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This manuscript fragment, which was used as binding for an edition of the De quattuor virtutibus by Domenico Mancini (London, R. Dexter, 1601), contains an excerpt from a sermon by Aelfric (around 950 - around 1010), who was one of the most important Anglo-Saxon authors of the High Middle Ages. The section of this sermon, which is intended for Septuagesima Sunday and which has survived in full in 9 manuscripts, contains Aelfric's almost complete English translation of the parable of the sower (Matthew 20:1-16), followed by a few lines of explanation. According to N. Ker, this fragment, which can be dated to the 2nd half of the 11th century, presents various interesting linguistic variations on the original text by Aelfric. It is the oldest Anglo-Saxon manuscript owned by the Fondation Martin Bodmer.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This parchment manuscript from the end of the 15th century contains the "Chronicle of London" as well as a version of the paraphrase text of the "Metrical Chronicle" by Robert of Gloucester found only in this manuscript, CB 43. The dialect used in the text indicates that the manuscript was written by a scribe from the southern Midlands.
Online Since: 03/25/2009
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Father of English Poetry", have been preserved in 82 medieval manuscripts and four incunabula editions. The copy in CB 48 was made in the 15th century by a single scribe. The manuscript is still in its original binding of suede deerskin stretched over wooden covers.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
John Lydgate, Troy Book, written c. 1412-1420 at the request of Henry V when still Prince of Wales. It is composed in couplets, with a prologue, five books, an epilogue, and an address to Henry V (thirteen stanzas rhyme royal=7-line stanzas ababbcc), and envoy, titled ‘Verba auctoris' (two 8-line stanzas). Lydgate translated the story of the Trojan War into English, not directly from Homer but through the re-workings by Benoit de Ste Maure, Roman de Troie (1165) and Guido delle Colonna, Historia Destructionis Troiae (1287).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
In this letter to his young partner William H. Herndon (1818-1891), who had remained in Chicago as head of their joint law office, Lincoln, who is about to lose his seat in Congress as a Representative of the Whig Party, offers a lesson in political philosophy. Exhausted by months of political battles against the Mexican-American War and hurt by "exceedingly painful" statements by his friend (whom he describes as "a laborious, studious young man"), the future American President presents his "so Lincolnian" advice: "The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him."
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Following enlightenment philosophers, liberal thinkers - which include Mill - considered freedom of speech a fundamental human right. In this small autograph, with embossed monogram "JSM", consisting of three folios intended for dispatch, the philosopher copies a passage of his famous "On Liberty" from 1869, taken from chapter II: "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion." Mill emphasizes that humankind no more has the right to silence a single opinion than it has the right to silence all of humankind, if it had the power to do so. Before it became the property of Martin Bodmer, this letter had been purchased by the author Stefan Zweig in 1923.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This leather-bound album contains about 35 dedications and drawings by people with whom the coppersmith and wine merchant Christoph Fischer (1691-1770) from Schaffhausen was in touch during his lifetime. Based on the entries in Latin, German, French and English, it is possible to reconstruct two trips that Fisher took to London, during which most of the dedications occurred: 1747-1750 via Geneva, Lyon, Paris to London and 1758 via Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam to London. Several entries are by members of the Schalch family of Schaffhausen, who were relatives of Fischer; among these is an undated watercolor by the artist Johann Jakob Schalch (1723-1789) (p. 122), who lived in London and Den Haag from 1754-1773. After Fischer's death, the album was continued: entries from 1773 (p. 65) and 1820 (p. 215). Several pages of parchment (pp. 1-2, 19-20, 47-48, 115-116, 181-182) are bound into the paper manuscript, and several pages of paper were added later (pp. 39a-b, 55a-b, 147a-b) or were covered with pasted-on illustrations (p. 43, p. 125, p. 127). The entries are not in chronological order and alternate with numerous blank pages.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This leather-bound paper manuscript with gold embossing (digits of the year 1791 in each of the four corners of the book) is the memory album of Johann Conrad Fischer (1773-1854), coppersmith, metallurgist, entrepreneur and politician from Schaffhausen. His cast steel factory, founded in 1802, developed into the current Georg Fischer Ltd. The album contains dedications and illustrations by about 70 people with whom Fischer was in touch during his lifetime, among them his math teacher Melchior Hurter (1735-1811) (p. 1), Professor Johann Georg Müller (1759-1819) (p. 49), the physician Johann Balthasar Zwingli from Zurich (1764-1817) (p. 164), the writer Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848) (p. 175), Fischer's great–uncle Lorenz Spengler (1720-1807), head of the Royal Art Chamber in Copenhagen (p. 43), and his son Johann Conrad Spengler (1767-1839) (p. 105). The majority of the entries are in German, French, English and Danish and date from his years of travel as a journeyman coppersmith in 1792-1795, when he traveled via Frankfurt, Chemnitz, Dresden to Copenhagen and on to London. Occasional further entries continue until 1841. The entries are not in chronological order and alternate with pasted-in pages (pp. 3a-b, 48a, 111a-d) and numerous blank pages. The numbering of the pages is from the time of the creation of the album.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
A redaction by the Anglo-Saxon Joseph Scottus, written in about 860. Appended is the oldest known surviving copy of the letter of Cuthbert, student of the Venerable Bede, to his friend Cuthwin, relating the story of the death of Bede in the year 735. This account incorporates the Old English Death Song by Bede, Fore there neidfaerae ..., in the oldest known version in Bede's own Northumbrian dialect. The manuscript still retains its original Carolingian binding.
Online Since: 11/04/2010