The medieval manuscripts in the monastery of Neustift

In 1142, Bishop Hartmann of Brixen, with the support of Reginbert von Säben, a local nobleman, built a new monastery at the crossroads of two important traffic routes, just a few kilometers from his episcopal seat: the Augustinian monastery of Neustift. It can be assumed that books were available there from the beginning, for practical everyday life in the monastery: to celebrate the liturgy, for common and personal prayer, for reading at the table and for the monastery school that was soon to be established. The first monastic book collection probably came from the possession of the bishop himself, who, as a former provost of the Augustinian monastery in Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria, also used his relations with his home monastery for book acquisitions. In the following centuries, the holdings increased steadily, due to lively in-house production, purchases and gifts of manuscripts, later also printed works. Particularly in the 15th century, Neustift Abbey experienced a cultural heyday, of which the richly illuminated manuscripts from the abbeys own scriptorium bear witness to this day. There had probably been a scriptorium at Neustift from the beginning, but it was only then that its good reputation was to spread far beyond the region. It is therefore not surprising that the Dominican friar Felix Faber from Augsburg recorded in his travel notes in 1483: "Neustift has a large church with precious vestments and a good library." Indeed, since the late Middle Ages, the Neustift library has been the largest and most important monastic library in the Tyrolean region, even though it suffered great losses in the course of the peasant wars in the 16th century, due to several fires and the temporary secularisation of the monastery in the early 19th century. Given the importance of the book collection, it may be surprising that this rich treasure trove of medieval manuscripts had not been systematically studied until now. The publication therefore presents the results of the multi-year cooperation project dealing with the 92 manuscripts kept in the Neustift monastery library today, funded by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and lead by the University of Philosophy and Theology in Brixen and the University and State Library in Innsbruck. With an interdisciplinary team of experts, the manuscripts were extensively examined in accordance with the guidelines of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The catalogue, which takes all codicological aspects into account, is supplemented by an extensive introduction, indices and appendices. Around 50 manuscripts originally from Neustift have been kept at the University and State Library in Innsbruck since 1809. Therefore, the publication sees itself as an essential contribution to the virtual reconstruction of the historic Neustift library and as important basic work for further research.