Christ Pantocrator seated in a capital "U" in anilluminated manuscript from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany (fromc. 1220).Image of two facing pages of the illuminated manuscript of "Isagoge", fols. 42b and 43a. On the top of the left hand page is an illuminated letter "D" – initial of "De urinarum differencia negocium" (The matter of the differences of urines). Inside the letter is a picture of a master on bench pointing at a raised flask while lecturing on the "Book on urines" of Theophilus. The right hand page is only shown in part. On its very bottom is an illuminated letter "U" – initial of "Urina ergo est colamentum sanguinis" (Urine is the filtrate of the blood). Inside the letter is a picture of a master holding up a flask while explaining the diagnostic significance of urine to a student or a patient. HMD Collection, MS E 78.Inside the letter is a picture of a master in cathedra expounding on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. Initial "V" rendered as "U" of "Vita brevis, ars vero longa", or "Life is short, but the art is long". "Isagoge", fol. 15b. HMD Collection, MS E 78.
Amanuscript (abbreviatedMS for singular andMSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand ortypewritten, as opposed to mechanicallyprinted or reproduced in some indirect or automated way.[1] More recently, the term has come to be understood to further includeany written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.[2]
Before the arrival of prints, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps,music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations.
The word "manuscript" derives from theLatin:manūscriptum (frommanus,hand andscriptum fromscribere, towrite), and is first recorded in English in 1597.[3][4] An earlier term in English that shares the meaning of a handwritten document is "hand-writ" (or "handwrit"), which is first attested around 1175 and is now rarely used.[5] The study of the writing (the "hand") in surviving manuscripts is termedpalaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations areMS for manuscript andMSS for manuscripts,[6][7] while the formsMS.,ms orms. for singular, andMSS.,mss ormss. for plural (with or without the full stop, all uppercase or all lowercase) are also accepted.[8][9][10][11] The seconds is not simply the plural; by an old convention, a doubling of the last letter of the abbreviation expresses the plural, just aspp. means "pages".
A manuscript may be acodex (i.e.bound as a book), ascroll, or bound differently or consist of loose pages.Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.
Shelfmark or Signature in holding library (as opposed to printed Catalog number). Paper size number often precedes signature number with acirculus (degree symbol) following, but many libraries prefer spelling out the word (sometimes only in abbreviation) of the paper size (e.g. Fol[ia]., Qu[arto], Oct[avo, etc.). Some libraries use an equal sign instead of the circulus and may change the side on which the paper size number appears (8=3456 vs 3456=8) for indexing purposes.
Before the inventions of printing, in China bywoodblock and in Europe bymovable type in aprinting press, all written documents had to be both produced and reproduced by hand. In the west, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls (volumen in Latin) or books (codex, pluralcodices). Manuscripts were produced onvellum and other parchment, onpapyrus, and on paper.
Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, and by the late 15th century had largely replaced parchment for many purposes there. When Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were sometimes made simultaneously by scribes in ascriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud.
The oldest written manuscripts have been preserved by the perfect dryness of their Middle Eastern resting places, whether placed withinsarcophagi in Egyptian tombs, or reused asmummy-wrappings, discarded in themiddens ofOxyrhynchus or secreted for safe-keeping in jars and buried (Nag Hammadi library) or stored in dry caves (Dead Sea scrolls). Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of theVilla of the Papyri inHerculaneum. Manuscripts inTocharian languages, written on palm leaves, survived in desert burials in theTarim Basin of Central Asia.
Ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries ofantiquity are virtually all lost. Papyrus has a life of at most a century or two in relatively humid Italian or Greek conditions; only those works copied onto parchment, usually after the general conversion to Christianity, have survived, and by no means all of those.
Originally, all books were in manuscript form. In China, and later other parts of East Asia,woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is theDiamond Sutra of 868. In the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450.[clarification needed] Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive. Private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. Because of the likelihood of errors being introduced each time a manuscript was copied, thefiliation of different versions of the same text is a fundamental part of the study and criticism of all texts that have been transmitted in manuscript.
InSoutheast Asia, in the first millennium, documents of sufficiently great importance were inscribed on soft metallic sheets such ascopperplate, softened by refiner's fire and inscribed with a metal stylus. In thePhilippines, for example, as early as 900 AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus, but were punched much like the style of today'sdot-matrix printers.[citation needed] This type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the metal document in the hot, humid climate. InBurma, the kammavaca, Buddhist manuscripts, were inscribed on brass, copper or ivory sheets, and even on discarded monk robes folded and lacquered. InItaly some importantEtruscan texts were similarly inscribed on thin gold plates: similar sheets have been discovered inBulgaria. Technically, these are all inscriptions rather than manuscripts.
In the Western world, from theclassical period through the early centuries of theChristian era, manuscripts were written without spaces between the words (scriptio continua), which makes them especially hard for the untrained to read. Extant copies of these early manuscripts written inGreek orLatin and usually dating from the 4th century to the 8th century, are classified according to their use of either allupper case or alllower case letters.Hebrew manuscripts, such as theDead Sea scrolls make no such differentiation. Manuscripts using all upper case letters are calledmajuscule, those using all lower case are calledminuscule. Usually, the majuscule scripts such asuncial are written with much more care. The scribe lifted his pen between each stroke, producing an unmistakable effect of regularity and formality. On the other hand, while minuscule scripts can be written with pen-lift, they may also becursive, that is, use little or no pen-lift.
Islamic manuscripts were produced in different ways depending on their use and time period.Parchment (vellum) was a common way to produce manuscripts.[13] Manuscripts eventually transitioned to using paper in later centuries with the diffusion of paper making in the Islamic empire. When Muslims encountered paper in Central Asia, its use and production spread to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa during the 8th century.[14]
4,203 ofTimbuktu's manuscripts were burned or stolen during the armedconflict in Mali between 2012 and 2013. 90% of these manuscripts were saved by the population organized around the NGO "Sauvegarde et valorisation des manuscrits pour la défense de la culture islamique" (SAVAMA-DCI).[15] Some 350,000 manuscripts were transported to safety, and 300,000 of them were still inBamako in 2022.[16][17] An international consultation on the safeguarding, accessibility and promotion of ancient manuscripts in theSahel was held at theUNESCO office in Bamako in 2020.[15][16]
Most surviving pre-modern manuscripts use the codex format (as in a modern book), which had replaced the scroll byLate Antiquity.Parchment orvellum, as the best type of parchment is known, had also replacedpapyrus, which was not nearly so long lived and has survived to the present almost exclusively in the very dry climate ofEgypt,[Note 1] although it was widely used across the Roman world. Parchment is made of animal skin, normally calf, sheep, or goat, but also other animals. With all skins, the quality of the finished product is based on how much preparation and skill was put into turning the skin into parchment. Parchment made from calf or sheep was the most common in Northern Europe, while civilizations in Southern Europe preferred goatskin.[19] Often, if the parchment is white or cream in color and veins from the animal can still be seen, it is calfskin. If it is yellow, greasy or in some cases shiny, then it was made from sheepskin.[19]
Vellum comes from theLatin word vitulinum which means "of calf"/ "made from calf". For modern parchment makers and calligraphers, and apparently often in the past, the terms parchment and vellum are used based on the different degrees of quality, preparation and thickness, and not according to which animal the skin came from, and because of this, the more neutral term "membrane" is often used by modern academics, especially where the animal has not been established by testing.[19]
Merovingian script, or "Luxeuil minuscule", is named after an abbey in Western France, theLuxeuil Abbey, founded by the Irish missionary StColumbac. 590.[20][21]Caroline minuscule is acalligraphic script developed as a writing standard inEurope so that theLatin alphabet could be easily recognized by the literate class from different regions. It was used in theHoly Roman Empire between approximately 800 and 1200. Codices, classical and Christian texts, and educational material were written in Carolingian minuscule throughout theCarolingian Renaissance. The script developed into blackletter and became obsolete, though its revival in the Italian renaissance forms the basis of more recent scripts.[19] InIntroduction to Manuscript Studies, Clemens and Graham associate the beginning of this text coming from the Abby of Saint-Martin atTours.[19]
Caroline Minuscule arrived in England in the second half of the 10th century. Its adoption there, replacingInsular script, was encouraged by the importation of continental European manuscripts by SaintsDunstan,Aethelwold, andOswald. This script spread quite rapidly, being employed in many English centres for copying Latin texts. English scribes adapted the Carolingian script, giving it proportion and legibility. This new revision of the Caroline minuscule was called English Protogothic Bookhand.Another script that is derived from the Caroline Minuscule was the German Protogothic Bookhand. It originated in southern Germany during the second half of the 12th century.[22]All the individual letters are Caroline; but just as with English Protogothic Bookhand it evolved. This can be seen most notably in the arm of the letter h. It has a hairline that tapers out by curving to the left. When first read the German Protogothic h looks like the German Protogothic b.[23] Many more scripts sprang out of the German Protogothic Bookhand. After those came Bastard Anglicana, which is best described as:[19]
The coexistence in the Gothic period of formal hands employed for the copying of books and cursive scripts used for documentary purposes eventually resulted in cross-fertilization between these two fundamentally different writing styles. Notably, scribes began to upgrade some of the cursive scripts. A script that has been thus formalized is known as abastard script (whereas a bookhand that has had cursive elements fused onto it is known as a hybrid script). The advantage of such a script was that it could be written more quickly than a pure bookhand; it thus recommended itself to scribes in a period when demand for books was increasing and authors were tending to write longer texts. In England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many books were written in the script known as Bastard Anglicana.
From ancient texts to medieval maps, anything written down for study would have been done with manuscripts. Some of the most common genres were bibles, religious commentaries, philosophy, law and government texts.
"The Bible was the most studied book of the Middle Ages".[24] The Bible was the center of medieval religious life. Along with the Bible came scores of commentaries. Commentaries were written in volumes, with some focusing on just single pages of scripture. Across Europe, there were universities that prided themselves on their biblical knowledge. Along with universities, certain cities also had their own celebrities of biblical knowledge during the medieval period.
Abook of hours is a type of devotional text which was widely popular during the Middle Ages. They are the most common type of surviving medievalilluminated manuscripts. Each book of hours contain a similar collection of texts,prayers, andpsalms but decoration can vary between each and each example. Many have minimal illumination, often restricted to ornamentedinitials, but books of hours made for wealthier patrons can be extremely extravagant with full-pageminiatures. These books were used for owners to recite prayers privately eight different times, or hours, of the day.[25]
Along with Bibles, large numbers of manuscripts made in the Middle Ages were received in Church[clarification needed]. Due to the complex church system of rituals and worship these books were the most elegantly written and finely decorated of all medieval manuscripts. Liturgical books usually came in two varieties. Those used during mass and those for divine office.[19]
Most liturgical books came with a calendar in the front. This served as a quick reference point for important dates in Jesus' life and to tell church officials which saints were to be honored and on what day.
In the context oflibrary science, a manuscript is defined as any hand-written item in the collections of a library or an archive. For example, a library's collection of hand-written letters or diaries is considered a manuscript collection. Such manuscript collections are described in finding aids, similar to an index or table of contents to the collection, in accordance with national and international content standards such asDACS andISAD(G).
In other contexts, however, the use of the term "manuscript" no longer necessarily means something that is hand-written. By analogy atypescript has been produced on a typewriter.[26]
In book, magazine, and music publishing, a manuscript is anautograph or copy of a work, written by an author, composer or copyist. Such manuscripts generally follow standardized typographic and formatting rules, in which case they can be calledfair copy (whether original or copy). The staff paper commonly used for handwritten music is, for this reason, often called "manuscript paper".
In film and theatre, a manuscript, orscript for short, is an author's or dramatist's text, used by a theatre company or film crew during the production of the work's performance or filming. More specifically, a motion picture manuscript is called a screenplay; a television manuscript, a teleplay; a manuscript for the theatre, a stage play; and a manuscript for audio-only performance is often called a radio play, even when the recorded performance is disseminated via non-radio means.
In insurance, a manuscript policy is one that is negotiated between the insurer and the policyholder, as opposed to an off-the-shelf form supplied by the insurer.
About 300,000 Latin, 55,000 Greek, 30,000 Armenian and 12,000 Georgian medieval manuscripts have survived.[27]National Geographic estimates that 700,000 African manuscripts have survived at theUniversity of Timbuktu inMali.[28]
^"ms", "ms." and "MS"Archived 13 March 2016 at theWayback Machine in The Free Dictionary (American Heritage 2011 and Random House Kernerman Webster's 2010). Accessed 12 March 2016.
^"MSS", "mss" and "mss."Archived 13 March 2016 at theWayback Machine in The Free Dictionary (American Heritage 2011, Collins 2014 and Random House Kernerman Webster's 2010). Accessed 12 March 2016.
^"MSS"Archived 13 March 2016 at theWayback Machine (MS. and ms., MSS. and mss.) in Dictionary.com LLC(Random House 2014 and Collins 2012). Accessed 12 March 2016.
^Buringh, Eltjo; Van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2009). "Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries".The Journal of Economic History.69 (2):409–445.doi:10.1017/s0022050709000837 (inactive 1 December 2024).S2CID154362112.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link) (see p. 416, table 1)
^Brown, Michelle P. (1991).Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.ISBN9780802077288.
^Brown, Michelle P.A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600. Toronto,1990.
^Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. "English Protogothic Bookhand." In Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. 146–147.
^Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. "German Protogothic Bookhand." In Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. 149–150.
^Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1983), xxvii
^Coulie, Bernard (2014). "Collections and catalogues of Armenian manuscripts". In Calzolari, Valentina (ed.).Armenian philology in the modern era : from manuscript to digital text. Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden: Brill. p. 24.ISBN9789004259942.OCLC872222210.
^Pass, Gregory. Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2002.
Manuscripts of Lichfield Cathedral – Digital facsimile of the 8th-century St Chad Gospels and Cathedral's 15th-century Wycliffe New Testament, 2010. Includes the ability to overlay images captured with 13 different bands of light, historical images (starting in 1887), and multispectral visualizations. Also includes sixteen interactive 3D renderings. College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky
