About Us
The Schøyen Collection crosses borders and unites cultures, religions and unique materials found nowhere else. The Collection, based in London and Oslo, contains over 20,000 significant manuscripts of major cultural importance and is an important part of the world’s heritage.
There is no public collection that has the Schøyen Collection’s unique array of manuscripts from all the greatest manuscript hoards, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Cairo Genizah of Hebrew MSS, The Oxyrhynchus hoard of classical papyri, the Dishna Biblical papyri, The Nag Hammadi Gnostic papyri, the Dunhuang hoard of Buddhist MSS, and many others. Nor is there one with such a variety, geographically, linguistically and textually, and of scripts and writing materials, covering so a great span of time — 5,000 years of history.
The Schøyen Collection was started around 1920 by Engineer M.O. Schøyen (1896-1962), father of Martin Schøyen, who collected some 1000 volumes of early and later editions of Norwegian and international literature, history, travel, science, as well as antiquities.
Martin Schøyen first extended the collection with ancient coins, antiquities, early printed books and incunables. From that beginning, he went on to acquire important manuscripts that can now be found across the themes and categories presented on this website.
The latest additions to the Schoyen Collection have included movie scripts and storyboards, and examples of modern classical virtual notation in the Music collection.
- ADVANCED MANUSCRIPT SEARCH
- 1. Bible
- 2. History
- 3. Literature
- 4. Palaeography
- 4.1 Early Writing
- 4.2 Greek Book Scripts
- 4.3 Latin Book Scripts
- 4.3.1 Roman Scripts
- 4.3.2 National or Relgional Scripts
- 4.3.3 Carolingian Minuscule
- 4.3.4 Romanesque
- 4.3.5 Gothic
- 4.3.6 Italian & Humanistic
- 4.3.7 East European
- 4.4 Latin Documentary Scripts
- 4.5 Greek & Other
- 4.6 Aramaic, Hebrew & Syriac
- 4.6.1 Proto-Canaanite / Early Phoenician
- 4.6.2 Aramaic
- 4.6.3 Jewish Aramaic
- 4.6.4 Hasmonean Hebrew
- 4.6.5 Herodian Hebrew
- 4.6.6 Hebrew Square
- 4.6.7 Semi-Cursive Hebrew
- 4.6.8 Rabbinic Cursive
- 4.6.9 Samaritan
- 4.6.10 Syriac Estrangela
- 4.6.11 Syriac Sertâ
- 4.6.12 Syriac Rabbinic
- 4.6.13 Christian Palestinian Aramaic / Palestinian Syriac
- 4.6.14 Mandaic
- 4.6.15 Manichaean
- 4.6.16 Angelic Script
- 4.7 Arabic
- 4.8 Native American
- 5. Patristic Literature
- 6. Liturgy
- 7. Music
- MUSIC NOTATION
- 7.1 Sumerian Music
- 7.2 Babylonian Cuneiform
- 7.3 Ancient Greek
- 7.4 Byzatine Notation
- 7.5 Metz (Messine)
- 7.6 North French
- 7.7 Aquitanian Neumes
- 7.8 Palaeo-Frankish (St Amand)
- 7.9 St Gallen Neumes
- 7.10 Toscana Neumes
- 7.11 Bologna Neumes
- 7.12 Beneventan Neumes
- 7.13 Catalan Neumes
- 7.14 Cistercian Neumes
- 7.15 English Neumes
- 7.16 Metz-Gerrman Gothic
- 7.17 Hufnagel / German Gothic
- 7.18 'Tête de Marteau' Notation
- 7.19 Square Notation
- 7.20 Praha Notation
- 7.21 Estergom Notation
- 7.22 Wroclaw Notation
- 7.23 Mensural Notation
- 7.24 Tablature Notation
- 7.25 Old Russian Neumes
- 7.26 Osmanic Letter Notation
- 7.27 Vedic Numeric Hand
- 7.28 Koto Notation
- 7.29 Chinese Gongchi
- 7.30 Graphic Notation
- 7.31 Virtual Notation
- COMPOSERS AT WORK
- 7.32 Renaissance Music
- 7.33 Baroque Music
- 7.34 Classical Period
- 7.35 Romanticism
- 7.36 Modern to 1950
- 7.37 Contemporary
- 8. Law
- 9. Mathematics
- 10. Magical Literature
- 11. Calendars & Almanacs
- 12. Dead Sea Scrolls
- 13. Scribal Activity & Learning
- 14. Papyri & Ostraca
- 15. Bindings & Bookboxes
- 16. Seals
- 17. Apocryphal Literature
- 18. Nordic Countries
- 18.1 Norway
- MS 566/1
- MS 1385
- MS 2151
- MS 2116/2
- MS 2118/1
- MS 2526/3
- MS 2119/1
- MS 2113
- MS 2223/16 (Seals)
- MS 1281 (Music)
- MS 1576 (Palaeography)
- MS 2913 (Calendars)
- MS 2222/3 (Calendars)
- MS 2222/2 (Calendar)
- MS 1570 (Palaeography)
- MS 2128 (History)
- MS 2132 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 4473 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2114 (Literature)
- MS 2526/1 (Literature)
- MS 2115/1 (Literature)
- MS 2120/4 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2120/1 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2526/2 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2774 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2138 (Smaller Collection)
- MS 4471 (Smaller Collection)
- MS 5272/1 (Smaller Collections)
- MS 2117/3 (Literature)
- MS 2140 (Smaller Collecitons)
- MS 2306 (Bible)
- MS 2255 (Smaller TBA)
- 18.2 Sweden
- 18.3 Denmark & Greenland
- 18.4 Finland
- 18.5 Iceland
- 18.1 Norway
- 19. Dictionaries & Lexical Texts
- 20. China
- 21. Pre-Gutenberg Printing
- 22. Buddhism
- 23. Religions
- 24. Smaller Collections
- 24.1 Architecture
- 24.2 Books of Hours
- 24.3 Letters
- 24.4 Legends & Proverbs
- 24.5 Children's Literature
- 24.6 Library Catalogues
- 24.7 Maps
- 24.8 Marine Life
- 24.9 Medical Texts
- 24.10 Miracles & Saints
- 24.11 Peerage Genealogies
- 24.12 Roman Military Diplomas
- 24.13 Ships & Seamanship
- 24.14 Slavery
- 24.15 Weights & Measures
- 24.16 Wine & Beer
- 24.17 Women Authors
- 24.18 Miscellaneous