This unbound manuscript contains one of the most copied texts of the Śvetāmbara Jaina tradition, the Kalpasūtra, which was very popular all over India from the 14th century on. It is a collection of life stories of the great Tīrthaṅkāras. The present manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script, begins with the life of Mahāvīra Jīna, and continues with the biography of Pārśvanātha and Neminātha. The text is incomplete, missing folios 32, 85, 97, 103, and 125, which contained paintings that were sold separately. Their subject, however, can be restored through comparison with similar manuscripts. The paintings still in the manuscript (1v, 7r, 9v, 16v, 17v, 21r, 45v, 47v, 51r, 58r, 62v, 70r, 71v, 72v, 77v, 78r, 81v, 92r) depict the most important events of the lives of the Kalpasūtra's figures. Based on the painting style, the manuscript is close to the 15th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This is an 18th century manuscript of the text called Kedārakalpa, representing itself as a part of the Nandīpurāṇa. The manuscript describes and depicts in its 61 exquisite miniature paintings a religious pilgrimage in Himalayas, Kedarnath region, as done by a group of yogis. It is a śaiva text, i.e. main deity is god Śiva, and the main purpose of the text is to incite people to go on that sacred śaiva pilgrimage.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This is a composite manuscript, written in Devanāgarī script bearing the influence of the Kashmiri style, bringing together a number of ritual texts dealing with the worship of Viṣṇu. 1. (ff. 1_1r-1_6r) preparatory texts and rituals (without a single name or title), starting with a likely Pāñcarātra-influenced set of ritual practices, namely, nyāsas, and dhyānas, i.e. assignment of deities, and syllables to various parts of the body and the visualisation of the main deity. 2. (ff. 1_6r-1_149v) Bhagavadgīta: the main text in this miscellaneous collection. The Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord" - Viṣṇu/ Kṛṣṇa), which is a part of the Mahābhārata, book 6 from 18, is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition, and this part of the Mahābhārata epic survives in a huge number of manuscripts. 3. (ff. 2_1r-2_107v) Copies of other parts of the Mahābhārata, Śāntiparvaṇ, which all are related to Viṣṇu. 4. (ff. 3_1r-6_31v) 2 parts of Pāñcarātrika Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, plus mantras including (ff. 4_1r-4_21r) Pāṇḍavagītāstotra, (ff. 5_1r-5_20v) Gopālapaṭala, (ff. 6_1r-6_23r) Gopālalaghupaddhati and other texts. 5. (ff. 7_1r-7_37v) Parts of the tantras, a. Saṃmohanatantra, dealing with the praise of Viṣṇu, i.e. Gopālasahasranāmastrotra; b. Gautamītantra, the part called Gopālastavarāja. 6. (ff. 8_1r-10_8r) Two different texts: 1. Niṃbarkakavaca, which is a production of the Nimbarka worship lineage of Vaiṣṇavas. 2. Part of ritual texts of Sāmaveda, dealing with the 5 saṃskāras, plus various vedic mantras, such as Gāyatrī, in its vaiṣṇava forms. 7. (ff. 11_1r-11_11v) Part of the Bhaviṣyotarapurāṇa dealing with the worship of the stones related to Viṣṇu from the Gaṇḍakī river (common name is shaligram). The manuscript contains 3 illuminated titles and 12 miniatures, most of which depict Kṛṣṇa. According to the colophon (ff. 11_11v-11_12r), the text was written in Kashmir, in a monastery called Ahalyamath, in 1833 Saṃvat, that is 1776 or 1777 CE, by a person called Gaṇeśa[bhaṭṭa?] Nandarāma. The second part of the colophon (partially missing), however, links the history of the manuscript to Vrindavan.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This Mexican Codex, written in Nahuatl, is part of the so-called Techialoyan Manuscripts. It is from Santa María de la Asunción Tepexoyuca, near San Martín Ocoyoacac, in the Toluca Valley in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The manuscript is an altepeamatl,"Village Land Book" or tlalamatl, "Land Manuscript", which records the territorial boundaries between the village of Tepexoyuca and its neighbors and lists the toponyms of the boundary markers. The manuscript signatories are eight key town figures at the time: among them don Esteban Axayacatl, "captain", don Miguel Achcuey, "fiscale", and don Simón de Santa María, "mayordomo".
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Testeriano denotes catechism manuscripts in a pictographic script attributed to the Franciscan friar and missionary Jacobo de Testera (16th century). Writing had already developed in 12th century Central America as a mixture of ideograms, pictograms and phonetic symbols, but the original handwritten witnesses thereof were destroyed in the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. In order to communicate with the indigenous population, Christian missionaries later adopted this writing system, but they invented many symbols since the goal was to communicate a new, Christian content. For instance, three crowned heads represent the Trinity and thus God, while two crowned heads with key and sword represent the apostles Peter and Paul. The manuscript is read from left to right across both pages; different parts are separated by decorative vertical vignettes. The manuscript contains several short prayers (among them pp. 1v-2r Persignum, 2v-4r Ave Maria, 4v-8r Credo) and a long prayer (pp. 27v-35r) which represents a repetition of the Christian doctrine.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This register, consisting of 275 leaves, contains the coats of arms of the canons of the diocese of Basel, from the election of Bishop Christoph von Utenheim in 1502 to the last prince-bishop, Franz Xaver von Neveu in 1794. Over three centuries, painters added to these parchment sheets over 2,300 coats of arms in color. From 1682 on, complete family trees appeared, which proved that the church dignitaries had the requisite sixteen quarters of nobility (sixteen noble ancestors in the generation of the great-great-grandparents).
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A copy of the four Gospels with commentaries by Jerome, produced in the Abbey of St. Gall during the 10th century (before 950).
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Commentary on the first eight epistles of Paul. This is a copy of a (lost) exemplar which, according to tradition, was written before 945 by Abbot Thietland († around 964). The text depends to a great degree upon the Pauline commentary of Bishop Atto of Vercelli (885-961).
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This Codex comprises the oldest complete surviving neumed mass antiphonary; it includes assorted appendices (such as Alleluia verses, Antiphons and Psalm verses for the Communion Antiphons). Because the mass antiphonary is complete, the manuscript remains important to this day as a resource for Gregorian chant research. The second part of the codex contains the Libyer Ymnorum, the Sequences of Notker of St. Gall. Recent research has established that the codex was written in Einsiedeln itself (in about 960-970), most likely for the third abbot of the cloister, Gregor the Englishman.
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This manuscript contains Jerome's commentary on Matthew; it was written in Carolingian minuscule by the scribe Subo, who signed at the end of the text (p. 267) as well as on the last page (p. 268), which today, as the inside back page, is glued to the cover. The style of the initials indicates the Rhaetian area, whereas the scribe Subo is attested at Disentis Abbey. The manuscript has been in Einsiedeln since at least the 17th century, as shown by an ex libris on page 1.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job. It is assumed the manuscript originated in Disentis, since its Carolingian minuscule is very similar to that of manuscript 126, written by the scribe Subo of Disentis. Therefore this manuscript, too, should be dated to the first third of the 9th century. The manuscript has been held at Einsiedeln since the 17th century, as attested by an ex libris on p. 3.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This manuscript contains the homilies of Gregory the Great on the prophet Ezekiel. It is written by various hands in a minucule which in general is close to the Raetian minuscule. Some researchers attribute the manuscript to a Swiss or Raetian scriptorium. A part of pages 204 and 206 and the entire page 214 are written in uncial script. The mansucript contains numerous initials with geometric and vegetal elements, similar in style to the Remedius-Sacramentary (Cod. Sang. 348). The maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz confirm that the manuscript was in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This manuscript contains the Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam of Ambrosius of Milan. It was produced in Engelberg as a commission for Abbot Frowin (1143-1178), a fact indicated by the dedicatory verse on 1. It also contains three illuminated initials with the motive of tendrils generally used during Frowin's tenure.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
This collection contains, together with other texts, a collection of Canons of ecclesiastical law called the Collectio Quesnelliana. It was probably produced in a scriptorium in northeastern France and was later held by the Court Library of Charlemagne. In the 11th century it was placed in the Cologne Cathedral library, where it was annotated by Bernold von Konstanz. It was later owned by suffragan bishop of Constance Jakob Johann Mirgel (1559-1629) before making its way, together with a group of his books, to the cloister at Einsiedeln.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Originally, this codex constituted a whole together with Einsiedeln 281. It was created in the 8th/9th century in the Raetian-Lombard area. The first part (p. 1-256) was written in Carolingian minuscule, the second (p. 258-430) in Raetian minuscule, the third (p. 431-526) in Raetian or Alemannic minuscule. The maniculae (bookmarks) by Heinrich von Ligerz confirm that the manuscript was in Einsiedeln in the 14th century already.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This is an especially lovely exemplar, written in France (Paris?) or Flanders, of The Mirror of Human Salvation, or Speculum humanae salvationis. The work itself exists in over 200 manuscript copies and numerous print editions. The Mirror of Human Salvation is divided into the prefiguring of salvation (Old Testament), the story of salvation as told in the New Testament (from the Annunciation to the Judgement Day), the 7 Stations of the Passion, the 7 Sorrows and the 7 Joys of Mary. At this time, four leaves and the opening portion are missing.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript, together with Cod. 247(379), 248(380) and 249(381), constitutes the four volumes of a collection of lives of the saints and passions of the martyrs, arranged according to the liturgical year. Without a doubt these four volumes were used in Einsiedeln, where most likely they also were produced. Each life is introduced with a large rubricated initial, and numerous glosses and maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz were inserted along the margins. The original endpapers, now removed, left traces of a liturgical text with neumes on the inside of the cover and traces of an illuminated initial on the inside of the back cover.
Online Since: 03/22/2017
This manuscript (9th century) from Disentis contains the Recognitiones of Pope Clement I in the Latin translation of Rufinus of Aquileia. Books IV-VI and individual chapters are missing.
Online Since: 04/23/2013
The devotional book of Abbot Ulrich Rosch of St. Gall contains various prayers, timetables and calendars, is decorated with elaborate initials and was written in the year 1472.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
Boethius (c. 476-c. 525), one of the earliest scholars of late antiquity and most influential of thinkers, in logic as well as in philosphy and theology, is the author of the works reproduced in this codex, De arithmetica et geometria and De musica. Both works were recognized during the middle ages as foundation works of the quadrivium. The manuscript was produced in Einsiedeln in the 10th century.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The fragments assembled in this collection were removed from their previous volumes by P. Gall Morel in 1858 and bound together into this volume in 1860. They consist of fragments from sequences (two volumes), hymn melodies (such as those still sung to this day in Einsiedeln), three Gloria melodies (the third of which is attributed to Pope Leo IX), three liturgical plays as well as the Novem modi by Hermannus. This manuscript is important to music history, as it is the first instance in Einsiedeln where the neumes are set upon four (incised) staff lines; the form used here represents the Alemannic choral dialect.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
Christus und die Minnende Seele ("Christ and the Courting (or wooing) Soul"); Henry Suso, life and works. This manuscript was a gift from a married couple, Ehlinger-von Kappel (Constance) to the Dominican convent of St. Peter in Constance, and from there it probably came to Einsiedeln via the Rheinau Abbey after its dissolution.
Online Since: 04/26/2007
This first part of the three-volume Engelberg Bible (together with Cod. 4 and Cod. 5) contains the Pentatuch and the books of the Prophets. The captioned pen sketch with verse of dedication on fol. 1v portrays Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) presenting the codex to Mary, the patroness of the Cloister. This large-format volume was, according to the colophon on 281v, written by Richene, the only scribe from Frowin's time that we know by name. The careful preparation of the parchment with decorative needlework and the staid style of script and initials in limited colors are characteristic of the recognizable works of Frowin's library.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This second volume of the three-part Engelberger Bible contains the books of the Old Testament remaining after Cod. 3. On 1v, the codex is dedicated in verse by Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) to Mary, the patron saint of the monastery. The codex's structure and organization reflect the simple but elegant style of Frowin's library. The colophon on 213r identifies the copyist as Richene, whose hand is also responsible for the other two volumes of the Engelberger Bible (Cod. 3 and Cod. 5); the illuminations and titles are the work of the so-called Engelberger Master. 69v contains a full-page colour depiction of Christ and the Church.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This third volume of the three-part Engelberg Bible contains the New Testament. The codex originally consisted of 204 folios. On one of the leaves that have been cut out, now cataloged as D 126 at the Stiftsarchiv Engelberg, a five-line verse identifies the scribe as Richene, who also completed the volumes containing the Old Testament (Cod. 3 and Cod. 4). Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) and his scribe Richene are also shown in a full-page illustration on 1r. Also portrayed at full-page size are the Evangelists with their attributes, each labeled with a descriptive verse (108v, 134v, 153v, 181r). On 103r through 105v are canonical tables. The manuscript contains some incomplete initials, spaces reserved for decorations, and completely empty pages.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
The scriptorium of Engelberg made this codex containing Augustine's commentary on the Psalms, along with a whole series of works of the Church Fathers (Cod. 12-18, 87-88 and 138). A two-line poem on 1r shows that the codex came to be during the time of Abbot Frowin (1143-1178). The text is written in a small, careful and clean script. The codex contains scattered figure initials with vinescrolls and bulb motifs typical of Frowin's time. Otherwise, lightly decorated initials in red ink divide the text.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains the 15 books of St. Augustine's On the Trinity. On 1v, under the Capitula a pen-drawing depicts Augustine with his three adversaries. The codex has been decorated in a particularly artistic manner by the so-called Engelberg Master. A large initial with figurative motifs in red-brown and blank ink begins each book; in the text that follows, intermediate initials are smaller, monochromatically red, and richly ornamented. In verse on 1r, the copyist describes in detail the circumstances of the production of the volume: it was begun under Abbot Berchtold of Engelberg (1178-1197), who died shortly after the copying was underway; his successor Heinrich (1197-1223) supervised the completion of the work.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Augustine's exposition on the Gospel of John. According to the dedicatory poem on 1r the manuscript was produced under Abbot Frowin (1143-1178) of Engelberg. The layout, script and illustration – a few initials with vinescroll- and bulb patterns (2v, 5v, 136v) alternate with more simple rubricated capitals in dividing the sections – are closely related to Cod. 13.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains sermons of the Church father Augustine. On 1r, Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) dedicates the codex in verse to the Virgin Mary, the monastery's patron saint. An index on 1v-3r lists the sermons contains in the manuscript. Half of the last folio (221) has been cut out, on the back paste-down, the copyist tested his pen (probacio penne). As with most volumes from Frowin's library, tears and holes in the parchment are carefully stitched up.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Augustine's City of God. The manuscript was probably begun under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) and completed and decorated under his successor Berchtold (1178-1197). The last folio is cut out; it may have had dedicatory verse on it, as was the practice for the Engelberg scriptorium under Frowin and Berchthold. Some of the initials have been erased and reworked.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This manuscript contains on 3v-142v the homilies of Gregory the Great on the prophet Ezechiel. On 1v-3r, in the same hand, appears the tam veteris quam novi testamenti testominia; on 143r-144r follows a short treatise on Grammar written in a different, slightly later hand; the bottom part of 144 has been cut out. On 4r, a line above the text attributes the volume to Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). Places where the parchment has been damaged have been carefully mended with different-coloured thread. Two of the decorative initials appear against a coloured background, in accordance with the later Engelberg style (24v and 76v). A few marginal notes are written in a later hand.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains the first of four volumes of the Book of Job by Gregory the Great. The subsequent three volumes are in codices 21, 22 and 23. The first volume encompasses the parts one (ff. 6r-99r) and two (99r-193v), each divided into five books. At the front of the volume there was originally a full-page illustration consisting of an artistic portrayal of Job with his three friends (upper half) and a portrayal of Gregory the Great and a monk writing (lower half). On the back, the actual recto side, is a Leonine verse couplet of dedication to Frowin. This leaf was carefully described by P. Karl Stadler in his hand-written catalog of 1787, which helped to identify the membrum disiectum, which is now held by the The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1955.74 (Purchase from the J.H. Wade Fund), as belonging to this volume.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This codex contains Gregory the Great's Moralia in Iob. According to poem on 1r, the manuscript was produced under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). The individual chapters are introduced by initiales in red and brown-black ink; in comparison to the first two initials (6r and 16v), those later in the book appear incomplete. Explicits are written in red majuscule. Tears and holes in the parchment are partially stitched up, but in a less artistic manner as in other manuscripts of the library of Frowin (e.g., Cod. 16). Between 39 and 40 a strip of parchment has been attached to complete the text.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
Like Cod. 34 , this manuscript contains 150 sermons by the Cistercian Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). The appearance of the script, in dark-brown ink, is mostly uniform. The title of the individual sermons have been written with red ink. 97v has been left blank. With regards to decoration, there are many decorative initials with runner- and bulb-motifs on a colorful background and numerous smaller initials, decorated usually in red and blue, occasionally with insular elements (59r, 67v). The manuscript was probably produced under Abbot Berchtold (1178-1197).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
Like Cod. 33, this manuscript contains 150 sermons by the Cistercian Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), sermons which, according to the introductory lines on 1v, Bernard gave to his disciples and which a certain Godefridus copied down for diffusion. The text, written in dark-brown ink by an even hand, is adorned throughout with red-accented capitals interspersed with small initials decorated in red and green. Squeezed in the upper margin, and partially cut off, a different hand in light-brown ink makes brief annotations on the text and statements on the author. The codex probably was produced under Abbot Berchtold.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript contains the Venerable Bede's homilies on the Gospels, which are listed in a chapter-index on 2r-vv and 65v-66r. A full-page colour illumination on 1v shows the author writing this work, framed by the attributes of the Evangelists. Rubricated initials, incipits and explicits divide the text, itself prepared in a light- to dark-brown ink; at the beginning, when the name of Mary, the patron-saint of the monastery of Engelberg, appears in the text, it is slightly emphasized through the use of majuscule or rubrication. 3r and 11v contain large multicolour decorative initials. Holes and tears in the parchment have been mended in a particularly artistic manner. On 1r a two-line verse states that the copy was made during the abbacy of Frowin (1143-1178).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This Codex contains Jerome's exposition of the Gospels of Matthew (1v-103r) and Mark (103v-128v). It has little decoration, but it has two elaborate, polychromatic initials (5r, 103v). The text, copied in black and dark-brown ink, contains multiple changes of hand. Text divisions such as incipit and explicit, pargraphs and chapter indications are executed in red ink, and one time figuratively decorated (51v). The two-line verse inscription on 1r attests that the codex was produced under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
According to the two-line poem on 1r, this manuscript was produced under Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). It contains simple red initials, and rarely small, polychromatic initials decorated with bulb motifs (2r, 25v, 41r, 54r, 62v). As is typical for the volumes from Frowin's library, the text is rendered throughout in black-brown ink by a regular hand and the incipits to each book are rubricated. At times the capitals are slightly bigger or accentuated with red ink. The last two-thirds of 119 has been excised.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This codex contains Saint Ambrose's Hexaemeron. A two-line poem on 1r by Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) dedicates this volume (with its title) to the monastery's patron saint Mary, mother of God. Beneath the dedication, the same hand has written a six-line poem, which likewise makes reference to the contents. A small decorative initial in blue, green, and red ink, as is typical of the library of Frowin, introduces the first book. The remaining books are divided with more simple, red initials. The text and marginal notes, in a dark-brown (and in a few places light brown) ink come from the same hand, a hand with a strikingly clean and balanced appearance.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This manuscript contains Jerome's exposition of the twelve prophetic books. Each prophet is colorfully depicted in a historiated initial at the beginning of his book. The name of the prophet under discussion appears in red ink in the top margin of every other two-page spread. Small, colourful decorated initials sometimes introduce new paragraphs in the prologues. Except for the prologues, the pages are laid out in three columns: the middle column contains the biblical text, the left and right columns provide, in a smaller script, the exposition. A two-line verse dedication on 1r ascribes the codex to the library of Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This volume is a copy of Augustine's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. After the list of chapters (1r-1v) follows the Retractatio sancti Augustini de sermone domini in monte (1v-5r). Both books of the main text are introduced by a colorful decorated initial (5r, 55r). The black-brown ink script appears uniform and balanced. On the recto of the front flyleaf a two-line poem names Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178) as having commissioned the volume.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
The principal part of this manuscript consists of the Antiphonale. The mostly neumed Mass chants for the church year and for the saints' days (ff. 3v-83v are supplemented with processional chants, litanies and a sequentiary (ff. 83v-109r). Bound into the manuscript at the beginning (ff. 1r-2v) and at the end (ff. 109r-122v) are 13th century supplements, among them a neumed German-language sequence dedicated to Mary (fol. 115r) and an elegy on the death of King Philip of Swabia of the House of Hohenstaufen, who was murdered in 1208 (fol. 117v).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
During construction work in 1963, this commentary by Paschasius Radbertus on the Lamentations of Jeremiah was discovered along with 9 other manuscripts in a false floor over the Engelberg library. On the basis of the verse inscription on 1r, the manuscript can be attributed to the library of Abbot Frowin of Engelberg (1143-1178). The hand and the decoration correspond to those characteristic of the Frowin volumes: the text is in black-brown ink with occasional capitals that are accentuated in red, the incipits and explicits are rubricated, simple initials are in red ink, and decorative initials have tendril and bulb motifs in colorful inks (2r, 40v, 73v, 126r, 163r).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
For centuries this manuscript was unknown, until in 1963 it was discovered along with several other codices (including 1003, 1005, 1007, 1009) in a false floor over the library of Engelberg Abbey. The circumstances surrounding this stash – perhaps protection from theft or some other threat – are unknown. On the basis of how it was produced and the verse on 1r, the codex can be placed among the series of volumes with text by Augustine (Cod. 12-18, 87-88 and 138) in the library of Abbot Frowin (1143-1178).
Online Since: 06/09/2011
An Engelberg copy of the historical work Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII by the ecclesiastical author Orosius. The Engelberg exemplar was commissioned under Abbot Frowin (1143-1178). It contains, among other items, noteworthy initials in the Engelberg book decoration style of the time and a large number of glosses. The manuscript is a meticulous copy from the St. Gall exemplar, Cod. 621 (9th century). This Engelberg manuscript later served as the master text for yet another copy, Cod. 60 of the Schaffhausen City Library (Schaffhauser Stadtbibliothek).
Online Since: 07/31/2007
This volume is part of an antiphonary in three volumes that was produced in duplicate for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Vincent in the city of Bern shortly after the college's founding in the years 1484/85. The manuscript contains the entire winter portion of the Temporale, of the Sanctorale and of the Commune Sanctorum according to the liturgy of the Diocese of Lausanne. The book decoration with miniatures for numerous initials is attributed to the Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen, an itinerant artist who was active in Fribourg, Bern, Sion and later in Ivrea and Aosta. He got his name from a breviary in two volumes that was created around 1493 for the Bishop of Sion, Jost of Silenen (1482-1496). After the introduction of the Reformation to Bern in the year 1528 and the subsequent secularization of the chapter, the entire group of antiphonaries was sold in 1530: four were sold to the city of Estavayer-le-Lac and were used there for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Lorenz; the other two — among them a duplicate of this manuscript — reached Vevey under circumstances that remain unexplained. They are currently held in the historical museum there.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This volume is part of an antiphonary in three volumes that was produced in duplicate for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Vincent (founded in 1484/85) in the city of Bern. It contains the Proprium de sanctis and the Commune Sanctorum of the summer portion (March 25 to November 25) according to the liturgy of the Diocese of Lausanne. The book decoration generally matches that of the first volume and can be attributed to a different anonymous illuminator of lesser quality. After the introduction of the Reformation to Bern in the year 1528 and the subsequent secularization of the chapter, the entire group of six antiphonaries was sold in 1530: four were sold to the city of Estavayer-le-Lac and were used there for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Lorenz; the other two — among them a duplicate of this volume — reached Vevey under circumstances that remain unexplained. They are currently held in the historical museum there.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This is the third and last volume of an antiphonary in three volumes that was produced in duplicate for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Vincent (founded in 1484/85) in the city of Bern. It contains the summer portion of the De Tempore according to the liturgy of the Diocese of Lausanne. Its duplicate is contained in volume IV. The book decoration consists of five illuminated initials, fleuronée initials and cadels, by the same artist who also decorated volume I. After the introduction of the Reformation to Bern in the year 1528 and the subsequent secularization of the chapter, the entire group of six antiphonaries was sold in 1530. Four were sold to the city of Estavayer-le-Lac and were used there for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Lorenz; the other two reached Vevey under circumstances that remain unexplained; they are currently held in the historical museum there.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This volume is part of an antiphonary in three volumes that was produced in duplicate for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Vincent (founded in 1484/85) in the city of Bern. It contains the summer portion of the De Tempore according to the liturgy of the Diocese of Lausanne. Its duplicate is contained in volume III. The book decoration is by an anonymous artist; it consists of cadels, fleuronée initials and an illuminated initial with a border on f. 1r. After the introduction of the Reformation to Bern in the year 1528 and the subsequent secularization of the chapter, the entire group of six antiphonaries was sold in 1530. Four were sold to the city of Estavayer-le-Lac and were used there for the liturgy of the Collegiate Church of St. Lorenz; the other two reached Vevey under circumstances that remain unexplained; they are currently held in the historical museum there.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This manuscript, which consists of only 28 leaves and which contains a part of a missal for the Ambrosian Rite, comes from the Oratory of St. Bernardino in Faido (Ticino); under the patronage of the Varesi family, this chapel was newly consecrated in the 15th century (probably 1459). The manuscript was donated to the Oratory by the Varesi family, possibly for this occasion, in order to allow the celebration of the Holy Mass. A quire containing the mass for the patron saint St. Bernardino (20-25) was added to the first quires (1-12, 16-19), as well as the loose leaf with two miniatures representing the Maiestas domini and the crucifixion. The script, a Gothic rotunda of the Italian type, contrasts with the miniatures which show a certain relationship to contemporaneous colored engravings of German origin.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
The Burgau Offnung of 1469 is a medieval law book. It governs the relations of associates in the law courts, at the princely court, and in communal landholdings within a court district (here the lower court of Burgau near Flawil) with the lord of that court, the "Vogt" (reeve). At the time this was Rudolf IX Giel of Glattburg, a ministry official of the abbot of St. Gall Abbey. Originally the Burgau Offnung was part of a single volume together with those of Flawil, Gebhartschwil, Uffhoven and Rudlen. The Flawil Offnung (up to page 17) was removed and bound separately. Preceding the text of the Burgau Offnung on pp. 18-28 were those of the Offnung of gebhartschwil, uffhoven und rudeln. The book was entrusted to the respective “Ammann” (head of the district council) of Burgau of the time. After 1798, following the dissolution of the lower court, the book transferred to the village corporation of Burgau. After consolidation of Burgau with Flawil, the book came into the custody of the municipality of Flawil.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This finely painted illustration, executed in vibrant and colorful opaque colors, has been cut out. It depicts the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple as described in the Gospel of Luke. Mary and Joseph bring the infant to the old prophet Simeon in order to receive his blessing. One of the two women behind Mary holds two doves in her right hand, which are to be sacrificed according to the requirements. In her left hand the woman carries burning candles, which indicate the feast to which this event is dedicated, i.e. Candlemas. Below Jesus, three small kneeling figures are praying: a Dominican nun and the donor couple. The scene is inserted into an N-initial decorated with scroll ornamentation at the beginning of the Canticle of Simeon for the feast of Mary: Nunc dimittis, domine, servum tuum in pace (Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word). The words visible at the top Intercede pro nobis (Pray for us [Holy Mother of God]) follow at the end of the song. An excerpt from the liturgical antiphon with the text Postquam impleti sunt dies purgationis (When the days of purification were completed) is preserved on the back. This fragment was purchased at auction at Sotheby's in London by the Canton of Thurgau in 1978; it came from the collection of Robert von Hirsch of Basel (1883–1977).
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This miniature was cut from a deluxe manuscript. The Annunciation of the Lord, depicted in the initial M-of the text Missus est Gabriel (Gabriel was sent), is celebrated on March 25. The Archangel Gabriel and Mary face each other in a vertically rectangular, geometrically designed border, each framed by an arch of the M. Gabriel holds a banderole with his greeting to the listening Mary AVE GRACIA PLENA (Hail Mary, full of grace). The side pillars of the letter M lead down into palmette leaves, which have been carefully cut out and thus protrude into the area surrounding the miniature. Above the palm leaves on the right there are red note lines and a single note. This illustration is from a particularly large-format book, an illustration of high painterly quality with light opaque colors in pink, green and blue tones, which are finely graded. The musical text on the back can be assigned to verses 2.2, 4.11 and 4.13 of the Song of Songs. This leaf comes from the same chorale manuscript as the miniature with the representation of the "Death of the Virgin". Both leaves show stations from the cycle of The Life of the Virgin, with T09393 illustrating the first stage and T 9394 the last. Stylistically they can be placed alongside three leaves from the collection de Bastard d'Estang in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (AD 152G, PL 842-3, AD 150H, PL 51). In 1994, the canton of Thurgau commercially acquired both fragments in Paris. Previously, they had been privately held in Switzerland.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This particularly large-format book illustration was cut from a deluxe manuscript. In the initial V-to the text Vidi speciosam on the occasion of the feast of the Assumption on August 15, the Blessed Mother lies on her deathbed, surrounded by three apostles and Jesus, who receives her soul in the form of a small female figure. A vertically rectangular frame with a repeating geometric pattern surrounds the scene. Three branches with leaves and rosettes that are trimmed back grow from the left side of the initial V. The painting in tones of bright blue and red is of high quality. The lyrics on the back are taken from Bible verses 26 to 32 of Lectio prima from the Gospel of Luke. The leaf is from the same chorale manuscript as miniature with the representation of the "Annunciation to Mary". Both leaves show stations from the cycle of The Life of the Virgin, with T 9393 illustrating the first stage and T 9394 the last. Stylistically they can be placed alongside three leaves from the collection de Bastard d'Estang in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (AD 152G, PL 842-3, AD 150H, PL 51). In 1994, the canton of Thurgau commercially acquired both fragments in Paris. Previously, they had been privately held in Switzerland
Online Since: 12/12/2019
Fragment of a leaf from a chorale manuscript. Two rectangular illustrations, arranged one above the other on the left side of the picture, show two stations from the life of Catherine: In the upper picture she denies obedience to the emperor and turns her attention only to Jesus. The picture below depicts the spiritual relationship of courtly love (Minne) between Catherine and Christ. The rest of the parchment leaf as well as the back side contain liturgical text consisting of musical notation and song lyrics. Below a red staff with black notes is the corresponding line of text. The illustrations were created in a book painting workshop in which the gradual from the Convent of Dominican nuns St. Katharinental was also made (Swiss National Museum Inv. LM 26117 / Historical Museum Thurgau Inv. T 41401). The two miniatures can be attributed to the same hand as the group of figures underneath the Initial on fol. 179v in the gradual. Fragile figures with lively gestures, refined drawing of the faces, subdued colors as well as joy in pictorial narration with original picture elements distinguish this illuminator. This leaf was acquired by the Historical Museum Thurgau in 2011 at an auction in Zurich.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This processional (from the Latin processio, 'to advance' and referring to processions inside and outside the church), containing the order of the procession as well as the chants and texts to be recited during processions, consists of two codicological parts. The first part is from the last quarter of the 15th century and contains chants and prayers for the entire liturgical year; it is decorated with seven multicolor illuminated initials depicting scenes from the Gospels. The sections to be sung have square notation in black. While the first part presumably was not created in and for the convent of St. Katharinental (TG), the second part names the stations and the relics that are carried; thus it is meant for the processions of the Dominican convent.
Online Since: 03/19/2020
Breviary, rubricated red and blue, with numerous initials on a gold background as well as drolleries at the lower margin. Calendar with the signs of the zodiac and with agricultural tasks to be carried out in each month. Particularly worthy of emphasis are the full-page representations of St. Christopher (p. 176), of the Adoration of the Magi (p. 178), and of Christ on the Cross (p. 179). Based on the mention of saints in the calendar and in the rest of the manuscript, it was probably created in Besançon. From there, by unexplained means, it came into the possession of the patrician family Wallier of Solothurn: owners' entries by Guillaume Wallier (16th century) and Henri Wallier (1605) on p. 4 and p. 731, the latter's also on the front cover. On p. 90 of the 1858 catalogue of the cantonal library of Thurgau, the provenance is given as Fischingen. Possibly the mansucript reached Fischingen by means of one of the two abbots of Fischingen from Solothurn, Augustin Bloch from Oberbuchsitten (1776-1815) or the last Abbot of Fischingen, Franz Fröhlicher from Bellach (1836- 1848).
Online Since: 04/23/2013
This single-column manuscript, created in the second half of the 15th century, was very carefully written by a scribe in a humanistic minuscule. The work contains two texts by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), Cribratio Alcorani (ff. 1r-70r) and Contra Bohemos (ff. 70v-90r). With Cribratio Alcorani he attempted a precise philological and historical investigation of the Koran, and in Contra Bohemos he dealt with Hussitism. The title page (f. 1r) is decorated with bianchi girari (white vine scrolls). Two medallions with coats of arms are integrated in the border. The coats of arms show a white lion on a blue background and are crowned with the papal insignia. The coat of arms can be attributed to Pope Paul II. (Pietro Barbo, 1464-1471), which shows that the manuscript was made by order of the pope or at least during his papacy. Initials at the beginning of each chapter are golden with a background in blue and green. Individual initials are emphasized more strongly and one is decorated with white vine scroll, corresponding to the title page. The binding of the manuscript, richly decorated with plant ornaments, medallions and depictions of saints, dates from the 16th century. The central medallion on the front shows Mary with the infant Jesus.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
This single-column paper manuscript is dated December 20, 1453 (f. 163r). The Liber officiorum was written by a main hand, which also added the red marginalia throughout the manuscript. A second hand is responsible for the interlinear glosses, other marginalia and red manicules. Chapter headings and lombards were kept in red throughout. The three parts of the work are each introduced by an initial containing a figure (f. 1r, 69r, 112v). Fol. 1r was additionally decorated with a frame of plant ornaments. The ex-libris on the front pastedown names Georg Alfred Kappeler (1839-1916, theologian and pastor) from Frauenfeld as the owner of the paper manuscript. The Kappeler family is proven to have lived in Frauenfeld since 1443. Due to their influential activities as governors, teachers and pastors, in the 19th century the Kappeler family was part of the educated middle class, to which Georg Alfred Kappeler also belonged. His legacy lives on today through several valuable manuscripts and prints still held by the Cantonal Library of Thurgau.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The Schwabenspiegel manuscript was commissioned in 1410. It contains a collection of land and feudal laws that were in effect during the late middle ages in southern Germany and what is now the German speaking part of Switzerland. Additional content bound in this volume includes the biblical books of Kings and Maccabees as well as a first German translation of the Handfeste, the Fribourg City Law of 1249. An unusual item found in this manuscript is a miniature of the Flag of Fribourg, which appears here for the first time as we know it today, in the colors black and white.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
In 1646 the Petit Conseil or Executive Council of Fribourg commissioned Pierre Crolot, an artist from the Free County of Burgundy, with the task of illustrating the flags and banners that were carried by Fribourg troops on campaigns in the Sundgau, Burgundy, and Italy (at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century) and where then displayed in the church of St. Nicholas. These objects themselves disappeared without a trace in 1822, with the exception of three ceremonial robs of the Order of the Golden Fleece (which are now on display in the castle of Gruyère). The book contains 42 illustrations: 3 frontispieces show the coats of arms of the city, its bailiwicks, and the coats of arms of the members of the Executive Council; 30 illustrations reproduce the banners and 9 illustrations portray Burgundian clothing items and tapestries. The “Book of Flags” is an art object, valuable as a record of objects that have been lost, as well as a witness to the fame of the Fribourg troops in the late Middle Ages.
Online Since: 07/04/2012
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the winter portion of the Proprium de tempore. The parchment codex was written between 1511 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg. The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg. The binding, from about 1517, is from the workshop of the Franciscans in Fribourg.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the winter portion of the Proprium de tempore. The parchment codex was written between 1511 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg. The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg. The binding, from about 1528-1559, is from the workshop of the Franciscans in Fribourg.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the summer portion of the Proprium de tempore as well as the Commune sanctorum. The parchment codex was written between 1509/1510 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg. The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the summer portion of the Proprium de tempore as well as the Commune sanctorum. The parchment codex was written between 1509/1510 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg. The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the winter portion of the de Sanctis, the Officium B.M.V. and the Commune Sanctorum. The parchment codex was written between 1510 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg by 2 hands (A and B). The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg and an assistant.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the winter portion of the de Sanctis, the Officium B.M.V. and the Commune Sanctorum. The parchment codex was written between 1510 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg by 2 hands (A and B). The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg and an assistant.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the summer portion of the de Sanctis and the Officium B.M.V.The parchment codex was written between 1510 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg completely by hand B (cf. Saint Nicholas Chaper Archive, ms. 5). The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This antiphonary with musical notation, whose text corresponds to the Lausanne Ordinary, contains the summer portion of the de Sanctis and the Officium B.M.V.The parchment codex was written between 1511 and 1517 in the workshop of Master Ruprecht (Fabri) in Fribourg. The book decorations are by Jakob Frank of the Augustinian monastery ofFribourg.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The “Katharinenbuch” contains the regulations for a secondary school, as it was to be founded in Fribourg at the time of the Catholic reform on the model of the reformed schools. Peter Schneuwly (1540-1597) can be considered the author; he himself probably went to school in Fribourg. From 1557 on, he studied in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he attained a Magister artium. From 1564 on, he was a member of the clergy of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas in Fribourg, in 1565 he became a canon, and in 1566 a preacher in the city. At this time, the first preparatory works for the “Katharinenbuch” took shape. In the years 1577-1597, Schneuwly was vicar general of the Diocese of Lausanne, from 1578-1587 also provost of St. Nicholas. The “Katharinenbuch” also constitutes the charter of the “Scholarchenkammer” (chamber of scholarchs) of the city of Fribourg, in whose possession it remained until the 19th century. The school reform sought by Schneuwly never went into effect because in 1580, also on Schneuwly's initiative, the Jesuits were called to Fribourg and were entrusted with secondary education.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
Paper manuscript containing the Parallel Lives of Plutarch in latin translation. The first page features a golden initial on a background of white vine stem decoration, as well as a coat of arms in the bottom margin, perhaps that of Guiniforte Zazzi, Pavia professor of law; on the sides of the coat of arms can be read the name of Peter Falck (†1519), the Fribourg humanist through whom the manuscript reached Fribourg before becoming part of the library of the Capuchins, and, in 2004, of the University Library.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This collection of hagiographical texts was written by various hands in the second third of the 13th century, probably in Hauterive. The presence of certain texts indicates a Cistercian origin (Vita of St. Robert of Molesme, the author Geoffroy de Hautecombe) and, based on our knowledge of medieval Hauterive, a regional origin (the Vita of St. Theodore, Bishop of Sion; the Vita and the Miracula of Saint Nicholas of Myra; the Vita of St. Elizabeth of Hungary; the Passio of Saint Maurice and his companions by Eucherius of Lyon). The end of the book contains a collection of texts related to confession. The last one of these attests a little know activity of the monks: the pastoral care of the Cistercian nuns. The manuscript remains in its original cover which, although damaged, is still well recognizable: a cover with wide flaps that cover the edges of the book.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
A breviary for the diocese of Lausanne preceded by a psalter. The different parts of the text are introduced by illuminated initials produced in an archaic manner. According to a note at the end of the text, the codex was produced by Magister Gilles around 1400 at the behest of Pierre Frenscher of Montagny, parish priest of Saint Nicholas of Fribourg. Another note records a donation by Frenscher for the altar of Saint Sylvester in the church of Saint Nicholas in Fribourg.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
Breviary for use in the diocese of Lausanne. Additions to the calendar attest that this manuscript was used in a Dominican monastery in Lausanne from the 14th century on. The decoration consists of initials with mostly floral ornamentation and drolleries in the margins. This codex was heavily trimmed when it was rebound in the 18th century.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
A psalter-hymnal produced for use by Dominicans. The saints recorded in the calendar indicate the codex's point of origin as a Dominican convent in Southern Germany or Bohemia. The decorative style of the illuminated initials and filigrees, above all, indicate Bohemian origin and an origination date in the first half of the 15th century (new information provided by Martin Roland, Vienna).
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This Cistercian missal, produced around 1300, “represents an already advanced phase in the development of this type of liturgical book: the chants of the gradual are completely integrated into the sacramentary, and are no longer accompanied by musical notes; moreover, they are written in a smaller script. In this form, the missal could have served the celebrant for both the conventual mass and for the private mass that Cistercians are known to have held since their origins. The geographical origin of the codex has not been determined with certainty. Without doubt, however, from the fifteenth century onward it was at Hauterive, where it was re-bound. The rich decoration in the canon section provide a fine example of fleuronné initials from the end of the thirteenth century; here, the decoration of the scrolls seems to be still “domesticated” by rigorous framing.” (Joseph Leisibach, Liturgica Friburgensia. Des Livres pour Dieu, 1993, p. 89).
Online Since: 03/31/2011
This small but extensive (198 ff.) prayer book is written in a variant of North German (Middle Low German). In accordance with the female form in many of the prayers, it was intended for a woman. With the exception of one full-page miniature depicting Christ as the gardener before Mary Magdalene (Noli me tangere), all illuminations have been removed. An ex-libris on the front pastedown informs us that this small manuscript was a gift to the Fribourg Library in 1891 from Franz Xaver Karker, canon of Wroclaw Cathedral.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This document contains the cartulary and the tribute register of the Cluniac priory of Rüeggisberg in the canton of Bern, which was the first Cluniac priory in the German-speaking area and probably the oldest monastery in the Bernese area. The manuscript consists of two different parts, which were probably joined together in Bern at the beginning of the 16th century, or in 1484, when the priory was abolished and its assets were incorporated into the newly founded St. Vincent monastery of Bern. The first part (ff. 1-200 and 261-267) contains transcriptions made between 1425-1428 of various documents and bulls, and of the priory's register of tributes, which in turn had been copied from even older cartularies. The second part (ff. 201-260) contains documents copied from the collegiate monastery of St. Vincent in Bern.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
A fragmentary gradual for the friars of the Order of the Hermits of Saint Haugustine, copied in 1539 by Jacobus Frank, who is depicted in the bottom margin of 51r. It contains many illuminations with coats-of-arms, mottos and monograms written by different hands from 1538 to 1594. Some of the illuminations have been excised and in some cases then glued back in the codex.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
This missal from the diocese of Lausanne reflects the contents of manuscript Ms. 7 from the Franciscan monastery of Fribourg. The manuscript is decorated with elegant fleuronné letters in red, blue and green, and the page with the Te igitur is framed by a frieze of flowers with a bird holding a flower in its beak. The opposite side, which probably contained a miniature with the crucifixion, has been cut out. The missal was part of the collection of Karl Friedrich von Steiger (died 1982) and was purchased by the BCU Fribourg in 1991.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
Antiphonary from the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg, dated 1488 according to the colophon f. 214v. Drolleries are drawn in the margins and by the initials. The manuscript contains a miniature (f. 14v, birth of Christ) and beautiful initials (flowers, fruit, zucchini), attributed to the Master of the breviary of Jost von Silenen.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Gradual from the Franciscan Monastery of Fribourg, still in use in the 16th/17th century according to the ownership note on the inside cover. Binding from the 16th century. Written in a Gothic minuscule around 1300. The beginning of important feasts is indicated with larger initials, sometimes with miniatures (e.g. F. 128v Ascension, f. 132v the Miracle of Pentecost).
Online Since: 04/09/2014
The Bible Historiale is a Bible edition translated by Guyart de Moulins into French prose at the end of the 13th century. It is presented in the form of biblical stories and combines the Vulgata of Jerome with the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor. It was quickly supplemented with the second volume of the Bible du XIIIe siècle (“Thirteenth-century Bible”). Because it was widely disseminated during the 14th and 15th centuries, today there are 144 known examples, both complete exemplars and fragments.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
The Bible Historiale is a Bible edition translated by Guyart de Moulins into French prose at the end of the 13th century. It is presented in the form of biblical stories and combines the Vulgata of Jerome with the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor. It was quickly supplemented with the second volume of the Bible du XIIIe siècle (“Thirteenth-century Bible”). Because it was widely disseminated during the 14th and 15th centuries, today there are 144 known examples, both complete exemplars and fragments.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
This Bible Historiale is the Bible translated toward the end of the 13th century into French and prose by Guyart des Moulins. Presented in the form of a holy story, it joins Jerome's Vulgata and Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica. It was quickly completed by the second volume of the Bible du XIIIe siècle. Widely used in the 14th and 15th centuries; today there exist 144 complete or fragmentary exemplars.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
In this work, written at the end of the 14th century in Valencia, the author describes the universe of angels, inspired by Dionysius the Areopagite's De triplici gerarchia. The text, which was in wide use during the second half of the 15th century, was translated into French and published as a first printed edition in Geneva in the year 1478. The Ms. fr. 5 was illuminated by the Master of the Geneva Boccaccio and contains the coat of arms of Jeanne de Laval, second wife of King René of Anjou.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
The Legenda aurea is one of the most copied texts in all of the medieval Occident. In short texts, it blends sanctoral and temporal celebrations in the course of the year, following the order of the liturgical calendar. Popular not only in Latin but also in the vernacular languages, it had various uses, as a tool for preaching and as a source of moral edification through private reading for the layperson as well as the cleric.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This universal history, which contains biblical and secular stories, is one of the most extensvie works of its type from the middle ages. The date of the manuscript can be fixed in the third quarter of the 15th century; it was decorated by the Flemish illuminator Wilhelm Vrelant, a producer of top quality miniatures.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Between 1416 and 1422, Jean de Courcy wrote a chronicle titled La Bouquechardière, named after his fief. The chronicle, which consists of 6 books, is a compilation of mythological, biblical and legendary stories. The first volume contains the first three books, i.e., the history of Greece, of Troy and of the Trojans who escaped the destruction of their town. The Genevan manuscript comes from the Lyon workshop known as “de Guillaume Lambert.” The manuscript contains beautiful frontispiece illuminations at the beginning of each book.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
Between 1416 and 1422, Jean de Courcy wrote a chronicle titled La Bouquechardière, named after his fief. The chronicle, which consists of 6 books, is a compilation of mythological, biblical and legendary stories.The second volume contains the last three books, i.e., the history of the Assyrians, of the Macedonians, and of Alexander and the Maccabees. The Genevan manuscript comes from the Lyon workshop known as “de Guillaume Lambert.” The manuscript contains beautiful frontispiece illuminations at the beginning of each book.
Online Since: 04/09/2014
This historical collection, whose narratives range from Genesis to Julius Caesar, was a great success in the Middle Ages. It was first written in the 13th century. This incomplete copy ends with Pompey's triumphant return to Rome. The manuscript was produced in Paris and contains 34 miniatures in grisaille.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This early 16th century manuscript contains book II of the Illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de Troye by Jean Lemaire de Belges (1473-1524), followed by the XXIV coupletz de la valitude et convalescence de la royne trescrestienne and the virelai “Espritz haultains“. This is the only known manuscript to contain these three texts. It was signed by Lemaire de Belges's own hand (f. 199v).
Online Since: 06/14/2018
At the request of Charles the Bold, in 1470 Vasco de Lucena translated Xenophon's Cyropaedia from the Latin translation by Poggio Bracciolini (Institutio Cyri, 1445) and titled it “ Traitté des faiz et haultes prouesses de Cyrus”. The manuscript was illuminated by the “Maitre des prières de 1500” and contains seven miniatures that tell the story of Cyrus and that inspired the Duke of Burgundy in his political and military actions.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Vasco de Lucena translated Quintus Curtius' history of Alexander into French at the request of Isabella of Portugal, the wife of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. The translator drew on texts by Plutarch and Justin in order to complete the Roman writer's text which contains gaps. The translation, completed in 1468, presents Alexander as conqueror, devoid of all legends transmitted through courtly literature; it is dedicated to Charles the Bold, the son of Isabella. This copy from the Bibliothèque de Genève was illustrated by a Flemish artist, Maître d'Edouard IV, who was active in Bruges around the end of the 15th century, as well as by a second hand not yet definitively identified.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
At the request of Jean II of France, between 1354 and 1356, the Dominican Pierre Bersuire (Petrus Berchorius) undertook this translation of the three decades (I, II and IV) of Ab Urbe condita by Titus Livius that were known at the time. This history of Rome extends from the founding of the city to the war between the Romans and the Celtiberians. The exemplar held by the Bibliothèque de Genève was produced at the beginning of the 15th century and carries the Ex libris of the Duke of Berry. Paintings are by the "Maître des Cleres femmes" of the Duke of Berry and by artists working in the style of the "Maître du duc de Bedford".
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Le Mignon is a collection of various historical narratives and moral or philosophical texts. Henri Romain is the author of the summary of the three decades of Titus Livius and the Compendium historial, a compilation of ancient stories. Laurent de Premierfait is the translator of De la vieillesse by Cicero, and Jean Courtecuisse translated Des Quatre vertus cardinales by Seneca. This manuscript from the studio of Maître François presents seven beautiful frontispiece illuminations.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This work, also known by the title „Livre de Jules César,“ contains a collection of texts by Julius Caesar, Sallust, Suetonius and Lucan; it was written in the years 1211-1214. The author, still unknown, intended to recount the history of the first twelve Roman emperors, but he terminated this undertaking at the end of the story of the life of Julius Caesar. The decoration of the manuscript from Geneva is by various hands; the principal one, attributed to the „Maître de l'échevinage de Rouen,“ illustrated the title page. It shows the coat of arms of Louis de Bourbon, the illegitimate son of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
This history of the Crusades is a translation of Guillaume de Tyr's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum into the Flemish French dialect. The manuscript was decorated by Simon Marmion, one of the most significant illumination artists of the 15th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The Florentine writer and notary Brunetto Latini went into exile in 1260, after the Guelphs lost the Battle of Montaperti. Until 1266 he took up residence in France, where he wrote the Trésor, an encyclopedia written in French that was widely used until the end of the 15th century. The illuminator of the Bibliothèque de Genève's copy of the manuscript is known as the "Master of the Geneva Latini" or as the "Maître de l'échevinage de Rouen.” Originally decorated with four frontispieces, the manuscript today has only two, one of which is a famous representation of a medieval urban market.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
At the behest of King Philip III the Bold, the Dominican Laurent d'Orléans wrote a book on religious instruction for lay people. He was inspired by the Miroir du monde in the 3rd and 4th tract (f. 6r-33r) compiling two treatises about this 13th century work, that was widely read throughout the realm. The fifth treatise on the virtues (f. 33r-99r) is the only part originally by Brother Laurent. The illuminator who created the 8 miniatures is not identified, but probably was active in Northern France.
Online Since: 10/10/2019