 and December 31 is missing. It is very likely that Notker Balbulus never completed the ambitious project of writing the original Martyrologium.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A martyrology by Hrabanus Maurus, possibly written in Mainz or Fulda, produced shortly after 843. This codex is very likely the presentation copy given to Abbot Grimald of St. Gall (841-872); however, the presentation dedication is missing from the front matter.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
A martyrology by Hrabanus Maurus, composed shortly after 843. The codex contains a copy of Cod. Sang. 457, under the auspices of the St. Gall monk Notker Balbulus shortly after 875. It also includes the presentation dedication, missing from the presentation copy (Cod. Sang. 457), addressed to Abbot Ratleik of Seligenstadt and Abbot Grimald of St. Gall (841-872).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Computational/scientific compilation manuscript with numerous tables, schematics, and texts about calendar computation, produced in the monastery of St. Gall around the end of the 9th century and beginning ot the 10th. The volume also includes a St. Gallen calendar and the Annales Sangallenses brevissimi (a short history of St. Gall). Two early medieval maps of the world (terrae orbis or T-O maps) precede the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Song collection of St. Gall organist Fridolin Sicher; 49 songs for three to five voices in 16th century mensural notation without texts. Among the composers are, among others, Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez and Jacob Obrecht. Several pieces give the name of the composer and the beginning of the text (in French, Italian, Flemish or Latin). Usually one piece fills a double page, less frequently all (three or four) voices are arranged on a single page
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The song book of Chaplain Johannes Heer of Glarus: a collection of 88 folk-, students-, love-, drinking- and joke songs, among them 40 unique items; from the pre-reformation period (1510-1520).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Songbook compiled by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) from the middle of the 16th century. The volume contains 215 musical scores in measured notation using the five line staff, mainly by contemporary French, Dutch, and German composers such as Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Obrecht, Heinrich Isaac, and Ludwig Senfl. The descant (or soprano) parts are found on the left-hand pages, with the alto (or tenor) parts on the right-hand pages.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Songbook owned by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) of Glarus; together with Tschudi's estate, it became the property of the Abbey Library of St. Gall in 1768. This volume contains in one binding the part-books for bass and descant voices for 17 motets and chansons in five or six parts by contemporary composers such as Josquin Desprez or Loyset Compère, written in mensural notation using the five line staff. This songbook was written by several hands, among them Tschudi himself, who added notes about modes on fol. 12r–v and 24v–25r (the schemata on fol. 25v likely are by Heinrich Glarean). Except for one piece, all the compositions in Tschudi's songbook also appear in Cod. Sang. 463; therefore these part-books seem to be drafts for the final collection.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This fourteenth-century manuscript on paper contains an Exposition of the Mass by the Franciscan lector Martinus of Vienna. Two scribes carefully produced this single-column copy in a regular Gothic bookhand. They are also responsible for numerous corrections and marginal notes that appear throughout the codex. This volume belonged to the Abbey Library of Saint Gall since at least the fifteenth century, as attested by a German note of ownership at the bottom of the first page (p. 1).
Online Since: 09/22/2022