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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

Finding Aids for Manuscript Collections

Cuneiform Tablets.

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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.

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​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

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

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

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

Pages from the Past Collection

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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

Celestial Hierarchy IX 10, 11, commentary on

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Contents: Companion to Frag. Man. 026, recto of fragment was original verso of codex.

Lections on the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Contents: Texts relate to her birth and early life.

Medical Text

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Contents: Table of Contents

Psalter

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Contents: Fragment contains parts of Pss. 68 and 70 with hierarchy accorded to the psalm "Salvum me fac," implying use in a liturgical context.

Missal

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Contents: Music: Blessing of Font.

Summa theologiae

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Explicit: Frag 072r //vel indirecte et per accidens directe quidem cum per se aliquid operatur . . . quedam vero sunt quibus perfectius//; Frag 072v…

Bible. Latin. [Biblia Latina] 1300.

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Parchment - 184 x 146 mm - 17 quires of 12 leaves each, except for quire 4 (of 10 leaves), quire 10 (of 8 leaves) and quire 16 (of 14 leaves). 2…

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