medieval manuscripts
Ancient handwritten books
Medieval manuscripts are handwritten books or documents produced in Europe roughly between the 5th and 15th centuries, before the printing press.
Scribes copied texts onto parchment or vellum, often in monasteries.
Many feature illuminations—decorative illustrations, borders, and ornate initial letters in gold leaf and vivid pigments.
The library's collection includes several medieval manuscripts of Chaucer.
- parchmentTreated hide for manuscripts
- vellumPrepared calfskin for writing
- animal skinBeast's outer covering
- scriptoriumMonastery manuscript workshop
- monastic ordersCommunities bound by vows
psalter · book of hours · sacred texts · codex · paleography · dead languages · Lindisfarne Gospels · gold leaf · manuscripts · monasticism · Gothic art · digitization · ink · marginalia · colophon · Book of Kells · hagiography · bestiary
- ancient documentsscroll, scrolls, papyrus, papyrus scrolls, parchment
- ancient mapsold maps, nautical charts, world maps, ancient maps, portolan charts
- church artaltarpieces, altars, crucifixes, crosses, reliquaries
- early art workscave paintings, petroglyphs, illuminated manuscripts, frescoes, mosaics
- illustration stylesilluminated manuscripts, woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithography
- library collectionsrare books, manuscripts, illuminated manuscripts, first editions, printed books
medieval manuscriptsprinted books
Published physical reading material
Gutenberg Bible · incunabula · offset printing · movable type
medieval manuscriptspostmodern literature
Self-referential, fragmentary contemporary fiction
medieval manuscriptse-books
Electronic publications
electronic documents · PDFs · Kindle books · websites · digital archives