E-codices Newsletter #55: Fall Update, Hundreds of St. Gall Fragments, Franciscans in Solothurn, A Cabinet Full of Armorials, 5000 Fragments
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The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project .

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The e-codices team

e-codices newsletter | issue no. 55 | September 2023

In this issue:

  1. 61 New Manuscripts Online
  2. Hundreds of St. Gall Fragments
  3. Franciscans in Solothurn
  4. A Cabinet Full of Armorials
  5. 5000 Fragments
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1. 61 New Manuscripts Online

The e-codices Fall Update went live on 6 September, 2023. It features manuscripts codices and folders from Porrentruy, Solothurn, and St. Gall.

Explore the latest manuscripts added
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1398a.10, p.5, Angelomus Luxoviensis Monachus, Enarrationes in Cantica canticorum

2. Hundreds of St. Gall Fragments

This update publishes the St. Gall fragment folders Cod. Sang. 1397.1-23 and 1398a.1-14. In the late eighteenth century, the monks Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger and Ildefons von Arx detached fragments of medieval manuscripts and documents from the bindings of the Abbey Library’s books, and by 1822, Ildefons von Arx had them bound in eight thematic volumes. Generous funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation Project Fragmentarium Phase II (SNF 182173) enabled the digitization of the 37 folders that constituted former volumes Cod. Sang. 1397 (mostly liturgical sources) and 1398a (theological, canon law, and various texts). These folders, containing hundreds of fragments, have now been published on e-codices with new descriptions by Chiara de Angelis (Cod. Sang. 1397) and Brigitte Roux (Cod. Sang. 1398a).

Discover these fragments
Cod. Sang. 1397.8, p. 3: Detail from a 13th-Century Graduale, the feast of St. Stephen
Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S 540: Missale OFM, f. 12r

3. Franciscans in Solothurn

The Solothurn Central Library has complemented its online offering with three manuscripts of Franciscan provenance: a thirteenth-century missal that likely passed through a convent of Franciscan nuns in Bavaria (Cod. S 540), a German translation of the Franciscan Rule from the fifteenth century (Cod. S. 457), likely for the use of tertiaries or the zum Lämmli Beguinage in Solothurn, and a fifteenth-century Missale festivum (Cod. S. 455) that may have come from Bern. These three manuscripts witness the range of Franciscan spirituality in late-medieval and early-modern Switzerland.

4. A Cabinet Full of Armorials

The Bibliothèque cantonale jurassienne has placed online more of its spectacular collection of armorials, featuring coats of arms, flags, and signatures pertaining to the history of the Jura and old Bishopric of Basel. Largely produced in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, these volumes provide a unique perspective on the forging of historical identity.

Open the Armorials
Porrentruy, Bibliothèque cantonale jurassienne, A3714, p. 10: Coat of Arms of Count Palatine Johannes Vest (1582 Version)
Gent, Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, HS.2582/151, fol. [2]v-[1]r: Book of Hours

5000 Fragments

On 16 August, 2023, Fragmentarium, e-codices’ sister platform, passed the milestone of 5000 documents published. For comparison, Fragmentarium passed 2500 fragments in December 2021. The Fragmentarium team would like to thank the partner institutions, affiliated projects, and individual researchers for their continued support and engagement. Thanks to their participation, the pace of publication continues to increase.

To Fragmentarium

e-codices
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