Research
SGBN Library Catalogue
The Abbey Library holdings can be searched in the St.Gallen library union catalogue.
Please note that specialist literature on specific St.Gallen manuscripts has been allocated a keyword. You can use our search guide (in German) to search for literature on the manuscript that interests you.
Incunabula Catalogue
In 1880 Gustav Scherrer published the first printed catalogue of Abbey Library incunabula and early prints up until 1520:
The incunabula and early prints have now been digitally catalogued and can be searched in the Online SGBN Catalogue. Thanks to the re-cataloguing, the number of incunabula can now be estimated more accurately. There are about 1'100 incunabula in the Abbey Library holdings.
e-rara
In cooperation with the Cantonal Library Vadiana, the Abbey Library makes digitised copies of prints produced at the monastery as well as early prints made in the canton of St Gallen available on e-rara, the platform for digitised prints from Swiss institutions.
From 1633 until the dissolution of the monastery, the Abbey of St Gall had its own printing works for treatises, theological tracts, schoolbooks and educational publications, prayer booklets, editions of deeds and mandates. By 2023, some 600 St Gall monastery prints will be available on e-rara.
Manuscripts catalogues
In 1875 the St.Gallen scholar and high school teacher Gustav Scherrer (1816‒1892) published the first printed catalogue of the manuscripts of the Abbey Library:
The catalogue records the entire manuscript holdings of the Abbey Library at that time, amounting to 1725 numbers.
The 259 manuscripts received in the following hundred years were described in a supplement catalogue according to modern principles:
Die
Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek St.Gallen. Codices 1726–1984
(14.–19. Jahrhundert), bearb. von Beat M. von Scarpatetti, St.Gallen
1983.
The new cataloguing begun thereafter includes the following printed volumes so far (of the series «Die Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek St.Gallen»):
Bd.
1: Abt. IV: Codices 547–669. Hagiographica, Historica, Geographica 8. –
18. Jahrhundert, bearb. von Beat M. von Scarpatetti, Wiesbaden 2003.
Bd. 2: Abt. III/2: Codices 450–546. Liturgica, Libri precum, deutsche Gebetbücher, Spiritualia, Musikhandschriften 9. – 16. Jahrhundert, bearb. von Beat M. von Scarpatetti unter Mitarbeit von Philipp Lenz, Wiesbaden 2008
Bd.
3: Abt. V: Codices 670–749. Iuridica, kanonisches, römisches und
germanisches Recht. Bearb. von Philipp Lenz und Stefania Ortelli,
Wiesbaden 2014.
The manuscripts that came into the possession of the Abbey Library in the last decades (from Cod. Sang. 1985 onwords) are exclusively catalogued online using Alma/SLSP. The entire old holdings have been catalogued again in the same system on the basis of Scherrer (1875) and Scarpatetti (1983) at a minimal level. The descriptions in Alma/SLSP can be viewed on the search interface swisscollections.
e-codices
The digitisation project «e-codices – Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland» was launched in 2005 at the University of Fribourg with the pilot project «Digital Abbey Library of St Gall». Today, Switzerland’s oldest virtual library is a high-quality, science-based, technically innovative research platform and ranks among the most prestigious projects in the digital humanities. The finest, most significant manuscripts can be found on e-codices, including some of the world-famous holdings in the Abbey Library.
The Art Collections
The Catholic Denomination Within the Canton of St.Gallen owns valuable collections of art objects ranging in date from abbey times to the present day. The abbey sought to match its library with a cabinet of curiosities. The cathedral, in particular, has an outstanding historical collection reflecting cultural life in the former monastic community, whose abbots were also territorial overlords. After dissolution in 1805, in the early days of the diocese, these treasures were enriched by a significant collection of Late Gothic panel paintings.
Most of the prints and drawings in the Abbey Library collection can be searched in the Online SGBN Catalogue.