This composite manuscript, of particular significance in terms of textual history study, consists of at least four distinct parts, written during the 9th and 10th centuries, primarily in the Cloister of St. Gall. The manuscript volume contains, among other items, a Latin prose narrative about the Trojan war from a Greek point of view (De excidio Troiae historia), generally associated with the pseudonym Dictys Cretensis; the 5th century "Troja-Roman" or Trojan epic (Historia de excidio Troiae) published under the pseudonym Dares Phrygius; a copy of the work De spiritalis historiae gestis by Avitus of Vienna; poems by Salomon, Abbot-Bishop of St. Gall (890-920) dedicated to Dado of Vienna, and the Carmen paschale by the Latin-Christian poet Sedulius (5th century). On page 122 is an illustration of the labyrinth of the Minotaur in Knossos on Crete. (smu)

A copy of the works Libelli de spiritalis historiae gestis and Versus de consolatoria castitatis laude by Alcimus Avitus von Vienne (d. 518), produced in the 10th century at the Abbey of St. Gall (?), includes pen tests as well as Latin and Old High German glosses. (smu)

Summer portion (Holy Saturday through the end of the church year) of a breviary written at the Abbey of St. Gall between 1022 and 1047 (with readings, prayers, extracts from homilies, antiphons, responses and hymns for the monastic liturgy of the hours), includes additions made as late as the 14th century. The sung sections include neumes. Preceding materials include a fragment of a collections of homilies, a calendar, and computistical texts and tables. The corresponding winter portion of this breviary is found in Cod. Sang. 413. It is among the oldest surviving breviaries produced at St. Gall. (sno)

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). The first folder contains fragments of Latin texts: Avianus, Fabula, Avitus Viennensis, De Mosaicae historiae gestis, Alexander de Villa Dei, Doctrinale, and Bernardus Silvestris, Cosmographia. (len)