e-codices Newsletter - Issue N° 17

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e-codices newsletter

The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project and appears about 4-5 times per year.
We are delighted to count you among our readers!

The e-codices team

In this issue

43 new manuscripts
New scholarly descriptions
Three new libraries
Specific manuscript: Armorial
Specific manuscript: [sine loco] - Florus Dispersus
Christmas Greetings

December 2014

Issue N° 17

43 new manuscripts

With 43 new manuscripts our manuscript library has grown to a total of 1,233 manuscripts from 51 collections. The number of Jewish manusripts has increased considerably since we had the opportunity to publish the private collection of René Braginsky. The Braginsky collection contains several Jewish manuscripts that originated in Switzerland and thus bear witness to a deeply rooted Jewish culture in Switzerland.
We celebrate the completion of e-codices’ 10th year with a worthy selection of manuscripts: another four magnificent illuminated manuscripts from the Bibliothèque de Genève, three manuscripts from the Abbey Library of Engelberg, one St. Gall manuscript which today is held in Mulhouse in France, five manuscripts from the Abbey Library of St. Gall, two from the Cantonal Library of Aargau, four splendid antiphonaries from the Parish Library St. Laurent in Estavayer-le-Lac, the Zürich armorial, and four new manuscripts from the Central and University Library of Lucerne.

Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 5, f. 1r – François Ximenes, Livre des anges (El Llibre dels àngels)

New scholarly descriptions

This year e-codices published no fewer than 57 new in-depth descriptions. Since 2006 e-codices, together with more than 70 scholars, has prepared a total of 282 new descriptions, most of these specifically for e-codices. The most recent update contains new descriptions by, among others, Michael Allen (University of Chicago) together with Florian Mittenhuber (Burgerbibliothek Bern), Paul Hochuli Dubuis and Isabel Jeger (Bibliothèque de Genève) and Barbara Fleith (Université de Genève and Université de Lausanne).

Three new libraries

Currently, 51 collections are represented on e-codices; with this update, we added three new collections:

Collection Braginsky
The Braginsky Collection probably is one of the largest private manuscript collections in Switzerland and is considered the most important private collection of Jewish manuscripts worldwide. It includes a large number of illuminated manuscripts; these as well as Ketubot (marriage certificates) and Megillot (scrolls of Esther) are among the collections great treasures. Initially e-codices is publishing 15 manuscripts from the collection; more will follow next year.

Estavayer, Parish Church St. Laurent
The parish archive of St. Laurent in Estavayer owns four magnificent antiphonaries from the former College of Canons of St. Vincent in Bern. The College was established between 1484 and 1485, but it was dissolved in 1528 already, during the Reformation. The four antiphonaries (Vol. I: pars hiemalis, Vol. II: pars aestiva, de Sanctis and Vol. III: pars aestiva, de Tempore and Vol. IV: duplicate of Vol. III) were created around 1485/1490; they were sold in 1530 and thus reached Estavayer. According to Joseph Leisibach, these antiphonaries are among “the most significant witnesses of late medieval book illustration in Switzerland.” Two more volumes, i.e., the duplicates of volumes 1a and 2b, which are held in Vevey, will go online later.

Mulhouse, Bibliothèque municipale
On several occasions e-codices has been able to make accessible St. Gall manuscripts from locations other than the Abbey Library; among these are manuscripts that currently are held in Einsiedeln, Basel, Bern, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Zofingen, Zurich as well as the Vadiana Collection and the St. Gall Abbey Archives. The Erchenbaldus Evangelistary, now dated to the mid 10th century, today is held in the Municipal Library of Mulhouse. It used to be the property of the Strasbourg Cathedral, and on a guard-leaf it contains an annotation by Erchembald of Strasbourg (965-991). The Erchembald Evangelistary’s initials sparkle with minium, gold and silver; they clearly are the work of a student of Sintram during his later years.

Zürich, Braginsky collection, B28, f. 1r – Sefirat ha-Omer (Counting of the Omer) and other prayers

Estavayer-le-Lac , Paroisse catholique Saint-Laurent, Volume 1a, f. 1r – Antiphonarium lausannense, pars hiemalis (vol. I)

Mulhouse, Bibliothèque municipale, AW 1, f. 7v – Evangelistary of Erchenbaldus

Specific manuscript: Armorial

The Zurich armorial originated in 1335/1345 in the area of Lake Constance (Constance, St. Gall or Pfäfers). The armorial is a parchment roll consisting of three parts, 4 meters long and 12.5 cm wide in total; painted on both sides, it contains 559 coats of arms (all with crest) of families of the high and lower nobility from the area of Lake Constance, from Vorarlberg, from Alsace and from Baden, as well as 25 flags of German bishoprics. One of the original parts has been lost; it contained 110 more coats of arms, which have survived only in copies. The Zurich armorial is one of the oldest and perhaps the most important armorial of the Middle Ages.

Zürich, Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, AG 2760, f. 1r – Zürich Armorial (detail)

Specific manuscript: [sine loco] - Florus Dispersus

Augustine’s sermons and letters from the library of Florus of Lyon have been keeping us busy for several years. In 2010, at the suggestion of Louis Holtz, we digitized the special manuscript Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 16, consisting of 53 papyrus and parchment leaves. In 2012, the European project “Europeana Regia“ made it possible for us to also provide digital access to the parts from Paris with 63 leaves and to the single papyrus leaf from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Although all three parts were published on e-codices, each part was published separately, with its own description. With our new application, which allows us to display different arrangements in any desired combination, even from different sources, we can now go a step further and virtually reconstruct the original manuscript from the three surviving parts. This virtually reconstructed manuscript can be found in the new collection [sine loco], codices restituti.

[sine loco], codices restituti, Cod. 1 (Codex Florus dispersus) – Augustinus Hipponensis, Epistolae et Sermones (Codex restitutus)

Christmas Greetings

We have selected several Christmas images from the e-codices collection. Feel free to share these with friends as a holiday greeting.

We wish you and your family, Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year !

the e-codices team

Fribourg/Freiburg, Couvent des Cordeliers/Franziskanerkloster, Ms. 6, f. 14v – Antiphonarium (detail)

Estavayer-le-Lac , Paroisse catholique Saint-Laurent, Volume 1a, f. 37r – Antiphonarium lausannense, pars hiemalis (vol. I) (detail)

Fribourg/Freiburg, Couvent des Cordeliers/Franziskanerkloster, Ms. 9, f. 11r – Graduale (detail)

e-codices
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