The oldest manuscript of Sedulius Scottus' commentaries on the common introductions to the Gospels. In the 16th century, the manuscript apparently came from Fulda to Basel, a center for printing. This brief work, which has survived in only a handful of codices, is still awaiting a critical edition. (stb)

Online Since: 03/29/2019

Leaf from the sixth volume (November-December) of a Fulda Legendary that originally consisted of six volumes, commissioned in 1156 by Rugger, monk at Frauenberg Abbey in Fulda (1176-1177 abbot of Fulda as Rugger II). This fragment contains parts of the Vita s. Silvestri and was probably written by Eberhard of Fulda. The legendary was still used in the middle of the 16th century in Fulda by Georg Witzel (1501-1573) for his Hagiologium seu de sanctis ecclesiae (Mainz 1541) as well as for his Chorus sanctorum omnium. Zwelff Bücher Historien Aller Heiligen Gottes (Köln 1554). More fragments from the sixth volume are also in Basel. It shows that this volume, and at least the 6th volume (May-June) of the legendary as well, reached Basel, where both evidently were used as manuscript waste around 1580. (stb)

Online Since: 06/13/2019

The 'twin codex' of Cod. 250 from the Burgerbibliothek of Bern was produced in Fulda. It remains unclear when and how this mathematical manuscript reached Bern. It seems to have left Fulda in the 10th century at the latest, as suggested by the hands of the added texts. (stb)

Online Since: 03/29/2019

This manuscript was copied in the 10th century at the monastic Lavra of Stylos on Mount Latmos in Caria by the scribe “Michael”. It contains Victor of Antioch's commentary on Mark as well as the catena of Andreas on the Catholic Epistles. There are two unfinished miniatures, one representing the Virgin enthroned with the Christ child (V3v), and the other with Christ in glory (V4r). During the Turks' invasion of Caria ca. 1079, Christodoulos of Patmos first transferred the codex to Constantinople, and then to the island of Patmos. During the Renaissance, the manuscript appeared in Worms with Johannes Camerarius, and then in Basel in the possession of Nicolaus Episcopius. (mal)

Online Since: 09/26/2024

This slim volume belonged to Remigius Faesch (1595-1667), jurist and rector of the University of Basel; together with his vast collection of art and curios, the book became part of the university library in the 1820s. As noted by Remigius Faesch in his catalog under the Libri manuscripti in 4º antiqui, the codex contains “Etliche Teutsche Sermon unn Predigen”, mostly by the Dominican preacher and mystic Johannes Tauler (1300-1361). (flr)

Online Since: 10/10/2019

Ovid's Epistolae ex Ponto came from the Basel Franciscan Library to the renowned Museum Faesch on the Petersplatz. This witness to the text is also important for the history of the editions of these letters from exile. It is all the more interesting that it was long thought to be lost, although this small book, which has the peculiarity of still having the old iron chain with which it would have been attached to a lectern, never actually disappeared. (mag)

Online Since: 09/26/2024

During the Middle Ages, travel to Italy, the so-called “Itinera Italica“, was undertaken primarily for religious reasons (pilgrimages) or for professional purposes (business or commercial travel). But after the Reformation, travel for the sake of education became more common, in Basel as well; its main purpose was an interest in Italy itself and its sights. With this, there came to be travelogues like this one from 1621 by the jurist and rector of the University of Basel, Remigius Faesch (1595-1667). (flr)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This manuscript with excerpts from a ‘Martinellus' and from Sedulius' Carmen Paschale was produced around the turn from the 8th to the 9th century in the German-Anglo-Saxon area; in the 16th century it apparently came from Fulda to Basel, a center for printing. The manuscript originally included a Vita s. Eulaliae virginis, which has been lost. Remarkable are the scanning aids at the beginning of the Carmen Paschale. (stb)

Online Since: 03/29/2019

Little is known about Albin of Clairvaux, also Albuinus of Gorze or Albuinus Eremita, except that around the year 1000 he produced a compilation of moral-theological writings dedicated to a Parisian canon Arnoldus and to Archbishop Heribert of Cologne (999-1021). The present copy is from the 11th or 12th century and is bound in soft leather, which originally was probably long enough to completely cover the book, but so narrow that the body of the block protrudes above and below. In the 15th century it was the property of the Carthusian monastery of Mainz, and it came to the Basel University Library as part of the Remigius Faesch collection. (mue)

Online Since: 06/18/2020