The Abbey Library of St. Gall is one of the oldest monastic libraries in the world; it is the most important part of St. Gall’s Abbey district UNESCO world heritage site. The library’s valuable holdings illustrate the development of European culture and document the cultural achievements of the Monastery of St. Gall from the 7th century until the dissolution of the Abbey in the year 1805. The core of the library is its manuscript collection with its preeminent corpus of Carolingian-Ottonian manuscripts (8th to 11th century), a significant collection of incunabula and an accumulated store of printed works from the 16th century to the present day. The Abbey Library of St. Gall was a co-founder of the project e-codices. With its famous Baroque hall, where temporary exhibitions are hosted, the Abbey Library of St. Gall is one of the most visited museums in Switzerland.
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 217
Parchment · 342 pp. · 26 x 16 cm · St. Gall · late 8th century and early 9th century
Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis; St. Gall Botanicus; St. Gall Bestiary
Manuscript compilation from the late 8th and early 9th centuries, opening with the oldest extant St. Gall copy of the Regula Pastoralis of Gregory the Great from the last third of the 8th century, followed by a medical-pharmaceutical compendium. The latter, parts of it badly bound, consists of the folded reference manual of a wandering physician from northern Italy, the so-called St. Gall Botanicus, and the St. Gall Bestiary. (smu)
Parchment · 196 pp. · 19.4-19.5 x 26.3-26.6 cm · Cloister of St. Gall (?) · end of the 9th century
Gregorius Magnus, Regula pastoralis
Incomplete copy of the widely distributed Book of Pastoral Care Regula pastoralis by Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), written by several hands in Carolingian minuscule toward the end of the 9th century, probably in the Monastery of St. Gall. Various pages were already missing around 1553/64. The manuscript contains numerous Old High German glosses and several Latin glosses, which were added in St. Gall. At the very front, on a page with pen trials, a skillful hand from the late 10th century wrote the hymnFelix mater Constantia in honor of Pelagius, patron saint of the city of Constance. (smu)
Parchment · 234 pp. · 22 x 15.8 cm · St. Gall · around 850
Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis
Copy of Pope Gregory the Great’s Regula pastoralis, carefully written by a practiced hand at the monastery ofSt. Gall around the middle of the 9th century. The manuscript contains a great number of glosses in Latin and Old High German made by quill and stylus. (smu)
Parchment · 360 pp. · 14.2-14.3 x 19.8 cm · 10th century
Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis
Copy of Pope Gregory the Great’s Regula pastoralis, written by a variety of hands in the 10th century at an unknown scriptorium, probably not in St. Gall. In the first half of the 20th century, several 5th century fragments were removed from the binding of this manuscript. (smu)
Parchment · 397 pp. · 20.5 x 12.5 cm · Müstair? Burgundy? Switzerland? · 750/800
Collection of patristic manuscripts: among others Gregory the Great, Homiliae in evangelia
Manuscript compilation from the second half of the 8th century, written and decorated with several extraordinary initials, possibly at a “Swiss center under Burgundian or Irish influence” (Bruckner) or instead “in western Alemannia or in eastern Burgundy” (Bischoff), perhaps also in Müstair. The manuscript contains large parts of - but not in full - Pope Gregory the Great’s († 604) homilies on the Gospels (Homiliae in evangelia), as well as excerpts from authentic and inauthentic works by Augustine († 430) and Caesarius of Arles († 542). (smu)
Parchment · 148 pp. · 17-18 x 13-13.5 cm · probably Eastern France · second third of the 9th century
Isidore of Seville, Liber officiorum
De ecclesiasticis officiis by Isidore of Seville (p. 2-134), at the end of the volume a Benedictio Crucis (p. 135), a commentary on the baptismal rite Primitus paganus (p. 137-139), then Capitula e canonibus excerpta (p. 139–142), and finally a rhythmic prayer to St. Gall (p. 146/147), added in the 13th century at the Monastery of St. Gall. A simple manuscript for regular use in a handy size, in St. Gall at least since the High Middle Ages. (dor)
Parchment · 138 pp. · 19.5 x 14 cm · St. Gall · 12th century
Ordo iudicii in mensura; Lectiones de Sancta Trinitate; Isidore's Synonyma; Pseudo-Sisbert of Toledo's Penitential works
Produced in the 12th century in St. Gall, this manuscript contains some liturgical and religious texts, a list of abbots of St. Gall, the Synonyma by Isidore of Seville (ca. 556-636) and three penitential works, namely the Exhortatio poenitendi, Lamentum poenitentiae and Oratio pro correptione uitae, nowadays considered as spurious works of Sisbert, bishop of Toledo at the end of 7th c. (can)
Parchment · 222 pp. · 16-16.5 x 23 cm · St. Gall (?) · first third of the 9th century
Isidorus, Liber differentiarum II; Augustinus, Enchiridion ad Laurentium de fide spe et caritate
This is a copy, probably produced in St. Gall in the first third of the 9th century, of writings by Isidore of Seville (Book 2 of the Liber differentiarum) and by the Church Father Augustine (Enchiridion ad Laurentium de fide spe et caritate; parts of some chapters are missing). The manuscript remains in its original binding. (sno)
Parchment · 478 pp. · 25 x 15.3-16 cm · St. Gall · between 760 and 797
Manuscript compilation: wide variety of different texts about synonymy, Exegetics, computation, healing arts, hagiography
Manuscript compilation from the monastery of St. Gall, written out in early Alemanian Minuscule script between 760 and 797 with a wide variety of different texts about synonymy (Isidore of Seville, Differentiae), Exegetics (Eucherius of Lyon, Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae), computation, healing arts, hagiography (for example the oldest version of the life stories of the patron saints of Zürich, Felix and Regula), etc. (smu)
Papyrus · 44 pp. · 18 x 14 cm · southern France · after 650
Isidori Synonyma II, Humilia ad monachos, Sermo Eucherii
The sole papyrus manuscript held by the Abbey Library of St. Gall. The 23 pages, written after 650 in southern France, contain the closing of the second chapter of the Synonyma of Isidore of Seville as well as two exhortations aimed at monks. After being preserved over a very long period in a wooden case, these 23 pages were mounted between two glass plates in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin in 1899/1900. (smu)
Parchment · 276 pp. · 24 x 14-14.5 cm · Northern Italy (Monza o Verona?) · 8th-9th century
Isidorus, Libri Sententiarum (abbrev.), De Officiis (excerpta); etc.
This manuscript contains a collection of Patristic texts with selections from works by Isidore of Seville (d. 636; Sententiae and De officiis), Gregory the Great (d. 604; Homiliae in evangelia) and Augustine (Sermones, most of them not actually written by Augustine, but ascribed to him), a list of regions and cities where remains of the apostles may be found, and selections from an anonymous commentary on the four gospels (only the commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and John are included), produced in about 800 or shortly before, not in the Abbey of St. Gall, but in northern Italy, probably in Monza or Verona. (smu)
Parchment · 441 pp. · 26 x 16.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 8th - 9th century
Isidorus, Sententiae
This copy of the Sententiae by the church father Isidore of Seville is important to textual history; it was produced in about 800, probably in the Abbey of St. Gall, and expanded in the course of the 9th century. The Sententiae are regarded as one of the most important works by Isidore of Seville. (smu)
Parchment · 571 pp. · 27 x 16-16.5 cm · St. Denis near Paris (monastery) (?) · around 800
Manuscript compilation: texts and excerpts from the works of Isidore of Seville, Augustine, Caesarius of Arles, Defensor (Liber scintillarum), Jerome, Gregory the Great, Eucherius (Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae) etc.
A manuscript compilation produced outside of St. Gall in about 800, written and illuminated unusually colorfully with numerous small initials, possibly at the Cloister of St. Denis near Paris. It consists of a large number of texts and excerpts, especially from the works of Isidore of Seville (Liber Sententiarum, Liber Differentiarum, Etymologiae), but also including texts by Augustine, Caesarius of Arles, Defensor (Liber scintillarum), Jerome, Gregory the Great, Eucherius (Formulae spiritalis intelligentiae) and many other authors. Near the end is an incomplete copy of the life story of St. Dionysius. (smu)
Parchment · 378 pp. · 27 x 21.5 cm · St. Gall · around 880-890
Isidorus, Etymologiae, Books I-X
A careful copy of books I to X of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville († 636), written shortly before the year 900 in the monastery of St. Gall. This manuscript forms a unity with Cod. Sang. 232. (smu)
Parchment · 331 pp. · 27 x 21.5 cm · St. Gall · around 880-890
Isidorus, Etymologiae, Books XI-XX
A careful copy of books XI to XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville († 636) written shortly before the year 900 in the monastery of St. Gall. On a flyleaf from the early 12th century: "St. Galler Glauben und Beichte I" with a short confession, a plea for indulgence, an indulgence formula for the use of a priest and the Creed in Old High German. (smu)
Parchment · 220 pp. · 25.5-25.9 x 17.6-18 cm · St. Gall · beginning of the 9th century
Isidorus, Etymologiæ, liber VI- VIII, XII-XV.
A copy of books VI through VIII and XII through XV of the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (d. 636), copied from a northern Italian model at the Abbey of St. Gall in or shortly after 800. (smu)
Paper · II + 268 + II pp. · 20 x 14.5 cm · 14th century
Guilelmus Britonis, Vocabularius biblicus
This paper manuscript contains Guilelmus Britonis’ Vocabularius biblicus, a text composed between 1250 and 1270. It contains around 2,500 entries for words from the Bible (inc., p. 1a: Difficiles studeo partes quas biblia gestas…). The words are arranged strictly according to alphabetical order. Exception for the A written in red ink (p. 1), the initials of the lemmata are not executed, although their indications in the manner of running titles should have helped readers to find their way around. The text is widely diffused, being preserved in at least 130 copies (Summa Britonis sive Guillelmi Britonis Expositiones Vocabulorum Biblie, ed. L. Daly & B. Daly, Padova 1975). The current volume, dating from the fourteenth century, entered the possession of the priest Heinrich Lütenrieter in 1402, as the upper inside cover: Anno etc. m. cccc° 2°. Ego Hainricus Lütenrieter presbyter emi hunc librum lib. Gallen. [?] a domino Nicolao Mündli. The seal of the library of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (p. 267b) attests that this manuscript belonged to the Abbey of St. Gall by 1553-1564 at the latest. (rou)
Parchment · 281 pp. · 28.5-29 x 22 cm · St. Gall · second half of the 9th century
Isidorus, Etymologiarum liber XI- XX.
St. Gall copy of books XI through XX of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville from the second half of the 9th century. Contains (on page 89) a famous and beautifully drawn early medieval world map (terrae orbis, T-O, or Noachid map) that serves as an illustration for the description of the continents . (smu)