The manuscript was produced in the late fourteenth century and shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century. The first half (pp. 17–347) was largely copied by Johannes Schorand (except pp. 17–47) and on p. 123, 303 and 347 is dated 1398. Pages 348–412 are written by several hands from the fifteenth century. The last part (pp. 413–538) comes from the hand of the Dominican friar Cuonradus Bainli and contains several datings: 1455 (p. 470, 475 and 488) and 1458 (p. 538). The manuscript contains predominantly sermons, but also other, chiefly theological, texts. On pp. 17–124 are the Sermones super Pater noster of Godefridus Heriliacensis (from Erlach on Lake Biel), followed by sermons De tempore on pp. 124–303. The explicit on p. 303 (Explicit Jacobus de Foragine) is deceptive; only a few sermons are by Jacobus de Voragine. In fact, the first 58 sermons are identical with the sermon collection of an anonymous Franciscan contained in Oxford, Merton College, MS 236 (15 c.), and referred to by its incipit, "Mendicus". Subsequently, from the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Cod. Sang. 329 has a mixture of material from the “Mendicus”-sermon collection and additional sermons from Jacobus de Voragine's Sermones de tempore. After both sermon collections follow a few shorter texts: pp. 304–347 of the Tractatus de symbolo fidei by Aldobrandinus de Toscanella, pp. 348–353 an Easter sermon from Albertus Patavinus's Expositio evangeliorum dominicalium (Inc. Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome emerunt aromata … Licet magna leticia sit rem desideratam invenire), pp. 355-357 canonical dispositions, pp. 358-360 the chapter De sancto Petro apostolo from Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea, and pp. 363-413 a Tractatus de amore dei, anime. The pages copied by Cuonradus Bainli begin with the Commentarius in decem praecepta by Henry of Friemar (pp. 413–475, with a detailed index pp. 470–475), followed by a Sermo de sacramento corporis Christi (pp. 479–488) and pp. 488–538 a text with the title Biblia virginis Marie, with a detailed index on pp. 488–491. The codex has various contemporary foliations. Johannes Lener owned the manuscript; after he died, it passed to Johannes Engler (cf. the comments in the hand of Johannes Schorand, p. 124 and 347, corrected and expanded by a fifteenth-century hand). Since the mid-sixteenth century at the latest, the manuscript was in the library of the Abbey of St. Gall, (p. 353, the library stamp of Abbot Diethelm Blarer, from 1553–1564).
Online Since: 12/20/2023
The single copyist of this paper manuscript provides the dates in which the copy was completed in May and June 1398 (p. 187 and 448). The first part of the volume (pp. 3-187) contains a series of anonymous sermons on John the Baptist, the Virgin, the dedication of a church, etc. Some pages that follow have material for other sermons whose beginning is missing (pp. 189-204), followed by a series of blank pages (pp. 205-220). The second dated part includes a treatise on the five senses and various sermons, as stated by an explicit (p. 252), then more sermons, one of which is in German (pp. 258-259). The codex has been at the Abbey of Saint Gall since at least the fifteenth century, as indicated by the ownership note (p. 1). Among the numerous quire guards, sixteen are from a Hebrew manuscript in a square Ashkenazi script of a Talmudic text from the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century (see the description by Justine Isserles, Books within books, 2024). The other fragments, in Latin, come from a fourteenth-century charter.
Online Since: 05/31/2024