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.
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
De orthographia
Contents: Verso - Contains the end of Priscian's De nomine (column B, line 14), followed by three passages relating to grammar, of which the second is…
Fragmenta Manuscripta 038: Pontifical
Contents: Contains part of the service for the dedication of a church. See London, BL Add 28188 (Ramsey ?) and CCC 44 (Canterbury)
Fragmenta Manuscripta 013: Bible commentary on Canticle of Canticles
Contents: Contains part of chapter 3.
Fragmenta Manuscripta 044: Bible commentary on the gospel of John
Contents: The story of Lazarus; in same hand as Paris, Bibl. Nationale de France, lat. 5411.
Fragmenta Manuscripta 026: Celestial Hierarchy IX 10, 11, commentary on
Contents: Original recto (now verso), " (pote)statibus, ubi alii superiores, alii inferiores constituti sunt … et primas, et medias, et ultimas";…
Breviary
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…
Sententiarum libri
Contents: Contains commentary on Ps. 134 (see PL 191:1187B). Reverse of this fragment is illegible.
Fragmenta Manuscripta 214: Legal document
Binding: Not bound.
Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Script, f. 1r-v: Cursive.
Layout, f. 1r-v: One column visible with 10 lines of text with 2…