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

Fragmenta Manuscripta 210: Calendar May, June

Medieval manuscript fragment on parchment in red and brown links with an initial "KL" in blue with red decoration. Ruling in lead is visible on the parchment. (recto)

Contents: May: line 9, "secundum usum sarum.," line 11, "in festo reliquiarum eiusdem ecclesie sarum." Lessons counted up to nine; the "capitulum" of…

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…

Regulations for Monks

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 214: Legal document

Medieval manuscript fragment on rectangular parchment in faint brown ink with one column of 10 lines of text and two signatures.<br />
(recto)<br />

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…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 128: Devotional Text

Medieval parchment containing two pages of text written in one column in black ink. Initials written in red and blue inks (recto).

16 long lines, with bounding lines, ruled by opening from recto (flesh) with ink, outer margins pricking for even lines, double pricking for bottom 2…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 205: Notes

Early modern paper fragment in black ink with a Humanistic cursive hand written in Latin.<br />

Number of scribes, f. 1r-v: 1.
Layout, f. 1r-v: One column visible with 14 visible lines, no ruling or bounding lines.

Legal Treatise