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 208
Binding: Not bound.
Other decoration, f. 1r-v: Monogram.
Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Script, f. 1r-v: Anglicana.
Layout, f. 1r-v: Verso has one…
Fragmenta Manuscripta 133: Civil Law commentary
Two columns with 38 visible lines, with bounding lines, with leadpoint ruling on verso (ruling not visible on verso).
Fragmenta Manuscripta 214: Legal document
Binding: Not bound.
Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Script, f. 1r-v: Cursive.
Layout, f. 1r-v: One column visible with 10 lines of text with 2…
Fragmenta Manuscripta 127: Philosophical Text
One column visible with 26 visible lines, with bounding lines, recto and verso ruled separately with brown crayon.
Medical Text
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 131: Sermon 93, De verbis Evangelii, Mt. 25:1-13
One column visible with 12 visible lines, with bounding lines, and with ruling on verso (flesh).