{"id":57423,"date":"2026-06-16T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=57423"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:31:12","slug":"the-1412-inventory-of-the-manuscripts-of-amelungsborn-abbey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2026\/06\/16\/the-1412-inventory-of-the-manuscripts-of-amelungsborn-abbey\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1412 inventory of the manuscripts of Amelungsborn Abbey"},"content":{"rendered":"

I reported yesterday on the discovery of two new sermons by St Augustine in a Latin manuscript in a monastery in Poland<\/a>.\u00a0 One statement in the press release is also of great interest.\u00a0 The discoverer, Prof. Christian Tornau, of the University of W\u00fcrzburg, stated:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAn old catalogue from the monastery mentions a text that bears the same headings and has the same sequence of content as our manuscript. It could have served as a model,\u201d the researcher explains. Tornau cannot confirm this assumption with absolute certainty, however, as the entire library holdings of Amelungsborn Monastery were destroyed by fire during the Thirty Years\u2019 War (1618-1648).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The “old catalogue” in question is the inventory of 1412 of the Cistercian Abbey of Amelungsborn. This takes a little locating.<\/p>\n

The inventory is listed in a catalogue of surviving medieval inventories, published by Theodor Gottlieb, Ueber mittelalterliche Bibliotheken<\/em> (1890 – online here<\/a>).\u00a0 Amelungsborn is on p.18-19:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The footnote reads:<\/p>\n

Im Anniversarienbuch sind 7 Schenkungen von B\u00fcchern aufgef\u00fchrt; dies wird pg. 18 gesagt. \u2013 Ferner ist auf einer Seite des Catal. ein Verzeichniss von B\u00fcchern mit der Ueberschr.: Hii de Corbeja<\/em>, (von woher sie nach D\u00fcrres Vermuthung \u00a0zur Abschr. entlehnt waren).<\/p>\n

The anniversary book lists seven donations of books; this is mentioned on page 18. Furthermore, on one page of the catalogue, there is a list of books with the heading: “Hii de Corbeja<\/em>” (from where, according to D\u00fcrre’s presumption, they were borrowed for copying).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The inventory of 1412 is preserved, then, in a manuscript, once in the Ducal Library in Wolfenb\u00fcttel, today in the Nieders\u00e4chsisches Landesarchiv (NLA) where it has the shelfmark “Nieders\u00e4chsisches Landesarchiv Wolfenb\u00fcttel VII. B. 111<\/a>.”\u00a0 A monochrome microfilm is online<\/a>.\u00a0 Each image is two pages: the catalogue is right at the end, on pages 101-105, i.e. images 54-56.\u00a0 Here is the start of it:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nieders\u00e4chsisches Landesarchiv Wolfenb\u00fcttel VII. B. 111, folio 101r, top (image 54)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The inventory has been printed, but those seeking it may find that it can take a bit of time to locate thanks to a pleasant custom in 19th century German scholarship, whereby the author publishes the article twice under the same title in the same year but with different contents.\u00a0 So it has been here.<\/p>\n

The actual article, that contains a transcription of the inventory of 1412, is this:<\/p>\n

\n

H. D\u00fcrre, \u201cBeitr\u00e4ge zur Geschichte der Cistercienserabtei Amelungsborn\u201d, Programm des herzoglichen Gymnasiums zu Holzminden<\/em>. Ostern 1876<\/a>, p. 3-24; esp. 19-24.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This may be downloaded from here<\/a>, and the inventory starts on page 19 thus:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the unwary or unlucky researcher will search Google for “D\u00fcrre Beitr\u00e4ge zur Geschichte der Cistercienserabtei Amelungsborn” or something of the sort and will be presented with this:<\/p>\n

\n

H. D\u00fcrre, \u201cBeitr\u00e4ge zur Geschichte der Cistercienserabtei Amelungsborn\u201d, Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins f\u00fcr Niedersachsen. 1876<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In this volume, Dr D\u00fcrre’s article is the fourth, begins on p.179, and ends on 212, omitting the transcription of the inventory altogether.\u00a0 It was only when you start to search for Programm des herzoglichen Gymnasiums zu Holzminden that you will make progress.<\/p>\n

Looking at the inventory, the entry for the new sermons is on p.22, line 220 of the printed inventory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The manuscript:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
NLA WO VIII B 111, fol. 103r, column 2, part way down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there is the reference explained.<\/p>\n

I think we will all be very interested to see the text of Dr Tornau’s discovery in full!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I reported yesterday on the discovery of two new sermons by St Augustine in a Latin manuscript in a monastery in Poland.\u00a0 One statement in the press release is also of great interest.\u00a0 The discoverer, Prof. Christian Tornau, of the University of W\u00fcrzburg, stated: \u201cAn old catalogue from the monastery mentions a text that bears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[255,1075,1582],"class_list":["post-57423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-augustine","tag-manuscripts","tag-st-augustine"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}