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University of Missouri

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.

Clay tablet with wedge-shaped writing

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

Philosophical Text

Contents: Contains a discussion on free will.

Bible, glossed

Contents: Contains part of Ecclesiasticus chapters 11 and 12.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 154: Decretals

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment with two columns of text, written in Gothic script, and with four red and blue initials. Marginalia present on the parchment (recto)

Contents: Contains letters to bishops.

Breviary for Sarum use

Contents: Opening leaf of the book, at the first Sunday in advent, at vespers

Missal

Contents: Music: Blessing of Font.

Bible, verbal index to

Contents: Contains part of the letter S, including this series, "Succedentia, Succedens, Successus" and this series, "Succingere, Succingi,…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 195: Legal document

Medieval paper fragment on brown ink in a secretarial cursive script that has nine lines of text. There is a word written on the lower right margin of the fragment. (recto)

No ruling or bounding lines.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 029: Psalter

Medieval manuscript leaf fragment in black ink with red letters and a large ornamental initial D (recto)

Contents: Text begins with Ps. 37:20, "sunt super me," etc.; contains Pss. 37-39.

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