Original manuscripts
35 leaves from medieval manuscripts, 13th-16th centuries
Includes leaves from Bibles, books of hours, psalters, breviaries, and antiphoners
Leaf from a French book of hours, ca. 1490
Ethiopian codex
Undated (possibly ca. 1900) but made in the style of European medieval manuscripts. Vellum pages are pricked and ruled, gathered into quires, and bound in wooden boards.
English indenture on parchment, 1639
Selected manuscript facsimiles
St. Gall Gospel
8th-century Insular manuscript made in Ireland or by Irish monks in Switzerland
Codex Runicus
Scandinavian law text written in runes, ca. 1300
Trinity Apocalypse
13th-century illustrated manuscript in Anglo-Norman, possibly made for Queen Eleanor of England
Book of Beasts: MS Bodley 764
13th-century English illuminated bestiary
Holkham Bible Picture Book
14th-century Anglo-Norman manuscript
The Vernon Manuscript
Late-14th-century English illustrated manuscript of religious and didactic texts
The Ellesmere Chaucer
Early-15th-century manuscript of the Canterbury Tales
Les Passages d'Outremer
15th-century French romance set during the Crusades
British Library Egerton MS 747
Italian herbal, ca. 1300
Dante, Divine Comedy
14th-century manuscript in the hand of Giovanni Boccaccio
John Lydgate, The Life of St. Edmund
Illustrated poem presented to King Henry VI in 1433 by the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds
The Macclesfield Alphabet Book
15th-century English calligraphy book showing 14 different decorative alphabet
Die Schriftmuster des Laurentius Autenrieth (1520, facsimile)
A model book of different scribal hands
Leonhard Wagner, Proba centum scriptuarum
German calligraphy model book, early 16th century
Lisbon Bible
Illuminated Bible in Hebrew, 1482
The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry
15th-century French book of hours
The Grandes Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry
15th-century French book of hours
The Rohan Hours
15th-century French book of hours
Book of Hours of Engelbert of Nassau
15th-century Flemish book of hours
Farnese Hours
Illuminated manuscript created by Giulio Clovio for cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1546
Early European printing
23 leaves from European printed books, 15th-16th century
Leaf from a French prayer book in Latin, ca. 1500
Example of printing on vellum
Two leaves from a psalm book printed on vellum, ca 1500
Gutenberg Bible (1456, facsimile)
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493, facimile)
Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499, facsimile)
Landmark of early typography and book design
Biblia pauperum (facsimile)
Example of a fifteenth-century book in which each page of text and image were printed with a single wooden block
Petrarca, Il Canzoniere and I trionfi (1470, facsimile)
Example of a hand-illustrated printed book
Isaac Abravanel, Rosh amanah (1505)
Hebrew text printed in Constantinople; at present, the library's oldest complete original book
Jacob Köbel, Dialogus libertatis ecclesiastice defensorius (1516)
Melchior Pfintzing, Die Abenteuer des Ritters Theuerdank (1517, facsimile)
Leonhart Fuchs, The New Herbal (1543, facsimile)
Pliny, Historia Mundi (1545)
Excellent example of similarities and differences between medieval and Renaissance letterforms and book design
Cicero, Rhetoricorum ad C. Herrenium (1550)
Printed by the publishing house of Aldus Manutius, one of the most important early printers
Vergil, Aeneid (1575)
Includes numerous corrections made by hand; useful for debating whether textual errors declined with the advent of printing
Related materials
Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies
Claire Travers, Beginning Illumination: Learning the Ancient Art Step by Step
Stan Knight, Historical Scripts: from Classical Times to the Renaissance
Michelle Brown, The Historical Source Book for Scribes
Timothy O'Neill, The Irish Hand: Scribes and their Manuscripts from the Earliest Times
Michelle Brown, Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age
Martin Stevens, The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation
Peter Brieger, The Trinity College Apocalypse: An Introduction and Description
Kurt Barstow, The Gualenghi-d'Este hours : art and devotion in Renaissance Ferrara
Peter Kidd, Books of Hours
