This manuscript, a composite manuscript of legal content, has as its main text the Summa super rubricis decretalium by the Italian legal scholar Godefridus de Trano (deceased 1245). This is a textbook on the Compilation of Decretals commissioned by Pope Gregory IX, which was widely distributed. The text is decorated with five small figure initials, probably of French origin. (flr)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This elegant pocket-size book of hours was illuminated in Tours around 1480 by the Maître des camaïeux d’or Le Bigot, who was active in the circle of the painter Jean Bourdichon. The sixteen tiny historiated initials in camaïeu d’or that are contained in the manuscript succeed the usual repertoire with an original cycle dedicated to the seven days of Creation. The artist demonstrates his exceptional technical mastery by lending the body of the initials an especially attractive evanescent character. The subtle arrangement of the surrounding letters should invite the anonymous patron to appreciate the meticulous combination of gold and colors in detail. (ada)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

This handwritten Haggadah Comites Latentes 69 was created in Vienna in 1756. It is decorated with black ink and masterfully imitates copper engraving. The author is the famous scribe and illustrator Simmel ben Moses from Polna (active between 1714 and 1756), who produced about thirty dated manuscripts that have survived until today, of which, however, only 17, including CL 69, are autographs. His works of art are among the most remarkable examples of Hebrew manuscript decoration in 18th century Central Europe. The Song of Solomon, copied by later hands, concludes this magnificent manuscript. (iss)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This legal manuscript with the title Sefer Ḥokhmat Nashim is part of a vernacular literary genre for women that was widely read in Ashkenazic and Italian communities since the Renaissance. This manual of prescriptions in Judeo-Italian is said to have been copied by the famous Italian kabbalist and preacher Mordechai ben Juda Dato during the second half of the 16th century. (iss)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

This rare Judeo-Arabic fragment is from the Kitab al-Hidaya ila Faraiḍ al-Qulub (Guide to the Duties of the Heart ) by Baḥya ben Joseph Ibn Paquda (2nd half of the 11th century). This work is of fundamental importance since it sets out the first Jewish system of ethics. The manuscript tradition of this Judeo-Arabic work is quite fragmentary because few textual witnesses remain today. (iss)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

This volume, written in littera parisiensis in the middle of the 13th century, contains Avicenna’s De anima in a translation by John of Seville, as well as parts from the Metaphysica, translated by Dominicus Gundissalinus. It also contains the first two books from part 2 of Al-Gazali's libri metaphysicae et physicae, also in a translation by Dominicus Gundissalinus. This manuscript came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel as part of the book collection of Johannes Heynlin, who had purchased the manuscript in 1461. (flr)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

This manuscript contains the Floretum medicinae, a work of medical excerpts, divided into 25 books. The origin and the author of the work are unknown. This manuscript was held in the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel in the area of shelfmark A of the Bibliotheca antiqua. In addition to the Artes liberales, this shelfmark area also contained philosophy and medicine. (stu)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

The core of this manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel is a copy of the Flores temporum, a Latin world chronicle from the 13th century that was widely used in Alemannic areas. The copyist, Nicolaus Gerung de Blauenstein, supplemented this chronicle with a self-written, partly German appendix on events from the region around Basel as well as a chronicle of the Basel bishops. Shorter texts such as treatises on councils or on the Carthusian order and lists of emperors, cathedrals, kingdoms and languages in various parts of the world round off the collection. (mue)

Online Since: 12/12/2019

This manuscript from the first half of the 15th century contains the German Chronicle of Jakob Twinger von Königshofen (Chap. 6, 1-5), the Rötteln Chronicle, and the Libellus de magnificentia ducis Burgundia in Treveris visa conscriptus (German). It served as model for the University Library Basel’s manuscript E I 1h. Later it was the property of the Amerbach family. (srf)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

This codex, which consists of several parts, contains primarily decrees, bulls, letters and decisions related to the Council of Basel (1431-1448), by various hands in Latin and German. Later hands added occasional notes, corrections and additions. Historiographic information is included with the so-called “Grössere Basler Annalen” and Latinized excerpts from the Rötteln Chronicle and the German Chronicle of Jakob Twinger von Königshofen. This manuscript came from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel and then became part of the holdings of the Basel University Library. (srf)

Online Since: 10/10/2019

Ten illustrated leaves with the second part of the prophecies about the popes from Boniface IX to Eugene IV. These pages were created at the time of the Council of Basel; originally they were part of a composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, with Council documents. The expressive pen and ink drawings suggest the influence of the Basel workshop of Konrad Witz, one of the most important painters in the Upper Rhine region during the late Gothic period. (flr)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This manuscript, although incomplete due to leaf loss, contains the Alexander novel by the German-Bohemian poet Ulrich von Etzenbach (c. 13th century). The text was written in 1322, presumably in Bavaria or Austria judging by the dialect characteristics. The elaborate decoration with initials at the beginning of the individual books shows Upper Rhine characteristics as they also appear in Lower Austria at the beginning of the 14th century. In the margins, there are numerous 19th century explanations of words as well as annotations by Johann Jakob Spreng (1699-1768), who copied the manuscript in the 18th century. (flr)

Online Since: 12/12/2019

This manuscript from the first half of the 15th century contains the German Chronicle by Jakob Twinger von Königshofen (chap. 1-3, 5) and the Anonymous Bernese Chronicle (truncated due to loss of pages). Both texts are preceded by a comprehensive table of contents. The manuscript later was the property of the Amerbach family. (srf)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

This Eusebius manuscript is from the 14th century and was already part of the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel under Heinrich Arnoldi (prior between 1449 and 1480). The manuscript is made of high quality calfskin vellum; it is carefully written and rubricated, in part with pen-flourish initials. The manuscript contains various 14th and 15th century additions; the binding is from the 19th century. (stu)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

This manuscript was the property of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; in a German translation, it transmits the legend of the Three Magi by John of Hildesheim, the legends of the Desert Fathers known as the “Vitaspatrum“ and the Athanasian Creed. (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

This manuscript was owned by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide, who donated it to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel; it contains a collection of speeches and letters by renowned humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini and Enea Silvio Piccolomini— among them an original letter from Johannes Reuchlin to Jakob Louber— with texts by Greek and Oriental authors in Latin translation. Parts of the manuscript are written by Heynlin and Reuchlin. (mue)

Online Since: 10/04/2018

This manuscript, of French origin, came to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel after having been the property of Johannes Heynlin. The massive volume contains Aristotle's six works on logic, some with commentary, which were assembled into the so-called “Organon“ only after the time of Aristotle. The decoration and science are complementary: each of the books of the main text begins with an elaborate ornamental initial; the commentary, if there is one, is grouped closely around the main text and is mostly unadorned. (flr)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This slender parchment volume from the Dominican Monastery of Basel contains Books I-V of De vegetabilibus et plantis by Albertus Magnus. This work – actually in seven books, two of which are missing here – represents a small part of the extraordinarily extensive opus by the Doctor of the Church and universal scholar, whose fame was surpassed soon after his death by that of his student Thomas Aquinas. The worn binding shows traces indicating that this was a liber catenatus. (mue)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

This composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel was written by various hands; it contains primarily astrological writings, among them texts by Abraham ibn Esra, Al-Zarkali and Hermes Trismegistus translated from the Arabic, Hebrew and Greek. In the margin of f. 120r there is a blessing against worms, on f. 145v medical advice in a blend of German and Latin. In addition to handwritten parts, the volume also contains three prints. One of the two original leather clasps is still intact. (mue)

Online Since: 03/29/2019

This composite manuscript with content regarding astronomy, bound in crimson sheepskin, was owned by Heinrich Amici († 1451), city physician of Basel, who bequeathed it to the city’s Carthusian monastery. In addition to calculations of planetary conjunctions and eclipses, the volume also contains astronomical treatises by Pierre d’Ailly or Petrus de Alliaco (around 1350-1420). D’Ailly was a scholar and church politician and infused his theological works with astrological justifications. (flr)

Online Since: 12/14/2017