Small music manuscript from the middle of the 11th century containing an (incomplete) calendar, computus, tropary and sequentiary in an elegant hand, with delicate neumes.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
An incompletely preserved musical manuscript from the 11th century, written in the monastery of St. Gall, with added supplementary leaves up to around 1400. Contains a Tropary, a Versiculary and a Sequentiary.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Tropary and Sequentiary in point-like square notation with exceptionally fine monophonic and polyphonic music from the great repertoire of the school of Notre-Dame at Paris. Written before 1250 in Western Switzerland, probably at the Cathedral of Lausanne. Probably in St. Gall by 1300.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Antiphonary from St. Gall for the liturgy of the divine office, as sung by St Gall monks, dating from the 12th century, with addenda until the late 14th century. Illustrated with several initials and (at the beginning) with a miniature of the crucified Christ with Mary and John.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
Winter volume of the so-called Hartker Antiphonary: Chants for the liturgy of the hours of the St. St. Gall monks, written and provided with finest neumes by the St. St. Gall monk Hartker. A masterpiece of script, neumes and illuminated initials. The most important choral manuscript, with four colored pen drawings of outstanding quality.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A Benedictional from the diocese of Mainz, written and decorated with about 200 gold initials and a full-page miniature of Christ as Savior of the World; from about the year 1000, during the tenure of Archbishop Willigis (975-1011). Obtained by the Cloister of St. Gall at an unknown point in time (oldest evidence: in St. Gall by about 1600). It contains the prayers of benediction to be sung by the bishop, ordered according to the church year.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The Pontificale contains the rites for liturgical celebrations by the bishop, among them rites for performing the tonsure, for the consecration of the lower orders (Cantor, Lector etc.), of the higher orders (deacon, priest, bishop), for the consecration of abbots, abbesses and nuns, for the consecration of a church, of a cemetery and of liturgical objects. Several incipits of liturgical songs are annotated with adiastematic neumes. In the margins on pp. 110/111 there are two Greek alphabets and a Latin alphabet in capital letters; they are part of a rite for the consecration of a church. The saints named in the litany on pp. 98–100 (among them Corbinian, Ulrich, Walpurga) suggest that the manuscript originated in a Bavarian diocese.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Book of hours, composed for an unknown female convent in the diocese of Basel: excellent example of early Gothic book art. With a Calendar, 14 miniatures of the life of Christ and Mary, the Psalter, Canticles and an All Saints' Litany.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
This is a collection of liturgical works from the monastery of Disentis, written in the second half of the 12th century, most likely around 1200. In sequence, the volume contains a calendar (pp. 2-13), a psalter (pp. 15-90) and a hymnary (pp. 91-110), a (mixed) capitulary and collectarium (pp. 116-186), as well as an antiphonary, a lectionary, and a homiliary (pp. 203-638). Highlights from the point of view of manuscript decoration include the initial “B” at the beginning of the psalter (p. 15) and a picture of the crucifixion (p. 89). This breviary is one of the very few surviving medieval manuscripts from the monastery of Disentis. The manuscript came to Kempten around 1300; as early as the 15th century, the Disentis Breviary was held in the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This extensive parchment manuscript was written in the fourteenth century in textualis. Red and blue lombards, rubrics, and red abbreviations adorn the two-column text; occassional red and blue pen-flourished initials emphasize particularly important parts of the breviary and its feasts. The breviary begins (p. 1a) with Easter-eve vespers (that is, on Good Saturday) and ends (pp. 807a–817b) with the feast of Saint Conrad (26 November). There then follows (pp. 817b–819b), as additions, a lection In nocte sancte Anne and four lections In divisione apostolorum, written in the same hand as before (cf. p. 433b, p. 457b). Finally the added rubric Passio sancti Placidi martyris, sociorum eius 35 martyrum prima [?] lectio [?] is written in another, later-fifteenth-century hand. Among the saints feasts occur those of Gallus (p. 662a) and its octave (p. 708a) as well as of Otmar (p. 759b) and its octave (p. 789b). On p. 666 appears the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer from the period 1553–1564. The wooden-board binding dates to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Its leather binding is adorned with scroll stamps. The original clasps and fittings are missing. On the inside of the front and back boards can be seen offsets from detached flyleaves, as well as from fragments with writing that were pasted in. Two paper leaves (pp. A-D) and one paper leaf (pp. Y-Z) have been inserted and bound in before and after the parchment book block, respectively. The pagination is faulty: A–D, 1–155, 155a, 156–433, 435–621, 623–819, Y–Z.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This breviary contains the Psalter (pp. 1a–111b) followed by cantica, Pater noster, Credo, Quicumque vult and litanies (pp. 111b–129b), as well as the Proprium de tempore (pp. 130a-533a) from the first Sunday of Advent to the 25th Sunday after Trinity, including the Dedicatio ecclesiae (p. 524a) and finally the Proprium de sanctis (pp. 534a-839b) and the Commune sanctorum (pp. 840a-841b), which breaks off at the end of the last page and is incomplete. The manuscript was written in a fourteenth-century textualis and decorated with numerous red and blue pen-flourished initials. The only highlighted name in the Litany is that of Catherine (p. 125a); this fact, along with the feasts of St. Peter of Verona (p. 632a), the Translatio sancti Dominici (p. 647b, 648a), St. Dominic (death day) (p. 709a) and Saint Catherine (p. 828b, 830b) indicate that the breviary was intended for the Dominican convent of St. Catherine, probably the one in St. Gall (and later in Wil). The seventeenth-century ownership mark Monasteriae [!] s. Catharinae, written in the same hand as, for example, Wil, Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Katharina, M 3, front flyleaf, proves that the breviary actually comes from the convent. The leather cover on the wooden-board binding is decorated with a stamp with the head of Christ as well as with a scroll stamp, and has the blind-stamped date 1591 on the front.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This breviary dating from the second half of the 15th century contains assorted offices of the Proprium de sanctis in two parts as well as the text In dedicatione ecclesiae, a short collection of sermons for the celebration of church dedications (Richard of Saint Victor, Augustine, Eusebius ‹Gallicanus›, Bernard of Clairvaux) and the Creed. This manuscript displays the hand of Cordula von Schönau, the Dominican nun from the cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, whose hand is also found in codex Wil, Dominikanerinnenkloster St. Katharina, M 3.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
Winter part (from the first Sunday in Advent to Holy Saturday) of a Breviary for the divine office, written around 1030 with addenda until the 14th century. Contains, in addition to a large Lectionary and Antiphonary, a Calendar and computational tables. One of the oldest extant Breviaries from St. Gall.
Online Since: 05/24/2007
This breviary, which is missing its end, contains the proprium de tempore from the first Sunday of Advent through Saturday after the third Sunday after Easter (pp. 1–384). Then follows the commune sanctorum (pp. 384–386), the proprium de sanctis from Tiburtius and Valentianus (April 14) to Primus and Felicianus (June 9), and then the proprium de tempore continues from the fourth Sunday after Easter. The breviary cuts off in the middle of the fifth Sunday after Easter. Since there are only three, and not, as was common in the Benedictine Order, four readings per nocturn on Sundays, the breviary cannot have come originally from the Abbey of St. Gall. The codex, which shows signs of heavy use, is written by several hands on thick parchment with many holes, sometimes with stitches. Several pages are cut below the text-block. The antiphons and responsories appear with staffless neumes, which themselves were written by many hands. The decoration consists of red lombards and initials, including a few zoomorphic ones (p. 172: dragon; p. 217: bird with two heads; p. 231: dragon). Numerous fragments of a late-medieval liturgical manuscript are used as quire-guards.
Online Since: 12/14/2022
A copy of the Liber scintillarum, a text originally written in about 730 by the monk Defensor of Ligugé (near Poitiers), produced during the 9th century, not at the Abbey of St. Gall. The 81 chapter Liber scintillarum is a florilegium (anthology) of maxims and sayings attributed to God and the saints, derived from the Bible and the writings of the church fathers. The last part of the volume contains fragments of lessons from the monastic liturgy of the hours (lectiones), as well as aphorisms.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Lectionary. The first part, written in the 11th century, contains readings for the nocturns of the matins (for the entire church year, beginning with the first of Advent; first de tempore, then de sanctis). Readings from the gospels are indicated only by short text incipits and are augmented with homilies primarily by church fathers (among others Origen, the Venerable Bede, Gregory the Great). The second part, written in the 12th century, begins on p. 184 and contains readings from the Old and New Testaments for weekdays and holidays in ordinary time throughout the liturgical year. The manuscript contains several multi-line initials, among them a representational initial of a composite animal on p. 12.
Online Since: 12/13/2013
105 sermons from the first Sunday in Advent (end of November / beginning of December) to Annunciation Day (March 25).
Online Since: 06/12/2006
60 sermons for Lent and for Holy Week.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
146 sermons from Easter to the last Sunday after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Deluxe manuscript with numerous outstanding, perfectly executed initials and an excellent image of dedication (Saint Augustine), containing mostly sermons for the principal saints' days.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Sermons for the Sundays after Pentecost.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
An incomplete copy of the Expositio libri comitis, a selection of Epistle and Gospel readings organized according to the Church year, composed by the Benedictine monk Smaragdus of St. Mihiel (near Verdun; † ca. 840). This copy produced at the women's cloister of Chelles Abbey near Paris was produced in about 810 and is the oldest known surviving copy.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
The manuscript contains the readings for the nocturns of matins, the nightly office, on Sundays, feast days and weekdays. It includes the proprium de tempore from the first of Advent to the end of the ecclesiastical year (including the saints' feasts between Christmas and Epiphany). As the Matutinale does not have four readings per nocturn on Sundays, as was the practice in the Order of Saint Benedict, but only three, it cannot have been originally written for the Abbey of St. Gall. On the margins of p. 233/234 appear numerous additions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the feast of the Trinity. Decoration consists of red lombards and simple initials, partially with incipient pen-flourishes (e.g., p. 75). The parchment has numerous holes, some of which have stitches. Numerous pages are trimmed below the text block. Strips from an eleventh-century liturgical manuscript are bound around the first and last quire of the codex as reinforcement (the back half of the strip around the last quire is paginated as p. 414/415). On the front board appears the offset of a page of a thirteenth-century psalter; on the back board, the offset of an eleventh-century sacramentary (?).
Online Since: 12/14/2022
This codex, written in the 13th century, contains a lectionary for Matins for the saints' days and an antiphonary for the entire liturgical year. The antiphonary bears the title In nomine domini incipiunt antiphone secundum morem Marbacensis ecclesie. Nevertheless, this is probably not a manuscript from the reformed monastery of Marbach in Alsace. Based on the offices, which indicate a connection with St. Gall, it must rather be assumed that the manuscript originated in the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Lawrence in Ittingen, which belonged to the monastery of St. Gall, but which followed the Consuetudines of Marbach. The fly leaf (p. 2/1) contains a large part of the Office of St. Gallus, probably from a manuscript from the 10th/11th century. Readings as well as chants (the latter ones with neumes) are recorded. The order of the responses and antiphons does not match that of the Hartker antiphonary, Cod. Sang. 391.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This manuscript probably was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491). The manuscript's principal part consists of a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium), and hymns, followed by the Pater noster, the Credo, biblical Cantica, the Te Deum, a litany und more Cantica. The final part, from fol. 135v, consists of a hymnal, which also contains a Sequence (Cantemus cuncti melodum). Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on fol. 1v (a man fighting a dragon and a bird of prey).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
The pontifical vesperal of St. Gall Abbott Diethelm Blarer (1530–1564) contains the prayers, psalms with antiphones and responsories, as well as hymns for the high holidays of the church year. Except for the incipits of the antiphones of the Magnificat, which are written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on five lines, the manuscript contains no melodies. The scribe of this volume was Father Heinrich Keller (1518–1567), subprior of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book's decoration - 20 historiated initials and several richly decorated borders with pictures - is the work of an unknown artist from the region of Lake Constance, who also illuminated Cod. Sang. 357 and 442.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This manuscript was written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch (1463-1491) (dating on f. 227r: 1467). Its content corresponds substantially to that of Cod. Sang. 438: a Psalter with the Psalms in biblical order, as well as several liturgical rubrics, antiphons (partly only with the Initium) and hymns are followed from f. 148v by Cantica, and from f. 172v by a hymnal. Antiphons and hymns have melodies in German plainsong notation ("Hufnagelnotation") on 4 or 5 lines. Numerous erasures (sometimes extending over several pages) and additions, as well as other signs of usage, attest to intensive use of the manuscript. Several pages have book decorations in the form of initials with vine scrolls; a figure initial can be found on f. 104v (David with a harp).
Online Since: 10/07/2013
Liber Ordinarius from the second quarter of the 15th century with liturgical instructions for the mass of the monks of St. Gall during the presence of reformist monks from the monastery ofHersfeld between 1430 and 1439. The Liber Ordinarius, dated 1432 (p. 36), seems to have been made for the monastery ofSt. Gall following a model from Hersfeld (in the northeast of Hesse); however, some parts are not yet adapted for the monastery ofSt. Gall. The calendar at the beginning of the manuscript can be unambiguously located in St. Gall. Between the various parts of the manuscript, repeatedly there are empty pages.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
A composite manuscript consisting mainly of calendars and texts with chronological content, produced in the second half of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th century, for the most part not at the abbey of St. Gall. The main items are a calendar, possibly of northern Italian origin, and excerpts from the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede († 735).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Meant for daily use in the chapter office, this volume was written in 1542/43 by the secular cleric Fridolin Sicher (1490−1546), born in Bischofszell, for St. Gall Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530−1564; cf. his coat of arms on p. 5 and p. 8 as well as p. 268); later the volume came into the possession of the monastic community of St. Gall. Before as well as after the Reformation, Fridolin Sicher was cathedral organist and calligrapher for St. Gall Abbey. In the front of the volume there is a Latin copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict (pp. 5-72), followed in the later part by an abridged version, consolidated into a single draft, of the Martyrologium Romanum and a necrology related to St. Gall Abbey (pp. 83-267). Under Prince-Abbot Bernhard Müller (1594−1630), this chapter office book was replaced with a new necrology begun in 1611 (cf. Cod. Sang. 1442) that no longer contained the Rule of Saint Benedict.
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The second-oldest surviving chapter office book of the Abbey of St. Gall, begun in the 12th century and maintained, with the addition of many entries, until early modernity. This volume contains, among other things, lists of the bishops of Constance (736-1318) and the abbots of the cloisters at Reichenau (724-1343) and St. Gall (719-1329), records of brothers who became members of the Abbey of St. Gall, readings and homilies for Sundays and holy days in the chapter assembly of the monchs, a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict, a martyrology complete with death records, tables and explanations for figuring the dates for Easter, and a copy, with continuation, of the St. Gall Annals found in Cod. Sang. 915. At the very back: two printed lists of St. St. Gall monks from 1757 and 1798.
Online Since: 06/22/2010
A copy of the martyrology of Ado of Vienne († 875). As an appendix the manuscript also contains vitae of ancient saints, possibly written by Notker Balbulus himself around 880/890.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Computational/scientific compilation manuscript with numerous tables, schematics, and texts about calendar computation, produced in the monastery of St. Gall around the end of the 9th century and beginning ot the 10th. The volume also includes a St. Gallen calendar and the Annales Sangallenses brevissimi (a short history of St. Gall). Two early medieval maps of the world (terrae orbis or T-O maps) precede the work De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Song collection of St. Gall organist Fridolin Sicher; 49 songs for three to five voices in 16th century mensural notation without texts. Among the composers are, among others, Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez and Jacob Obrecht. Several pieces give the name of the composer and the beginning of the text (in French, Italian, Flemish or Latin). Usually one piece fills a double page, less frequently all (three or four) voices are arranged on a single page
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The song book of Chaplain Johannes Heer of Glarus: a collection of 88 folk-, students-, love-, drinking- and joke songs, among them 40 unique items; from the pre-reformation period (1510-1520).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This multi-part paper manuscript contains a Latin dictionary, a hymn for St. Nicholas, one for Mary, and one for the Holy Cross, as well as two sequence-commentaries, and finally sequences with glosses and superscript numbers that indicate a simplified phrasing. A single primary hand may have made the copies, which were then completed by one or more other hands. Scarpatetti dated the manuscript to the second half of the 14th century; from a paleographical perspective, a dating to the first half of the 15th century also seems possible. According to the ownership note on p. 194, the manuscript was in the Abbey of St. Gall already in the 15th century.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This small volume contains liturgical fragments. They come from six different manuscripts (overwhelmingly breviaries/psalters), of which sometimes multiple leaves, sometimes only a few lines survive. The first fragment (ff. 12r-34v) is written in Latin, but has German rubrics, which suggests a breviary for private use. As a note on f. Ar in his own hand indicates, Ildefons von Arx likely assembled this volume.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
This small prayerbook contains four large textual units, of which three could be called Marian prayers. A short psalter that connects the first verse of each psalm with an Ave Maria (pp. 5–35), an extensive litany of saints (pp. 37–68), the “Joys of Mary” (pp. 69–180), and another short psalter that is structured like the first text, except that throughout it uses a different Psalm verse instead of the initial verse (pp. 180–200). The manuscript is entirely written by a skilled hand and contains rubrics and initials in red and blue ink. The text is preceded by two full-page illuminations (p. 2 Enthroned Virgin and Child, p. 3 the Flagellation of Christ). The mention of St. Abundius of Como (p. 56) suggests a possible place of origin for the codex. Thus Scherrer suggests that it could have been copied in Italy for Benedictines; Scarpatetti thinks that it was produced in or for a lay chapter or a women's convent. On p. C can be found a likely post-medieval ownership mark by a certain Jodokus Graislos in Greek script. In the eighteenth century, the book received its current, unadorned binding and an ownership mark of the St. Gall-dependent convent of St. Johann im Thurtal (p. 1), whence the manuscript came to the Abbey Library.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
Book of hours of high-quality production and stylistically well-written (pp. 1-193, following four paper flyleaves). The miniature on p. 24, representing St. Veronica with the veil, is particularly noteworthy. Christ's face was later damaged. A full-page miniature on p. 163 is at the beginning of the Office for the Dead. The manuscript's initials are decorated with gold leaf, as well as the pages with miniatures - for example pp. 24, 38, 52 and 132 - containing figural decorative elements such as representations of animals. In the 16th century the manuscript seems to have reached the Eastern Alemannic-speaking area and have come to St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This manuscript of collected items with twelve historiated initials and prayers in the German language was written by Dorothea von Hof (1458-1501), daughter of Heinrich Ehinger and Margarethe von Kappel. The codex contains the Officium parvum BMV as well as assorted prayers (mainly Marian prayers and prayers from the Passion of Christ), the Hundert Betrachtungen ("Hundred Meditations") from the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit ("Book of Eternal Wisdom") by Henry Suso, and prayers ascribed to Thomas Aquinas. This manuscript on paper, completed in 1483, was presumably owned by the sisters of the Dominican cloister of St. Katharina in St. Gall, of which Dorothea von Hof is listed as a patroness.
Online Since: 12/21/2010
This prayer book contains prayers from the collection of William III, Duke of Bavaria (ff. 1v-16r), prayers to the Virgin Mary (ff. 17r-39r), prayers for Holy Mass and others (ff. 39v-45v) as well as for Communion (ff. 80r-88v). In between are St. Bernard's verses (ff. 46v-50v) and various other texts of blessings and prayers (ff. 51v-78v). According to a colophon on f. 81v, the texts were written and decorated with pen-flourish and Lombard initials by the professional scribe Simon Rösch. On ff. 89 and 90 (glued onto the back cover), another poem was added in a different hand. The language of the prayers is Swabian. Numerous feminine forms of names suggest a female commissioner, probably a convent of nuns in St. Gall.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
Most likely intended for the convent of Dominican nuns of St. Catherine in St. Gall, this tiny psalter (11 x 8 cm) reveals its Dominican use already in the calendar (ff. 2r-7v), which includes Dominican saints, such as Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr. Copied in a single column of textualis by a regular hand, the text is punctuated by alternating red and blue initials, sometimes with pen flourishes, and in different sizes according to the textual divisions (psalm, verse). In addition to Latin notes, the margins contain instructions in German on how to recite the Psalms. After the litany of saints and prayers (ff. 151r-159v), a paper quire has been added, dating from the end of the fifteenth century and containing hymns (ff. 160r-170v).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This small-format prayer book of Franz Gaisberg, who later became Abbot of St. Gall (abbot 1504–1529), only contains prayers in Latin. It begins with a calendar (f. 1r–12v) and a computistic table (f. 13r/v), followed by prayers about the passion (f. 14r–29v), prayers and antiphons to Mary (f. 31r–49r) and other saints (f. 49r–80r), as well as to the Commune sanctorum (f. 81v–83v), various other prayers (f. 83v–107r), as well as the liturgy of the hours for the passion and for the souls of the deceased (f. 107v–140r). There is no decoration except for initials with simple scroll ornamentation in red ink that stretch across two to four lines.
Online Since: 06/13/2019
This Breviary can be associated with the Order of the Celestines based on the rubric on fol. 122r. According to the scribe's notes on fol. 211v, 271v, and 319v, it was written by Brother Johannes Mouret from Amiens. The manuscript, executed in tiny handwriting, is decorated with numerous fine pen-flourish initials, as well as a few small pen drawings of faces and dragons in the margins.
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This tiny psalter, which was written for a Dominican Convent, begins with a fragmentary calendar (ff. Er-Iv; one leaf, containing the months of January and February, has been removed). After the Psalms (ff. 1r-182v) there follows the Old and New Testament Cantica (ff. 183r-193r) and the Athanasian Creed Quicumque vult (ff. 193r–194v) as well as a fifteenth-century addition of a litany (ff. Ur–Wr). Red and blue initials, some with pen-flourishes, make up the book's ornamentation. The flyleaves come from older recycled parchment, and the pastedowns are made up of fragments from a fifteenth-century charter. Since Catherine of Siena does not appear in the calendar, the psalter likely was produced before 1460. The manuscript was in the Abbey Library by the eighteenth century at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023
Small format prayer Book on highest quality parchment with Latin and several French prayers. The coat of arms on p. 3 refers to the Montboissier family from Auvergne as commissioner. In addition to a half-page crucifixion scene (p. 3), the manuscript also contains many tiny initials, most of them with animal heads, as wells as numerous miniatures on pp. 97-146, taking up four lines of text with images of saints.
Online Since: 10/13/2016
This substantial manuscript contains a Benedictine breviary. According to Scarpatteti, a professional copyist produced this in a Benedictine monastery, either in Savoy or in Italy, given some mentions related to Montecassino. The script, a rotunda, and the decoration, consisting of red and blue initials with blue and violet pen flourishes, betray the same transalpine origin. In addition, a fourteenth-century note written in Italian confirms this provenance (p. 8). Although the manuscript is only first officially attested in a catalogue of the St. Gall library in 1827, the insertion of the first pages in paper suggests that it was there at least from the fifteenth century (A-H). Indeed, beyond to adding various notes, a fifteenth-century copyist completed the fragmentary calendar and inserted into it the name of Notker, who was venerated in St. Gall (p. H).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This small manuscript contains the summer part of a breviary, copied in an elegant textualis, probably in France, as suggested by the entries in the fragmentary calendar (for example, the anniversary masses for the King of France and for the Countess of Blois). At the end of the codex (f. 261v), annotations in German, written probably in the fourteenth century, and others from the fifteenth century relative to St. Gall (ff. 174v-175r) indicate that, early on, it was present in the German-speaking region and in St. Gall. Various reasons, including the script of one of the later hands, suggest that, at a very early date, the manuscript belonged to the convent of Dominican nuns of St. Gall.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript, probably from a nuns' convent in St. Gall, contains a cycle of prayers and meditations through the liturgical year, beginning with Advent and on through Christmas, Easter, Pentecost to the Assumption of Mary. The visions of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden and a rosary, among others, are interspersed. This codex is written by a single hand which, along with others, can also be found in the sister manuscript Cod. Sang. 510.
Online Since: 10/04/2018
This small-format prayer book in German contains prayers to Christ, on the Passion and on Communion, to Mary, Mother of God, and to various saints, further prayers on various topics, reflections on the Passion, and devotions according to Johannes Gerson. On f. 38v and 39r there are two full-page miniatures. They depict Christ on the cross with Mary and John (f. 38v) and the Pietà with the instruments of torture (Arma Christi, f. 39r). The manuscript was probably written for a women's convent or for female users, although some male forms also appear in the prayers. According to the ownership note on f. 185r, in the 17th century the book was owned by the Benedictine Convent St. Wiborada in St. Georgen above St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/10/2020
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 533 contains the first and second rule, for when Easter falls on March 22nd and 23rd (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, January 18th/19th). The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach: p. 6 contains a full-page miniature (at the top a Lamentation of Christ with the donor, below Saint Gall and Saint Othmar supporting the coat of arms), p. 7 and p. 65 have initials in gold leaf and richly decorated borders. Unlike the following volumes, this volume was not written by Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 534 contains the third through tenth rules, for when Easter falls between the 24th and the 31st of March (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, January 20th to 27th). The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach and an assistant: p. 3, 41, 83, 135, 243, 301 and 360 contain initials in opaque colors (partly on a background of gold leaf) with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher. As only one of the seven volumes, this one used to be a liber catenatus.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 535 contains the 11th through 17th rules, for when Easter falls between the 1st and the 7th of April (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, January 28th to February 3rd). The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach and an assistant: p. 6 contains a full-page miniature (at the top a Lamentation of Christ, below Saint Gall and Saint Othmar supporting the coat of arms), p. 6a, 54, 108, 164, 211, 263 and 317 contain initials in opaque colors (p. 164 on a background of gold leaf) with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 536 contains the 18th through 25th rules, for when Easter falls between the 8th and the 15th of April (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, February 4th to 11th). The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach and an assistant: p. 5, 53, 107, 161, 213, 259, 313 and 367 contain initials in opaque colors (p. 213 on a background of gold leaf) with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 537 contains the 26th through 31st rules, for when Easter falls between the 16th and the 21st of April (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, February 12th to 17th). The illumination of the manuscript is by an assistant to Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach: p. 7, 63, 119, 175, 231 and 287 contain initials in opaque colors with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany; the rules for the holidays of the Christmas season until the Vigil of Epiphany (which do not depend on the date of Easter) are compiled in Cod. Sang. 539. Cod. Sang. 538 contains the 32nd through 36th rules, for when Easter falls between the 22nd and the 26th of April (reference date in the codex: Septuagesima, February 18th to 22nd). The 36th rule (for the extremely rare case that Easter falls on April 26th) contains only the months of January and February, since years with this date for Easter are always leap years, and the previous rule therefore covers all moveable feasts after the last day of February. The illumination of the manuscript is by an assistant to Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach: p. 1, 57, 115, 173 and 235 contain initials in opaque colors with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by the St. Gall cathedral organist Fridolin Sicher.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
The Directorium perpetuum of the monastery of St. Gall, commissioned by Abbot Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529), consists of seven volumes (Cod. Sang. 533–539). A total of 36 regulae contain the liturgical rules for the Liturgy of the Hours for all possible annual calendars, due to the variable date of Easter. Each rule begins with Epiphany. Cod. Sang. 539 contains the seven possible rules for the holidays of the Christmas season (which do not depend on the date of Easter) until the Vigil of Epiphany. The illumination of the manuscript is by Nikolaus Bertschi from Rorschach and an assistant: on p. 4 a full-page miniature, on pp. 5, 21, 37, 53, 69, 85 and 101 initials in opaque colors (partly on a background of gold leaf) with scrolls or richly decorated borders. This volume was written by Fridolin Sicher, St. Gallen cathedral organist.
Online Since: 09/26/2017
Lectionary for feast days of saints, written at least partially by St. Gall Abbey Librarian Anton Vogt (around 1486-1529), by order of Prince-Abbot Franz Gaisberg (1504-1529). The illumination (scrolls with flowers and animals, numerous ornamental initials, among them six portrayals of figures) is by the illuminator Nikolaus Bertschi from Augsburg. A calendar (f. Ir-Xv) precedes the lectionary (f. 1r-130r), which then is followed by readings for the commemoratio of the patron saints of St. Gall and of Mary, and by collects for feast days of saints.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This large-format antiphonary from the Cloister of St. Gall, produced in the year 1544 at the request of Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), contains songs to be sung during the liturgy of the hours on holy days throughout the year. The scribe who wrote this volume was the cleric, cathedral organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546), the illuminator who made the 22 figured initials and the full-page double illustration at the beginning of the antiphonary is unknown.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
An opulently illustrated large-format gradual containing four-part vocal pieces, from the Cloister of St. Gall, written and illuminated in the year 1562. By order of Prince-Bishop Diethelm Blarer, the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed these challenging vocal pieces, Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text, and the manuscript illustrator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on the Bodensee illuminated the first pages with the important holy days of the church year. The volume has richly ornamented borders and numerous miniatures, among them five of full-page size, and contains the heraldic shields of St. Gall monks living at that time; the ornamented pages include many depictions of musical instruments of the period (some of which are no longer known).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Large-format antiphonary with chants in four parts, written and illuminated between 1562 and 1564. By order of Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed the pieces for four voices - antiphons, responsories, hymns and psalms for the principal feast days of the liturgical year as well as passions according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text and the illuminator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on Lake Constance created a full-page All Saints picture with Christ on the cross (f. IVr), as well as a donor portrait with the coats of arms of the then-living members of the St. Gall monastic community (f. 1r).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This Psalter contains the psalms in liturgical sequence with antiphons, followed by biblical canticles and a hymnal. The codex was written in 1545 (colophon f. 102v) by the organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546) by order of Prince Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564). Large parts were rewritten by numerous later hands, probably after the reform of the liturgy following the Council of Trent. The Psalter contains several figurative initials by an unknown illuminator.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Antiphonary for the entire church year, written in German plainsong notation (“Hufnagelnotation”) on four lines. The volume probably originated in a French or Burgundian-Flemish Benedictine monastery; at least since about 1510, it has been part of the library of the Monastery of St. Gall. The book decoration consists of several large initials painted in opaque colors with scrolls and numerous cadels decorated with faces or animal motifs.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This rather hefty tome (weighing nearly 17 Kilos) compiled around 1200 contains copies in Latin of major works of world-, church- and ethnic history; examples include the History of the World by Orosius, the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius of Caesarea, the Summa of Biblical history (Historica Scholastica) of the early Parisian scholastic Peter Comestor († ca. 1179), the history of the first crusade by Robert of Reims, the history of the Langobards by Paulus Diaconus, the History of the English Church and People by the Venerable Bede, and Einhard's Life of Charlemagne.
Online Since: 10/04/2011
A collection of vitae of 13 saints, among them – preserved only here – the vita of St Germanus of Moutier-Grandval in the canton of Jura, Switzerland, written by Bobolenus of Luxeuil ca. 690. A copy from the early 10th century.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
Sulpicius Severus (ca. 363-420), Vita of Saint Martin of Tours. One of the most elaborate hagiographic texts in the St. Gallen library.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A manuscript compilation from the time around and after 800, presumably produced at the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript contains, among other items, the Lives of the monastic fathers Antonius (by Athanasius), Paulus, Hilarion and Malchus (all by the church father Jerome), 12 homilies (Predigten) by Caesarius of Arles as well as the piece De correctione rusticorum by Martin of Braga (Bracara).
Online Since: 12/21/2009
A careful copy of the vitae of the three St. Gallen saints Gallus, Otmar and Wiborada, written by Walahfrid Strabo (Gallus and Otmar) and Herimannus (Wiborada) around 1070 in the monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
The oldest extant copy of the vitae of St. Gallus and St. Otmar in the version of Walahfrid Strabo from the end of the 9th century.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
A carefully crafted copy of the life stories of St. Gall patron saints Gallus, Otmar and Wiborada from the first half of the 12th century, written in a late Carolingian minuscule script and ornamented with several elaborately decorated oversize initials.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Hagiographic manuscript collection containing the lives of numerous saints, especially the Benedictine saints, written and compiled in the Cloister of St. Gall between the 10th and 13th centuries. Among other items it contains the lives of saints Remaclus, Gangold, Willibrord (originally written by Alcuin of York), Ulrich of Augsburg (originally written by Abbot Bern of Reichenau) and Magnus (older and newer lives). Between the newer and older versions of the lives of Magnus is a pen sketch of the healing of a blind person in Bregenz on the Bodensee.
Online Since: 05/20/2009
Vitae of ancient Roman saints, among them – preserved here only – the Life of Pope Gregory the Great, composed by a monk from the English monastery of Whitby.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
A careful copy of the Vita of St Sylvester (Pope, 314-335) and the legend of the finding of the Cross by Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, written in the monastery of St. Gall around 900.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Contains, among other items, the only extant version of the Life of Saint Ambrose, composed by an unknown monk from Milan around 870, and the principal manuscript of Seneca's (1 BC - 65 AD) Apocolocyntosis, a satirical pamphlet on the Roman emperor Claudius (41 - 54 AD).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
This rather plain (in comparison to Codices 560, 562 und 564) copy of the lives of St. Gall's patron saints Gallus and Otmar by Reichenau Abbot and scholar Walahfrid Strabo, was made in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/21/2009
Part I of The conferences (Collationes patrum I-X) composed by John Cassian († about 435). This copy was made in St. Gall in the first half of the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
The St. Gall Passionarium novum: a large-format manuscript containing the lives of early Christian, early German and Carolingian saints, written in the cloister at St. Gall during the 9th and 10th centuries. This volume includes the oldest known, and indeed the best surviving copies of the life histories of saints Meinrad, Odilia, Hilarius, Trudpert, Verena, Leodgar and Pirmin.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
A manuscript compilation written in the 9th century at the Abbey of St. Gall. The manuscript contains, among other items, the Lives of monastic father Antonius (by Athanasius), Paulus, Hilraion and Malchus (all by the church father Jerome), 12 homilies (Predigten) of Caesarius of Arles, additionals tracts by Caesarius and by Pseudo-Caesarius as well as the dicta of Martin of Braga addressed to Polemius entitled De correctione rusticorum3. The manuscript contains a very large number of quill tests, including two alphabetical verses (“Adnexique globum…” and “Ferunt ophyr…”) and a scribal saying: Scribere discce puer…
Online Since: 12/21/2009
This codex contains the miracles of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which the Benedictine monk Benedict of Peterborough began to collect after Thomas' murder on December 29, 1170. The manuscript, which has beautiful initials with scroll ornamentation on p. 12, was written by two hands in the Southwestern region of Germany towards the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. The collection of miracles is divided into four books, of which the last nine chapters (IV.95-96, V.1-4, VI.1-3 of this edition) and the following letter from the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset, are not numbered. The manuscript is listed in the Monastery of St. Gall catalog from the year 1461.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
This manuscript, probably produced in the 14th century in the area around Lake Constance, contains a copy of the main part of the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (pp. 5−691), as well as small parts of the so-called Provincia appendix (p. 691−701). On the last three pages a sermon for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29) has been added. The area of Lake Constance is suggested by remains of a document glued to the front and back inside covers (probably parts of the writing “Konstanz”) and also by an ownership note on p. 704 dated to the late 15th or the early 16th century from a community of sisters near Stammheim (Vnnser frouwen ze niderstamhem ist das …). This could refer to the community of Beguines of Haslen in the municipality of Adlikon in the Zürcher Weinland (wine country of Zurich), which was dissolved during the Reformation. This volume has been the property of the library of the monastery St. Gall at least since the middle of the 18th century.
Online Since: 06/23/2016
The bulk of this manuscript is constituted by lives of the Apostles taken from the Elsässische Legenda Aurea, an important Upper German rendition of James of Voragine's Legendary (pp. 1–259, largely identical to the abridged legendary in Cod. Sang. 594). There then follows the mystical treatise Christus und die sieben Laden (pp. 260–277). The last two quires (pp. 281–328) contain a collection of spiritual, mostly mystical excerpts (Meister Eckhart, Jan van Ruusbroec) and, on the final pages, an indulgence prayer intended to be recited before an image of St. Gregory (indulgence promise dated 1456, pp. 326–328). Several pages before this prayer, there is an explicitly-connected accompanying prayer (pp. 319–320). Scarpatetti believes the scribe was Sister Endlin of the Franciscan convent St. Leonard in St. Gall. Later, the manuscript came into the possession of Johannes Kaufmann (ownership marks, p. 1, p. 277, and on the upper piece of the book block), and, even later, it belonged to a lay brother of the monastery of St. Gall (p. 328). Simple red initials provide the only decoration. The binding is red-colored pigskin of the fifteenth century, with clasps and with six of ten original bosses still in place. Some fragments used as quire guards can be seen (e.g., p. 52/53).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The paper manuscript from the second half of the fifteenth century contains three saints' lives in German: St. Benedict (pp. 1-57), St. Gall (pp. 63-294) and St. Otmar (pp. 299-372). While the first of these three lives is the German version taken from the Dialogues of Pope Gregory I, the two that follow resemble, at least partially, the translations of the Benedictine Friedrich Kölner. The texts are carefully copied in a single column by a single scribe and decorated with simple initials painted in red. The brown-leather binding, dating from the fifteenth/sixteenth century, is blind-stamped. At the latest by the sixteenth century, this copy belonged to the community of lay brothers of the abbey of St. Gall (p. 374).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The oldest German language version of the life history of St. Gall patron saint Notker Balbulus († 912), produced by Hans Conrad Haller (1486/90-1525), a member of the St. Gall religious community, for the Benedictine nuns of the Cloister of St. George above St. Gall in the year 1522. With decorated initials and borders. Following the vita are German prayers as well as a German translation of the tract Exhortationes ad monachos ("Von der geistlichen Ritterschaft der Mönche" or the "Exhortations to Monks") by Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim (1462-1516).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
This German-language manuscript gathers together a series of strongly mystical stories and prayers. The first two thirds (pp. 1–259) are taken up by three translations of texts by Elisabeth of Schönau, all of which have as their object St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins. Then follows the legend of St. Cordula (pp. 260–264). The remaining texts, with the exception of an excerpt from Mechtild of Hackeborn (pp. 295–302) are all prayers, mostly addressed to Mary and often with extensive instructions for the prayer. The book is rubricated throughout, and it has two simple pen-flourished initials (p. 1, 162); the rubric on p. 1 is written in a display script. Inside the book can be found a bookmark made of four thin cords knotted at the top. The binding comes from the fifteenth century and is decorated with stamps and decorative lines. In 1794, Ildefons von Arx purchased the manuscript from the collection of the dissolved convent of Poor Clares of St. Dorothea of Freiburg im Breisgau (ownership marks p. 1 and p. 320; purchase note, p. 1).
Online Since: 09/22/2022
This manuscript contains German-language lives of the saints: the “Lives of the Fathers” (Vitaspatrum) (pp. 5a–482a), the Life of Saint Meinrad (pp. 482a–501b) and the Life of Saint Fridolin, a translation of the Latin Vita of Fridolin written by Balther von Säckingen (pp. 502a–541a). The main scribe of this codex was Johannes Gerster, citizen of Säckingen, who identifies himself on p. 361 and p. 541, each time including a date. Several pen drawings: tree with blossoms and fruit (p. 361), young man in secular clothing (p. 482), sketches of dragons (p. 528 and p. 541), rosette (p. 541). In the 17th century, this manuscript was in the possession of the Convent of the Poor Clares in Freiburg i. Br. (note p. 3); only in the 18th century was it purchased for the Monastery of St. Gall.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
German version of the life of Jesus according to the four gospels, in an Alemannic recension. With colorful initials and 21 filled initials, drawn in pen and usually colored. The scribe and probably also first owner, Rudolf Wirt, gives his name at the end of the text on p. 463 as well as the date of the completion of the manuscript on January 9, 1467. The volume originated in one of the women's cloisters of St. Gall and came to the St. Gall Abbey Library between 1780 and 1792.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Legendary of St. Gall: contains, among other items, the German lives of the St. Gallen Saints Gallus, Magnus, Otmar and Wiborada, illustrated with 142 vivid images.
Online Since: 06/12/2006
Collection manuscript, 15th century, from the Dominican convent of St. Katharina in St. Gall. This German-language manuscript is made up of five fascicles and contains a treatise on the Passion of Christ (“Vierzig Myrrhenbüschel vom Leiden Christi‟): the story of the foundation of the Dominican convent of St. Katharinental near Diessenhofen; the "Diessenhofener Schwesternbuch" and the "Tösser Schwesternbuch"; the legends of saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Margaret of Hungary, Ida of Toggenburg and Louis of Toulouse as well as a short excerpt from the Liber specialis gratiae of Mechthild of Hackeborn in German translation.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This manuscript, named after the person who commissioned it, Abbot Franz Gaisberg (abbot 1504-1529), contains assorted historiographic and hagiographic texts: a history of the abbots of St. Gall with coats of arms, epitaphs of St. Gall abbots and monks, the history of the St. Gall abbey (Casus sancti Galli) for the years 1200-1232 by Konrad von Fabaria, the anonymous Vita of Notker Balbulus († 912), together with a copy of the records of his beatification process in 1513 and the legends of saints Constantius, Minias, and Roch. The codex was written by the organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher of the St. Gall Abbey (1490-1546).
Online Since: 03/31/2011
A copy of the Alexanderroman (Romance of Alexander) by physician, translator and poet Johannes Hartlieb (1468) of Munich. This is the exemplar that Hartlieb had produced for Duke Albrecht III. of Bavaria (1451-1460) and his wife Anna of Braunschweig by calligrapher Johannes Frauendorfer of Thierenstein in the year 1454, using a professional Bastarda script. It is illustrated with 45 six-by-thirteen-line fully colored initials, possibly by the hand of Bavarian miniaturist Hans Rot. Decorations include numerous simple and intricate vine borders with acanthus leaves, in which a wide variety of animals frolic, and in which one can find many of the flowers of the region. The Romance of Alexander remained one of the most popular prose romances in the German language until 1500.
Online Since: 07/31/2009
This manuscript contains the Historia Regum Britannie by Geoffrey of Monmouth (around 1100-1154) (pp. 3-121, Incipit Prologus in brittannicam hystoriam); excerpts from the Collectanea rerum memorabilium by Solinus (pp. 122-128), and the Epistola presbiteri Johannis, the so-called Letter of Priester John (pp. 128-130), all in Latin. The volume is mentioned in the library catalog of 1461.
Online Since: 06/23/2014
This is a copy, significant in terms of textual history, of the Historia Longobardorum (History of the Langobards) by the Langobard monk and author Paulus Diaconus († 797/799), who was active in Montecassino. It was written in northern Italy, possibly in Verona, around 800 by a variety of hands. The volume has been at the monastery of St. Gall since the 9th century already.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This extensive volume was copied at the turn of the thirteenth to fourteenth century by a single hand with a somewhat varying ductus. It contains a thematically ordered compilation of short examples and observations on virtues and vices (pp. 3–658) that may have been taken from Etienne de Bourbon or Humbertus de Romanis. This summa is made accessible by an index (pp. 659–661), written in a later hand, which hand also completed the foliation. The manuscript is rubricated throughout and contains two-line red and blue lombards. On the front flyleaf can be found a fragment of a charter from 1295. The red-leather binding has the remains of a medieval clasp.
Online Since: 09/22/2022
The Cantonal Secretary of Schwyz Hans Fründ († 1469), originally from Luzern, wrote a chronicle of the Old Zurich War in about 1447. This carefully written copy illustrated with the flags of the cantons of the Confederation was made by Rorschach chaplain and former Schwyz schoolmaster Melchior Rupp in the year 1476. The manuscript, in the final pages of which are transcribed certain records and documents from the years 1446 through 1450 related to the Old Zurich War, made its way into the possession of Glarus scholar Aegidius Tchudi (1505-1572) and from there, in the year 1768, into the Abbey Library of St. Gall.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
German translation of a history of the First Crusade (1095/96-1099; Historia Hierosolymitana), composed by the monk Robertus Monachus from Reims. Written and illustrated with 22 colored pen drawings in the year 1465. As an appendix, the manuscript also contains around 9000 verses from the Österreichische Reimchronik (rhymed chronicle of Austria) by Ottokar of Steiermark describing the siege and destruction of the Crusaders' fortress in Akkon in the year 1291.
Online Since: 09/14/2005
Collection of council decisions and papal decrees up to the 8th century, an important St. Gallen copy from the 9th century.
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Important early textual witness of the Decretum Gratiani, probably even the earliest known version. As opposed to the later widespread version of 101 Distinctiones (Part I), 36 Causae (Part II) and De consecratione (Part III) with ca. 4000 Canones in all, the Decretum in this manuscript consists of only 33 Causae with ca. 1000 Canones. The numbering, however, was soon adapted to the later commonly used division into 36 Causae and preceding distinctions. This version includes some sections of text not found in later versions. The Decretum is followed by an extremely heterogeneous collection of excerpts.
Online Since: 12/12/2006
This 14th century manuscript contains Burchard of Strasbourg's Summa casuum (pp. 3-264). Probably added in the same century were two short letters from a Franciscan from Freiburg im Breisgau to a pastor in Schönau and Todtnau to clarify canonical questions (p. 264) and a document form for obtaining absolution from the Abbot of St. Trudpert in the Black Forest (p. 265).
Online Since: 06/18/2020
This manuscript contains Burchard of Strasbourg's Summa casuum (pp. 3a-274a), followed by a short explanation of the effectiveness of indulgences (pp. 274a-275b). The script, a textualis, suggests the 14th century. The binding seems to be one of the rare bindings in the Abbey library with a board attachment in romanesque technique.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
This paper manuscript contains a commentary on Magister Adam's (Adamus Alderspacensis) Summula de summa Raimundi. A hand from the first half or middle of the fifteenth century prepared this copy in a book cursive script. Occasional pen-drawings decorate the text. Based on the binding, the manuscript has been in the Abbey of St. Gall since 1461 at the latest.
Online Since: 04/25/2023