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.
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.
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.
Special Collections maintains a small collection of European manuscripts intended to demonstrate the physical characteristics of the manuscript books,…
Pages from the Past Collection
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 210: Calendar May, June
Contents: May: line 9, "secundum usum sarum.," line 11, "in festo reliquiarum eiusdem ecclesie sarum." Lessons counted up to nine; the "capitulum" of…
Fragmenta Manuscripta 004: Excerpts from Prophetae minores
Contents: Contains parts of Micah, Nahum, Habacuc. "top ctr: verso; right top: Habakkuk II; bottom right: 10th c E. A. Lowe" (Voigts, handwritten)
Fragmenta Manuscripta 024: Epistulae
Contents: Contains part of a letter of Arnulf of Lisieux to pope Alexander III.
Fragmenta Manuscripta 028: Psalter, glossed
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 194: Chess Diagrams
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 017: Decretals, glossed
Gloss from s. XIII(in); n.b. vertical strokes within letters.