This collection comprises over 1,200 MSS and 35 examples spanning 24th c. BC to 19th c. AD are included here. Other examples in other collections, see f. inst. Collection 5.18, see f. inst. MS 2458, Chinese history, and the commentary in the Main Introduction.
MS in Latin and Elizabethan English on vellum and paper, London?, ca 1320-30, 14th c & late 16th c., with ca 1240 linefillers in red or blue including dragons blowing fire, grotesques, heads of kings, bishops, women, fishes, dogs, birds of prey, magpies, jays, thrushes, storks, owls, etc., in endless profusion and variety and 5 large historiated initials on burnished and tooled gold grounds with branching borders.
MS in Latin on vellum, Pisa, Italy, ca. 1310, 500 ff. (complete), signed by the scribe Phylippus on f. 223. Italian loose cursive script.
MS in Latin on vellum, probably Paris, France, 2nd half of 13th c. with large decorated initials at the start of every book and prologue in divided red and blue with very extensive penwork in both colours.
MS in Latin and Spanish (texts 2-3) on vellum, Northeast? Spain, ca. 1250 (text 1) and ca. 1400 (texts 2-3) with approximately 77 large illuminated initials in raised burnished gold on blue and pale red grounds with white tracery.
MS in Latin on vellum, Geraardsbergen, Cambrai, Belgium, ca. 1200, 2 vols., 201 ff. (complete) + 121 ff with one extremely large (full-page height) historiated initial in gold and colours by the Geraardsbergen Bible master.
MS in Latin on vellum, North Italy, 5th c., liturgical marginalia in a very small quarter-uncial with many ligatures, also 5th c.
MS in Sahidic on vellum, Egypt, ca. 500, 2 ff., 7x6 cm, single column, (6,0x4,5 cm), 14-15 lines in Coptic uncial.
MS in Sahidic on vellum, Sohag, Egypt, ca. 400, 13 ff. + 6 fragmentary ff., 20x16 cm, single column, (15x11 cm), 27 lines in a very fine large upright Coptic uncial, text partly indented "per cola et commata", 2 large calligraphic initials.
MS in Mesokemic (Middle Egyptian or Oxyrhynchite dialect) on papyrus, Oxyrhynchus region, Egypt, 1st half of 4th c., 39 ff. (- ca. 6 ff.), 23x20 cm, single column, (18x14-16 cm), 25-28 lines in a fine regular Coptic uncial.