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 056: Civil law with gloss

medieval manuscript leaf written in black and brown inks with red and blue initials in two columns (recto)

Two columns with 49 lines, grid dimensions 207 X 49, with 10 mm between columns, with bounding lines, ink ruling on recto (flesh)

Fragmenta Manuscripta 217: Lectionary

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment with two columns of Latin text in Gothic script, one line of red text, and two initialis in red and blue.<br />
(recto)

Two columns of 27 lines, with bounding lines, horizontal lines extend through center, all vertical and top 2 and bottom 2 horizontal lines extend to…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 034: Pontifical

Medieval manuscript leaf fragment on parchment, written in dark brown ink in one column and with lines in red ink. One part has an alphabet in capital letters (recto)

Contents: Dedication of a church with numerals, written as Greek letters, some of which were dropped from the Ionic ABCs in s. XI;

Ordinale

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…

Book of Ruth

In Jewish tradition there are five megillot (scrolls) that are read on five different holidays. All of them unrolled using a single roller, instead of…