Medieval Manuscripts at Wilson Special Collections Library: Background Information

The word "manuscript" is derived from the Latin words manus ("hand") and scribere ("to write"), meaning "written by hand." In the scope of this research guide, a manuscript is any document, leaf, scroll, codex, or book written by hand.

Before the invention of the printing press, all codices, scrolls, and documents were written completely by hand. This required extensive amounts of time, and many full books, also called codices, took years to complete. In the medieval period, monks and nuns in monasteries were often completing the work of copying by hand text recorded in an existing manuscript to a new manuscript. Very commonly, they were copying religious texts. Common genres recorded in medieval manuscripts from western Europe include liturgical texts, religious commentaries, philosophy, law treatises, and governmental texts.

While this guide focuses primarily on western manuscript materials, it is important to recognize that vibrant manuscript cultures were also very active throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia during concurrent historical periods. The content of this guide is influenced by the bias toward western manuscript materials in the historic collecting and curation practices of the library.

This guide focuses on manuscripts produced during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, from approximately the 10th century to the 16th century.

• In the west, the earliest surviving manuscripts are papyri from Ancient Egypt, produced around 2500 BCE. Papyrus was also later used by the Ancient Romans, but since papyrus is so fragile and sensitive to changes in climate, it has survived almost exclusively in the dry climate of Egypt. Papyrus manuscripts were often stored rolled up into scrolls.
• During late antiquity (defined as approximately the 3rd-8th centuries CE), papyrus was replaced by a sturdier writing material called parchment, which is made from stretched animal skins. This is also part of the reason why the codex, or bound book, replaced the scroll as the dominant medium for manuscripts around the same period.
• During the late 1400s, the invention of Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized the dissemination of writing, and manuscripts were no longer the only way to produce and distribute writing. Even then, however, a vibrant manuscript culture lived on in Europe, just on a smaller scale.

A list of commonly encountered terms when reading about manuscripts.

• Papyrus: writing material made from the pith of the papyrus plant, similar to thick paper. A very fragile material due to its sensitivity to environmental and temperature changes.
• Parchment: writing material made from untanned, stretched skins of animals, especially cows, goats, and sheep.
• Vellum: parchment of especially fine quality, made from the skins of young animals such as calves and lambs.
• Codex: an early form of the modern book; a stack of pages bound on one side.
• Facsimile: a reproduction of a rare book, manuscript, piece of art, or other historical object, produced with the intent of appearing as close to the original as possible.
• Illumination: decorations to a manuscript, especially gold gilding, penwork flourishes, borders, and miniature pictures. The person responsible for these decorations is known as the illuminator.
• Rubrication: the addition of red penwork flourishes to a manuscript to show emphasis. The person responsible for this decoration is known as the rubricator.
• Paleography: an academic field dedicated to the study, analysis, and dating of historical handwriting.
• Recto: the righthand side of a book, or the front side of a leaf of paper or parchment (recto = "right" in Latin)
• Verso: the lefthand side of a book, or the reverse side of a leaf of paper or parchment.
• Manicule: a handwritten or typographic mark representing a hand with a pointing index finger, often found in the margins of manuscripts to direct the reader's attention to important text.