This blog will inform you about progress and upcoming projects

Please contact us if you have suggestions how to proceed and for the design of the website.


May 1, 2019
I updated the page on the Memoriale qualiter because I am currently working on this text.

Two interesting discoveries:

Sept. 8, 2017
I added a page on Augustine's, De cura pro mortuis gerenda because I currently uses this text in class. The list of manuscripts is not complete.

July 8, 2017
I added a page on Ps-Cyprian, De duodecim abusivis saeculi


Dec. 26, 2016

Currently working on the page on the Regula Benedicti

Dec. 25, 2016

The page on the Regula magistri is revised and updated.

Dec. 19, 2016

I added a new page on the Testimonia divinae scripturae et patrum.

Feb. 16, 2016

The page on the Regula Donati has been updated. The list of digitized manuscript collections contains now 608 libraries.

Feb. 7, 2016

The page on Smaragdus' Expositio in Regulam S. Benedicti has been revised. I have added hyperlinks to all available digital manuscripts. 11 of 62 manuscripts are available online.

Oct 18, 2013 (Albrecht)

There's a new project on manuscripts containing early medieval leges texts: Bibliotheca Legum, Database on Carolingian Secular Law Texts. It is is structured in a similar (though slightly more elaborate) way as the Monastic Manuscript Project. Here's a project description:

The “Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta” aspires to do so with a focus on the legal knowledge that was prevalent in the Francia. Descriptions of manuscripts which contain the so called “leges“ are presented on the website. At the moment there are 280 short descriptions available. In addition to that the database also provides a lot of contextualizing information and tries – for example by means of a comprehensive bibliography – to sum up the current state of research as complete as possible. Also external resources like online catalogues and digital images are included.

July 8, 2013 (Albrecht)
I just put my usual list of new publlications in late antique and early medieval studies (2012/2013) online.

July 3, 2013 (Albrecht)
Update of the Hildemar website: 75% of all chapters are now translated into English.
Courtney Booker pointed me to a new website: all digital manuscripts of the BN in Paris listed by shelfmark!

April 20, 2013 (Albrecht)
I added a new page with hyperlinks to all available volumes of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum.

January 3, 2013 (Albrecht)
I have spent most of my spare time of the last six months on the Hildemar project. Back to the Monastic Manuscript Project. The number of digitized manuscripts (or microfilms) available on the internet has vastly increased. I just discovered that the BN systematically puts its microfilms online. Click here, go on 'livres manuscrits', and enter the shelf mark number.
All revised pages contain hyperlinks to digitized manuscripts as far as they are available. All hyperlinks of list of online manuscript catalogues and the list of digital manuscript projects have been brought up to date. Most of the pages on monastic rules have been revised and brought up to date. The next step will be revising the shorter treatises and then the manuscript pages, even though many of them may have already become obsolete. Once this is done I will start adding new material.
I discoverd how it works to upload books that are available on google.books on archive.org, which is much more user friendly because it provides hyperlinks to every single page. The only thing needed is an account on archive.org. Holstenius, Menard's edition of the Concordia Regularum and several PL and PG volumes that contain important monastic texts will be soon accessible on archive.org.

August 9, 2012 (Albrecht)

The latin text of Hildemar's commentary is now complete on the Hildemar website.I am currently revising all pages with monastic rule in order of appearance in the Codex Regularum (Regula Pachomii is done).

July 13, 2012 (Albrecht)
The Hildemar Project, a collaborative translation of Hildemar's Expositio Regulae (a 9th-century commentary to the Regula Benedicti of 670 pages) went online - click here.
There is a new journal: The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies - click here.

July 7, 2012 (Albrecht)
A number of manuscripts of the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna are digitized and available on the net. They are rather difficult to find and their list is currently not searchable.

June 27, 2012 (Albrecht)
I completed the list of manuscripts of the Regula Basilii. The Codex Regularum (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbiblithek Clm 28118) is finally digitized and available online!

June 8, 2012 (Albrecht)
We moved to another web-address: www.earlymedievalmonasticism.org. If you have bookmarked our pages, we recommend to change your bookmark. If you find any bad links, please notify us.

May 16, 2012 (Albrecht)
The semester is over and I'll resume my work on the project. We (Julian Hendrix, Corinna Prior, Mariël Urbanus and I) have started a project for a collaborative translation of Hildemar's Commentary. If you want to join in and translate a chapter, please contact me (adiem@maxwell.syr.edu). I have published an updated list of new publications in late antique and early medieval studies (the post-Kalamazoo ritual). Hans Hummer will organize next year's early monastic sessions at the Kalamazoo conference. The working title is Breaking down enclosures - disregarding rules. An excellent new webproject which is not yet advertised enough is the Digitales Repertorium, a repertory of medieval texts and authors from the Carolingian period onwards.

Feb. 5, 2012 (Albrecht)
The page on Smaragdus' Diadema Monachorum is almost completed. Mariël Urbanus (Utrecht University) sent me a manuscript list for Hildemar's Expositio Regulae.

Jan. 29, 2012 (Albrecht)
I am currently working on a page on Smaragdus' Diadema Monachorum. Moreover, I add new links to the list of online library catalogues, mostly focusing on Italian manuscript catalogues. Another page in preparation lists the manuscripts of Grimlaichus' Regula Solitariorum.

Jan. 17, 2012 (Albrecht)
The links to the French manuscript catalogues (Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Departements, second series, 53 vols, Paris: Librairie Plon, 1886-1960 and Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Departements, first series, 7 vols, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1849-1885) are now complete. Click here.

Dec. 12, 2011 (Albrecht)
For some (amusing) negative feedback click here. The website handschriftencensus.de provides a good alternative to my list of digitized manuscript catalogues.

Nov. 20, 2011 (Albrecht)
I added a number of new online catalogues to my catalogue page and several new links to digital manuscript sites, including one with links to numerous digital manuscript projects in the US.

Nov. 16, 2011 (Albrecht)
I just updated my page on Augustine's De opere monachorum, added links to all available catalogues and did a quick survey on the contexts in which this work appears the manuscripts described. This page will become a model for future text-pages. The manuscript catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale is remarkably user-unfriendly but very handy, once you have figured out how it works: click "Département des Manuscrits" - "Latin" - "Latin or Nouvelles acquisitions latines" and then narrow down on the selfmark.

Nov. 13, 2011 (Albrecht)
Finally some time to continue. I just launched an update of the online monastic bibliography (click here) and worked on Augustine's Rules. I also added several new online cataluges to the catalogue page (click here).

Sept. 13, 2011 (Albrecht)
Things slow down quite a bit because of the beginning of the semester. Currently I am working on Augustine's Rules. Since more and more catalogues are online on archive.org, I will focus more on text-pages and provide links to online catalogues. The links to French library catalogues are almost complete. Click here.

August 29, 2011 (Albrecht)
Paris, BN and London, British Library started to turn their manuscript catalogues into databses (not yet complete but very useful).
New page: Benedict of Aniane, Concordia Regularum.

August 14, 2011 (Albrecht)

I started a new page with direct links to manuscript catalogues available on the internet, which is especially useful for the French municipal libraries: click here. New page: Pomerius, De vita contemplativa (not yet complete).

August 6, 2011 (Albrecht)

Ephraem and Ps. Ephraem are in the system. If anyone works on these texts, please let me know.

August 2, 2011 (Will)

The search function has been modified so that it no longer has a search button, but will perform the search directly after a selection has been made. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions to that effect. A search category for manuscripts by date is in the testing stage of development and will be added soon.

July 28, 2011 (Albrecht)

I added text pages on the six sermons of Ephraem Latinus (almost complete) and a series of manuscripts containing these texts, which are remarkably wide spread and combined with all sorts of different monastic treatises.

July 22, 2011 (Albrecht)

The descriptions of Codices Regularum is almost complete, at least the Austrian tradition. I started working on the Latin corpus of Ephraim the Syrian and added new preliminary descriptions on two Ephraem collections, St. Gallen Stiftsbibliothek 92 and 93.

July 10, 2011 (Albrecht)

Will just added a new search function on provenance, which works perfectly. Manuscripts that can be located at a specific place can be also found by searching a region of a country, for example Bobbio manuscripts can be found both under Bobbio and under Italy (north).
I am currently adding new hyperlinks to manuscript databases and digitized images.

July 9, 2011 (Albrecht)

The project-page and the link-page are online. The link-page should also serve as a list of resources for the studies of early medieval monasticism. I sent a request on academia.edu to provide us with links to useful resources.
I started revising the manuscript pages to erase errors and repair bad links.B

July 6, 2011 (Albrecht)
The new version of the website is launched. Once I will have access to a library again (after July 17), I will work on all the lacunas marked with $$$$ and continue filling the database with new manuscript and text descriptions.

On the list are:
  • all missing regulae (Regula Aureliani ad virgines, Regula consensoria, the missing Mss. of Augustine's Regulae
  • all missing codices regularum (the Salzburg-mss etc.)
  • Benedict of Aniane's Concordia Regularum.


Albrecht Diem