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.

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 187: Theological Text

Medieval parchment fragment with partial lines of text in a Gothic hand and in dark ink. The end of each line has a diagonal red line and there are red strokes on each initial. (recto)

One column visible with 21 visible lines, with bounding lines, with recto and verso ruled separately (with ink ?).

Penitential 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 212: Book of Hours

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment in brown ink and Humanistic script, written in Latin. It includes a border in gold and a word underlined in red. (recto)

Contents: Contains a long prayer to the Virgin, addressing moments of salvation history, each prefaced by an invocation, "Vera virgo et mater quae…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 203: Library stamp (partial)

Paper fragment of an oval-shaped library stamp with a shield that has a cross in the center.<br />

Contents: Fragment is a parallelogram.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 128: Devotional Text

Medieval parchment containing two pages of text written in one column in black ink. Initials written in red and blue inks (recto).

16 long lines, with bounding lines, ruled by opening from recto (flesh) with ink, outer margins pricking for even lines, double pricking for bottom 2…