Skip to navigation Skip to content

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

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

Fragmenta Manuscripta 183: Medical Text

Medieval parchment fragment written in two columns of text with lines of Gothic script in Latin written in a dark black ink. (recto)

Script: Gothic

Fragmenta Manuscripta 207: Receipt, invoice

Early modern manuscript receipt on brown ink with three lines of text. Stamp of a thistle on dark brown ink is on the top left corner. (recto)<br />

Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Script, f. 1r-v: Humanistic cursive.
Layout, f. 1r-v: No ruling or bounding lines.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 108: Bible

Medieval parchment fragment written in two columns with black and red inks, with some initials in red and blue. A large initial letter depicts a king playing a harp with a blue background (recto).

Two columns with 42 visible lines, neither bounding lines nor ruling are discernable.

Contents: Beginning of the psalter, with Pss. 1-5 (recto),…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 049: Bible, glossed

Contents: Contains Philippenses 2, with commentary.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 055: Bible, glossed

Medieval manuscript on aged parchment with two colums of black Gothic script, one large goldleaf initial and one large blue initial. (recto)

Contents: Contains part of Act; main text has gloss; none on the prologues.

Lectionary

Contents: Contains readings for the feast of Cyprianus and Justina.

Resumptio from Book of Common Legal Forms

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 216: Psalter

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment with 12 lines of Latin text in Gothic script and alternating initials in red, blue, and green. (recto)

Contents: Frag 216v Contains Ps. 97:2-7; Frag 216r Contains Ps. 98:3-7.

Browse More Items