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.

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 071: Celestial Hierarchy IX 10, 11, commentary on

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

Fragmenta Manuscripta 012: Bible, glossed

Dimensions: 137 x 102 mmColumns: One column visible with nine lines and two columns visible with three lines (recto). Two columns with thirteen lines…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 125: Aurora

Medieval parchment fragment in one column written with brown ink and with two large initials, one in red and one in blue. (recto)

One column visible with 14 visible lines, with bounding lines plus 2 lines 5 and 10 mm to left of column to mark initial, with leadpoint ruling on…

Processional : (for the use of the Dominican sisters of St. Louis, Poissy).

168 leaves : parchment, ink, illuminations ; 160 mm x 105 mm

Calendar November, December

Contents: Contains many Irish saints (Malachy, Aed or Edani, Laurence, Berchan, Dimmoc, Finian, Boec written Mobeoc, Flannan, Samthand) among others…

Missal

Contents: Rubric regarding the sacrament of marriage.

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…