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. 821
Parchment · I + 96 + I pp. · 27.6 x 18.1 cm · St. Gall · 11th century
Boethius, Commentary on Aristotle's Categoriae; Ovid
This undecorated manuscript for practical use, containing the commentary of Boethius on Aristotle's Categories (Categoriae), was written at the Abbey of St. Gall during the 11th century. On the last three pages is the beginning of Ovid's De arte amandi. (smu)
Parchment · 342 pp. · 28.5 x 20.5 cm · St. Gall · first half of the 11th century
Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae
Notker the German, Old High German translation of and commentary on De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius. Latin text with Old High German translation and commentary on the work "De consolatione philosophiae" (on the consolation of philosophy) of Boethius by the St. St. Gall monk Notker the German († 1022) in the only extant copy from the first half of the 11th century; incomplete copy of Notker's translation and adaptation of the Categoriae (categories) of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (ca. 480-524). (smu)
Paper · 342 pp. · 29.5 x 21 cm · Lake Constance region · 1425/28
Late Medieval Composite Manuscript of Computistic and Astronomical Content
This composite volume, written between 1425 and 1425 in the Lake Constance regions, though not at the Abbey of St. Gall, contains Latin versions of a great many computistic/astronomical/cosmographical treatises, including the widely disseminated work De sphaera mundi by John of Sacrobosco and his arithmetical foundation work Tractatus de algorismo. The manuscript, organized according to the calendar, also contains illustrations: the twelve signs of the zodiac, a map of the winds, sketches of the ecliptics of the sun and moon, planets and constellations, a diagrammatic guide for bloodletting, a set of early medieval Terra Orbis-type world maps, and (on pages 265 and 266) twelve simple illustrations for the months with brief rhyming proverbs in German derived from the nature- and landscape-dominated everyday life of the people of the late middle ages. (smu)
Paper · 453 pp. · 20-20.5 x 14.5-15 cm · Eastern Switzerland · 1402 and 1459
Composite volume with pastoral content matter
This volume contains the Manuale confessorumby the Dominican Monk Johannes Nider, born in Isny and later active in Nuremberg and Vienna (p. 3-124), the work De generatione et corruptione by Albertus Magnus, also known under the title Problemata Aristotelis (p. 129-168), the second Book of Aristotle's Physics In librum secundum physicorum (p. 169-212), the treatise De constellacione [siderum] in nativitate (p. 212-213), the late medieval collection of anecdotes and tales Gesta Romanorum (p. 258-453). The text on pages 129-213 is dated to 1459; pages 259-453 were completed on 30 August 1402 by the copyist Konrad Heinrich von Tettnang. (dor)
Parchment · 490 pp. · 23 x 18.5 cm · Mainz · 11th century, first half
Boethius. (pseudo?)-Boethius. Ekkehart IV
A composite manuscript intended for teaching purposes, written in Mainz during the first half of the 11th century, possibly brought to St. Gall by the monk Ekkehart IV. Ekkehart IV. taught intermittently at the cathedral school in Mainz and added a great many glosses to this manuscript. The codex gathers together a number of texts used in school teaching, for example copies of the commentary of Boethius on Aristotle's De interpretatione, Cicero's Topica, the Geometry I by (pseudo?)-Boethius as well as additional works by Boethius, such as De differentiis topicis, De divisione, De syllogismis categoricis and De syllogismis hypotheticis. At the end of the volume are two brief texts by Ekkehart IV. about the Septem Artes Liberales, (on page 488) verses in praise of Boethius and (on page 490) an allegory based on the Septem Artes Liberales in the form of instructions to a goldsmith. (smu)
Parchment · 364 pp. · 25.2 x 17.5 cm · St. Gall (?) · 11th century
Boethius · Porphyrius · Walahfried Strabo, etc.
A composite manuscript from the 11th century, possibly written at the Abbey of St. Gall. The main content of the codex consists of commentaries by Boethius on Cicero's Topica and on the Isagoge by the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyrius († after 300), Porphyrius's Isagoge itself and assorted other texts. Among these are, for example, small pieces by Walahfried Strabo (Regulae metricae; a letter with the incipit Domino meo benedictus salus et vita) and by Marius Victorinus, a 4th century Roman scholar (De generatione divina). (smu)
A copy for practical use transmitting numerous anonymous commentaries on the Isagoge of Porphyrius († after 300) as well as various philosophical works by Aristotle and Boethius, almost certainly written during the 12th century. (smu)
A painstakingly annoted copy of the work De natura animalium tractatus XIX by Aristotle, in the Latin version by the scholar Michael Scotus († ca. 1235), written during the 13th century, with an opening "I" initial, partly decorated in gold, showing a man sitting before a book. In 1453 this manuscript was owned by one Johannes Kalf from Wangen (in Allgäu); bound in a Kopert (limp vellum) binding. (smu)
Parchment · 44 pp. · 20 x 13 cm · 13th/14th century
Isaac ben Salomon Israeli · Alkindus · Aristotle · Costa ben Luca
A 13th/14th century philosophical manuscript containing Latin versions of the Liber de definitionibus by Isaac ben Salomon Israeli († ca. 932), a Jew who lived in Egypt and Tunisia, together with the work De quinque essentiis by the Arab philosopher and mathematician Al-Kindi (Latinized as Alkindus; † 873), the Liber de causis, erroneously attributed to Aristotle, as well as the beginning of the work De differentia spiritus et animae by the Arab philosopher Qusta ibn Luqa (Latinized as Costa ben Luca; 820-912). The codex is bound in an extremely damaged Kopert (limp vellum) binding. (smu)
A copy of the commentary on Aristotle by the French scientist and philosopher Nicolas Oresme († 1382) Quaestiones super libros Meteororum; according to the colophon (on f. 175v) this copy was completed in September 1459. (smu)
Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics by Nicholas Theoderici of Amsterdam
Copy of the commentary on the first twelve books of Artistotle’s Metaphyiscs by the philosopher Nicholas Theoderici of Amsterdam († before 1456 in Greifswald), completed on 21 May 1459 (fol. 203v). Following the text, there is a table of contents on fol. 204r−205r. According to the note of ownership on fol. 209v (Liber monasterii sancti Galli), this volume probably was part of the Abbey Library of St. Gall around 1500. Prior to that the volume probably was held in Eastern Switzerland, as suggested by notes on fol. 1r (naming Wernher Müntzmaister; Jakob Grübel; Albert von Glarus). From 1422 on, Theoderici was professor of the theological faculty at the universities of Rostock, Leipzig and Greifswald; it has been verified that in the 15th century there were students from St. Gall in Leipzig. (smu)
Paper · 498 pp. · 20.5 × 14.5 cm · 14th and 15th century
Theological Miscellany
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. (len)
Parchment · 186 pp. · 22 x 16 cm · St. Gall · 10th century
Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae
Copy of De consolatione philosophiae by Boethius, produced in the 10th century in the monastery of St. Gall, with various Latin and Old High German glosses. (smu)
Parchment · 119 pp. · 19.9 x 13.2/13.9 cm · St. Gall · 10th - 11th century
Commentary on Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae (I-IV)
A copy of a commentary on the first four books of the work De consolatione philosophiae by Boethius († 524), written by many hands in the Abbey of St. Gall near the end of the 10th century or the beginning of the 11th century. The manuscript contains a multitide of Latin and Old High German glosses, of which the Old High German glosses are written in the so-called bfk-Geheimschrift (secret script). (smu)
Parchment · 144 pp. · 21.4-21.6 x 19-19.6 cm · St. Gall · 10th century
De Statu animæ
An incomplete copy of the work De statu animae by the Gallo-Roman presbyter Claudianus Ecdidius Mamertus (d. about 473; brother of the bishop Mamertus of Vienna), written in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. In the last quarter of this copy the last line on each page is missing; the missing parts of these pages were replaced with blank parchment by the restorer in 1969. (smu)
Parchment · 206 pp. · 20.5 × 13.5 cm · second half of the 13th or first half of the 14th century
Tabulae Toletanae cum tractatu (canonibus)
The first part of the manuscript transmits on pp. 3–44 the Canones in motibus caelestium corporum, instructions for use and an explanation of the tables that follow, along with an addition in the same script and gathering on pp. 44–46. In the second part follows on pp. 47–203 the Tabulae Toletanae. These are tables to compare various computations of time, on the calculation of planetary movements and eclipses, on spherical astronomy and with repertories of stars and places. The small script, between a Gothic minuscule and a simplified textualis, dates rather from the second half of the thirteenth century or the first half of the fourteenth century (contrary to Scherrer), and the tendency of the round terminal s to finish below the line suggests Italian origin. On p. 204 there is a Zodiac, the Marian hymn Gaude virgo gratiosa (AH 9, p. 54) and a further, roughly contemporary text. According to the entry N. 102 on p. 3, the manuscript came to the Abbey Library in 1768 as part of the legacy of Ägidius Tschudi (1505–1572). The cardboard binding with leather-reinforced spine and corners, along with the paper bifolia that serve as pastedown and flyleaves (pp. 1/2 and p. 205/206), come from the decades around 1800. (len)
Parchment · 420 pp. · 34 x 24.5 cm · Florence · around 1440
Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes, De finibus bonorum et malorum, De natura deorum, De divinatione
This codex, written in humanist minuscule, contains philosophical works by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC): pp. 3–121Tusculanae disputationes (“Tusculan Disputations”), pp. 121–248De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), pp. 249–344De natura deorum (“On the Nature of the Gods”) and pp. pp. 345–416De divinatione (“On Divination”). The coat of arms on p. 3 (four bearded male faces in profile, arranged in a circle) most likely was that of the later Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli (1397–1455, Pope 1447–1455). Parentucelli used this coat of arms (“stemma delle quattro barbe”, Manfredi, p. 662) in the years before he was elected pope. It is found in 38 manuscripts in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome as well as in a codex in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Padua (ms. C27). The white vine initials, typical of Florentine book decoration, are similar to those in the codex from Padua, whose illuminations Silvia Fumian attributes to the Florentine artist Bartolomeo Varnucci (* ca. 1412/1413). Perhaps Parentucelli commissioned this manuscript in 1439–1443, when he resided in Florence for the Council. (sno)
Parchment · 208 pp. · 23.5–24 x 16.5–17 cm · 12th century
Cicero, De inventione; Rhetorica ad Herennium
This codex probably did not originate in St. Gall; it contains two important works of rhetoric: Cicero’s De inventione (pp. 3–107) and the Rhetorica ad Herennium (pp. 107–205). Here the latter work is divided into six rather than four books. There are numerous glosses by hands from the 12th to the late 15th or early 16th century. (sno)
Cicero, Topica; Boethius, Commentary on Cicero's Topica
This manuscript, probably not written in St. Gall, contains Cicero’s Topica on pp. 1-21 (defective at the end), and Boethius’ commentary on that work on pp. 21-216. On the inside of the front cover, one can discern the negative impression of a page from the Edictum Rothari (Cod. Sag. 730, p. 17). (sno)
Parchment · 429 pp. · 16.5 x 11 cm · St. Gall · middle of the 9th century
Grammatica / De rhetorica / Institutiones II / De natura rerum / Miscellaneous; drawings
School manuscript from the monastery of St. Gall, containing Cassiodorus'Institutiones saecularium litterarum (an educational book on the "Septem Artes Liberales"). (smu)