Medieval Manuscripts at the Folger

Browse medieval manuscripts in the catalog

This link to the catalog is a pre-programmed search that will show the medieval manuscripts in the collection.

Related Folgerpedia articles

For a 2019/2020 class project, students described medieval manuscript fragments at the Folger.

For details about the Macro Manuscripts, containing three of the surviving morality plays written in English before 1500, see the Macro Manuscripts page.

Digitized medieval manuscripts

During the Folger's construction project (2020-2023), a selection of twenty-nine pre-modern manuscripts were placed on deposit at the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts in Philadelphia. During the 2021-2022 academic year, these items were given enhanced metadata by staff at Penn's Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS), were digitized by staff at Penn's Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (SCETI), and were added to the Folger Shakespeare Library collection in OPenn, Penn's open access repository for primary digital resources. (These digital images will also be added to the Folger Shakespeare Library's own digital image library at a future date. Please use the digitized copies in OPenn for now.)

Folger call number	Folger catalog record link	Description	Notes from Penn	OPenn online images	OPenn TEI XML (metadata)	OPenn Data folder
V.a.76	Catalog record	Gesta Romanorum manuscript, ca. 1450. (England, ca. 1450)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.77	Catalog record	Gesta inclita Tyrii Appollonii regis (ca. 1450, England, perhaps early 15th century.)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.82	Catalog record	Elegiae (compiled ca. 1500, Italy, late 15th century.)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.83	Catalog record	De arte amandi manuscript, ca. 1400? / Ovidius. (Italy, Italy, late 14th century (de Ricci); ca. 1400?)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.84	Catalog record	Appollogeticus ... etc. manuscript, 1504. (England, Written in London, 1504, by Peter Meghen of Bois-le-Duc, Brabant, for Christopher Urswick, dean of Windsor and King Henry the VII's almoner; 1504)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.88	Catalog record	Selected works of Cicero manuscript, ca. 1465. (Italy, ca. 1460 (de Ricci))	A selection of shorter works by Marcus Tullius Cicero, alongside his translation of Plato's Timaeus	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.102	Catalog record	Latinae linguae elegantiarum compendium ... etc. manuscript, ca. 1455. (Italy, Text was copied by Cristoforo Schioppo of Verona, and probably produced in Italy, near the end of the 15th century; ca. 1455)	An exemplar of a classically inspired “modern” text on Latin grammar, Agostino Dati’s Elegantiolae (here falsely attributed to the rhetorician Lorenzo Valla) is introduced by a pen-and-ink stele with the name of the presumed author of the text inscribed in Roman capitals	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.106	Catalog record	Ad Herennium rhetorica manuscript, 15th century / Marcii Tullii Ciceronis. (Italy, Spain, or France, Probably copied in Italy in the 15th century, perhaps for Gundisalvus de Bivero, bishop of Salamanca, who gave it as a gift (de Ricci). Could also be Spanish or French; 15th century)	Copy of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, probably copied in Italy for Gundisalvus de Bivero, bishop of Salamanca	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.107	Catalog record	Phaedrum ... etc. manuscript, ca. 1460. (Italy ca. 1460 (de Ricci))		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.108	Catalog record	Satyrae ... etc. manuscript, ca. 15th century. (Italy, Transcribed by Paulus Botini de Gotelengo in Italy during the late 15th century. Scribe's name is written on leaf 1r; late 15th century)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.111	Catalog record	Vita Alexandri Magni, libri 3-10 manuscript, 14th or 15th century. (Italy, 14th or 15th century)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.112	Catalog record	De officiis ... etc. manuscript, 15th century. (Italy, According to de Ricci copied in Italy in the 15th century, but the blue initials suggest England; 15th century)	Miscellany of Marcus Tullius Cicero's treatises and pseudonymous orations	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.113	Catalog record	Super historiam Ihierosolymitanam ... etc. manuscript, ca. 1420. (Flanders or Italy, Possibly of Flemish or Italian origin; ca. 1420)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.167	Catalog record	On the art of speaking ... etc. manuscript, ca. 1450. (Unknown, ca. 1450)	A workaday fifteenth-century manuscript; contains a treatise on the art of rhetoric and includes Ceolfrith of Wearmouth’s letter on the computation of Easter addressed to King Nechtan, excerpted from Bede the Venerable’s early-eighth-century Ecclesiastical History	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.228	Catalog record	Hore beate Marie virginis secundum usum Sarum manuscript, ca. 1500. (Northern Europe (Ghent, Flanders according to de Ricci; France, possibly Rouen according to Pen's excellencie; N. German or Netherlands provenance according to Hecksher on catalog card); ca. 1500)	A Book of Hours for the use of Sarum, produced in the low countries for the English market and profusely illustrated with historiated initials. Unlike many other books of hours used in England, it has not had its prayer to Thomas Beckett crossed out or erased, in defiance of the order given in 1538 by Henry VIII to obliterate images and texts associated with Beckett.	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.256	Catalog record	A collection of statutes of the realm manuscript, compiled ca. 1325. (England, Written in English in beginning of 14th century; ca. 1325)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.257	Catalog record	Liber Sancti Effrem ... etc. manuscript, compiled ca. 1425. (England, ca. 1425)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.a.543	Catalog record	Ad Herennium rhetorica manuscript, 15th century / Marcii Tullii Ciceronis. (Italy, Spain, or France, Probably copied in Italy in the 15th century, perhaps for Gundisalvus de Bivero, bishop of Salamanca, who gave it as a gift (de Ricci). Could also be Spanish or French; 15th century)	Copy of Marcus Tullius Cicero's Rhetorica ad Herennium, probably copied in Italy for Gundisalvus de Bivero, bishop of Salamanca	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.29	Catalog record	De confessione amantis manuscript, ca. mid-15th century. (Written in England in mid-15th century)	John Gower's Confessio Amantis in a later 15th-century copy on parchment.	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.31	Catalog record	Ethimologiarum manuscript, 13th century / secundum Isydori episcopi Hispalensis. (Written in England, probably Oxford, 13th century)	A portion of a 13th-century copy of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.32	Catalog record	Physica ... etc. manuscript, ca. 1300? (Likely of French origin, written in early 14th century)	A copy of Aristotle's Physica, about a century after its translation into Latin. Accompanied by various pseudo-Aristotelean treatises and a translation of Avicenna's work on geology.	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.40	Catalog record	De vita XII Caesarum manuscript, ca. 1470? / C. Suetonii Tranquilli. (Written in Italy, ca. 1470 (De Ricci))		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.42	Catalog record	Commentary on the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX manuscript, ca. 1475? (Germany late 15th century, according to De Ricci; circa 1475?)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.106	Catalog record	Chronicle of England, known as The Brut manuscript, ca. 1440. (Written in England around 1440)	A recension of the popular Chronicle of England, known as The Brut on account of its retelling of the legendary foundation of England by Brutus, son of Aeneas	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
V.b.236	Catalog record	The book called Handelyng off synne, 1303 manuscript, copy of ca. 1400. (England, no later than 1403)	A rare copy of Robert Mannyng’s Handlyng Synne	Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
X.d.506 (1)	Catalog record	Decretals of Gregory IX (fragment) manuscript, ca. 1250. (Probably written in France, ca. 1250)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
X.d.506 (2)	Catalog record	Decretals of Gregory IX (fragment) manuscript, ca. 1250. (Probably written in France, ca. 1250)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder
X.d.512	Catalog record	Decretum (fragment) manuscript, ca. 1250. (Europe, ca. 1250)		Browse online	TEI XML	Data folder