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. 49
Parchment · 157 pp. · 23.2 x 18.4 cm · St. Gall (?) · second half of the 9th century
Evangelary
Evangelary from the Abbey of St. Gall, written during the second half of the 9th century by many different hands in a Carolingian minuscule script. Includes a small number of Latin and Old High German glosses; on the last page are pen tests. (smu)
Parchment · 536 pp. · 26 x 20.5 cm · St. Gall · third quarter of the 9th century
Evangelary with glosses
Gospel-book with accompanying commentary, containing the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Earliest extant gospel-book from the St. Gall scriptorum. (smu)
Parchment · 268 pp. · 29.5 x 22.5 cm · Ireland · around 750
Irish Evangelary from St. Gall (Quatuor evangelia)
The Irish Gospel Book of St. Gall. Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, illustrated with 12 decorated pages, written and illuminated by Irish monks around 750 in Ireland. (smu)
Parchment · 286 pp. · 29.2/29.6 x 19.4/19.8 cm · area of Lyon · first half of the 9th century
Evangelary
Latin Evangelary with preceding prologues, arguments and canonical tables, produced during the first half of the 9th century in the area of Lyon. Fragments of the Edictum Rothari (Cod. Sang. 730) were found in this manuscript and removed during the first half of the 20th century. (smu)
Parchment · 342 pp. · 34 x 26 cm · Fulda · first half of the 9th century
Tatian's Gospel Harmony
The Latin / Old High German "Tatian" manuscript. The life of Jesus as a continuous text, compiled from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with extracts from the Acts of the Apostles. Most comprehensive text of the Old High German time, translated in the monastery of Fulda by order of St. Gall. Foundation of Old High German grammar. (smu)
Parchment · 170 pp. · 28 x 19.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · around 1200
Bible (Mt) with Glossa ordinaria
This codex contains the Gospel of Matthew with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 590; pp. 1-4), an anonymous prologue (Stegmüller, RB 589; pp. 2-3, margin), the Glossa ordinaria, and further glosses (among others Stegmüller, RB 10451 [2]). The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership note Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (flyleaf) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time. (sno)
Parchment · 158 pp. · 27.5-28 x 19 cm · St. Gall (?) · around 1200
Bible (Mc) with Glossa ordinaria
This codex contains the Gospel of Mark with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 607; pp. 3-8) and the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership entry Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (p. 2) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time. (sno)
Parchment · 232 pp. · 26.5 x 17.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · around 1200
Bible (Lc) with Glossa ordinaria
This codex contains the Gospel of Luke with the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall. The decoration consists of two initials with scroll ornamentation. On p. 1 there is a red Q with green and blue filling, whose tail is formed by a dragon; on p. 2 there is an F framed in red and filled in gold, with green scrolls with blue filling. (sno)
Parchment · 344 pp. · 25.5 x 17–18 cm · St. Gall (?) · 12th/13th century
Bible (Jn, Mk) with Glossa ordinaria
This volume consists of three codices that were bound together. The first two (pp. 1–84 and 85–228) contain the Gospel of John, the third (pp. 229–342) the Gospel of Mark, each with the so-called Prologus monarchianus (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 624: pp. 1–2 and 86–88; Stegmüller, RB 607: pp. 229–232) and Glossa ordinaria. In the first codex, the Gospel text abruptly ends in the middle of a sentence on p. 84 in Jn 21,2; only Jn 1,1–8,24 are glossed. In the second codex, Jn 1,1–20,25 is glossed. While the first and third codices are from the 12th century, the second is somewhat later (12th/13th century). The last pages of the third codex also are later (13th century: glosses from p. 315, main text from p. 319). There is a zoomorphic initial (dragon) on p. 3 and an initial in minium on p. 229. Fragments of 10th century manuscripts were used to line the back. On the inside of the front cover, there is an imprint of a manuscript fragment, and on the back pastedown there is a late medieval note of ownership for St. Gall Abbey. (sno)
Parchment · 222 pp. · 22.5 x 15.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · around 1200
Bible (Jn) with Glossa ordinaria
This codex contains the Gospel of John with the Monarchian prologue (Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 624; pp. 3-7), an anonymous prologue (Stegmüller, RB 628; pp. 3-7, margin), and the Glossa ordinaria. The manuscript, bound in a Romanesque binding, was probably written towards the end of the 12th century, possibly also at the beginning of the 13th century. It is unclear whether it was written in St. Gall, but the ownership note Liber sancti Galli from the 13th century (p. 2) indicates that it was already in the monastery of St. Gall at that time. (sno)
A copy of the letters of Paul the Apostle, the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Letters (3 letters by John, 2 by Peter, one by James and one by Jude) and the Apocalypse, written around the end of the end of the 9th or the beginning of the 10th century, likely at the Abbey of St. Gall. On the insides of the covers, imprints of fragmental portions of the Vergilius Sangallensis (Cod. Sang. 1394) and the Vulgate version of the Gospels (Cod. Sang. 1395) are visible. (smu)
Parchment · 418 pp. · 21.4 x 16.7 cm · St. Gall · third quarter of the 9th century
Bible (Epistles of Paul); Alcuin; Apuleius
A copy of the Pauline Epistles with a miniature of Paul the Apostle, preaching in front of a great number of Jews and pagans, copies of Alcuin's works "De dialectica" and "De rhetorica" and of the work "Peri hermeneias" of Apuleius of Madaura (?), written in the monastery of St. Gall in the second half of the 9th century, with amendments from the 11th century. (smu)
Parchment · 216 pp. · 15.2-15.3 x 22-22.1 cm; 15.3 x 22.2 cm · St. Gall · 10th century and 12th century
Somnium Scipionis. Commentum Macrobii in somnium Scipionis. Epistolæ VII catholicæ.
A composite manuscript with two unrelated parts: 1) an incomplete copy of the Somnium Scipionis section of the work De re publica by Marcus Tullius Cicero, written in the Abbey of St. Gall during the 10th century, followed by a 10th century St. Gall copy of the commentary originally written by the Roman author Macrobius of late antiquity in about 430/440 and widely disseminated during the middle ages. A fragment of this manuscript may also be found in Cod. Voss.lat.qu. 33 (fol. 58) in the library of the Rijksuniversiteit in Leiden; 2) a St. Gall copy of the seven Catholic Letters (3 written by John, 2 by Peter, one by James, one by Jude) with a learned scholarly commentary from the 12th century. (smu)
Parchment · 64 pp. · 23.5–24 x 15–15.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 12th century
Epistolae catholicae with Glossa ordinaria
Copy of the Catholic epistles with the Glossa ordinaria: Jerome’s prologue to the Epistle of James, Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, No. 809 (p. 4), Epistle of James (pp. 5-19), First Epistle of Peter (pp. 19-34), Second Epistle of Peter (pp. 34-43), First Epistle of John (pp. 43-57), Second Epistle of John (pp. 57-59), Third Epistle of John (pp. 59-61), Epistle of Jude (pp. 61-64). Pages 1 and 2 contain more introductory texts, by various hands, on the Epistle of James, among them the prologue by Jerome (Stegmüller, RB 808), excerpts from Jerome, ep. 53 (Stegmüller, RB 807), an anonymous prologue to the Epistle of James (Stegmüller, RB 806) and various other texts related, in the broadest sense, to the Glossa ordinaria (mentioned by Stegmüller, RB 11846, as having survived only in this manuscript). P. 2 also contains the first 3 stanzas of the sequence for St. John the Evangelist Verbum dei deo natum. (sno)
Parchment · IV + 216 + II pp. · 21-23 x 14-15 cm · 12th century
Epistolae Pauli with Glossa ordinaria
Copy of the Pauline Epistles with the Glossa ordinaria: Epistle to the Romans (pp. 3–44), First Epistle to the Corinthians (pp. 44–78), Second Epistle to the Corinthians (pp. 78–106), Epistle to the Galatians (pp. 106–121), Epistle to the Ephesians (pp. 121–136), Epistle to the Philippians (pp. 136–146), Epistle to the Colossians (pp. 146–156), First Epistle to the Thessalonians (pp. 156–164), Second Epistle to Timothy (pp. 165–172), Epistle to Titus (pp. 172–177), Epistle to Philemon (pp. 177–179), Epistle to the Hebrews (pp. 179–214). The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians and the First Epistle to Timothy are missing (loss of a quire).The beginning of the Epistle to the Romans (Rm 1, 1–20) appears on pp. 1-2 already, also with the Glossa ordinaria. The decoration consists of initials with scroll ornamentationin the same ink as the text on pp. 3, 44, 106, 146, 172, 177 and 179. On the last leaf (p. 215-216), presumably formerly a pastedown, there is the sequence De sancto Nicolao by Adam of Saint Victor with diastematic neume notation on staff lines incised with a stylus. This notation, not customary in St. Gall, argues against the manuscript’s having been produced at the St. Gall monastery. (sno)
Bible manuscript from the time of Hartmut, Vice-abbot ca. 850-872 and Abbot 872-883, containing books of the Old Testament (Job, Tobit, Judith, Esther and the prologue of the book Ezra) as well as the Pauline Epistles: a volume of the so-called "Kleine Hartmut-Bibel". (smu)
Parchment · 448 pp. · 18–19 x 25.5–26.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 12th and 12th/13th century
Bible (Pauline epistles with Glossa ordinaria); Augustine and others, Sermones; Adso of Montier-en-Der, De antichristo; Peter Abelard, Sententiae
Two codices in one volume. The first codex (pp. 1-288; early 12th century) contains the Pauline epistles with the Glossa ordinaria and four prologues: anonymous prologue, Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum, No. 11086 (p. 1), prologue by Pelagius (?), Stegmüller, RB 670 (pp. 1–2), prologue by Pelagius, Stegmüller, RB 674 (pp. 2–3), prologue by Marcion, Stegmüller, RB 677 (p. 3). P. 3 also contains excerpts from the Decretum Gratiani (D. 28 c. 17), the Concilium BracarenseII, can. 2, and one more canonical text. This is followed by the Pauline epistles in the customary order (pp. 5-287), including the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans (pp. 216-218). The second codex (pp. 288-448; 12th century; from p. 417 on 12th/13th century) primarily contains excerpts from sermons and other works by Jerome (pp. 289–374 and 386–387), interposed with more sermons (pp. 382–386, 387–403 and 408–415) and other works, in part only as excerpts: Grimlaicus, Regula solitariorum, cap. 3–5 and 31–34 (p. 374–381); anon., De consanguinitate BMV (pp. 403–407); Gregory of Tours, Miracula 1, 31–32 (on St. Thomas; pp. 407–408); Amalarius of Metz, Ordinis missae expositio I, prologue and cap. 17 (pp. 415–416); excerpt from Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis, cap. 12 (p. 416); Peter Abelard, Sententiae 1–60 and 102–247 (pp. 417–448). The front and back covers show imprints of fragments from a 10th century missal. (sno)