The Weinberg Memorial Library Special Collections is proud to own a small collection of medieval manuscripts. This web site presents selected images and physical descriptions for three medieval manuscripts. Most medieval manuscripts were created between the fall of the Roman Empire through the 15th century. Printed books became popular during the second half of the 15th century and the manuscript tradition began to die out, although manuscript books continued to be produced well into the print era.

The physical descriptions present detailed information on the size, construction and contents of the manuscripts. This type of information is used by scholars of medieval books, also known as codicologists, in order to, among other reasons, compare manuscripts created in the same geographical area at approximately the same time. Consequently, codicologists use detailed internal information to attempt to localize a manuscript. The images provide an idea of the physical appearance of the pages. The University of Scranton manuscripts range from 200 pages to more than 1000 and consequently only a few images from each could be included. Most medieval manuscripts did not contain painted images and only one manuscript in this collection contains such paintings.

For further information on this web site or on the University of Scranton medieval manuscript collection please contact Special Collections Librarian Michael Knies at (570)-941-6341 or E-Mail him at: Michael.Knies@Scranton.edu