Description: As part of the SUK (Swiss Conference of Universities) Program P-2: “Scientific information: access, processing and backup,” for the past four years the Swiss Rectors’ Conference supported and aided e–codices in establishing a Swiss Centre of Competence. The overall project consisted of various subprojects, among them “Call for collaboration 2013” and “Call for collaboration 2015”, “Treasures from small collections”, “Autographs of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.“ The overall project also supported further development of the web application e-codices v2.0, which went online in December 2014.
All Libraries and Collections
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, F III 33
Parchment · 86 ff. · 26 x 18.5 cm · 13th century
Astrologica
This volume was written in the 13th century, probably by two alternating hands from France; it contains various astrological writings of Hellenistic-Arabic origin in the Latin translation of John of Seville, such as the Centiloquium Ptolemaei, as well as texts by Māšā'allāh, Alfraganus and Albumasar. This manuscript was part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel. (gam/flr)
Paper · 180 ff. · 29 x 21 cm · [Paris] · third quarter of the 15th century
Nonius Marcellus; Varro
This French manuscript from the third quarter of the 15th century contains two works from ancient times. Nonius Marcellus (4th/5th century) offers linguistic and factual explanations on Latin authors mainly from the time of the Republic, partly in alphabetically-ordered lemmas; M. Terentius Varro († 27 BC) addresses linguistic questions concerning the Latin language. (gam/flr)
Parchment · 109 ff. · 15.5 x 10.5 cm · first half of the 13th century
Aristoteles, Boethius
Various Aristotelian writings in the Latin translation of Boethius as well as treatises by Boethius, written in a small 13th century script; they were bound together with two 15th century additions, probably for the scholar Johannes Heynlin from Basel, who bequeathed the volume to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. Noteworthy for codicological reasons are the back pastedown and flyleaf, a parchment leaf that had been prepared for a prayer book. It consists of two bifolios with upside down text that should have been folded before binding, as was usual for printed sheets. However, the two bifolios were excluded and were not used in the prayer book; therefore there are no pinholes in the fold. (gam/flr)
Parchment · 76 ff. · ca. 16 x 13.5 cm · 14th century
Ovidio Naso, Heroides, cum glossa Guilelmi Aurelianensis
This small-format, almost square 14th century Ovid manuscript contains the Heroides accompanied by the commentary of William of Orléans (Guilelmus Aurelianensis, around 1200). An older erased note of ownership suggests a French origin; Johannes Heynlin bequeathed this manuscript to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. (gam/flr)
Parchment and paper · 100 ff. · 20.5 x 15 cm · France · second quarter of the 15th century
Petrus de Alliaco, Imago mundi
Pierre d’Ailly (Latin: Petrus de Alliaco) was a scholar, church politician and productive writer. His geographic work Imago mundi became famous; Christopher Columbus used it in order to plan his voyages of discovery. This Basel exemplar belonged to the city physician of Basel, Heinrich Amici († 1451), who bequeathed it to his city’s Carthusian monastery. (gam/flr)
Johannes von Rheinfelden, Tractatus de moribus et disciplina humanae conversationis: id est ludus cartularum moralisatus
In his extensive Tractatus de moribus et disciplina humanae conversationis, the oldest description of playing cards known in Europe, Johannes von Rheinfelden explains not only the rules of play, but in addition he explicates the characters of the figures as well as the entire social order, based on the relation of the cards to one another. Konrad Schlatter, since 1428 confessor and later prior of the cloister of the Dominican nuns St. Maria Magdalena “in den Steinen”, left this treatise to the sisters for their moral edification. (gam/flr)
Parchment · a + 40 + b ff. · 33.5 x 22.5-24 cm · 11th century
Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, lib. 1-2
This large-format 11th century manuscript by Martianus Capella transmits the first two books of his work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, one of the most widely-read books of the Middle Ages, together with Remigius of Auxerre’s commentary, which was written for instruction. Noteworthy is the contemporaneous original binding: the quires are attached to the parchment cover with thin strips of parchment (cf. Szirmai). (gam/flr)
The surviving parts of Diodorus Siculus’ universal history were translated from Greek into Latin in the 15th century. This manuscript containing Books 11 to 13 was written in 1453; probably it is the autograph of the translator Iacobus de Sancto Cassiano Cremonensis, in fact, a revised fair copy which transitions into a working manuscript towards the end. (gam/flr)
Paper · 153 ff. · 20.5 x 14 cm · second quarter of the 15th century (1439, 1438)
Tractatus rhetorici
Albertus Löffler was the most productive scribe of the Dominican Monastery of Basel. The only manuscript of rhetorical content in his hand contains the so-called Summa Iovis and works by Nikolaus de Dybin. Löffler copied them during his studies in Heidelberg in 1438 and 1439. This composite manuscript became part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel. (gam/flr)
Paper · 185 ff. · 21 x 14.5 cm · third quarter of the 15th century
Commentarii super Parvulum philosophiae naturalis
Composite manuscript of philosophical content, owned by Jakob Lauber and even partially written by him. Jakob Lauber from Lindau studied at the then newly founded University of Basel from 1466 until 1475, first in the Faculty of Arts, then canon law in the Faculty of Law. After serving as rector for a short period, he entered the Carthusian Monastery of Basel in 1477; as its prior from 1480 on, he expanded it significantly and reorganized its library. When he entered the monastery, Lauber’s library became the property of the monastery. (gam/flr)
Paper · 165 ff. · 14.5 x 21.5 cm · third quarter of the 15th century
Marius Victorinus Gaius, Explanationum in Rhetoricam Ciceronis libri duo; De attributis personae et negotio
In the 4th century AD, the rhetoric teacher Gaius Marius Victorinus wrote explanatory notes on Cicero’s De inventione. In the third quarter of the 15th century, these were copied in a completely uniform script, probably in Frace. The scholar Johannes Heynlin from Basel bequeathed this manuscript, together with the other books in his vast library, to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. The manuscript shows no signs of use. (gam/flr)
This Lucretius manuscript with the long didactic poem De rerum natura is, based on its content, a descendant of the manuscript which Poggio Braccolini discovered in a German monastery in 1417. This manuscript was written in 1468-69, a few years before the text appeared in print, by Antonius Septimuleius Campanus — according to a note at the end of the text — while he was in prison in Rome. At the latest by 1513, the manuscript was in the possession of the humanist Bonifacius Amerbach from Basel. (gam/flr)
Parchment and paper · 77 ff. · 14.5 x 21 cm · Italy · second half of the 15th century
Composite manuscript (Humanistica)
This 15th century composite manuscript was produced in Italy and contains humanist occasional poems and short treatises. The various parts, written in humanist minuscule and humanist cursive, are written by different scribes. This volume belonged to the Basel book printer Johann Oporin († 1568); after his death it remained in the possession of scholars in Basel, until it was given to the library in the 17th/18th century. (gam/flr)
Parchment · 105 ff. · 14 x 10.5 cm · middle of the 15th century
Hans and Peter Roth, Pilgrimages to Jerusalem 1440 and 1453
This small-format manuscript contains accounts written by Hans Rot († 1452) and his son Peter Rot († 1487) about their pilgrimages to the Holy Land in 1440 and 1453. It is possible that the notes are in their own handwriting. (gam/flr)
Parchment · 2 ff. · 9 × 18 cm · Fulda · about second quarter of the 9th century
Paulinus Mediolanensis, Vita Ambrosii (Fragment)
Fragment with hagiographic content from a Carolingian manuscript that originated in Fulda and was used as manuscript waste in the Basel area in the last quarter of the 16th century. (stb)
Parchment · 8 ff. · 16 x 13-13.5 cm · Fulda · first quarter of the 9th century
Theodori and Theodulfus Aurelianensis ･ Ordo ad paenitentiam dandam ･ Ps. Augustinus ･ Hrabanus Maurus ･ Ambrosius Autpertus ･ Praecepta vivendi et al.
This fascicle contains the version of the Paenitentiale Theodori named for this textual witness the ‘Canones Basilienses;’ it was written by two hands from Fulda in an Anglo-Saxon minuscule of the first quarter of the 9th century. Around 1500, this quire was part of the current manuscript F III 15e. This explains the title de conflictu viciorum et virtutum on 1r, which does not fit with the content of the quire. As evidenced by the lost text at the beginning and at the end, N I 1: 3c had previously been part of another codex. (stb)
Fragment from a Glagolitic breviary with texts for August 13th and 14th; based on the script, it can be dated to the 15th century. It belonged to Franz Miklosich (1813-1891), one of the most important Slavicists of his time, and was a gift to the Basel Antiques Collection, the precursor of the Basel Historical Museum. (gam/flr)
Parchment · 6 ff. · 21.5 x 16 cm; 19.5 x 15.5 cm · 1st quarter of the 13th century
Imperial Chronicle (“Kaiserchronik”)
The Imperial Chronicle is the most successful 12th century German text. This fragment from Basel is from the first quarter of the 13th century and contains version B in Alemannic. The remaining three bifolia - one single bifolium and one fascicle of two bifolia — had been used as binding manuscript waste; the single bifolium served as inner cover for manuscript A III 30 from the Dominican Monastery of Basel. (stu)
Parchment · 1 f. · 26 x 19.6 cm · Fulda · about 910-920
Isidorus Hispalensis, Expositio in genesim (Fragment)
Probably a fragment of one of the Isidore codices from the Monastery of Fulda, which reached Basel during the 16th century, before the abduction and destruction of the library during the Thirty Years’ War. There it apparently served as a possible textual source for a planned edition of Isidore’s works. The codex was produced in Fulda around the second decade of the 10th century. In 1624 this bifolium was used as a document cover. (stb)