Both Karl Egon II and his son, Karl Egon III (1820-1892) were keen collectors: in 1853 Karl Egon III purchased the collection of Joseph, Freiherr von Lassberg (see above), a collection so vast that he had to move the local government offices elsewhere and convert the whole of the building into a Library. The main line of the Fürstenberg hereditary princes became extinct in 1804 when Prince Karl Egon II (1796-1854) from the Bohemian branch of the family became its head. It was he who bought the castle at Donaueschingen in 1488, a fortress built beside the source of the Danube, and who entertained the Emperor there with a feast and carnival in 1499. The earliest recorded member of the family to collect books was Graf Wolfgang von Fürstenberg (1465-1509) who purchased manuscripts on his diplomatic travels in the service of the Emperor Maximilian I. The grand library of the Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen was one of the finest in private hands. 191, and subsequently, once the fragments were recovered, MS. (5) The Fürstliche Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek, Donaueschingen: its MS. He collected a library of upwards of 12,000 books and 273 manuscripts. (4) Baron Joseph Maria Christoph von Lassberg (1770-1855), the noted German antiquary and collector. The majority of the Constance Cathedral manuscripts were sold to Weingarten Abbey in 1630, but the Sacramentary with the present fragments was retained by the Cathedral until it was sold to: Presumably by the middle of the 15th century it was cut up and used as binder's waste, since the six fragments of the present leaf were used in Donaueschingen MS.191, a splendid 9th-century Sacramentary written probably at Reichenau and still in its medieval Constance Cathedral binding. Ours is likely the 'Item VI libri biblie in uno volumine de litera multum antiqua' in the Constance catalogue of 1343. (3) Constance Cathedral: a number of manuscripts were transferred to Constance in the late 13th century (Lehmann, Mittelalt. The famed library of Reichenau on Lake Constance must be counted among the richest in Carolingian Europe. Bibliothekskataloge, p.256) and others suggest that the parent codex may be the 'Liber prophetarum quem Hiltiger de Italia adduxit' mentioned in a Reichenau list of books acquired during the abbacy of Erlebald (823-838). (2) Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau, Constance: Paul Lehmann (see Lehmann, Mittelalt. (1) Written in an important but unidentified scriptorium in northern Italy in the 5th century: the marginalia show that it was used liturgically, making it a testament to one of the earliest records of Christian worship. The central piece was recovered in 1909 and the five surrounding pieces were found in the same binding in 1920. B.I.3) by the German Benedictine palaeographer Alban Dold (1882-1960). The present fragments were recovered from the binding of Donaueschingen MS. Six fragments forming part of a single leaf, c.170 x 150mm overall, blind-ruled for two columns (of three) of 18 lines (of 23) written in brown ink in a superb classical uncial hand, marginalia in a 5th-century small quarter-uncial with many ligatures, sketch of a branching stem in corner of recto (recovered from a binding and consequently defective and glue-stained, some wormholes and cuts, vellum worn and transparent, text very faded but perfectly legible). 'Without qualification, this is a piece of the most important biblical manuscript that one could ever conceive owning' (C. The oldest known manuscript of Ezechiel 20 in Latin and the oldest western manuscript in private hands: an exceptional survival of the highest historical importance with unbroken provenance from the great libraries of Reichenau, Constance Cathedral and Donaueschingen. BIBLE, Ezechiel, in Latin, manuscript on vellum
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