At the beginning of this month, 65 new manuscripts were added to the website. Foremost among the new additions are manuscripts from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland: four books of choral music from Madonna del Sasso in Orselina, near Locarno. The manuscripts were restored by Andrea Giovannini between 1993 and 1995. e-codices not only provides access to the restoration report, but also offers an enhanced digital presentation by including images of pages and miniatures now missing from the physical manuscripts.
In addition, the “Frowin’s Library” sub-project, the goal of which is to present digital versions of 40 manuscripts from the early period of the cloister at Engelberg, has been enlarged by the addition of 22 manuscripts. This sub-project is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

• Latest Update: http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/all/LastUpdate
• Orselina, Convento della Madonna del Sasso: http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/oms
• Sub-project “Frowin's Library”: http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/subproject/frowins_library

The recent update offers several new features. The search function has been expanded by the addition of a new facet facilitating search by manuscript language. The user can now see at a glance that two manuscripts in Old Irish are available, or 19 in Old High German. e-codices has plans to further develop such global search functions and to implement new facets such as “dated manuscripts”, “illuminated manuscripts”, “music manuscripts”, and “provenance”.

The most recent update also includes the addition of an RSS feed, providing notifications whenever new manuscripts are added to the e-codices website.

• Faceted Search: http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/search/all
• RSS Feeds: http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/news/rss

The most important new feature added in the recent update is the Overview page. All key informational details about each individual manuscript are presented together on a single page. In addition to Shelfmark, Manuscript Title, Caption, Manuscript Summary, and Publication Date, the Overview page also provides access to Permanent URL and DOI, links to available manuscript descriptions, and external links to, for example, related literature in the broader digital library network or the German language “Handschriftencensus”. In the future, the overview page will also provide a brief table of contents for each manuscript as well as links to more recent literature.

e-codices has obtained a Traveler's Conservation Copy Stand (TCCS 4232), developed by engineer Manfred Mayer. This copy stand will enable us to digitize in place manuscripts that, for various reasons, cannot be moved: for example, fragile objects at the Burgerbibliothek in Bern, such as the Prudentius manuscript, as well as manuscripts of Swiss origin now held by libraries abroad, for instance the first volume of the Schodoler Chronicle, now in the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen at Lake Constance, or the important Frowin manuscript at St. Paul in Lavanttal Kärnten in Austria.

In order to make Swiss manuscripts available to the widest possible audience, e-codices has begun to offer access to its bibliographic information via national and international library portals. One example is the European digitalization project, Europeana Regia, which seeks to reach a broad audience by virtually reunifying manuscripts once held by three royal libraries, but now dispersed over Europe. To date, 31 manuscripts from the three royal libraries, now held by three different Swiss libraries, have been made accessible via the Europeana Regia portal.

e-codices on Europeana Regia:

• Bibliothèque de Genève: http://www.europeanaregia.eu/en/manuscripts/bibliotheque-geneve
• Fondation Bodmer (Cologny): http://www.europeanaregia.eu/en/manuscripts/fondation-martin-bodmer-cologny
• Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen: http://www.europeanaregia.eu/en/manuscripts/stiftsbibliothek-st-gallen