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.

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 134: Civil Law

Medieval parchment fragment with text in two columns written in black ink, with initials in red and blue inks.

Two columns with 50 visible lines, with bounding lines, with recto and verso ruled separately with leadpoint.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 177: Instructions to his son

Paper, 161 x 208 mm. One column with 3 seven-line stanzas, plus 5 lines of a fourth stanza visible. No bounding lines or ruling visible.Missing leaf…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 183 & Fragmenta Manuscripta 185: De Secretum Secretorum

183: Parchment - 173 x 117 mm - Two columns with 22 visible lines, with bounding lines, with ink ruling on recto (hair)

Fragmenta Manuscripta 033: On Catholic Faith against Manicheans and Donatists

Medieval manuscript leaf fragment written in dark brown ink on parchment, in two columns, with two large initials in red and blue (recto)

Provenance: John Bagford (1650s-1716) to St. Martin-in-the-Fields; sale 1861 to Sir Thomas Phillipps, n.15758; his sale 22 May, 1913, lot 742; Sir…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 113: Civil Law with gloss

Medieval parchment fragment in one column written in brown ink that has a partly erased blue initial. L-shaped column of text written in black ink is on the right side, forming a second column (recto).

One column of text with 23 visible lines, 1 column of commentary with 39 visible lines, with bounding lines and recto and verso ruled separately with…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 194: Chess Diagrams

Medieval parchment fragment with a checkerboard in red link, of which 15 squares have abbreviations for the positions of chess pieces. (recto)

Grid of 8 X 8 squares in red ink, recto and verso, diagrams on recto and verso largely coincide but laid out separately.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 210: Calendar May, June

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment in red and brown links with an initial "KL" in blue with red decoration. Ruling in lead is visible on the parchment. (recto)

Contents: May: line 9, "secundum usum sarum.," line 11, "in festo reliquiarum eiusdem ecclesie sarum." Lessons counted up to nine; the "capitulum" of…