Manuscript of collected works including texts by Wasmodus de Homberg, Lampertus Episcopus Argentinensis, Johannes Mulberg and Felix Hemmerlin regarding the Beguine conflict and a tract by Benedictus de Asinago on poverty.
Online Since: 11/04/2010
This manuscript contains a collection of prayers in Bohemian; eight prayers are attributed to Johannes of Neumarkt (around 1310-1380), an early representative of Bohemian humanism. The manuscript is decorated with several red and blue initials. An image of the Arma Christi used to be glued onto f. 39r, of which only residue remains.
Online Since: 12/18/2014
This 15th century Missale speciale contains the formulas for the Mass for the highest holidays of the church year (Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Michaelmas, All Saints' Day and the dedication of the church) as well as for the Mass for the dead and for several votive Masses. This compilation was suited for worship service in a chapel. An image of the crucifixion of Christ has been removed from this manuscript.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
In 1474 Adam Keuten, since 1467 parish priest at the Hofkirche in Lucerne, compiled a large-format volume with the Proprietates rerum naturalium moralisatae, an encyclopedia in seven parts about the most important fields of creation, followed by allegorical interpretations of natural phenomena. The volume also contains a medical treatise, several short works about the Eucharist, and a longer treatise about the Mass.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript consists of an incunable from Freiburg i. Br. from 1494 and two parts in manuscript, which were copied in 1498 and 1499 by Brother Johannes Bengel, Conventual at Alpirsbach Abbey in the Black Forest. The three texts on scholastic logic are by Peter of Spain and by Petrus Tartaretus, a contemporaneous Parisian philosopher whose mnemonic device, a logical figure called pons asinorum has also been copied.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
First volume (Temporale) of the two-volume gradual with liturgical songs that Abbot Laurentius of Heidegg from Muri Abbey purchased from the convent of canonesses at Säckingen in 1532, after the furnishings of Muri Abbey, along with the liturgical books, were destroyed in the Second War of Kappel. The abbot had the large pen-flourish initial at the beginning painted over with the miter, the abbatial crozier, his own coat of arms and that of the abbey.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
First volume (winter part) of the two-volume antiphonary with the chants of the Liturgy of the Hours; it was used alternately with MsMurFm9. This large-format manuscript from the 15th century is largely unadorned. On the basis of the responsories of the Advent season, it can be assigned to the Cistercian Order.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
Second volume (summer part) of the two-volume antiphonary that was used alternately with MsMurFm6. This large-format manuscript from the 15th century is largely unadorned. On the basis of the feasts of saints (Bernard of Clairvaux, Edmund of Abingdon, Robert of Molesme), it can be assigned to the Cistercian Order.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This late 15th or early 16th century calendar, consisting of only six leaves, contains in addition to the feast days and the saints also the Dedicatio Murensis. After the Reformation, the abbots Christoph von Grüt (1549-1564), Hieronymus Frey (1564-1585) and Jakob Meyer (1585-1596) used it to record the dates of their entry into the monastery, their election as abbot, the death of their successor and other events at the monastery.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This small format missal, written in 1483, was used by members of the Franciscan order, as can be deduced from the calendar that precedes it. In the 16th century, it belonged to Rudolf Gwicht, Conventual at Muri, who later became abbot of Engelberg Abbey. In the calendar, he recorded his entry into the monastery and added his coat of arms to the back pastedown.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This monastic breviary was written in the second half of the 14th century for a Benedictine monastery; judging by the antiphons, it was perhaps written for Muri Abbey. At the end, a later hand added paper leaves to the parchment manuscript and entered the Offices of the Virgin and of Martin. In the 16th century, this breviary was the property of the Benedictines of Muri.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This guide brings together two 15th century collections that were created independently of one another. The first, longer one is from the area around Rottweil, while the second, shorter one is from the area around Muri. Both provide models for formulating purchases and obligations, collateral and sureties, donations and inheritances, and they both contain letters dealing with the courts.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This Pharmacopoeia is an unorganized collection of prescriptions in German for diseases of all kinds, interspersed with recipes for cooking and with short medical treatises. Several prescriptions and treatises mention medical authorities such as Mesue, Bartholomew, Hippocrates and Galen, Heinrich Fründ, Johannes Minnch, Meister Heinrich and Vitalis de Furno. Various scribes contributed to this manuscript during the third quarter of the 15th century.
Online Since: 03/29/2019
This Cistercian pontifical for the abbot dates from the last third of the 15th century; it contains various benedictions and liturgical formulations for the consecration of monks and nuns, and for the appointment of an abbess. The formulations for ordinations in convents of Cistercian nuns are written partly in German.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Paper manuscript with copies of the privileges and annual donations regarding the property of the Franciscan Königsfelden Abbey. Begun around 1417 with additions until 1427. After the dissolution of Königsfelden Abbey, the book came to Muri and from there to Muri-Gries (Bolzano, Italy). It was returned as part of the exchange of cultural property with Muri-Gries/Sarnen in 1960.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Copies of the privileges, regulations, registers of annual donations and documents from the 13th to the 16th century regarding the property of Königsfelden Abbey. Originally set up in individual booklets that were only later bound together. Arranged by type (for the privileges) and otherwise by geographical units.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Copies and regesta of privileges and documents from the 14th to the 16th century concerning Königsfelden Abbey's Waldshut properties. Begun around 1480, parallel to the establishing of the Königsfelden cartulary II (StAAG AA/0429), with additions until about 1530.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Copies and regesta of privileges and documents from 1400 until 1530 concerning Königsfelden Abbey's rights to and properties in Birmenstorf. Begun around 1480, parallel to the establishing of the Königsfelden cartulary II (StAAG AA/0429), with additions until about 1530.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This is the first register of land tax from Königsfelden Abbey that has survived; it lists the taxes and those who had to pay them. Begun under Abbess Elisabeth von Leiningen (before 1386 until after 1456), sporadically amended and continued until 1531.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Booklets of the auctioning of the tithes of Königsfelden Abbey, which were later bound together. A booklet was set up for each year between 1451 and 1457, set up by the stewards of the Convent of the Poor Clares, Niklaus Fricker and Ulrich Ambühl; additions until 1458.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
A comprehensive collection of the most important legal records and documents of Wettingen Abbey, written by Peter Numagen in about 1490. The table of contents and prologue are followed by legendary accounts of the abbey's founding and copies of the papal, imperial and regal grants of privilege. It also contains the grant of privilege of the order and copies of records of assorted legal transactions related to ownership of real property. Adorned with the coat of arms of the founding patrons, abbots and benefactors.
Online Since: 04/15/2010
Calendar listing annual donations to the Convent of Benedictine Nuns of Hermetschwil (Aargau), dated 1441 and found at the district office of Bremgarten in 1884. It also contains several notes in chronicle format regarding the founding of the convent, the rebuilding of the church in 1603-1605 and 1624/1625, as well as offerings for masses following divine apparitions in 1636-1692. Inserted in the front is a letter from July 12, 1693.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
In the 15th century, one of the most popular devotional works was the guide to Christian life by the Basel Franciscan Otto von Passau, entitled “Die vierundzwanzig Alten”. Around 170 manuscripts and fragments thereof have survived. Many are from nuns' convents or were meant for lay brothers. This manuscript from Hermetschwil Convent was copied by Sophie Schwarzmurer of Zurich, who later became Mother Superior.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
The volume Sermones de tempore et de Sanctis contains sermons for Sundays and holidays which, according to information on the last page, were written down until 1466 by the primissarius Michael Kuhn in Hundwil. Today the volume is the property of the parish St. Mauritius in Appenzell.
Online Since: 12/17/2015
This manuscript was written or compiled by Johannes of Fulda in 1440. In 1953 it was donated to the museum by Dr. S. Merian. It had been the property of Jakob Burckhardt. The text is about medical alchemy.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This Liber benefactorum, the book of benefactors of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, was written gradually between the 1430s and the 1520s. The main part of the manuscript, a calendar created in the early 15th century, contains the names of over 800 benefactors. The manuscript was designed from the beginning as a Liber benefactorum and has close ties to an annal from the Basel charterhouse that was written during the tenure of Prior Heinrich Arnoldi (StABS, Klosterarchiv Kartaus N).
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This meticulously executed manuscript contains the first part of Thomas Aquinas's Summa theologiae, one of the Scholastic's main works; it is from the library of Johannes de Lapide, Carthusian monk in Basel. The quires consist of paper and parchment in regular alteration; the proem begins with an ornamental page decorated with gold with a Q-initial on gold leaf, scroll ornamentation with flowers and berries in the margins, and a decorated intercolumnium.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript was written in 1445 by the prolific scribe and later prior of the Dominican Monastery of Basel, Albert Löffler, shortly before entering the order. Its content illustrates Löffler's academic and religious education: it contains Latin texts of spiritual character, such as the Speculum artis bene moriendi now attributed to Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl, the Pilgerbuch der Seele zu Gott by Bonaventure, and the Speculum ecclesiae by Hugh of Saint-Cher, as well as the hugely popular Liber de ludo scacchorum by Jacobus de Cessolis, one of the first Latin treatises on chess. The manuscript also contains two German texts: a treatise on perfection and a catalog of questions to examine whether, after death, a sick person's soul may expect eternal life.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume contains, among others, writings on the councils; the last treatise is called noviter compilatus. Several hands from the second quarter of the 15th century contributed to the writing. The last page is decorated with a Titulus crucifixi in three languages, written in majuscules in the Byzantine tradition, which spread, often in bizarre forms, from Italy during the time of the councils. Holes in the front cover and traces of rust on the detached front pastedown page establish that the volume used to be part of a chained library.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This composite manuscript from the second quarter of the 15th century consists of eight independent parts; accordingly several hands can be distinguished. The volume contains writings on the council; notes in his own hand suggest that the volume belonged to the Dominican John of Ragusa, who was a one of the leading theologians participating in the the Council of Basel. This volume was later owned by the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Postil on Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Esdras and Job, written in 1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 58 half-page, partly or entirely colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-2, 4-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Kings and Esther, written in 1400-1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 52 single-column, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-3, 5-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Acts of the Apostles, on the Apocalypse, and on the canonical letters, written in 1405-1407 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 14 half-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-6, 10-11 and 13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on the Pauline epistles, written in 1413-1415 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which the richly illustrated volumes A II 1-6 and 10-12 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript brings together anti-Hussite treatises by the theologians Stanislaus de Znoyma (-1414), Simon de Tišnova (1370-1432) and Petrus de Pulka (1370-1425). Although the last title of the first treatise gives 1431 as the date of the copy, the entire manuscript was written during the second quarter of the 15th century. The paper has watermarks. A hand contemporary with that of the main scribe added a table of contents at the beginning and a list of the Hussite theses along with their refutations at the end. This same hand concludes the manuscript with a poem that condemns the pillaging of soldiers. This manuscript was the property of the Dominican Convent of Basel. The old blind-tooled pigskin binding was originally chained and had a clasp. The back board has a parchment fragment; the front board once contained the fragment of a French poem.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
German translation of the postil on the Psalms by Nicholas of Lyra (deceased 1349), probably created during his lifetime. The commentary on the Psalms, earlier attributed to Heinrich von Mügeln, is the work of an anonymous writer, not yet historically ascertained, the so-called “Österreichischer Bibelübersetzer“ (Austrian translator of the Bible). In his translation of the original, he abbreviates the text and supplies additions. This copy from the library of the Carthusian monastery of Basel dates to the middle of the 15th century; the miniatures are part of the Vullenhoe group.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
These two individual leaves transmit both stanzas of the “Goldenes Ave Maria“: once as a song with glosses “Ave got grüß dich reine magt“ (A III 52a), a second time in an adaptation by the Carthusian Ludwig Moser of Basel (A III 52b). Both texts probably were written by him in the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript contains mainly Augustine's Confessiones as well as his treatise De virtutibus et meritis. It was copied in 1471 by Henricus de Bocholdia, who, on the occasion of the Windesheim reform, had made his profession of faith among the canons regular of St. Leonhard in Basel. In a note on folio 162rb, added in 1473 but then crossed out several times and therefore difficult to read, Henricus relates the attempt to reform Interlaken Monastery (1473-1475), where he would have liked to have gone.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This manuscript, parts of which are dated, is from St. Leonhard Monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine; it contains mostly patristic and liturgical texts. For a while, this volume, along with the corrections later added to the manuscript, served as a model in the printshop of Michael Furter of Basel, who in 1496 edited the Expositio super cantica canticorum, which has been preserved among the works of Gregory the Great, but today is attributed to Robertus Tumbalena. A specimen copy may have been returned to the monastery along with the manuscript, as there remains one printed copy with a note of ownership indicating such.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This manuscript is part of the holdings of the Carthusian monastery of Basel, to which it came as a gift from a former dean of Rheinfeld, Antonius Rütschmann. It contains mainly Gregory the Great 's Homiliae in evangelia and the first two books of the Libri miraculorum by Caesarius of Heisterbach, as well as sermons and excerpts by Johannes of Freiburg, Johannes of Mülberg, and Jordan of Quedlinburg.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This 14th and 15th century Ashkenazi copy of the Sefer Moreh Nevukhim (Guide to the Perplexed) by Moses Maimonides is the Hebrew translation of the work made in 1204 by Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon (1150-1230). This copy also includes a preface from the commentary to the Moreh Nevukhim by Shem Tov ben Joseph ben Shem Tov, a 15th century Spanish rabbi and vigorous defender of Aristotelian and Maimonidean philosophy. In the 16th century, this manuscript was owned by Johann Buxtorf II, and used as the base for the latter's Latin edition of the Doctor Perplexorum (Basel, 1629).
Online Since: 03/19/2020
This volume with Quaestiones by the Viennese theologian Iodocus Gartner (attested between 1424 and 1452) was owned by Albertus Loeffler (middle of the 15th century); it was part of the chained library of the Dominican Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This volume from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains handwritten and printed texts concerning questions on the history of the order, on the spiritual life, as well as on theological interpretations, as for example the commentary on Ecclesiastes by Denis the Carthusian (1402-1471). The handwritten parts are by various hands, among them the Carthusian Johannes Gipsmüller of Basel (1439-1484).
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This manuscript from the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian monastery in Basel consists of various parts that are bound together. It was meant as a devotional book for the lay brothers and contains various basic texts in German translation, among them a Rule of Saint Benedict, a life of Saint Benedict, as well as various prayers that address either the lay brothers of the Carthusians or the lay brothers of the Benedictines.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
These 14 leaves were removed from a composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel around the end of the 19th century. The 11 colored woodcuts with the respective handwritten text transmit a German Ars moriendi, a type of text on the art of dying well that was very popular during the late Middle Ages.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This small-format devotional book is from the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. It was written by ten different hands and contains, in addition to numerous prayers, the legend of Hugh of Lincoln, a treatise on the Passion, as well as a “Cisiojanus” (a poem for remembering religious feast days and holidays, named for the incipit of the Latin version).
Online Since: 06/14/2018
Hymn and sequence commentary written in Isny in 1443 by Ulrich Bentz of Winterthur, attested as a registered student in Erfurt in 1444/1445. The text is closely linked to a 14th century Basel manuscript; parallel versions can be found in various southern German manuscripts. Marks on the back cover identify the volume as a liber catenatus.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This chronicle, which came to the Basel University Library as part of the holdings of the Museum Faesch, contains two parts. The first part was written by Heinrich Arnoldi and deals with the foundation and development of the monastery until 1480; it is written in the form of a dialogue between the prior of the monastery and its patron saint, St. Margaret. This dialogue format, which Arnoldi employed in several of his writings, is unusual for historical content; it is abandoned in the second part. This second part, an autograph by Georg Carpentarius, continues the chronicle until 1526, that is, until shortly before the dissolution of the monastery in 1529.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript, in a strikingly narrow format, was created in Mainz and, as a gift from the Carthusians living there, it later came to the Carthusian monastery of Basel. It contains a large number of short and very short texts: in addition to some sermons, it mainly contains excerpts from theological, church historical and political treatises, including some in German.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This codex from the holdings of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains as a first part a treatise about the appropriate penance for various transgressions against commandments and sacraments. A second part consists of a collection of Latin hymns with an interlinear translation into German, as well as a loose translation into German as continuous text, in part also combined with a short interpretation. This is followed by texts about the mass and several Opuscula by Gregory of Nazianzus, a letter by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide about the qualities of a good priest, and a brief text by Heinrich Arnoldi about a sermon on Mary.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This fascicle, consisting of only three pages, contains prayers and a text about the seven heavenly joys of Mary.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
This undecorated paper volume from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains theological Disputationes or Quaestiones by Johannes Heynlin de Lapide. These discussions, which, according to a note on folio 1r, took place in Paris in the presence and at the instigation of Heynlin, were copied by different hands, including that of Heynlin himself.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This volume contains a large number of texts about theology and canon law. All of it was written by one scribe, the Carthusian Heinrich von Vullenhoe of Basel. In a long note he provides information about the motives that guided him during the compilation: Since as a Carthusian he could not himself act as a preacher, he only had the possibility to spread the Word of God with his hands, i.e. by writing books. He expresses the hope that this compilation he has organized may strengthen the pious on their path and may offer an occasion for remorse for the sinners. Many of the texts that Vullenhoe has combined in this volume refer directly to the Carthusian Order. One example is the treatise de esu carnium, which defends the Carthusian practice of renouncing meat as a foodstuff. Many texts have also been handed down in other manuscripts from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This manuscript, created around 1460 and written by the Basel notary and city clerk Jodocus Seyler (1454-1501), contains the Pauline Epistles in canonical order, as well as the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans. Only the Letter to the Romans is richly glossed; First Corinthians still has several interlinear glosses, then the commentary ends. Of the many initials that probably were originally present, only one figure initial remains.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This libellus of John the Evangelist from the Gnadental Convent of the Poor Clares was completed in 1493. The manuscript contains texts by and about John the Evangelist, among them exempla, sermons, sequences, lections, and the Revelation in German. A pictorial cycle with scenes from the legend of the Evangelist decorates the vita of John at the beginning of the manuscript.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This volume was written in 1489 by Ambrosius Alantsee (†1505). Ambrosius, originally from Füssen, enrolled at the University of Basel in 1468/69 and, as can be proven, wrote several mostly liturgical books between 1484 and 1492 at the Carthusian Monastery in that city. Among them is this Epithalamium (bridal or wedding song) for Mary. Possibly this is the same Ambrosius Alantsee who is attested as prior of St. Mang's Abbey in Füssen in 1491.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This composite manuscript from the Carthusian monastery of Basel contains — partly handwritten and partly printed — primarily texts of devotional and spiritual content. Author (and for the first part of the manuscript also the scribe) for the most part is Heinrich Arnoldi, Prior of the Carthusian monastery from 1449-1480.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This manuscript, owned by Johannes Heynlin, came to the Basel University Library (UB) along with the holdings of the library of the Carthusian monastery of Basel; it contains primarily sermons, many of them written by the Dominican Guilelmus de Malliaco. A keyword index enables the user to search for a sermon with a suitable topic. The binding is striking: the two covers are each fitted with five brass bosses. On the inside of the covers, their anchors are each covered with small parchment pieces cut out in the shape of a heart.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This composite manuscript, property of the scholar and Carthusian monk Johannes Heynlin from Basel, consists of various handwritten and printed pieces of theological content: among them the treatise De saecularium religionibus by the Dominican and church reformer Johannes Nider, written in 1465 by a French scribe and annotated in the margin by Heynlin; or the text De miseria humanae conditionis by Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini, one of the most important humanists of the Italian Renaissance. After Heynlin's death, the volume became part of the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This small, thick paper and parchment manuscript from the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel must have been intensely used, as suggested by soiling and signs of heavy usage. The original red leather binding is covered with another layer of leather that sticks out beyond the covers at the bottom and can be folded over the lower edge as protection. The manuscript contains prayers, hymns and other devotional texts by numerous different authors — primarily saints and popes — such as Mechthild of Magdeburg or Bernard of Clairvaux. Also represented are Carthusian authors such as Heinrich Arnoldi. Several colored woodcut and metalcut prints have been glued onto leaf 4v and 316v.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This manuscript (third quarter of the 15th century), a collection of theological texts, consists of two parts; it originated in the Carthusian Monastery in Basel, where it was probably also created. This is certain for the second part of the manuscript, which, in addition to the Vita et revelationes by Agnes Blannbekin (Chapters 1-23), also contains extensive excerpts from Lux divinitatis, the Latin translation of Das fließende Licht der Gottheit by Mechthild of Magdeburg, which became the basis for further copies made in the monastery. The model for most of the texts contained in the second part of Cod. A VIII 6 was the manuscript Basel, university library, Cod. B IX 11.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
This anthology contains theological treatises, including various texts by Jean Gerson (1363-1429). The volume was written by Alfred Löffler (1416-1462). This scribe, originally came from Rheinfelden, entered the Basel Dominican monastery in 1445; at several places in the manuscript, he requests prayers for him. He also mentions individual dates (1454, 1456) as well as places of writing. The latter are the Convents of Dominican nuns at Steinbach and at Himmelskron near Worms, where Löffler served as confessor during the years in question. When he returned to Basel, he probably also brought with him this volume, which found its way into the library of the Dominican monastery of Basel and, after the Reformation, became part of the university library.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This codex, with a binding partially in leather, contains mostly chapter sermons and collationes written by Heinrich Arnoldi; usually they begin with a quote from the Bible and are only a few pages long. The composite manuscript for in-house use was produced at the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, where it was written mostly by Martin Ströulin and in part by Heinrich Arnoldi himself. In addition to the handwritten part, it also contains two short prints.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
The composite manuscript transmits, alongside the first volume of Hermann Joseph of Steinfeld's (1150-1241) Revelationum seu imaginationum de undecim milibus virginum, Elisabeth of Schönau's (1129-1164) Liber revelationum, and Johannes Brugmanus' (1400-1475) Vita Lidwinae de Schiedamensis, numerous exempla, including some by Cesarius of Heisterbach (1180-1240) and by Thomas de Cantimpré (1201-1272). This volume was probably copied in the Strasbourg Charterhouse and, shortly after its production, given by Antonius Reuchlin, prior of the Strasbourg Charterhouse between 1439 and 1449 and between 1455 and 1466, to the Basel Charterhouse.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This volume from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains prayers and meditations by various authors, but most of them written by, or at least attributed to, Anselm of Canterbury. In addition, there is an instruction in spiritual exercises for novices and a Passion of Christ compiled from all four Gospels by Heinrich Arnoldi. Texts by other Carthusian authors are also represented. The codex was written by Martin Ströulin, a Carthusian from Basel.
Online Since: 12/12/2019
This composite manuscript in German is from the Convent of Dominican nuns of St. Maria Magdalena “an den Steinen” in Basel, which was reformed in 1423; most of the manuscript was probably written there as well. In addition to two sermons, a treatise and a miracle of Mary, the manuscript mainly contains legends: Elizabeth of Hungary, Jerome, Francis, Vincent, Ignatius, Julian and Basilissa, Paul of Thebes and Anthony.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
15th century devotional volume, mostly written by the Carthusian Johannes Gipsmüller and owned by the Carthusian monastery of Basel. On the verso side of a parchment leaf, inserted as f. 57 into the paper manuscript, there is a full-page image of Christ on the cross with Mary and John. A peculiarity is a collection of Bible passages in Latin and sayings in German by Petrus Wolfer, which are said to have been written on a wall of the Carthusian monastery, surrounding a crucifixion.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This late medieval book of devotion and prayer is named for its first owner, Margret Zschampi, Dominican at Klingental Convent in Basel. It is a typical manuscript for edification, in German, as they were customarily used and written at the end of the Middle Ages for private devotion, especially in women's convents and in lay communities. Margret Zschampi donated the manuscript to the Carthusian monastery of Basel, where it became part of the library for lay brothers. As part of this Carthusian library, the devotional book reached the university library of Basel in 1590. This is the only completely preserved known manuscript from the Dominican Convent of Klingental.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
15th century paper manuscript: During his university studies in theology, the Dominican Wernher von Selden near Aarau — and subsequently the prior of the Basel monastery — in 1487/88 transcribed the lectures of two Dominicans on Peter Lombard, including the Lectura super sententiarum libros by Hieronymus Raynerii.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The first part of this paper manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains the Tractatus de modo perveniendi ad veram et perfectam dei et proximi dilectionem by the Prior Heinrich Arnoldi (1407-1487) and, in the second part, titled De humilitate, it contains a collection of his minor texts. Both text units are also found in manuscript A X 83, which was written the same year.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Lecture by Peter Siber about the first two Books of Sentences by Peter Lombard, whose systematic presentation of the whole of theology by means of carefully chosen quotations from Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church has often been commentated. The volume was copied in 1488 by the Dominican Wernher von Selden from Basel during his studies in Cologne.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
The writings of Prior Heinrich Arnoldi (1407-1487) in the first part of the manuscript (the collection De humilitate and the treatise De modo perveniendi) for the most part are the same as those contained in Cod. A X 69. The second part contains the Tractatus de reformatione virium animae by the Dutch theologian Gerardus de Zutphania (1367-1398). This manuscript was written in 1472 by Johannes Gipsmüller (1439-1484) at the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. There must have been a colored woodcut before fol. 1; color residue and a mirror-inverted imprint of the caption are still visible.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Psalterium feriatum was written in 1472 by the Carthusian monk Johannes Gipsmüller of Basel. Although there is no note of ownership, it certainly was meant to be used in his monastery. Throughout the Psalter there are hymns, antiphons, etc., many with musical notations. For quickly finding texts in the Liturgy of the Hours, red and white tabs protrude from the front edge.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
In addition to the Rosarium Jesu et Mariae by the Belgian Carthusian Jacobus van Gruitrode, this small-format codex from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains letters by two representatives of the Devotio Moderna, Florens Radewijns and Geert Groote, as well as excerpts from the Bible and from commentaries, various prayers, and diverse shorter and longer fragments of varying content.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Ludwig Moser brought this small-format volume to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel (cf. note of ownership 1r), from where it came to the Basel University Library. It contains the first three of the four books of Thomas à Kempis' De imitatione Christi. This text, which is influenced by the teaching of various mystics, especially Meister Eckhart, offers spiritual people a guide for detaching from the world. It was very well received by Catholics as well as Protestants and is considered one of the most widely read books of Christendom.
Online Since: 10/10/2019
This obsequiale, written by Prior Jacob Lauber in his own hand, governs the Office of the Dead at the Carthusian Monastery in Basel. The inserted prayers (among them the Lord's Prayer in Latin and in German) as well as the chants with musical notation are situated in a liturgical context.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This paper manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel contains ordinaries for priests (among them an address in German to the lay brothers), deacons and subdeacons, instructions for the office of the sacristan, as well as a number of shorter and longer pieces of liturgical music. Among the latter, otherwise all in Latin, there is a German version of the sequence Ave praeclara maris stella (135r-135v) written by Sebastian Brant. This manuscript was written by Thomas Kress, the last Carthusian in Basel (†1564), at the beginning of his monastic career (more precisely: in the third year of his period of profession, cf. 102v).
Online Since: 12/14/2018
This composite manuscript, comprising originally separate parts from the holdings of St. Leonhard Monastery in Basel, contains, among others, texts by Hugh of Saint Victor and Thomas à Kempis. Among the volume's shorter pieces are two German texts (“Fünf Mittel gegen die Ungeduld” and “Zwölf Zeichen der Minne”), as well as three small glossaries: one Hebrew-Latin, one Greek-Latin and one Latin-German. The intact thorn-clasp on the coeval binding is also noteworthy.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Commentary on the Sentences by the Dominican theologian Robertus Holcot (ca. 1290-1349), who critically discusses the theological problems raised by Lombard. Robertus Holcot gave lectures on biblical theory at Oxford and was held in high esteem by his contemporaries. This volume, originally a catenatus from the Dominican monastery in Basel, was created between 1429 and 1431.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
This paper manuscript, transferred from the Basel Charterhouse to the University Library in 1590 contains (from f. 15r) a complete annual cycle of sermons, which begin with a biblical passage (the pericope) as a theme, which first has an extensive, literal explanation, and then follows, in a second ‘spiritual' part, with a heavily Neoplatonic, mystical-contemplative reading. The Latin text, more suitable for advanced self-study, occasionally contains interspersed German: translations of specific terms, probably for further use in popular sermons.
Online Since: 09/26/2024
This manuscript, written mostly in German, consists of various parts, all of which probably date from the same time, the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century. This codex belonged to the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian monastery in Basel and may have been written, at least in part, in this same monastery. Among the texts in this devotional book are the exemplum of the pious [female] miller, the “Guten-Morgen-Exempel” often attributed to Meister Eckhart, a recounting of the history of the Carthusian order, as well as various sermons, prayers, sayings and exempla.
Online Since: 12/14/2017
This German devotional book was written by a single hand; it is from the library of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Monastery in Basel. In addition to the Office of the Virgin, which is at the beginning and takes up about half of the manuscript, this codex also preserves various prayers and other devotional texts.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This small-format codex probably is from the Carthusian monastery of Mainz, from where it came to the Carthusian monastery of Basel, where numerous ownership notes were added. It contains a great variety of excerpts from religious, historical and other literature from the Middle Ages and antiquity. The length of the texts also varies considerably: in addition to short excerpts and two- or four-line verses about various things such as popes or bees, there are longer pieces such as Hugh of Fouilloy's De rota verae et falsae religionis or the first half of Paradisus Animae by Pseudo-Albertus Magnus.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This composite manuscript from the Carthusian Monastery of Basel, written by various 15th century hands, is decorated simply. The manuscript contains a miniature; on a torn out page, only remnants of a second miniature can be discerned. In two places, musical notes are added to the text. The texts collected in this volume consist almost exclusively of prayers, most of which are quite short, sometimes taking up no more than half a page of the already small-format manuscript. Some prayers are in prose, others are in verses.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
Composite manuscript from the Dominican Cloister Maria Himmelskron in Hochheim near Worms, containing works by Johannes Meyer; according to a note of ownership in his own hand, it was written in 1474. The Dominican Johannes Meyer of Basel acted as confessor in women's convents of Strict Observance and put his extensive historiographic work in the service of the 14th century reform of the Dominican Order.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains semester and annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students, thus providing an important resource for the history of the University of Basel. In addition, Vol. 1 contains records in illustrations and text of the opening of the university. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Those wishing to study at the University of Basel, founded in 1460, had to enroll in the rector's registry, take an oath of loyalty and obedience, pay the tuition fee and — only with this did the matriculation become valid — had to enroll in their faculty's register. In addition to the entries made by the deans, the theological register of 1462-1740 contains the old as well as the new faculty statutes.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The first part of this volume contains registers of the deanships from 1461 to 1529 with the respective accounts of the faculty's funds as well as the lists of docents; the second part of the volume almost exclusively contains entries regarding doctorates granted from 1533 to 1921. Among the writers are, among others, Sebastian Brant, Basilius Amerbach, Remigius Faesch and Niklaus Bernoulli.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This volume of registers from the faculty of arts contains, as its oldest and originally sepa-rate part, the statutes of the faculty. At the end of the 15th century, they were bound toge-ther with an academic calendar and with two registers containing the names of students and graduates (‘baccalaureates') matriculated since 1461. Quires originally left blank for this purpose continue the list of degrees (‘magister' and ‘baccalaureate') awarded until 1848.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
List of foreign students registered between 1599 and 1837 at the theological faculty in Basel for basic (undergraduate) studies in artes liberales as a preliminary stage for graduate study in theology, law or medicine. The list ist divided by deans; from 1665-1800 it also gives the names of the “Corregens” of the Alumneum, the residence hall of scholarship holders. In addition, the volume contains regulations concerning admission to the faculty and the text of the oath upon matriculation.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
The statutes of the faculty of medicine go back to the period of the founding of the University of Basel (1460). They contain general regulations regarding discipline, attendance and punctuality; regulate baccalaureate and doctoral examinations; give directions regarding the duration of studies and the admission of foreign students; and reflect the strict hierarchy of the faculty. The model for these statutes probably was the 1398 statutes of the Viennese medical faculty.
Online Since: 12/20/2016
Manuscripts AN II 36 and AN II 37 together constitute a complete Bible in German. This is a copy of the so-called “Mentelin Bible” [printed in Strasbourg by Johannes Mentelin, prior to 27 June 1466] and of the “Pflanzmannbibel.” In the 17th century, both manuscripts were owned by Peter Werenfels (1627-1703), professor of theology and pastor at St. Leonhard in Basel.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
Manuscripts AN II 36 and AN II 37 together constitute a complete Bible in German. This is a copy of the so-called “Mentelin Bible” [printed in Strasbourg by Johannes Mentelin, prior to 27 June 1466] and of the “Pflanzmannbibel.” In the 17th century, both manuscripts were owned by Peter Werenfels (1627-1703), professor of theology and pastor at St. Leonhard in Basel.
Online Since: 03/22/2018
This volume is one of several manuscripts that are preserved in Basel and that contain records of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). The origin of the manuscript, which contains source material about sessions 1-45, is not known. The script suggests the third quarter of the 15th century; the binding is dated to the 18th century. Noteworthy is the dry-point ruling of the leaves by means of a ruling-board.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
A German Psalter, written in 1485 by Johannes Waltpurger, perhaps in Augsburg. The ornamental page decorated with vine scroll with the beginning of the first prologue is almost identical to one in a Cambridge manuscript by the same scribe. The back pastedown, glued to the cover, depicts a landscape showered in blood. It is not clear how this manuscript came to Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript contains two Middle French poems from Les Pèlerinages by Guillaume de Deguileville (1295-1360). This religious-allegorical work treats the literary topos Homo viator, man on a (spiritual) journey. The origin of the first owner, the rubricator and perhaps also the scribe of the manuscript, Petrus Guioti, suggests that the manuscript originated in the Loire region. The work was owned by the art collector and painter Peter Vischer-Passavant (1779-1851); in 1823 it became part of the Basel University Library.
Online Since: 06/14/2018
The Sefer Nizzaḥon Yashan is the name of an anonymous anthology of arguments against the Christological interpretation of biblical verses, supplemented by critique of the Gospels and Christian doctrines and morals. Composed in Franco-Germany circa 1300, most confutations are based on polemical themes and criticisms of Christian faith which were disseminated in Jewish circles in medieval Ashkenaz and northern France. There are few extant editions and manuscripts of this work, one of which is the Basel Nizzaḥon. This manuscript which bears some similarities with the other copies, should nevertheless be considered as an indirect, yet important witness to Jewish apologetic from medieval Franco-Germany.
Online Since: 03/19/2020
This magnificent book of hours probably was created in the third quarter of the 15th century in Northern Italy. The style of the painting and of the veneration of the saints suggests the region around Modena, Este, Ferrara. The historiated initials in the calendar show the twelve months; at the beginning of the offices there are ornamental pages with illustrations mostly from the life of Christ. The miniatures and initials are executed in opaque colors and in gold. In the 20th century, this manuscript came to the university library from the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
In 1482 Jakob Lauber, the librarian at the time, began to compile a loans register for the holdings of the library of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. This register was continued after Lauber's tenure until 1527. The loans register was set up according to the shelfmark letters A to I, and it even was possible to record volumes on loan that had no shelfmark. Borrowed books were listed with the exact shelfmark under the corresponding letter; after the book's return, the entry was crossed out.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
Third volume of a Latin Bible originally in four parts that was made in Basel between 1435 and 1445. Illustrated by an anonymous artist, the volumes were written by Heinrich von Vullenhoe, one of the most important calligraphers of the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. The biblical books follow the order specified in the liturgy. Also included in this group are codices B I 2 and B I 3.
Online Since: 12/20/2016