This manuscript, which was probably produced in Reims, consists of two parts that contain only the scholia on Lucan, but not the actual text. The first part (up to f. 125v) contains the scholia known as the Commenta Bernensia, which are preserved only in this codex. The text is interspersed with 21 simple schemata in color, geographic representations as well as plans of cities and of battles. The second, unfortunately incomplete part contains a collection of non-illustrated glosses (Adnotationes) for books 1 to 4 as well as 9 and 10 (beginning). As becomes clear from the content, the original plan of merging the Commenta and the Adnotationes into a single text was apparently abandoned in the middle of the first book of the Commenta, and the Adnotationes were copied separately in the last third of the manuscript (from f. 125v).
Online Since: 03/29/2019
Important remnants of a collection of homilies, probably in two volumes, from the Dominican Monastery of Bern, which were used around 1495 by the bookbinder Johannes Vatter as pastedowns for various incunables that are currently held in Bern and Solothurn. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the host volumes perhaps as part of a bequest of books by the Venner [standard bearer] Jürg Schöni in 1534, became part of the Bern library. Around 1945, Johannes Lindt detached the fragments from the host volumes.
Online Since: 07/14/2021
Monumental Bible in one volume, which reveals Spanish tradition and which is related to the so-called ‘Theodulf-Bibles.' At the beginning there is a binio with the coena nuptialis in the version of Rabanus Maurus. Inserted into the text are a version of the Sibylline Oracles, a vita of John, as well as an oath regarding the rights of the church and a catalog of the bishops of Vienne; at the end are remnants of the Psalmi iuxta Hebraeos. The greater part of the manuscript's many initials has been cut out.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This Österreichische Chronik der 95 Herrschaften was copied around 1479 by Clemens Specker in Königsfelden Monastery. It is followed by a song about the War of Aargau, texts about King Frederick III, Konrad Pfettisheim's story of Peter von Hagenbach, a song about Charles the Bold, the Swiss Annals by Clemens Specker, as well as pasted woodcuts of the Nine Worthies. It is richly decorated with miniatures and coats of arms. A copy of Cod. A 45 from 1597 can be found in BBB Mss.h.h.VI.74. After the dissolution of the monastery, the codex passed into private hands in Bern in 1528, and in the 17th/18th century, it became part of the Stadtbibliothek of Bern.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Three bifolia of a humanistic manuscript perhaps produced in Italy. This beautifully illuminated fragment contains the beginning of Cicero's De amicitia and came to Bern in 1632 as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
5 bifolia (=1 quire) from a manuscript produced in France and containing the beginning of Constantine the African's Viaticus. In 1632, the simply-decorated fragment came to Bern as part of the property of Jacques Bongars.
Online Since: 07/12/2021
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than six hundred large illustrations. The first volume contains the early history of Bern from the founding of the city until the year 1421, based on the older chronicle by Konrad Justinger, following the version by Bendicht Tschachtlan. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than six hundred large illustrations. The second volume contains accounts of events from the years 1421 through 1466, based for the most part on Benedicht Tschachtlan's edition of Fründ's work. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The Amtliche Berner Chronik (Official Chronicle of Bern) was commissioned by the city of Bern in 1474. About ten years later, Diebold Schilling was able to present the city council with this three-volume work, with its title pages in color, decorative initials, and more than six hundred large illustrations. The third, artistically richest volume contains Schilling's own description of the Burgundian wars, together with that of the preceding period, up to the year 1480. It is closely related to the Grosse Burgunderchronik (Great Burgundian Chronicle) currently held by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. The work remained in the possession of the Bern Chancellery for nearly three hundred years before the volumes were given to the City Library in 1762.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
The Spiezer Chronik by chronicler Diebold Schilling, named after its longtime home city of Spiez, is also known, because it was privately commissioned by Rudolph von Erlach, as the Privater Schilling. It contains the early history of Bern from the founding of the city to events that took place in the mid-15th century. Unlike Schilling's three-volume official chronicle, the Amtliche Berner Chronik (Bern, Burgerbibliothek Mss.h.h.I.1-3), it remains incomplete (the Burgundian wars are not included).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This missal following the practice of the Diocese of Constance was written for the church in Hochdorf (Lucerne) in 1474-1475 by Johannes Dörflinger, prebendary of Beromünster. The manuscript was commissioned for the new chaplainry of Sts. Peter and Paul, probably by its founder, the parish priest and dean Johannes Teller. It contains delicate filigreed initials at the beginning of the various liturgical sections and a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion (f. 106v), which introduces the Te igitur. Several pages originally left blank hold copies of the most important documents concerning the establishment of the prebend of Sts. Peter and Paul in Hochdorf (f. 78r-82v).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The Epistolary is the oldest manuscript in the library at Beromunster; according to local tradition it was presented by a member of the patron family of Lenzburg, Count Ulrich († before 1050). The front cover, added later, is an ivory panel dating from the second half of, perhaps the end of, the 13th century.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The Eidgenössische Chronik by Werner Schodoler (1490-1541) is the last of the illustrated Swiss chronicles of the late Middle Ages. It was written on private initiative between 1510 and 1535 and took as its primary models the Official Bernese Chronicle - Amtliche Berner Chronik - by Diebold Schilling and the Chronicle - Kronica - by Petermann Etterlin. This volume, the second of the three volumes of the chronicle, consists primarily of an account of the Old Zurich War and is illustrated with 130 colored pen sketches. Today the three volumes are held in different libraries: the first volume is in the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, the second in the City Archive in Bremgarten, and the third in the Cantonal Library of Aargau.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
Composite manuscript of liturgical texts, containing the prayers of the breviary of the Carthusian Order (1r Capitula, 18r Temporale, 35v Sanctorale, 49v Commune Sanctorum und 51v Usus communis). This small prayer book was probably produced in a Carthusian monastery in Burgundy in the 13th century. Certainly it was used from the 13th to about the 15th century in one of the Carthusian monasteries in present-day Western Switzerland, such as La Valsainte, La Part-Dieu or La Lance. The text is written on parchment and is decorated with blue and red paragraph initials. There are notes and drawings in the margins.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This small liturgical book was used in the Monastery of San Michele di Campagna near Verona during the 15th century. The work contains the rite of the profession of faith and of the consecration practiced on the occasion of the investiture of a Benedictine nun. It is valuable evidence of a ritual for women who take their vows.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This martirologio-inventario (annal) was written in 1554 at the request of the vicini (the original members of the municipal corporate body) of Castro and Marolta in the Blenio Valley (Ticino) in order to replace an older one that was destroyed in a fire. It contains the list of obligations toward the parish and toward the community for bequests and anniversaries of deaths. The first page is decorated with an illuminated initial and has in its bottom margin a painting of the coat of arms of the canton of Uri. At the time, the Blenio Valley was governed ruled by the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript contains the poems La satyre megere, a poem about the reconciliation of King Louis XII with Emperor Maximilian I, Les quatres eages passees, followed by a Ballade and three Rondeaux, and at the end Le portail du temple, inspired by an incomplete treatise by Boccaccio. This artificial composite manuscript consists of three original manuscripts entitled "Satyre Megere, poème d'Antitus dédié à Aymon de Montfacon, evesque de Lausanne, l'an de grâce mille cinq cens". The author Antitus Faure was chaplain to the Dukes of Burgundy and Savoy and, beginning in 1499, to the Prince-Bishop Aymon de Montfaucon († 1517) of Lausanne, to whom he dedicated these three works. This illuminated manuscript was bought by the state archive of the canton of Vaud in 1920.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This Book of Hours following the liturgical custom of Paris contains a large number of private prayers in Latin and French, most of them unpublished. As indicated in the colophon on page 193r, the book was produced in 1421 in Paris in the workshop of the bookseller Jacquet Lescuier. It was commissioned, or perhaps only bought, by Jean II de Gingins, born around 1385 and died either at the end of 1461 or the beginning of 1462; he had his coat of arms painted on p. 193v. The miniatures were executed by several illuminators, among them the “Guise Master,” the “Bedford Master” and a student associated with the “Boucicaut Master.” The last representative of the Gingin-La Sarraz family left the castle to her brother-in-law, Henri de Mandrot, who in turn gave this manuscript and the family archive to the state archive of the canton of Vaud in 1920.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The upper half of the illustrated side contains a naked Job and his three friends, the lower half shows the author, Gregory the Great, inspired by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and a Benedictine monk, portrayed in the usual manner of Petrus Diaconus, the latter probably drawn by a different artist. On the back is a Leonine couplet, which attributes the leaf unambiguously to Engelberg. The leaf is, according to P. Karl Stadler's 1787 description, the original opening of the first volume of the Moralia Iob by Gregory the Great (Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 20, here immediately before f. 1). In the mid-19th century it was owned by Jacob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck (1811-1903) and was faithfully reproduced in his book Trachten des Mittelalters (1840-54, Vol. 1, Plate 57, p. 76f). In November 1953 the leaf was purchased from the J.H. Wade Fund for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This Latin manuscript on astronomical topics includes works by Germanicus, Pliny the Elder and Hyginus. The codex features numerous pen and ink drawings, including a planisphere (rotatable star chart) consisting of five golden concentric circles containing constellations portrayed as people or animals. These drawings, dating from the 15th century, have been attributed to Antonio di Mario of the Neapolitan region.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Multiple treatises by Archimedes are brought together in Codex Bodmer 8, notably On the Sphere and Cylinder and The quadrature of the Parabola. This manuscript, which was written in about 1541 on paper, also includes commentaries on the work of the celebrated mathematician by the geometer Eutocius, followed by a treatise on instruments of measurement by Heron of Alexandria.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
There is only a single medieval Italian translation of Augustine's De civitate Dei (City of God), an impressive apologetic work in twenty-two books; the translation was prepared at the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century. It is usually attributed to the Florentine Dominican Jacopo Passavanti (ca. 1302 – 1357); however, this attribution is without basis. The frontispiece of this manuscript is richly decorated with foliage in all four margins and initials with vine scroll ornamentation at the beginning of each book.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This Latin parchment manuscript from the 14th century contains a comprehensive commentary by jurists of Bologna on the "Corpus Iuris Civilis" as well as on others, such as the "Codex Justinianus" and the "Digests".
Online Since: 07/31/2007
In the middle of the 12th century the Latin works of Statius and Virgil as well as adaptations of Homer were translated into the vernacular. At the same time these Latin texts were being brought into the “romance” language (French), the first examples of the French poetic form called the “Roman” or Romance were being written. CB 18, a parchment manuscript, contains two such works, the Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure and the anonymously authored Roman de Thèbes.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript, produced in 1480 at the Cistercian Abbey of Maulbronn (Diocese of Speyer, Württemberg, cf. f. 44r), contains texts written by Ekbert of Schönau, the brother of St. Elizabeth of Schönau, as well as prayers to Mary written in another hand.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
A remarkable manuscript from the end of the 10th century, undoubtedly produced in either Constantinople or Smyrna, CB 25 presents all four Gospels together in Greek. The biblical text is accompanied by commentaries by Peter of Laodiceia (an exegetical chain) written in cursive. The volume is decorated with two valuable full-page miniatures representing Luke and Mark against gold backgrounds.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Copied in the 13th century, probably in the north of France, this Latin Bible unifies in one volume the books of the Old- and New Testaments, most of them preceded by prologues. It transmits the standard Vulgate text, called the Paris version, with the chapter divisions attributed to Stephen Langton, and its last thirty pages provide a glossary of Hebrew names. Historiated initials open the various biblical books and give the volume its structure. A smaller script than usual in this volume has been used on fol. 1 for the Commentary on the Tree of Consanguinity, a text usually transmitted in juridical works, augmented here by an illustration of such a tree.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This codex from southern Germany is composed of two parts bound together in one German binding in 1569. The first part of the manuscript contains about a hundred leaves from the 12th and 13th centuries. It begins with a calendar featuring numerous constellations and full page illustrations. Following are prayers and liturgical songs. The second part consists of thirty leaves containing a series of Latin prayers in carefully wrought late 14th century Gothic script.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This Armenian manuscript was written in 1606 at the church of Saint Nikoghayos in Istanbul. It contains the Four Gospels, the Apocalypse of Saint John, and a Gospelindex devised for liturgical use written by another scribe in the same century. The silver binding was probably made a century after the manuscript writing. Special attention should be drawn to the illuminations of the canon tables painted according to the text of the “Commentary of the Canon Tables” of Stepanos Syunetsi (8th century), where the author thoroughly expounds the animal, floral and geometrical motives, as well as the symbolism of numbers and colors of each of the canon tables. The painter has interpreted the symbols and motives used in all ten canon tables by placing the explanations below each of them.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
The Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, dedicated to "women in love", describes in the first person the feelings of the young Neapolitan Fiammetta, who has been left by her beloved Panfilo. The Elegia, a prose work written by Boccaccio in his youth, praised for the subtlety of its psychological approach, mixes autobiographical elements and obvious references to Latin literature. It is preserved here in a manuscript copied in 1467 by Giovanni Cardello da Imola, whose regular calligraphy is set off by decorations in bianchi girari (white vine-stem).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Boethius' De consolatione Philosophiae knew continuous success during the Middle Ages. This 14th century manuscript offers a complete copy of the Latin text with some interlinear glosses. The book decoration consists of a historiated initial with a half-length frontal portrait of the author as he points to his book (f. 1). From this initial sprouts a short leaf scroll. In addition there are very beautiful decorated initials placed at the beginning of the various books of the Consolatione (f. 8, 17, 30 and 41). Their style indicates that the manuscript was made in northern Italy, perhaps Bologna.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This parchment manuscript from the end of the 15th century contains the "Chronicle of London" as well as a version of the paraphrase text of the "Metrical Chronicle" by Robert of Gloucester found only in this manuscript, CB 43. The dialect used in the text indicates that the manuscript was written by a scribe from the southern Midlands.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This copy of Cesar's "Commentarii" from about 1480 attests to the great popularity this text attained during the early Renaissance (there are more than 240 surviving manuscripts of the "Commentarii" from the 15th century). This manuscript was produced in the atelier of the illuminator Cola Rapicano in Naples. The "bianchi girari" (white vine) book decoration and the illuminated initial capitals which mark the beginning of each book are of a type often found in codices containing humanistic works. The illuminated initial capital on fol. 1r, on the other hand, portrays the Roman ruler in an unusual way, as an armored horseman.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This elegant codex, written in humanistic script, was commissioned by Pope Leo X († 1521). The Medici coat of arms can be found in the middle of the original binding's cover, in a rich frieze on the frontispiece, and in the initials on f. 3v and f. 134v. The decoration is attributed to the famous Florentine illuminator Attavante degli Attavanti († 1525) or his circle. This codex is from the collection of Major J.R. Abbey.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
The Carmina by Catullus contained in this codex was written in a humanistic cursive, attributed to the calligrapher Ludovico Regio di Imola. The frontispiece in grisaille with gold highlights is framed by motifs in the manner of antiquity with trophies, sphinxes and mascarons, while the title in gold letters stands out from the crimson background. At the bottom of the page, the coat of arms on a disc held by two putti is overlaid in the same crimson color.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript, commissioned by the bibliophile Antoine of Bourgogne in 1460, contains the Epître d'Othea by Christine de Pisan, decorated with about a hundred masterful miniatures (a complete pictorial cycle). One of these contains the dedication of the work and shows four figures, identifiable as Philip the Good, Charles the Brave, and two of Philip's illegitimate sons, David and Anthony of Burgundy.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This codex contains De senectute, De amicitia, the Paradoxa ad Brutum by Cicero, the Synonyma by Pseudo-Cicero, and the anonymous treatise De punctorum ordine. It was created in Italy in a humanistic script from the second half of the 15th century. The frontispiece and the intials introducing the various texts are decorated with “bianchi girari;“ on f. 1r the coat of arms with the golden lion rampant on a red background, framed by a laurel wreath, could not be identified.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This manuscript contains Cicero's speeches, which were copied out in a humanistic script of the 15th century. The book decoration consists of initials with „bianchi girari“ (white vine-stem) on colored background which introduce the various texts, and a frontispiece, the decoration of which extends across the entire page f. 1r. At the center of the bottom margin, surrounded by a laurel wreath, the coat of arms of the Medici family of Florence stands out, covering an even older coat of arms. The manuscript belonged to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati (1490-1553) from Florence and then to the Venetian monk and later manuscript dealer Luigi Celotti (1768-1848).
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This French translation of the story of Alexander, destined to belong to Charles the Bold, was commissioned by Vasco da Lucena, "the Portugese", a retainer of the Infanta Isabella, who was married to Philip the Good. This revival of the work by Quintus Curtius Rufus, which is augmented by texts from Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, Aulus Gellius and Justin, allows the author to liberate the Macedonian conqueror from legends perpetuated by the medieval tradition. The Miroir des princes portrays a model of a hero shaped within the framework of the humanistic movement initiated by the dukes of Burgundy in the late middle ages. CB 53 was copied in Burgundy and may be fairly accurately dated only a few years after the translation was made; it was decorated with miniatures in the artistic circle of the Master of Marguerite of York (ca. 1470-1475).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Copied in 1378 by Francesco di maestro Tura of Cesena, who included both a date and a signature at the end of the volume, the Codex Severoli opens each of the three sections of the Commedia with an historiated initial. A number of interlinear glosses explicate the verses of the Paradiso.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The Sachenspiegel by Eike von Repgow is one of the oldest books of law in the German language. This parchment manuscript, CB 61, was produced at the beginning of the 15th century and contains codes of common and feudal law.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This manuscript containing legal materials from the 13th or early 14th century demonstrates the high regard in which the "Decretum Gratiani", often considered the foundation of modern canon law, was held during the middle ages. The text is bordered by the "Glossa Ordinaria" of Johannes Teutonicus, in the first revision by Barthomeus of Brescia (before 1245). The manuscript features numerous ornately illustrated initials.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This 12th century manuscript from central Italy contains works of music theory by three Latin authors. Among these is Guido Aretinus, a Tuscan monk of the 10th century who is regarded as the inventor of solmisation. Some passages of text in the codex are based on the Institutio musica by Boethius.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This 14th century parchment manuscript preserves the "Historia destructionis Troiae" by Guido de Columnis for posterity. Its 187 miniatures crafted by Giustino da Forlì portray the most important scenes of the Trojan War against a background of the Gothic architecture of Venice. The margins of the manuscript reveal written traces of the collaborative efforts of the copyist and the illuminator: the scribe made notes in Venetian dialect indicating the plan for incorporating a series of miniature illustrations, which were then duly added by the illuminator.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
Guillaume de Loris and Jean de Meung (Meun) are the authors of the Roman de la Rose, one of the masterpieces of medieval courtly literature. In a phantasmagoric and allegorical setting, the lover seeks entry to a locked garden which conceals a rose, the image of his beloved. The second part, written by Jean de Meung, provides a philosophical and moral lesson. This manuscript, written on parchment in the 14th century, contains many golden and gold-accented illustrations and borders as well as initials with blue and red extensions.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This Hebrew manuscript from the 15th century combines liturgical texts and contains commentaries on the rites that provide the framework for the observation of the Passover. This Pesach Haggadah, adorned with miniatures and rich illustrations, contains the complete liturgical version of the Exodus story. The first part of the manuscript contains the text of the Italian rite, the second part that of the Ashkenazi. The manuscript was written and illuminated by Joël ben Siméon, who signed his work with a colophon (f. 34r): I am Joel ben Simeon, called Veibusch Ashkenazi – blessed be his memory – and I am from Cologne, which is on the banks of the Rhine.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
The Ilias Latina, copied on paper during the 14th century, is a Latin adaptation of the great epic by Homer, one of the foundational texts of ancient Greece. It was written in Gothic quasi-cursive script by a single scribe in the region of Naples in Italy. One should take note of some of the decorated initials, some of which incorporate figures, especially that of a muse, clad in a dress covered with stars and holding a sword in her hand.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
Manuscript CB 88, which combines the Odes, the Epodes, and the Carmen saeculare, a piece interpreted by children's choirs of the Roman nobility during secular performances, is an unusual example of a Horace manuscript from the turn of the 10th to the 11th century. Its many marginal and interlinear glosses, which frequently consist of scholii by Pseudo-Acro, explain the verses and praise their metrical accuracy and verbal virtuosity. The alphabetical tables and the title were added in the 14th century at the end of the volume.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This parchment manuscript from the time around 1400 contains a work by the Dominican sermonist Jacques de Cessoles, using the game of chess as the allegorical basis for a lesson in morals. The same theme is carried out in 16 accompanying illustrations as well.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This generously illuminated manuscript in two volumes was made at the beginning of the 15th century and contains Guiron le Courtois, a romance about the fathers of the knights of the round table written around the year 1235. The various tales are presented here in an order unique to the CB 96 manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript contains a Latin translation in pre-Carolingian script of the "Antiquitates Judaicae", originally written in Greek by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the first century. CB 98 was produced in the Benedictine abbey of San Silvestro di Nonantola (Province of Modena), as was Ms. CB 99, which also contains texts by Flavius Josephus.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This codex contains the Jewish War, originally written by the historian Flavius Josephus in the 1st century. The 7 books of De bello Judaico present an account of the Jewish rebellion from the year 66 until the overthrow of Masada in the year 73. CB 99, like Ms. CB 98, was produced in the Benedictine abbey of San Silvestro di Nonantola (Province of Modena), though later than CB 98 and by different scribes.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
The two originally independent parts of this manuscript were bound together probably in the last third of the 15th century (after 1469, cf. Index p. Iv). The first part, written in a single column (pp. 1r-272), contains the Buch der Natur (Prologfassung) by Conrad of Megenberg. This part of the manuscript features marginal corrections and glosses (especially for medically relevant parts of the text), which may be by the original owner of the manuscript (Hayer 1998, p. 162). Especially parts I, III, IV, and V of the Buch der Natur contain marginal notes and interlinear glosses in a 15th century hand which reworks the natural history texts allegorically for preaching. Numerous smaller and larger marginal illustrations. The second part, written in two columns (pp. 274ra-307rb) contains a medical compendium in six parts (childhood illnesses – illnesses due to the imbalance of the humores – diseases of the eyes – the plague, skin diseases, fever – surgery and wound care – venereal diseases, bone injuries, burns), Latin and German recipes and prescriptions, as well as a German table of contents. On p. 284ra is a drawing of surgical instruments. Formerly privately owned by the antiquarian Hans P. Kraus, New York, Nr. 1958/13; prior to that Maihingen, Fürstl. Öttingen-Wallersteinsche Bibl., Cod. III.1.2° 3.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains works by Lactantius, written in an Italian humanistic script in the second half of the 15th century. The book decoration consists of numerous initials with bianchi girari (white vine scroll), with side borders and with a frontispiece decorated along three sides with bianchi girari and with naturalistic elements: birds, butterflies and a donkey. In the bottom margin, two putti hold a laurel wreath surrounding the coat of arms of the person who commissioned the work, a member of the Aragonese royal family of Naples, probably Ferdinand I, King of Naples (1458-1494). An old signature confirms that the manuscript is from the library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
This 15th century paper manuscript in four volumes brings together the prose texts Lancelot Propre, La Queste del saint Graal, and La Mort le roi Artu. The first volume contains 42 aquarelle tinted pen drawings, the fourth volume features two full-page illustrations on inserted parchment leaves.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
John Lydgate, Troy Book, written c. 1412-1420 at the request of Henry V when still Prince of Wales. It is composed in couplets, with a prologue, five books, an epilogue, and an address to Henry V (thirteen stanzas rhyme royal=7-line stanzas ababbcc), and envoy, titled ‘Verba auctoris' (two 8-line stanzas). Lydgate translated the story of the Trojan War into English, not directly from Homer but through the re-workings by Benoit de Ste Maure, Roman de Troie (1165) and Guido delle Colonna, Historia Destructionis Troiae (1287).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This 10th century parchment manuscript contains a commentary on the Somnium Scipionis by Macrobius, followed by excerpts from the Naturalis historia of Pliny the Elder and from De institutione musica by Boethius. The codex also includes diagrams which portray, for example, the Earth and the constellations.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This manuscript, written in a humanistic script, contains the Epigrammata by Martial (ca. 40- ca. 102) in twelve books, followed by the usual two concluding texts, Xenia and Apophoreta. The first leaf of the manuscript is missing. Several epigrams were added, probably at the same time period, but by a hand different from that of the principal scribe (41v, 105v, 132r, 133v, 136v). In the absence of a title page, the decoration is limited to a series of initials, created by two different artists; one with bianchi girari, the other with interlace on a background of gold, sometimes referred to as “a cappio annodato.“ Each epigram begins with a simple initial in blue. Produced in Northern Italy in the middle of the 15th century, the manuscript was verifiably in France since the 18th century, in the hands of the Jarente de Sénas family; later it was owned by Ambroise Firmin-Didot. During the 19th century, ownership changed several times before the manuscript became part of the collection of Martin Bodmer.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Of all the 19 surviving manuscripts and fragments containing the Prophesies de Merlin, only CB 116 transmits the entire text. The manuscript thus clarifies which episodes from the Arthurian tales comprise the complete body of the work.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
The double page at the beginning of this manuscript of the Metamorphoses and the Fasti of Ovid shows its connections to antiquity: the use of initials in the fashion of antiquity, the purple tint that colors the entire double page and the laurels that crown the poet's verses and anchor the production of this volume in the Italian Renaissance. The dedication in golden letters on the back of the first page confirm this origin: the manuscript was copied by the Neapolitan Ippolito Lunense for the secretary of Ferdinand I. of Aragon, Antonello Petrucci, whose coat of arms, surrounded by putti and horns of plenty, may be found on the back of the second page. The style, color and ink are changed according to the text. The decoration with bianchi girari of a very high quality is typical of Neapolitan production methods that were practiced by the royal illuminator Cola Rapicano.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This manuscript from Italy contains Ovid's Metamorphoses. The text is annotated with marginal and interlinear glosses by various contemporaneous and Italian hands from the 15th century. Four types of notes can be discerned: structuring, lexical and philological, intertextual and commenting, which testify to the vitality of Ovid's text in the 14th century and up to the beginning of the modern era. The frontispiece is decorated with a letter surrounding a portrait of the author during the composition of his work, as well as a side border bearing an angel with red wings.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This copy of the Lives of the Saints, produced during the 12th century, possibly in the German Cloister of Weissenau, is decorated with ornately detailed and illustrated initial capitals, including one notable initial in which the illuminator, "Fr. Ruffilus" includes himself (fol. 244r).
Online Since: 05/20/2009
This codex was produced in the opening years of the 16th century. Though it was created at a time when book printing had already proven its usefulness, this manuscript serves to demonstrate a high level of achievement in the calligraphic and illuminatory arts. Copied by Bartolomeo Sanvito, who also produced four other manuscripts of the Canzoniere and the Triumphi by Petrarch, CB 130 was written using a well-balanced, simplified script and refined illuminations. The beginning of the manuscript contains three full-page illustrations on parchment.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript unites two different collections of Italian poetry: a collection of 380 poems by Petrarch and a collection of works by the preceding generation of poets, especially Dante. In this mysterious "libro de la mia Comare" (Book of my Godmother), the poems of Petrarch are recorded in an archaic script, augmented here and there with individual glosses which are not found elsewhere, apparently in an effort to introduce these texts to a female readership.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
"De Balneis Puteolanis", a didactic poem by the Salerno physician Petrus de Ebulo, describes the health benefits of about thirty healing springs found in the region around Pozzuoli and Baia, Italy. This work was widely disseminated in Latin as well as in Italian and French translations. It describes baths that were destroyed by an earthquake in 1538. The manuscript is decorated with full-page illustrations and was probably produced in the artistic circle of Robert d'Anjou.
Online Since: 07/31/2007
In this work from Plato's most productive period, Phaedo tells of the death of Socrates from a witness's point of view and relates the last words of the great philosopher in the form of a last dialogue with Cebes and Simmias. This manuscript, which contains a number of attractive decorative initials, was written during the 15th century on parchment. The round humanistic script is that of a single scribe, who identifies himself in red thus, "Marcus Speegnimbergensis scripsit" (fol. 76)
Online Since: 06/02/2010
The twenty comedies by Plautus contained in this manuscript were written in the course of the second half of the 15th century in a very careful humanist script. Each comedy begins with a golden initial with bianchi girari. The first page is also decorated with a frame of floral interlace, which is interrupted in the lower part by a laurel crown flanked by two putti; the inside of the frame was left blank and must have been meant to contain the owner's coat of arms. According to a shelfmark on the front pastedown, in the 17th century this manuscript belonged to the Maurist library in Rome.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript, which was written during the 15th century in Florence, retains its original binding. The humanistic script is the work of a single scribe, with large golden initials and "bianchi girari" (white vine) decorations at the beginning of each book. There are some marginal glosses written in violet ink as well as other, newer additions which were probably made during the 16th century. After Herodotus and Thucydides, Polybius is the third-greatest Greek historian. He concentrated on accounts of the Roman conquest, as characterized in the many conflicts that took place in a variety of different locations.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
These two illuminated maps probably were part of an atlas of nautical charts of the Mediterranean, also called Portolan. The first map is north-facing and shows a part of the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and of the Mediterranean on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, between the Canary Islands and northern Italy. The second map is western-facing and shows the islands of the Aegean Sea between Crete (Candia) and Thessaloniki, Greece and Asia Minor, with Troy and Constantinople sketched in anachronistically. A scale for the latitudes on the first map, graduated distance scales near the margins, rhumb lines, and wind roses decorated with fleurs-de-lis accompany the red and black coastal toponyms written perpendicular to the coasts. Their very stylized arrangement emphasizes the headlands and estuaries, and the cartographer also depicted some rivers, albeit without great precision. In the interior and rather vaguely placed are miniature pictures of cities with banners, mountains, and trees. At sea, a few ships and a marine animal appear on both maps. The names of the regions are written on banners or in larger letters. The particular style of the design of the cities, the decorations, and the writing refers back to the work of Giovanni Battista Cavallini or his successor Pietro Cavallini, who worked in Livorno between 1636 and 1688.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript contains Propertius' elegies; it was written in an elegant humanist script by Gian Pietro da Spoleto in Florence in 1466. The manuscript belonged to Antonello Petrucci d'Aversa († 1487), who was active in the Aragonese chancery and later in the library of the Aragonese kings in Naples. The initials at the beginning of each book as well as on the frontispiece are decorated with bianchi girari (white vine scroll); the coat of arms that should have appeared within the laurel wreath (f. 1r) was never executed.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This manuscript contains the Romuleon, a collection of anonymous Latin texts about the history of Rome attributed to Benvenuto da Imola. CB 145 was written in France in about 1440, probably during the lifetime of Charles VII, whose portrait can be found on fol. 6v. There is a series of noteworthy miniatures at the beginning of the manuscript.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript contains the tract Le Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance by King René of Anjou. This allegorical poem, composed in 1455, invites people to live a holy life by means of a dialogue between soul and heart about abstinence from unsatisfying earthly things. CB 144 is decorated with eight full-page miniatures made by Jean Colombe in about 1470.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This manuscript produced at the end of the 13th century contains a copy of the Arthurian romance tales in prose: "Estoire del Graal", "Merlin", "Suite Merlin", "Queste del saint Graal", and "Mort le roi Artu". The interpolations used in CB 147 make it a particularly unusual manuscript: the heroes of the Arthurian tales are made to utter translations of the Gospels, Genesis, and various other biblical texts as well as sermons by Maurice de Sully. The manuscript also contains the "Faits de Romains", and a prose version of the "Roman de Troie" not found elsewhere. The plentiful illuminations are executed in a highly unusual style.
Online Since: 07/25/2006
This manuscript contains François Dassy's French translation of Carcel de amor by Diego San Pedro (1437-1498). This translation is also based on Lelio Manfredi's Italian translation, completed in 1513. Diego de San Pedro is a Spanish pre-Renaissance poet and storyteller; perhaps he was of Hebrew origin but converted to Christianity. Carcel de amor, one of his two best-known novellas, is a sentimental romance about the overcoming of passionate love through reason; it was first printed in Seville in 1492 and was translated into many languages. The manuscript is illustrated with 19 vignettes, most of which are surrounded by an architectural frame containing representations of figures in period clothing. This manuscript might have been created for Charles III de Bourbon-Montpensier (Charles de Bourbon) between 1521 and 1527 — his coat of arms is on f. 1v. Before becoming part of the Martin Bodmer collection, the manuscript was owned by the Demidow family, Count Alexis Golowkin and Sir Thomas Philipps.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
"Even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so is it better to give to others the fruits of one's contemplation than merely to contemplate." The greatest work of Thomas Aquinas, the Summa Theologica, is the emblematic work of Christian scholasticism. This work, written near the end of the life of the great Dominican is incomplete, as its compositon was broken off by the death of the author. Organized in the form of questions (quaestiones) and subdivided into articles, the work presents theology in an organic form. Manuscript CB161 was produced in France, certainly in Paris, only a short time after the philosopher's death; it has been preserved in its original binding. The inscription from the end of the 13th century which can be found on the lower portion of the back cover shows that the manuscript was deposited as collateral by Jean de Paris against the loan of another work.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
In his De bello Peloponensium, Thucydides fully achieves the work of a historian, as he shows the origins of the Peloponnesian War and then relates its events year by year with great exactitude. This parchment manuscript is extraordinarily beautiful in its illustrations, especially the two "putti" and the human figure in the center of one initial, wearing a blue suit of armor and holding a sword. The humanistic script, a slightly angular cursive, is the work of a single scribe.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
This elegant codex, written in humanist cursive, contains the Elegiae by the Latin elegiac poet Tibullus; this text was not very widely distributed in the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered by Italian humanists at the end of the 14th century. The manuscript was written and illuminated in Florence, perhaps for Braccio, a member of the Martelli family, who had his coat of arms added to the title page. Later the manuscript passed into the hands of the Medici family of Florence; they had their coat of arms painted on the front pastedown. In 1968 Martin Bodmer purchased the manuscript from the collection of Thomas Phillipps.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This late Renaissance Italian humanist manuscript contains excerpts of various works by Latin and Greek authors, among them Pliny, Cicero, Silius Italicus, Plautus, Livy, Horace, Sallust, Plutarch, Seneca and others. Pellegrin, following Tammaro de Marinis, attributes the writing to the copyist Gian Marco Cinico, who worked for the kings of Naples between 1458 and 1494. The different parts are introduced by golden initials with bianchi girari, only partly completed (ff. 1v, 4v, 20r, 22r, 50r, 186v). Some of these bianchi girari are left unfilled on a blue, red, green or black background, others are colored pink, green or blue on a black or golden background. The vine scrolls are inhabited by putti and animals such as rabbits, stags, butterflies or birds. Numerous frames show putti engaged in hunting or other playful activities (e.g., ff. 55r, 79r, 139r, 169r).
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This ethical work by Boccaccio, originally written between 1353 and 1356 and expanded in 1373, addresses the subject of the unevenness of fate. Manuscript copies of the work were frequently made; it was issued in print and translated into many languages. It enjoyed great popularity in Europe. The French translation by Laurent de Premierfait for Jean de Berry was equally popular, as evidenced by the 68 manuscript copies of this text still in existence. Unlike the Latin version, the French manuscripts display a rich iconographic accompaniment, most likely produced by Laurent de Premierfait himself. This is also the case with CB 174, which was produced during the 15th century in France. Each book opens with a small illustration (150 in all) portraying the “pitfalls” described in the text that follows.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The Rhetorica, a work in Latin recording ten years teaching by Guillaume Fichet, is a witness to this „Art of Speaking“, treatments of which would soon disappear. This richly illuminated manuscript was written in 1471 at the Sorbonne in Paris (in the same year as the printed edition of the text). The manuscript begins with a large miniature portraying the author presenting his book to Princess Yolanda of Savoy.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The 13 large illustrations in this French manuscript, written in the 15th century, were produced by one of the most important book decorators of the late middle ages : Jean Fouquet (BnF, ms. fr. 247). They are richly decorated with gold and cover two thirds of a page; a large number of initials adorned with flowers round out the illustrator's iconographic program. The first page, which is missing, also certainly held a decorative illustration (Adam and Eve?). At the beginning of a prolog is a small miniature portraying the author writing the book. The Antiquitates iudaicae recounts the history of the Jewish nation from Genesis to the year 66 according to the modern western calendar.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The historical-biblical compilation by Peter of Poitiers (around 1130-1205), the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, was very widely used during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. Like many other examplars of this text, this copy was written on a parchment scroll, but at an unknown date it was cut into 7 parts. Figurative medallions and schemata, most of them genealogical, cover the entire work and thus represent a continuous line of world history, from the Fall of Man (f. 1) to the Christmas story (f. 5).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A luxurious copy of the Life of Aesop, part historical and part legendary, that was compiled around 1300 by Maximos Planudes. These pages once constituted the first part of a manuscript of Aesop's Fables , which today is held primarily in New York. It was written in Florence between 1482 and 1485 by Démétrios Damilas, one of the main scribes at the court of the Medici, for Lorenzo the Magnificent's young son Piero II de' Medici, who was 10-12 years old at the time. On the splendid frontispiece one can recognize the portraits of Planudes and Piero II.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
The text De verborum significatu by the Latin grammarian Pompeius Festus is an extremely valuable dictionary of Latin language and mythology for those seeking to understand the world of the Romans. This manuscript is of Italian origin and retains its contemporary binding with a wooden cover. It was written during the 15th century on parchment and contains lovely gilded initials on a blue and red background. Quotations have been added in the margins to explain certain words in the text. The last leaves in the volume contain excerpts from Greek and Latin authors.
Online Since: 06/02/2010
Exemplar of the so-called Parisian Bible, a pocket Bible which contains the entire text of the Old and the New Testaments in a relatively small format in two columns in small script. The codex was produced around the middle or in the second half of the 13th century in Central or Eastern France. It is distinguished and made luxurious by no fewer than 82 historiated initials and 66 ornamental initials. Noteworthy is the fact that the biblical text shows signs of careful correction and that the psalms are divided into smaller sections according to a scheme, which rules out that it was commissioned by a monastery, but suggests instead that it was commissioned by a secular priest or a layperson. An erased note of ownership suggests that in 1338 this manuscript belonged to the Celestine Monastery Notre-Dame of Ternes (Limoges), perhaps a gift from its founder Roger le Fort, who was the son of the Lord of Ternes and was Archbishop of Bourges in 1343. Before this Bible became part of the collection of Martin Bodmer, it belonged to the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1935), hence the name “Rothschild-Bibel.”
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This manuscript contains the Dragmaticon, a work by the scholar Wilhelm de Conches, a member of the School of Chartres. It is possible that the codex was produced in about 1230 in the area of Cologne in a scholastic circle and that it is among the oldest surviving texts of the Dragmaticon, which is transmitted in a total of about 70 medieval manuscripts. The portable format, assorted schemata and tables provided, and the script used (Gothic cursive) indicate that the manuscript was intended for university use. The first section of the manuscript contains a computus for determining when movable feast days should fall.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
In about 1310 the Bishop of Liège, Thibaut de Bar, commissioned Jacques de Longuyon to write the Vœux du paon, which extends the tradition of the Alexander romance. Thirteen miniatures and a number of filigreed initials adorn the alexandrine monorhyme stanzas of the poem.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
This manuscript, written in Persian, contains a selection of the “One Hundred Sayings by Ali,” a collection of sayings and proverbs traditionally attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth rightly guided Caliph as well as cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. Among the Shiites (from šīʿat ʿAlī, the “party of Ali"), Ali plays an important religious role as the first imam. This manuscript was written in 1559 by the calligrapher Jalal ibn Muhammad in Bukhara. For the text he used the Nastaliq script, a calligraphic script widely used for the Persian-Arabic alphabet; for the titles, however, he used the ordinary Arabic Nasḫī script. The six full-page miniatures, highlighted in gold, were added in the second/third quarter of the 17th century. Noteworthy on p. 9v at bottom center is the rare depiction of a figure turning his back to the observer, of whom one can see only the back of the head. On the same page at the left, behind several musicians, two Europeans can be recognized by their clothing.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript, written in Persian, contains the story of Prince Seyf ol-Molûk and Princess Badî`ol-Jamâl. The manuscript was probably written in India and illustrated with 32 miniatures. At the end of the text (f. 56v), the scribe dated the manuscript in the year 1033 (in the Islamic calendar). The story can also be found in One Thousand and One Nights (758th to 778th night, edition Calcutta II 1839-1842).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about 30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto. The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the Keichō era (1596-1615).
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Tale of Ise is one of the earliest and most well-known example of uta monogatari, a subgenre of the monogatari, which focuses on waka poetry with the narrative evolving around the poetry. Its authorship, as well as the exact date of composition remain unclear, but it is today dated to the early Heian period. It is also known by the title "Zaigo chūjō nikki", or "Diaries of the Prince Ariwara no Narihira". The main character in the Tale of Ise is understood as being the historical prince and poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century), whose waka feature in the tale. Yet due to the existence of narratives that clearly date to later periods, Narihira himself cannot be regarded as the author. The tale is generally concerned with human affection of many kinds, from amorous affairs to parental affection. Whilst many chapters do have a strong aristocratic notion, it is not limited to the world of nobility, but also includes the commoner's fate, such as Chapter 23 Tsutsuizutsu. The characters often remain unnamed and are only referred to as ‘the girl', or ‘the man'. Thus, the tale is interpretable as an effort to generally address the topic of human relationship and affection. This example bound in silk is adorned with illustrations executed in ink, polychromy and gold.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This is a Panjabi adaptation of the 10th book of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, in Punjabi/Braj language, in Gurmukhī script. It is a collection of stories of the life of the god Kṛṣṇa, written in verse (caupaī, kabitā, soraṭhā and others). Contrary to the Sanskrit version, the text has no clear chapter structures and has a continuous numeration (880 verses). It is richly illustrated with scenes from the life of the god Kṛṣṇa (more than 200 miniatures), and it is a free verse rendering of the ancient Sanskrit text that was written in ślokas (shlokas), which was extremely popular in India.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
The manuscript, written in modern Devanāgarī script, contains a series of extracts of poems on Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and on nāyikās and nāyakas (heroes and heroines), demonstrating various states and stages of erotic love. Two compositions mention in their colophons the authors or compilers, Rājānāgarī Dāsa (f. 55v) and the Venerable Kuvara Phakīra Siṃha - Kubar Fakīr Singh in hindi spelling (f. 58v). The manuscript is illustrated: five pictures feature Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa (f. 1v, 10r, 26v, 33r and 37v), and two others depict young people in love (f. 52r, 52v). The poems are of different forms, namely, copaī/caupaī, dohā, aralli, and soraṭha. Each of these has a fixed number of lines, syllables per line and other metric specifications. This style was very popular in Northwestern India from about the 18th century onwards. The manuscript was the property of Oliver Henry Perkins (front pastedown), before entering the Bodmer collection at an unknown date.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This manuscript comprises a collection of four different texts. The main text is the Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord"), a part of the Mahābhārata epic, book 6, which consists of 18 chapters, written here in Devanāgarī in a Kashmiri-influenced style (f. 1v-165r). It is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition and survives in a huge number of manuscripts. Painted portraits of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna alternate in opening its 18 chapters. The Bhagavadgītā is preceded by the Prayāgatīrthasnānasaṃkalpa, apadoddhāraṇastotra (V2r-V4v),"a promise to take bath at Prayāga (Allahabad)", and followed by the Pañcavaktrahanumatkavaca (N1v-N7v), a protective mantra of Hanuman, and finally the Stavarāja (N8r-N8v), a "king of praises", serving also as a sort of colophon to the whole collection of these miscellaneous texts. These three subsidiary texts are all written in common Devanāgarī script. A partly readable note dated 29 August 1781 identifies the manuscript as a “prayer book of a bramin [i.e. brahmin]” given to the unidentified possessor of the manuscript “on his departure from India” (V1r).
Online Since: 03/22/2018