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.

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

Bible. Latin. [Biblia Latina] 1300.

Parchment - 184 x 146 mm - 17 quires of 12 leaves each, except for quire 4 (of 10 leaves), quire 10 (of 8 leaves) and quire 16 (of 14 leaves). 2…

Sententiarum libri

Contents: Contains commentary on Ps. 134 (see PL 191:1187B). Reverse of this fragment is illegible.

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 ?).

Fragmenta Manuscripta 208

Medieval manuscript fragment of a monogram "WR" with a looped design on paper<br />

Binding: Not bound.
Other decoration, f. 1r-v: Monogram.
Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Script, f. 1r-v: Anglicana.
Layout, f. 1r-v: Verso has one…

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.

Meditationes

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 123: Treatise on Tumors

Medieval parchment fragment in one column written in black in, with two decorative borders and paragraph markers in red and blue inks. (recto)

One column visible with 15 visible lines, bounding lines, with no visible ruling.

Celestial Hierarchy IX 10, 11, commentary on

Contents: Companion to Frag. Man. 026, recto of fragment was original verso of codex.

Browse More Items

University of Missouri

Special Collections and Archives