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 197: Sermons on the deadly sins

Early medieval fragment of Greek text on parchment in a faint brown ink with marginal notes on the right side and a red design.<br />
(recto)

Script: Greek minuscule bouletee. Script is no later than the first quarter of the 10th century, and it might be copied at the very end of the 9th…

In Ioannis Evangelium tractatus

Contents: Contains the beginning of Tractatus 95 (PL 35:1870).

Carleton's almanack, (enlarged and improved) for the year of our Lord ... : calculated for the meridian of Boston ...

Fragmenta Manuscripta 041: Civil law with gloss

medieval manuscript leaf fragment written in two columns in brown ink on parchment, with heavy mars in black ink and several initials in red and blue (recto)

Script: Gothic

Fragmenta Manuscripta 045: Psalter, glossed

medieval manuscript leaf fragment in one column written in brown ink, with initials in red and blue and two letter sizes (recto)

Single column with 36 lines visible, alternating text and commentary, writing on top of grid, with bounding lines, ruling with leadpoint on recto…

Bible

Contents: Contains part of the book of Jeremiah.

Missal.

ff. 182 - Bound in a parchment leaf (see Part 2 of description) over boards. Paper - 210 x 155 mm - 15 long lines for most of the text; 11 long lines…