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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.

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 026: Celestial Hierarchy IX 10, 11, commentary on

Medieval manuscript leaf fragment on parchment, written in brown and red inks with large letter H initial in green (recto)

Contents: Original recto (now verso), " (pote)statibus, ubi alii superiores, alii inferiores constituti sunt … et primas, et medias, et ultimas";…

In Ioannis Evangelium tractatus

Contents: Contains the beginning of Tractatus 95 (PL 35:1870).

Fragmenta Manuscripta 046: Psalter, glossed

medieval manuscript fragment written in brown ink, with initials in green and red inks, and two letter sizes. Small hole on the parchment on the lower half (recto)

Single column with 22 lines of text visible, gloss alternates, but no ruling for glossed lines, bounding lines, with one outer line, 8mm out, ruling…

Fragmenta Manuscripta 041: Civil law with gloss

medieval manuscript leaf fragment written in two columns in brown ink on parchment, with heavy mars in black ink and several initials in red and blue (recto)

Script: Gothic

Bible

Contents: Contains Matthew 27:2; with designation for three Palm Sunday readers.

Fragmenta Manuscripta 200: Ownership note

Paper fragment with line of text in dark brown ink with the name of John Newton in Latin. (recto)

Contents: Ownership note in Latin, "Johanne Neuton hunc librum pertinet."

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 131: Sermon 93, De verbis Evangelii, Mt. 25:1-13

Medieval parchment fragment with text written in one column in brown ink (recto).

One column visible with 12 visible lines, with bounding lines, and with ruling on verso (flesh).

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