This two-part manuscript was written in Italy in the period between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. It preserves writings concerning procedural law, among them the little known Ordo iudiciarius Quoniam ut ait apostolus, as well as finding aids and surveys on decretal law. The manuscript probably came into the possession of the St. Gall citizen Johannes Widembach († 1456) from a Canon from Zurich, and has been held by the Abbey Library at least since the 16th century.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
The manuscript is composed of several units and includes many texts with varying content. The first part (pp. 1-106), in paper, contains a synodal book (pp. 1-81), as well as the Auctoritates sanctorum (pp. 82-105), which, according to the colophon (p. 105a), were copied by Johannes Gaernler in 1378 or 1379. Below the colophon is a drawing, perhaps made by the copyist, representing a man (a king?) holding a cup in hand. Several parchment quires follow (pp. 107-224) with sermons, provisions for penance, etc., dating partly from the thirteenth century and partly from the fourteenth. The end of the manuscript, in paper (pp. 225-471), includes, alongside the penitential of Johannes de Deo (pp. 284-315), sermons, as well as ascetic and theological texts, which were copied in the fourteenth century (pp. 316-471). According to a note of possession (p. 471), the manuscript, or at least its last part, was in the Abbey of St. Gall at the end of the fifteenth century at the latest. The binding has a beautiful interlace pattern on the spine.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This collection primarily contains scholastic, doctrinal questions on the seven sacraments, as well as, at the work's end, the ten commandments (p. 140b). The two-column textualis is structured using red lombards, rubricated titles and initials. The parts of the questions are marked with inline red pieds-de-mouche. On the back of the endpaper (p. 142) is the library stamp of the St. Gallen Abbot Diethelm Blarer from 1553-1554. The front of the wooden board binding is covered with light-coloured leather. The dark-brown spine covering has, on the front cover, traces of a half-oval blind stamp. The front pastedown is an in-situ fragment, pasted in upside-down, of a very legible juristic text that mentions the Archbishop of Reims and the Bishop of Laon.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
This moral-theological volume contains a preface (pp. 1-4) including an alphabetical table of contents (p. 2a-4d). The main body is an alphabetically ordered confessionary with articles about each lemma from Acadia to Yroina [sic]; each starts with a red lombard and lengths vary from a few lines to numerous pages (pp. 4-265). There is then an alphabetical index (pp. 266-268b). The scribe, brother Rudeger de Casle, writes in a compact, early gothic book cursive, 40 lines per page, with red lombards. In the colophon (p. 268b), he states that the work was completed 14 December 1351. A previous owner was Ulricus Horchentaler in 1450 (268b). Between p. 16 and 17 a half-page sheet has been sewn into the flange of the front pastedown using green thread; there is an extract of a commentary on Aristotle's De anima (III, cap. 2, 427b1-428a1) written on the recto side and a branching depiction of the powers of the soul on the verso side. There are marginalia. The limp binding consists of a green (or blue) leather cover that is reinforced with at least two leaves of parchment pasted together. The front and back pastedowns are reused fragments from an at least two-column index.
Online Since: 09/06/2023
A fifteenth-century wooden-board binding contains this manuscript composed of multiple parts. The original start of the miscellany, the part of the manuscript consisting of pp. 1–140, was probably removed in the ninenteenth century. Six codicological units remain, and, with the exception of Part IV, they all were copied in the fifteenth century. Part I (pp. 141–348) has, on pp. 141–198, Johannes de Fonte's florilegium Auctoritates Aristotelis (Lohr, p. 260) and, on pp. 199–346, Latin sermons, with the insertion of excerpts from the book of Proverbs (pp. 257–263). Part II (pp. 349–396) contains Latin texts on the Mass, confession, and penance, written in two columns on pp. 349a–396, including Ambrosius Autpertus' treatise De conflictu vitiorum on pp. 363a-383b (Bloomfield, Nr. 0455). Further Latin sermons appear in Part III (pp. 397–440b). Part IV (pp. 441–574) consists of an incomplete abbreviation in two columns of Guillelmus Peraldus' Summa virtutum (Bloomfield, Nr. 5775; Verweij, p. 111–110), which was copied in the fourteenth century. Part V (pp. 575–618) transmits Thomas Aquinas' treatise Collationes de decem preceptis (Bloomfield, Nr. 6071), which is decorated with a rather large pen drawing of a bishop on p. 600b. Part VI (pp. 619–638), a single gathering, is written in two columns and contains on pp. 619a–630b a Latin interpretation of the Pater noster by Johannes Münzinger (Adam, p. 160), on pp. 631a–634a Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of the Ave Maria (Expositio angelice salutationis) (cf. Rossi), on pp. 634b– 637a an interpretation of the responsory Missus est Gabriel, and finally on pp. 637a–638b a short text in another hand. Based on the stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 440b), the manuscript has been in the Abbey Library since 1553–1564 at the latest.
Online Since: 12/20/2023
This volume contains a single text, a German-language intepretation of the Song of Songs, of which 25 manuscript witnesses are currently known. This extensive text is probably not based on a Latin model and its structure becomes decreasingly systematic. Although it is based on passages from the Song of Songs, it does not contain an actual commentary, but is divided into three books: teachings on faith (Book 1, pp. 8–241), a monastic doctrine of virtue (Book 2, pp. 241–431), and discussions of sins, penance, etc. (Book 3, pp. 443–512). An extensive table of contents precedes the text (pp. 5–7). A colophon at the end of the second book (p. 431) states that this part of the manuscript was completed in 1497. The whole manuscript is written and rubricated in the same hand. According to an entry on p. 1, the manuscript came from a convent in Freiburg (Liber S. Galli Emptus 1699 Friburgi); Scarpatetti suggests Adelhausen (Dominican nuns). On an inserted piece of paper can be read a note about the profession of Sisters Margret Boshartin, Kattrin Ferberin and Anna Branwartin in Constance in 1511 and 1514; on the back there is a fragment of a letter (?). Half-leather binding contemporary to the text, with striped and stamped decoration and clasps. To the headband is affixed a braided, two-colored bookmark.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Around 1500, this composite manuscript of theological-mystical content, which may have originated in Northern Bavaria and have been completed in the area of Lake Constance, was the property of the spiritual community of Franciscan sisters at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, west of the city of St. Gall, which was dissolved in the wake of the Reformation. This volume contains more than thirty mostly anonymous sermons, treatises and excerpts of treatises of Dominican character. Among them are Eberhard Mardach's open letter Von wahrer Andacht (pp. 83–116), a sermon by Johannes Tauler (pp. 129−156), the treatise Liebhabung Gottes an den Feiertagen by Thomas Peuntner from the year 1434 (pp. 232−237), excerpts from the Auslegung der zehn Gebote by Marquard of Lindau (pp. 238–245), the beginning of the prologue and three chapters of the anonymous Theologia deutsch (also called Der Frankfurter; pp. 287–297) that was published in print in its entirety for the first time by Martin Luther in 1518, as well as excerpts from a German version of Der Minnebaum (Arbor amoris; pp. 323–331), which differs significantly from other manuscripts.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
The manuscript was written in a textualis probably in the second half of the thirteenth or the first half of the fourteenth century. The old foliation runs from I to CLXXXIII and from CCLXV to CCLXXX (pencil foliation: 184–209). The current foliation is A–B in pencil and then I–CLXXXIII in red ink, and finally 184–216 in pencil. The table of contents, inserted in the fourteenth century on the last, separate gathering (fol. 211r–214v) uses Roman numerals from I to CCLXXVIII without gaps. This shows that several quires were lost at some point after the production of the table of contents, a fact that was already noted on the table of contents in the fifteenth century with “vacat”. The surviving leaves transmit, in the first place, sermons of Berthold of Regensburg († 1272) on Sundays and the Feasts of Saints (fol. Ir–CLXXIIIIv) and then – owing to the mentioned loss of leaves – only the end of his sermon on the common of saints (fol. 184r–184v). In between and afterwards are other sermons (Sermones ad religiosos, Sermones ad speciales) or spiritual texts by the same hand, although at the end (fol. 209r–210r) by another hand. According to the table of contents, there follow (fol. 214r–215v) further entries, probably from the fourteenth century, including a few in the German language. According to the ownership mark Liber sancti Galli on fol. Br, the codex was in the Abbey of St. Gall in the fifteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This codex, written by multiple hands, contains a nearly complete copy of Conrad of Megenberg's natural history (Das Buch der Natur); only a few chapters are missing, some of which are due to a loss of pages. Quires 17 (pp. 371–394) and 18 (pp. 395–418) are bound in the wrong order. A contemporary table of contents introduces each of the parts of the third book (on animals) and of the fourth book (on trees). The numbers of the leaves given there correspond to the individual parts' foliation, which frequently starts over. On the back paper pastedown there is an ownership mark written in the hand that numbered the leaves: sint der bletter CClxxvj bletter vnd ist dz ůrrich [Ulrich] von fulach. This note indicates that a total of 12 leaves have been lost. As the dedication to Abbot Joseph von Rudolphi (Abbot 1717–1740) on the front pastedown shows, this volume was in the Abbey Library of St. Gall by the eighteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Beginning with a Dominican calendar from Strasbourg, this volume contains, among others, several texts by the Italian theologian and philosopher Bonaventura (1221-1274), the Regula monachorum ad Eustochium by the church father Jerome, excerpts from the ascetic-mystical treatise Stimulus amoris, the instructions for a monastic life by the Franciscan Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg, and David of Augsburg's work De compositione exterioris et interioris hominis, all in German. The volume, declared the Franciscan "Encheiridion asceticum" by Kurt Ruh, probably came to the Dominican cloister Wil in 1590 along with other Strasbourg manuscripts (Codd. Sang. 1904, 1915 and perhaps 1866).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
This manuscript contains the 14 so-called Hermetschwiler Predigten on pp. 1-140; it is a 13th century cycle of sermons in High Alemannic, for which this manuscript is the only textual witness. The text is defective in the beginning and at the end. This is followed on pp. 141-214 by the German-language treatise on Corpus Christi by the “Mönch von Heilsbronn”, a monk from the Cistercian Heilsbronn Abbey located between Nuremberg and Ansbach, who probably lived in the 14th century. Pp. 214-252 contain more spiritual speeches. At least from the 19th century on, the volume was at the Benedictine Convent Hermetschwil (Aargau). Since 1930 it has been a deposit of the episcopal library of St. Gall at the Abbey Library.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
An important copy, in terms of textual history, of the Reformatio Prediger Ordens by the Dominican Johannes Meyer (1422-1482) of Basel. This copy originated in the Dominican cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, written in 1483 by Sister Elisabeth Muntprat (1459-1531). This work, which was copied from a model belonging to the cloister of St. Katherine in Nurnberg, is a valuable source for the history of the Dominican order in the German speaking world.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
German Psalter, complete except for one missing leaf at the end: Psalms (pp. 1-164), canticles (pp. 164-178). With few figured initials (dog p. 1, fish p. 141, p. 153 and p. 157). The volume is from the St. Katharinen Convent of Dominican nuns in St. Gall; whether it was written there cannot be determined for certain. Since 1930 it has been in the Abbey Library as a deposit of the episcopal library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
The origin of this manuscript in the northern French-Flemish border region can be determined from its liturgical features, its leather binding with stamped designs and the inscription Robiers Plovrins as well as by a comparison with stylistically similar manuscripts. Another book of hours illustrated by the same artist is held at Claremont near Berkeley, California (USA). This exemplar is a somewhat cruder imitation of the style of scribe and book illustrator Jean Markant, who was quite popular around 1500 in Lille. The commissioner of this volume is unknown.
Online Since: 06/08/2009
This manuscript contains a Dominican breviary preceded by a calendar with various necrological annotations. The codex was written by Cordula von Schönau, Dominican at the Abbey of St. Katharina in St. Gall, who signed the inside front cover and wrote the dated ex-libris on the first flyleaf. Cordula von Schönau's hand can also be found in Cod. Sang. 406 of the Abbey Library of Saint Gall, in Ms. 22 of the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen, and in Wil in Ms. 3 as well as in several parts of the “Schwesternbuch” (Book of sisters) and of the “Konventsbuch” (Chronicle).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Manuscript compilation containing, among other items, a copy of the epic Thebaïs (the Tales of Thebes) by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius († about 95 A.D.), written down and annotated with Scholien (commentaries) in the 11th century in the monastery of St. Gall. The volume also contains copies of two brief grammar texts from the 12th century, together with 10th century copies of computational tables and instructions as well as assorted excerpts from the works of the Venerable Bede († 735), set in writing in the 10th century.
Online Since: 12/20/2007
One of the most important extant copies of the Institutiones oratoriae (The Art of Rhetoric) by the Roman rhetorician Quintilian († after 96 A.D.). This work, influential to the present day, depicts in twelve books the education of an orator from his earliest youth through to the completion of training; the goal is the development of an unimpeachably ethical orator who places speaking skills at the service of humanity. This St. Gall copy dates from the early 11th century, with glosses and annotations added by, and – in the case of the last few books – also written by the St. St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV († about 1060).
Online Since: 12/20/2007
The present Codex contains the complete text of the Dialogus (ca. 1110–1120) of Petrus Alfonsi, a converted Jew from Huesca (since 1096 Kingdom of Aragon). The Dialogus is a polemic and apologetic work, introducing (for the time) innovative, in view of the author «rational» argumentation against Jewish religion and Islam. The work spread quickly and had significant influence on Christian polemics especially in the 13th and 14th century.
Online Since: 03/22/2012
Manuscript of collected works (Collectanea) penned by and part of the personal collection of the wandering monk of St. Gall, Gall Kemli († 1481). It includes mainly texts with theological-philosophical, astronomical and medical content, but also, for example, recipes against lice, fleas, and worms, and a text about the fish and crustaceans inhabiting various bodies of water in Switzerland and southern Germany, together with advice on the best times to catch them and ways to prepare them.
Online Since: 04/26/2007