Medieval Manuscripts Collection

Fully digitized manuscripts can be accessed through two online repositories. All of the individually-cataloged leaves, cuttings, and fragments are available through Digital Commonwealth, as are a number of bound manuscripts. A further group of bound manuscripts have been digitized by, and are accessible through Internet Archive.

Study-quality sample images of every manuscript in the collection can be accessed through the gallery below. Where available, links to fully digitized online copies are also included. Additional images of each manuscript are available by request.

Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts: Image Gallery

Image (at top of page): detail from MS pb Med. 206

General Searching

General searches can retrieve many results, providing a broad overview of the Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts Collection. You can filter search results by date, call number, author, etc.

Every item in the collection

To see a list of every item in the collection, try the search:

Title: Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)

Only manuscript fragments

To see a list of items that are fragmentary parts of formerly intact manuscripts, including single leaves, search:

Title: Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction) AND subject: Early manuscript fragments

Only complete manuscripts

To see a list of substantially complete, bound manuscripts and single-piece items like scrolls and documents, search:

Title: Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction) NOT subject: Early manuscript fragments

ADVANCED SEARCHING

BY COUNTRY

Manuscripts can be searched geographically by place of origin. Each manuscript is tagged by country, based on modern-day national borders.

By language

Manuscripts in the collection can be searched by language. Manuscripts are tagged by language based on content and certain manuscripts might contain content in multiple languages.

Detailed Descriptions

In 2011, Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis was retained by the library to analyze and describe the collection. Most of the bibliographic records currently in the BPL online catalogs are based on Dr. Davis' descriptions, all of which are available, in full, by request.

All records in the BPL online catalogs -- whether transcribed from the work of Dr. Davis, or generated by BPL catalogers -- were formulated according to the guidelines set forth in Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts (AMREMM). These rules were published by the Rare Books and Manuscript Section (RBMS) Bibliographic Standards Committee and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in 2003.