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This richly illustrated parchment manuscript, a German-language private prayer book, was produced in 1489 in the Lake Constance area. The patron, identified as “H.M.” (78v) is most likely Hugo XV. zu Rothenfels und Wasserburg (ca. 1460-1519), his wife, Countess Anna von Montfort-Wasserburg-Rothenfels (ca. 1470-1531) is the addressee and owner, and she also gives the manuscript its current name. In 1977, the manuscript came to the University Library from the estate of the Basel collector August Meyer (1903-1977). In 2024, the manuscript was extensively restored and rebound.
Online Since: 08/21/2025
From the colophon (Finitus est liber Iste feria secunda Post festum Concepcionis virginis Marie. Anno domini 1498. Per fratrem iohannem Coci Conuentualem huius monastery. Iiij ydus decembris Laus deo, f. 186r), it can be inferred that this Psalter was written by Johannes Koch (mentioned in the Fischinger necrology and documented between 1498 and 1514, parish priest in Bichelsee (TG) from 1483 on) and that it was finished in 1498. It is striking that the writing on ff. 98r-110r was traced with black ink by a later hand. The paper pages with a hymn (ff. 187r-188v) were probably added later. The pages of musical notes have 5 red lines with German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation"). The manuscript also has a simple red title (f. 1r): Incipit psalterium in nomine domini, immediately followed by a listing of the workdays. Headings are also kept in red. The front and back covers show the imprint of the former pastedowns. The contemporary yellow leather binding with Renaissance press patterns from the 15th and 16th century has two clasps as well as corner fittings. In addition, the front cover bears an 18th century paper label that unmistakably refers to the Benedictine Fischingen Abbey with the shelfmark C:XV. S:13. Notat: 10.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The De Divina Proportione is a mathematical treatise by the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli (1445-1517). The Italian text is followed by sixty polyhedra, drawn filled or empty, and influenced by Leonardo da Vinci. Of the three copies written during the author's lifetime, only two remain. This copy, held by the Bibliothèque de Genève, is the presentation copy of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, whose coat of arms and motto adorn the manuscript (fol. Ir and LXIIv).
Online Since: 02/27/2019
This manuscript, written around 1500 by the Sisters of the third order of St. Francis at Wonnenstein near Teufen, not far from St. Gall, contains as an introduction a register (pp. 1−9) of manuscripts and printed works held in the convent library, compiled around 1500; it has a total of 110 entries. The majority consist of ascetic-edifying treatises; among them are Brother Conrad Nater's German translations of Bonaventure's Regula novitiorum (pp. 15−107), the German version of David of Augsburg's De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione (pp. 109−188), the Ermahnung zu einem wahren klösterlichen Leben by the Franciscan monk Heinrich Vigilis of Weissenburg (pp. 190−223), the treatise Die besessene Nonne Agnes (pp. 225−404), a treatise on the passion attributed to Bernardino of Siena (Lernung das lyden unsers lieben heren zu betrachten; pp. 406−475), revelations by the mystics Gertrude of Helfta and Christine Ebner (pp. 476−486), Bonaventure's Soliloquium in a shortened German version (pp. 496−713), as well as the treatise Vom Reuer, Wirker und Schauer by the so-called Kuttenmann (pp. 717−727). On 11 February 1782, the St. Gall Abbey librarian Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756−1823) acquired this manuscript, together with four other manuscripts (today Cod. Sang. 972a, Cod. Sang. 976, Cod. Sang. 977 and Cod. Sang. 991) from the community of Capuchin nuns at Wonnenstein.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript, written in 1498, is from the library of the regular community of sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at the lower hermitage (Untere Klause) of St. Leonhard, outside the city gates of St. Gall. The unknown principal scribe — she wrote up to p. 536 — asks future readers for an Ave Maria in two places (p. 201; p. 536). The manuscript contains: in the beginning a copy of the Schürebrand (pp. 10−201) that is significant in terms of textual history; in the middle (pp. 206−339) parts 1 and 3 of the treatise Von dreierlei Abgründen attributed to St. Bonaventure; and in the end (pp. 344−535) the treatise on the passion Extendit manum by Heinrich of St. Gall. The salutation to Mary (“Mariengruss”) added to the end of the manuscript (pp. 537−539) was written by another hand. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the community of sisters of St. Leonhard, the manuscript came to the library of the Benedictine nuns of St. George and finally in 1780/82 to the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Cod. Sang. 1396 is one of the Abbey Library of St. Gall's eight fragment volumes (that is, volumes that contain exclusively fragments). Between 1774 and 1785, the St. Gall monks Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (1756–1823) and Ildefons von Arx (1755–1833) detached numerous fragments from bindings in which they had served for centuries as pastedowns, flyleaves, spine linings, and quire guards. Several fragments, including many in Cod. Sang. 1396, were also used as limp bindings for manuscripts or prints. At an advanced age, Ildefons von Arx had the fragments bound into eight thematically-organized volumes and dedicated these in 1822 to his friend Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger. From 2012 to 2021 the extensive fragment volume Cod. Sang. 1396 was disbound for conservation reasons. The fragments were rebound (in the same order, except for a few bifolia) in 32 folders (“Ganzpapierbroschuren”). The new, authoritative pagination begins with 1 in each folder and includes only the fragments (without the empty paper pages). Citation form (example): St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1396.1, pp. 1-2 (= Cod. Sang. 1396, Folder 1, Pages 1-2). Folders 10-14 and 18-32 contain fragments of late-medieval charters, whose texts are incomplete to various degrees. The contents of the charters are indicated in the registers of Karl Wegelin (1803–1856), who examined most charters during his period as Abbey Archivist of St. Gall (1834–1856). The register's content is reproduced with the orthography and wordflow unchanged, and only exceptionally in abbreviated or modified form. In contrast to Karl Wegelin, who only reports the year, the date is presented, when possible, on the basis of the charter text. The abbreviation P.L. (=Philipp Lenz) indicates supplemental free-standing observations on the content. The descriptions do not mention the old numeration scheme in blank ink, which Karl Wegelin probably introduced. If a charter fragment has no explicit dating, the script is described and dated. Measurements give height x width at the maximal point of the documents, according to the reading direction, and thus independent of the direction the charters were bound. The eighteenth folder contains fragments of Latin and German documents from the fifteenth century concerning the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 08/21/2025