Documents: 127, displayed: 81 - 100

Sub-project: Manuscripts from the Carthusian monastery of Basel

Summer 2017 - December 2020

Status: Completed

Financed by: University Library Basel

Description: The Carthusian monastery of St. Margarethental was founded in 1401 in Kleinbasel (Lesser Basel); until the Reformation it was an important spiritual and intellectual center whose influence extended far beyond the city of Basel. At the beginning of the 16th century its library contained about 2,000 books, almost all of which became the property of the university after the dissolution of the monastery and constituted the substantive basis of the early university library. Among these books are more than 600 manuscripts, which are currently in the process of being catalogued and made accessible by the University Library Basel. In addition, a scholarly relevant selection of these manuscripts is being digitized, among them the German manuscripts from the the library of the lay brothers as well as the manuscripts containing texts by the Carthusians of Basel.

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B X 29
Parchment · 175 ff. · 15 x 11 cm · 13th and 14th century
Composite manuscript containing sermons and material for sermons

This manuscript originally consisted of at least two books, as can still be seen from the separate original foliation. The first part was written in the 13th century by several very similar hands; it contains numerous sermons, among others some by Gilbertus Tornacensis and Bonaventure. The second part, written by a main hand from the 14th century, contains a vast collection of exempla of various origins. This plain manuscript belonged to the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, as confirmed by numerous notes of ownership, two old title labels and various old shelfmarks. (flr)

Online Since: 12/14/2018

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 5
Parchment · 224 ff. · 12.5 x 8.5 cm · end of the 15th century
Composite manuscript (theology)

This small-format manuscript in Latin is from the Carthusian monastery of Basel; in particular, it treats the Passion of Christ. The devotional image on the front pastedown takes up this topic, as do the texts, which are by, among others, Ludolph of Saxony, Bonaventure and Eckbert of Schönau. The manuscript’s first text, a long devotional text De vita et passione Iesu Christi, may have been written by Heinrich Arnoldi, Carthusian of Basel. (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 8
Parchment · 163 ff. · 11.5 x 8-8.5 cm · around 1300
Basler Liederhandschrift

This small-format parchment manuscript is known as the “Basler Liederhandschrift”; it transmits German and Latin texts in verse and prose, which are primarily spiritual in character and in part are supplemented with musical notation. Among them are texts by Konrad of Würzburg and Walther von der Vogelweide, among others. This manuscript was written around 1300; in the 15th century it was in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, and in the 17th century it was the property of Remigius Fäsch, a collector from Basel.  (stu)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 9
Parchment · 263 ff. · 11.5 x 9 cm · 1478
Meditationes de sanctis mulieribus virginibusque

This small-format parchment manuscript is from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, where it was completed in 1478 by the scribe Johannes Gipsmüller. The numerous devotional texts on various female saints have mostly been passed down anonymously; some – such as those on Margareta, the patron saint of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel – can probably be attributed to Heinrich Arnoldi. The codex is decorated with full-page illustrations of saints treated in the text as well as numerous initials, the latter in a variety of styles. (mue)

Online Since: 12/10/2020

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 10
Parchment · 383 ff. · 12-12.5 x 8.5 cm · second half of the 14th century
Composite manuscript (mysticism)

This small-format composite manuscript contains numerous pieces of mysticism, such as sermons, treatises (excerpts), instructions and sayings by, among others, Meister Eckhart, Heinrich von Ekkewint and Johannes von Sterngassen. The volume was written by two different hands; the first of these complains in red ink on f. 379r that anyone unable to write could have no idea how torturous such work is. A note of ownership by abbey librarian Georg Carpentarius (around 1487-1531) and the old shelfmark E xxvi associates the manuscript with the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. As most of the German-language manuscripts at the monastery, it was part of the lay brothers' library. (flr)

Online Since: 10/10/2019

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 11
Parchment · 159 ff. · 12 x 8.5 cm · 15th century
Book of devotion and prayer in German

This small-format composite manuscript is decorated simply; it is from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, probably from the library of the lay brothers. It is written in various 15th century hands and contains Penitential Psalms, meditations, liturgical texts, a spiritual treatise, prayers and poems to Mary; judging by the signs of wear, the manuscript was used intensively. (flr)

Online Since: 06/14/2018

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 19
Parchment and paper · 183 ff. · 10-10.5 x 7.5 cm · in part Basel · 2nd half of the 15th century and 2nd half of the 14th century
Book of prayers and devotions

This composite volume, originally composed of ten fascicles, was at least partly written in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. One of the writers is Hans Lesser, a brother from St. Gallen. The small-format manuscript was part of the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel and contains various German-language prayers and devotional texts, some of which refer explicitly to the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery. (stu)

Online Since: 12/12/2019

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI 20
Parchment · 103 ff. · 10 x 7 cm · Carthusian Monastery of Basel · last quarter of the 15th century
Henricus Arnoldi, Meditationes tres de sanctis virginibus

This small-format manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains prayers to and about the saints and martyrs Margaret of Antioch, Barbara of Nicomedia and Catherine of Alexandria. The Meditationes were composed by the Carthusian Henricus Arnoldi of Basel; the small-format manuscript was written by his fellow monk Johannes Gipsmüller. (mue)

Online Since: 06/14/2018

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, Bc II 5
Parchment · 337 ff. · 30 x 21 cm · Paris · 1459
Aristoteles, Miscellany

The first part of this composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains Aristotle’s writing on the soul, De anima, in William of Moerbeke’s translation, copied in Paris in 1459 by the scholar Johannes Heynlin. The main text, decorated with artistic initials with gold leaf as well as fleuronné initials, is closely surrounded by commentary in marginal and interlinear glosses, written in a small, compact semi-Gothic script. Bound into this volume as the second part is Aristotle’s De animalibus, printed in Venice in 1476; this text’s uncharacteristic lack of decoration at least raises the question of whether it was also part of Heynlin’s library. (gam/flr)

Online Since: 06/25/2015

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C I 6
Parchment · 100 ff. · 45.5 x 28 cm · Italy · 2nd half of the 14th century
Guilelmus de Cugno: Lectura super codicem

This manuscript, written by several Northern Italian hands, contains the Lectura super codicem by the legal scholar Guilelmus de Cugno or Cuneo, who gave lectures in Toulouse in 1316-1317. The original must have been divided into quires, at least there are annotations in the manuscript that are similar to those of the pecia system. In 1383, this volume was owned by a converted Jew in Trier; later it became part of the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (flr)

Online Since: 06/14/2018

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C I 16
Parchment · 96 ff. · 38.5 x 26 cm · 14th century
Iohannes Andreae, Super librum sextum decretalium

This 14th century parchment manuscript contains the commentaries of the legal expert and canonist Johannes Andreae (around 1270-1348) on the Liber Sextus Decretalium Bonifacii, the third part of the Corpus iuris canonici. The volume came into the possession of the Carthusian monastery of Basel during the Council (1431-1449). (flr)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C II 10
Parchment · 141 ff. · 37 x 26 cm · 1st half of the 14th century
Bernardus de Montemirato: Lectura super Decretales

For efficiency, writings of law and canon law were often copied using the pecia system, where a model was divided into quires and distributed to several copyists. In the same manner, this commentary on the decretals by ”Abbas antiquus“, only later identified as Bernardus de Montemirato, was created in three pieces. The sparingly decorated manuscript is written in a littera bononiensis and was owned by the library of the Carthusian monastery of Basel. (flr)

Online Since: 12/14/2017

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C II 28
Paper · 192 ff. · 29.5 x 21 cm · about 1471
Petrus de Andelo

From 1470 until 1475, Jakob Lauber, later the head of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel and its richly endowed library, attended lectures by the famous decretist Peter Andlau at the newly founded University of Basel; this is attested by his lecture notes on the Conclusiones Clementinarum and the Liber sextus of Boniface VIII from the year 1471. (gam/flr)

Online Since: 03/19/2015

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C V 16
Parchment · 266 ff. · 24.5 x 16 cm · France (?) · beginning of the 14th century
Godefridus de Trano: Summa super rubricis decretalium

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

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, C V 28
Paper · 498 ff. · 21 x 14 cm · [Basel] · 1435-1439
Johannes Wydenroyd, Manuale rotae concilii Basiliensis, pars 2

Not without entering into competition with the curial judiciary authority did the Council of Basel (1431-1449) demand conciliar judicial authority patterned on the Roman Rota. The tried cases were recorded by notaries of the Rota, as in this manuscript written by Johannes Wydenroyd in the period between 15 March 1435 and 13 June 1439. This manuscript is the middle volume of three remaining Rota manuals from the Council of Basel. (gam/flr)

Online Since: 06/25/2015

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, D III 7
Parchment · 171 ff. · 24-25 x 18-18.5 cm · France (?) · middle of the 13th century
Avicenna and Al-Gazali in Latin translation

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

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, D III 22
Paper · 305 ff. · 15.5 x 11 cm · 1st quarter of the 15th century
Floretum medicinae

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

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, D IV 10
Paper · 197 ff. · 21.5 x 14.5 + 3 cm · about 1475
Composite manuscript (chronicles)

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

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, E I 4
Paper · 639 ff. · 29 x 21 cm · Basel · 2nd quarter of the 15th century
Composite manuscript of writings regarding the Council of Basel

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

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Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, E I 4a
Paper · 10 ff. · 29 x 21-21.5 cm · Basel · between 1444 and 1449
Prophecies about the Papacy

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

Documents: 127, displayed: 81 - 100