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University of Missouri

Manuscript Collections

Special Collections maintains a small collection of manuscripts that date from antiquity to the present. The collection is intended to demonstrate the physical characteristics of the book before printing, and it contains a wide variety of scripts and materials from various time periods. From antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, the collection includes:

  • Eight cuneiform tablets from the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods
  • Around a dozen manuscripts in book form, ranging in date from ca. 1150 to ca. 1600
  • Over 200 leaves and fragments, including seventeenth century book collector John Bagford’s manuscript leaves and fragments, Fragmenta Manuscripta, dating from the eighth to the seventeenth century
  • A handful of leaves from the Koran, palm leaf manuscripts, and other examples of manuscripts from non-Western cultures

Libraries Catalog: Special Collections

Finding Aids for Manuscript Collections

Cuneiform tablets.

Clay tablet with wedge-shaped writing

Special Collections holds eight cuneiform tablets whose exact provenance is unknown. Six of the tablets date from the Ur III period (2100-2000 BCE),…

Fragmenta Manuscripta Collection.

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment with Latin text in brown and red links and early musical notation<br />

​Fragmenta Manuscripta is a collection of over 200 manuscript leaves and fragments dating from the eighth to the seventeenth century. Originally…

Literary and Historical Manuscripts

Special Collections holds modern manuscript materials in the form of books, correspondence, and personal papers. These materials were collected at…

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

Medieval manuscript page with black lettering, occasionally highlighted with blue or red

Special Collections maintains a small collection of European manuscripts intended to demonstrate the physical characteristics of the manuscript books,…

Pages from the Past Collection

Papyrus fragment with Greek letters in black ink

Pages from the Past is a collection of original manuscript and rare book leaves compiled and sold by a New York book dealer Alfred W. Stites from 1964…

Selected Items

Fragmenta Manuscripta 110: Consuetudinary

medieval parchment fragment written in one column with light brown ink. Large initial I written in red ink on the left margin and several smaller initials written in red and blue inks (recto).

One column visible with 20 visible lines, neither bounding lines nore ruling visible.

Breviary for Sarum use

Contents: Opening leaf of the book, at the first Sunday in advent, at vespers

Breviary with neumes

Contents: Music: Neumes

Fragmenta Manuscripta 039: Breviary

medieval manuscript fragment written in one column, in brown ink, with two blue initials (recto)

Contents: Text contains part of service for the feast of the Circumcision.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 013: Commentary on Canticle of Canticles

Medieval manuscript leaf fragment in one column, written in brown ink over aged parchment (verso)

Dimensions: 164 x 129 mmOne column with 25 lines visible, no bounding lines. Evidence of use in binding: appears to be pasted area 2 mm in (on…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 044: Bible commentary on the gospel of John

medieval manuscript leaf fragment in one column written in brown ink (recto)

Contents: The story of Lazarus; in same hand as Paris, Bibl. Nationale de France, lat. 5411.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 205: Notes

Early modern paper fragment in black ink with a Humanistic cursive hand written in Latin.<br />

Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Layout, f. 1r-v: One column visible with 14 visible lines, no ruling or bounding lines.

Lectionary

Contents: Contains readings for the feast of Cyprianus and Justina.

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