Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
iii + 125 + iii leaves on paper in folio, contemporary foliation in ink by the main hand, lower margin, centre, ff. 1-58, and modern foliation in pencil, lower margin, centre, ff. 59-125, complete (collation i-iv12 v8 vi2 vii12 viii10 ix8 x12 xi-xii10 xiii5 [wants 1 after f. 125, cancelled]) in three production units: (i) quires i-vi, with three watermarks present in the paper stocks, two different bull’s heads (a pair?), variants of the types Piccard, Ochsenkopf, V 195 (1507-25) and V 351 (1504-12), mixed with a single leaf (f. 48) with a chalice, a distinctive type documented only by Piccard-Online 31058-31064 (1501-25), and closest to 31058 (1525), (ii) quires vii-ix, with two watermarks in the paper stocks, a pair of bull’s heads, both variants of the type Piccard, Ochsenkopf, V 112 (1517-24), mixed with a single leaf (f. 75) with a crown, of the type Piccard, Krone, XII 42b (1499-1517), (iii) quires x-xii, with a single watermark in the paper stocks, a pair of bunches of grapes, likely closest to Piccard-Online 129401 and 129404 (1540-41), though quite difficult to distinguish in low-quality paper; written by several principal hands, distributed in the production units as follows, unit (i), ff. 1-58, unruled (justification c. 230 x c. 135 mm.) in an extremely elegant cursiva libraria/formata on around 26-30 long lines, in black/brown ink, with occasional headings in a second, much less accomplished hand, a spiky cursiva libraria, in red and brown ink; unit (ii), ff. 59-88, unruled, (justification c. 240 x c. 160 mm.) in a regular cursiva currens on around 35 long lines, in brown ink; and unit (iii), ff. 89-98, unruled, (justification c. 240-250 x c. 150 mm.) in an elegant sixteenth-century cursive book-hand on around 36-38 long lines, in a light brown ink, with ff. 99-125, unruled, (highly irregular justification of c. 220-250 x c. 150-160 mm.) in a rather scratchy sixteenth-century cursive script on around 35 long lines, in black ink, with a final addition in a somewhat more conservative cursiva currens/libraria in light brown ink on the badly damaged f. 125v; one four-line illuminated initial, f. 1, an ouroboros in yellow and green, within which is a heraldic shield, now erased, two-line initials in red, occasional headings and rubrication of majuscules throughout ff. 1-15 and 17v-19 only, ff. 123-125 severely abraded and torn, the pattern of wear and dirt indicating that the manuscript was kept disbound, parchment sewing guards cut from a manuscript with Latin text in a later fifteenth- or sixteenth-century hand occasionally throughout. Modern binding with the quires, repaired and resewn, now glued into covers of black plastic over paste boards, with two cloth fore-edge ties. Dimensions 310 x 220 mm.
A newly discovered manuscript of a chronicle recording the history of the ancient monastery of Reichenau. This copy may well be a product of Reichenau itself and is earlier than all but one of the other nine surviving manuscripts, dating during the lifetime of the author, or soon after his death. Uniquely among the manuscript transmission, it is interpolated with a German Life of St Meinrad of Einsiedeln. Subsequent owners added a remarkable collection of texts drawn from the rich historiographical tradition of Konstanz in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their analysis would offer a wonderful research project to explore the literary culture of recording, sharing, and reshaping history in one of the most significant urban centres of pre-modern Germany.
1. The interests of the historiographical texts included here suggests that this manuscript as a whole was copied in the Bodensee region, perhaps most likely in Konstanz.
It consists of three parts, each copied by different scribes, at different points in time. The original of the manuscript (ff. 1-58) was commissioned c. 1520 for the person whose coat of arm were painted in the opening initial (now completely erased but possibly legible at a future date with multispectral imaging). The presence of two hands, with one responsible for text and a second for headings and rubrics (albeit left incomplete), suggests that this first unit was an institutional product. If the principal scribe is indeed identical to the copyist of the texts in the banderoles on the first leaves of Gallus Öhem’s armorial (Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 15, ff. 1-3), then that institution was the Benedictine abbey of Reichenau, on an island in the Lake Constance just west of Konstanz. With the exception of a very early copy from Reichenau itself, all known copies of Gallus Öhem’s chronicle were made either for other Benedictine abbeys in the region, or by private individuals with known historiographical interests (see Brandi, 1893, pp. xxiii-xxviii): yet neither category obviously fits the bill for the potential commissioner of this manuscript. If it had been intended as a presentation copy for the abbey in Einsiedeln, given that the chronicle is interpolated here with a Life of St Meinrad of Einsiedeln, then it can never have been sent, as the content of the second and third production units indicate that it remained in or around Konstanz.
At present, the watermarks used in the first section do not offer a sufficiently consistent picture to establish a secure date, although c. 1520 is likely. Watermark evidence does allow us to date the remainder of the manuscript. A second scribe copied ff. 59-88v c. 1515-1525, and the final section, ff. 89-98v, was copied by two main hands, and was added c. 1540.
2. Evidence of use includes occasional marginal annotations in a number of 17th-18th c. hands throughout.
3. No direct evidence for the modern provenance of the manuscript survives. A previous description asserts that it was once owned by the Leiner family in Konstanz, prominent pharmacists in the city in the nineteenth and twentieth century. That is plausible, as the Leiner were closely involved in the conservation of the city’s heritage (the Rosgartenmuseum, for example, was founded by Ludwig Leiner in 1870; Online Resources), but it cannot be verified through any material evidence in the manuscript.
I.
ff. 1-48 and 58v, Ain kurczen vorred, incipit (text abraded), “Die wyl ich [--- ---] alten herkomen vnd [---] der [---] vnd hochwirdig[en] stift Richenowe zů schriben (mit der hilff gottes) min feder bewegt habe. So vnderschaid ich also diße min arbait in dry thail. Der erst sol sin von den stifftern / ouch andern kúngen vnd herren. so ir gotzgavben dahin geopfret haben…”;
Gallus Öhem, Cronick des gotzhuses Rychenowe; this copy is incomplete: it lacks the dedicatory epistle at the start and breaks off mid-way through the account of abbot Erlebald (r. 823-38); the text corresponds to that ed. Brandi (1893) 4,20-48,12; for Öhem and his chronicle, see summatively Hillenbrand, 1989, and most recently, with comprehensive references and discussion of Öhem’s entire oeuvre, Eckhart, 2016, pp. 527-30. The earliest surviving manuscript of his Reichenau chronicle (now Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 15). All subsequent manuscripts, of which nine others which predate 1700 are known, are thought to derive ultimately from the Freiburg copy (see Brandi, 1893, pp. xxiii-xxviii). This copy is earlier in date than any of those manuscripts.
Gallus Öhem’s chronicle is a history of the Benedictine monastery Reichenau organized by the reigns of its abbots, from its foundation by St Pirmin in 724 through to its reform under Friedrich II von Wartenberg (d. 1453), followed by information pertinent to the noble families associated with the abbey. All kinds of historical, epigraphical, literary, and archival notes were taken up in chronological sequence into the chronicle, which represents a rich treasury of texts across different genres and source types from the long history of this famous monastery.
Its author, Gallus Öhem (1445-1522) studied at the universities in Freiburg and Basel before ordination to the priesthood, and then pursued a clerical career in Innsbruck and in Radolfzell on the Bodensee, the town of his birth. He was brought to the ancient Benedictine abbey of Reichenau to serve as a chaplain by its abbot Martin von Weißenburg (r. 1492-1508), who entrusted him with the composition of his chronicle and gave him access to the great Reichenau library and its archive. In 1505 he secured a prebend at Konstanz cathedral and moved there in 1508; he died in 1522, having moved again at some point in the meantime to Freiburg.
ff. 48-58, incipit, “Sant Mainrad ist ouch vnder Hettone in die ow komen ... Zů den zyten kayser Karoli des ersten vß franckrichischen kúng zů Roemischem kayser erwelt was zů Sulgen vff der Tonow …“;
Vita sancti Meginradi martyris, in German translation. Interpolated into Öhem’s Cronick des gotzhuses Rychenowe, uniquely in this copy, is a life of St Meinrad of Einsiedeln (d. 861), who came to Reichenau to study at its school under abbots Haito and Erlebald and was ordained there. The text of this life of Meinrad appears to be lightly adapted from that of a German translation made not after 1382 of the fourteenth-century Latin Vita sancti Meginradi martyris; that German text was quite widely circulated, not least as part of the “Sondergut” (i.e. additional lives not belonging to the original form of the collection) in manuscripts of Der Heiligen Leben, in which context it was first printed: see Klein, 1987, cols. 320-21, and Williams-Krapp, 1986, p. 443, s.v. ‘Meinrad’.
II.
ff. 59-88v, heading, Jhesus Christus amen, incipit, “Anno mccclxxx beschach zů Costentz am zwölfften tag der hailigen dry kúng tag ...; [f. 76], incipit, “Hie navch sind die Bischoff so denne vff dem bistum zů Costencz gewesen sind / das bistum ist aber des ersten gewesen by kayser Karlins zyten der denne zů Zúrich gesessen was…”; [f. 78], incipit, “Anno mccclxvjto an Sant Jacobs aubend do gab man ain mútt kornen …; [f. 84], incipit, “Friderich von Gottes gnaden Romischer kayser / Hochgeborner lieber Oehem vnd fúrst / Wiewol biß her so widerstand der Turggen ettwe vyl vnd menger tag gehalten vnd furnemen beschechen ist…”; [f. 87v], incipit, “Dise geschichten sind beschechen yegkliche schlacht oder ander seltzen sachen wie ir sy hören werdent yegkliche vff ir javrzal wie her nach stat…”;
Historiographical collectanea from Konstanz. These entries, annalistic notes and other assorted documents, all pertinent to the history of Konstanz and the Bodensee region in the later Middle Ages, are entered in one hand. The collectanea are divided into eight blocks, and are gathered from very many different sources, likely printed texts as well as manuscripts, to form a work not dissimilar in composition and historiographical focus, if rather less polished, to that of the Konstanz notary Beatus Widmer (d. c.1533), studied recently in detail by Eckhart, 2016. Careful scrutiny of the sources upon which the compiler of this manuscript drew would repay further study to understand the breadth of textual knowledge that underpins these collectanea.
The eight blocks are as follows: (i) ff. 59-75v, historiographical accounts of events in Konstanz and the Bodensee region in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, starting with an episode dated 1380 in which a man suffered a terrible haemorrhage, and was brought to church by his relatives for burial before he had actually died, whereupon the horrified priest called a doctor; the accounts are not in chronological sequence, and include some quite long entries, inter alia on a fraudulent alchemist who came to Schaffhausen in 1436 (ff. 71v-72v). (ii) ff. 76-77v, list of the bishops of Konstanz from St Konrad (r. 934-75) to the election of Hermann III. von Breitenlandenberg in 1466, with occasional annalistic notes. (iii) f. 78, miscellaneous notes on events of the years 1366-90, in German and in Latin, not in chronological order, including the appalling tale (in Latin) of a converted Jew in Konstanz, who in 1390 petitioned insistently and repeatedly to be burned for apostasy, and though considered insane, eventually had his request fulfilled. (iv) ff. 78v-79, list of the mayors of Konstanz 1370-1419, with occasional annalistic notes. (v) ff. 79v-83, miscellaneous notes on events 1430-65, with one final entry on 1384, mostly pertinent to the bishops of Konstanz and to papal and imperial affairs. (vi) f. 83v, legendary origin narrative of the foundation of Konstanz in the year 309, a text first found in the chronicle of Gebhard Dacher (d. 1471), as ed. Wolff, 2008, pp. 269-71, and taken over into several Konstanz chronicles of the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as noted and discussed by Eckhart, 2016, pp. 344-46 and 361-70. (vii) ff. 84-87, letter issued by Emperor Friedrich III at Graz, 22 December 1470, to invite the recipient to attend an imperial assembly at Regensburg and discuss the war against the Turks (see Friedrich III. Urkunden-Datenbank in Online Resources, below), followed by a list of all those thus invited. (viii) ff. 87v-88v, list of battles and other noteworthy events in the German south-west in the period 1372-1504, not in chronological order.
III.
ff. 89-98v, incipit, “Item das von annfang der welt biß zu Christus geburt funffthaúsent húndert /vnd neúnundzweinzig jar gewesen sind. Item von dem ersten kayser / Julio / sind sechsundsibentzig Romischer kayser gewesen…”;
Imperial history from Pippin and Charlemagne (r. 768-814) to Karl IV (r. 1346-78), interpolated towards the end with notes pertinent to the history of Württemberg, the imperial city of Esslingen, and the German south-west more broadly. The final entry concerns the actions of Duke Ludwig “the Black” of Pfalz-Zweibrücken in 1462 during the war for control of the archbishopric of Mainz (the “Mainzer Stiftsfehde”).
ff. 99-125v, incipit, “Item anno domini m cccc lxxiiij vff den herpst zoch der hertzog von purgund fúr Nüß vnder Köln iiij mil gelegen ob hundert tusent man zů roß vnd zů fuß vnd lag da in ainer kostlichen wagenburg…”; [f. 101v], “Item so daß ingend jar am Sonnentag kompt so wurt der winter warm vnd das glentz lucht …”; [f. 113v], incipit, “Anno domini m cc lxxxxo iij nonas decembris obijt Fridericus episcopus Constantiensis. Anno domini m ccc ij xiij kalendis octobris obijt Rudolphus comes senex comes de Montforti ….”
Historiographical collectanea, in German and Latin, in three discrete blocks: (i) ff. 99-101, annalistic notes pertinent to the years 1474-1519, commencing with events during the Burgundian Wars and concluding with the death of the emperor Maximilian and the expulsion of Duke Ulrich from Württemberg by the Swabian League; followed ff. 101-102v by prognosticatory texts discussed below. (ii) ff. 102v-113v, annalistic entries for 1386-1514, though with some towards the beginning recording events that took place earlier in the fourteenth century, and mostly concerning the towns of the Bodensee region; particularly extensive coverage is given to the Burgundian wars and to the imperial campaigns under Friedrich III and Maximilian against the Turks, but the latter entries record only meteorological conditions, their impact on agricultural production and the consequent fluctuation of prices. (iii) ff. 113v-125v, annalistic entries for 1282-1475, beginning as little more than a obituary list of the counts of Montfort and other regional notables, and becoming extensive only in the fifteenth century, with two further entries for 1493 and 1505 on the severely damaged and fragmentary leaves at the end of the manuscript (ff. 124v-125v). A final text added to the fragmentary f. 125v by a new hand notes, in Latin, the foundations of universities in the German lands (Heidelberg, Vienna, Prague, Cologne and Erfurt).
Two prognosticatory texts are interpolated into the set of historiographical entries. The first (ff. 101-102) is a so-called “Neujahrsprognose,” a widely transmitted late medieval German strand of a textual tradition with its roots in antiquity. The characteristics of the year ahead are presented according to the day of the week on which January began, working on the principle that each day was governed astrologically by a different planet; see Weisser, 1987, and Eis, 1956, pp. 24-25, with a German text related to this present manuscript edited pp. 66-68. The second prognosticatory text here (ff. 102r-v) predicts meteorological conditions and their agricultural consequences on the basis of thunder heard in different months. The same pair is transmitted together elsewhere (e.g. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 754, pp. 90-94 [copied 1466], or Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 796, ff. 54r-55v [copied c. 1540]).
Brandi, Karl, ed. Die Chronik des Gallus Öhem, Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der Abtei Reichenau 2, Heidelberg, 1893.
Eckhart, Pia. Ursprung und Gegenwart. Geschichtsschreibung in der Bischofsstadt und das Werk des Konstanzer Notars Beatus Widmer (1475-ca.1533), Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg, Reihe B: Forschungen 207, Stuttgart, 2016.
Eis, Gerhard. Wahrsagetexte des Spätmittelalters aus Handschriften und Inkunabeln, Texte des späten Mittelalters 1, Berlin/Bielefeld/Munich, 1956.
Hillenbrand, Eugen. “Öhem, Gallus,” 2Verfasserlexikon, vol. 7 (1989), cols 28-32.
Klein, Klaus. “‘Meinrad’,” 2Verfasserlexikon, vol. 6 (1987), cols 319-21.
Weisser, Christoph. “Neujahrsprognosen (Christtagsprognosen, ‘Esdras’ Weissagungen’),” 2Verfasserlexikon, vol. 6 (1987), cols 915-18.
Williams-Krapp, Werner. Die deutschen und niederländischen Legendare des Mittelalters. Studien zu ihrer Überlieferungs-, Text- und Wirkungsgeschichte, Texte und Textgeschichte 20, Tübingen, 1986.
Wolff, Sandra. Die »Konstanzer Chronik« Gebhart Dachers. »By des Byschoffs zyten volgiengen disz nachgeschriben ding vnd sachen…« Codex Sangallensis 646: Edition und Kommentar, Konstanzer Geschichts- und Rechtsquellen 40, Ostfildern, 2008.
Handschriftencensus, Gallus Öhem: ‘Cronick des gotzhuses Rychenowe’
https://handschriftencensus.de/werke/2843
Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 15 (Gallus Öhem, Wappenbuch (armorial), in part autograph, and Cronick des gotzhuses Rychenowe; 1505-08)
http://dl.ub.uni-freiburg.de/diglit/hs15
Friedrich III. Urkunden-Datenbank, records for letters of invitation issued 22 December 1470
http://f3.regesta-imperii.de/jahr.php?jahr=1470&monat=12&tag=22
Rosgartenmuseum: Geschichte
https://www.rosgartenmuseum.de/museum/geschichte/
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 754 (Neujahrs- und Donnerprognostik pp. 90-94)
https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de/list/one/csg/0754
TM 1150
