Online Manuscript Collections
US and UK Libraries
Balliol College Archives and Manuscripts, Oxford
Mynors’ catalogue of Western Medieval, Oriental & Early Modern Manuscripts
Bodleian Library, Oxford University
Digital Bodleian
Digital Bodleian is an effort to make portions of the Bodleian’s extraordinary library collections open to a wide variety of users from around the world for learning, teaching and research.
Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
Access to over 80 early manuscripts now in institutions associated with the University of Oxford.
Modern Archives and Manuscripts
Archives and manuscripts from the 19th and 20th centuries, including items from the Oxfam Archive and Christ Church’s Lewis Carroll Collection.
Children’s Toys Related to Writing
Board games, writing blanks, etc.
Manuscript music
Search the Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts
British Library
Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
Time period 1000–1500
Notebook (‘The Codex Arundel’)
A collection of papers written in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, d. 1519), in his characteristic left-handed mirror-writing (reading from right to left), including diagrams, drawings and brief texts, covering a broad range of topics in science and art, as well as personal notes.
Digital Scriptorium
Home Page
A growing consortium of American libraries and museums committed to free online access to their collections of pre-modern manuscripts.
DMMapp
Digitized Medieval Manuscripts
A worldwide directory of medieval manuscripts; an independent initiative dedicated to simplifying access to digitized medieval manuscripts.
Folger Shakespeare Library
List of resources and material
Harvard University
Harvard Houghton Library
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
Harvard Law School Library
Early Manuscripts
Medieval and Early Manuscripts 1150–1600
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Manuscripts
Western European manuscripts: Manuscripts in Latin and vernacular languages, with particular strengths in manuscripts from Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Eastern Christian manuscripts: Manuscripts from Eastern Christianity’s historic cradle and areas of early expansion in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, with important holdings in Armenian, Coptic, Church Slavonic, Geʻez, and Syriac.
Islamic manuscripts: Manuscripts from communities in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and other languages.
Buddhist & Hindu manuscripts: Manuscripts from Nepal and Laos in Hindi, Lao, Malay, Malayalam, Nepali, Newari, Pali, Sanskrit, and other languages.
Malta manuscripts: Manuscripts and archival material related to the history of Malta and of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from libraries and archives in Malta, Europe, and throughout the Mediterranean region.
Special Collections: More than 11,000 printed books and hundreds of manuscripts that support HMML’s global field work in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Used for teaching and research, the Special Collections include five distinct collections with materials spanning the ancient to modern periods.
School, Lesson Basics, Paleography Scripts Classes
HMML School teaches about scripts and manuscripts, introducing learners to the sciences of paleography and codicology.
Lexicon
Terms used in manuscript studies.
Huntington Library
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
The Norman Blake Editions is a series of online editions which present full diplomatic transcriptions of the key, surviving manuscripts of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
King’s College London, Department of Digital Humanities
DigiPal
A new resource for the study of medieval handwriting, particularly that produced in England during the years 1000–1100, the time of Æthelred, Cnut and William the Conqueror. It is designed to allow you to see samples of handwriting from the period and to compare them with each other quickly and easily.
Princeton University
Manuscripts
The National Archives, UK
Discovery
Discovery holds more than 37 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 3,500 archives across the country. Over 9 million records are available for download.
Trinity College
The James Catalogue Of Western Manuscripts
University of Cambridge
Cambridge Digital Library
“Cambridge University Library collections represent an invaluable contribution to world heritage spanning four thousand years of human thought. Cambridge Digital Library seeks to open up this knowledge to the widest possible global audience, for research, for education or for simple curiosity and wonder.” Dr. Jessica Gardner, University Librarian and Director of Library Services.
University College London
Medieval & Early Modern Manuscripts And Printed Books
University of Glasgow, Special Collections
Manuscripts Catalogue
University of Leeds, Special Collections
Medieval Manuscripts
University of Michigan
Brut Chronicle
The celebrated Chronicles of England, or “Brut Chronicle,” is the earliest prose chronicle in English and was the most popular history of England in the Middle Ages. The Chronicle traces the history of Britain from its earliest (mythical) time (Albinia), including stories of legendary kings such as Brutus of Troy (hence its name), Lear and Arthur, and is quite detailed for the period starting with the reign of Edward I.
Middle English Compendium
The Middle English Compendium contains three Middle English electronic resources: the Middle English Dictionary, a Bibliography of Middle English prose and verse, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
The University of York, The University of Oxford, The University of Sheffield
Late Medieval English Scribes
An online catalogue of all scribal hands (identified or unidentified) which appear in the manuscripts of the English writings of five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve.
The Wellcome Library, Wellcome Collection
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Handwriting History 